Islands Sustainability Initiative (ISUNI) Newspaper Series # 2: Island Sustainability Successes to Date Living sustainably is an all encompassing topic filled with hopes and fears, opportunities and challenges that impact every living thing on the planet. It is hard to miss the emerging environmental upheaval now portrayed daily in the media. Our parents and grandparents’ generation fought the Great Wars of the 20th century, with commitment and sacrifice nearly incomprehensible to those of us who have come later. But we are the ones who must navigate the global trial that is now upon us all, this time for every species, every biological system, every mind and body, heart and soul. Being islanders, it is easy to see the limits of land, water, energy, human, marine and biological resources. This can motivate us to be efficient and egalitarian as the imperative of cooperation with neighbours is clear, be they wild, human, or institutional, around the islands or around the world. A mission as important as this should benefit from a consideration of those things that are already working in our community. It’s helpful to be inspired by past successes, and to appreciate current efforts. We have a wealth of Ecological Education right at home. The Gulf Islands Centre for Ecological Learning (GICEL) presents yearly, on-island children's education events in nature which include Native Tsartlip elders. The M.I. Conservancy Society's (MICS) public presentations have been outstanding, and the M.I. Sustainable Community Association (MISCA) is planning public and political programs and has a good library available. Our amateur naturalists have provided a voice for our parks and protected areas, and for the foreshore, still teaming with life. The Rochets' nature presentations remind us of our place in the sheltering web of life. The school is presenting teachers' and public participants' ideas about the biosphere to those who will inherit our planet. Ecosystems are being mapped so we can understand how nature's complexity can continue to support us. CobWorks natural materials builders and teachers are demonstrating uses of low-cost, local materials with reduced oil, transportation and pollution content. They were involved in the building of the first fully permitted (building, electrical, plumbing, health) cob (clay) building in Canada on Mayne, and they’re now spreading their training to nearby islands and Mexico. In transportation, islanders are building and selling electric cars. They have range and power suitable for island use while costing $300 per year to operate silently and with exceedingly low carbon emissions. Two local builders are operating their modified diesel trucks on spent vegetable oil discarded by local restaurants. Neighbouring Galiano Courier, at present the largest volume maker of bio-diesel in south west B.C., uses the bio-degradable, carbon neutral fuel in their own trucks to reducing operating costs and exhaust emissions. Agriculture has long been a big part of our lives here. Early to mid-1900's farms produced cucumbers, tomatoes, and apples before corporate chemical farming existed. There were wood fired, hot water heated greenhouses big enough to accommodate cultivation by horses. Produce was shipped in bulk, by ferry. This changed in the 1940s, when the Japanese farmers were removed, farmland protections lapsed into subdivisions, and global food transportation systems arose. Later came the Agricultural Land Reserve, food-buying clubs and producer co-ops, which revitalized restorative agriculture and farm biodiversity. Island farmers have been in the leadership in B.C. of developing standards and certification for organic products, and the Agricultural Society has celebrated perennial food production and local gardening for a century. Our Farmer's Market provides a fine, fun community setting for local sale of great cooked food, produce, flowers and crafts that supports our local economy. Islanders have demonstrated the benefits of land conservancy in informal neighbourhood stewardship agreements as well as formal registered covenants concerning land uses. Many residents have gardens and utilize composting. We have been active in the development of International Fair Trade policy which can be tasted right here at home in the coffee that can be purchased in our stores. Livestock on our farms consume the food left overs from restaurants and food retailers to provide animal products and garden fertilizer. Glen Echo was an example of a permanent forest lot for 30 years until the 1980's supplying wood products for the island while the owner had it in mind that the valley would eventually become a wooded park. Helen Point was selectively harvested due to involvement by local and native voices. Local sawyers continue to provide cedar siding in abundance. Mayne has 11 water districts; some are funded and operated by associations of lot owners which gives them a direct relationship with their water supply as is true for the numerous individual well owners. The M.I. Integrated Water System has rejuvenated public interest and education by it's annual workshops with expert speakers on water quality, conservation, aquifer research, rain-water harvesting, purification, metering and filtering while assisting operators to achieve safety certification. Many residents have gardens of various sizes supported by their own rain water cisterns. Some community septic systems are also neighbourhood operated and funded. A community with active citizens volunteering their time is a community that is lively, resilient and durable. Volunteers propel most of our social services – Fire Department, Agricultural Society, Recycling, service clubs, church groups, parent/school participation, shut-in resident's services, Folk Music Club, Fall Fair, Little Theater, Boating Association, and all the rest. Their events gather folks of all ages and political stripes. The Recycling Centre’s volunteers and patrons have led the policy battle for regional and provincial program and resource delivery. The resulting container deposit regulations, awareness of recovered materials markets, baler and handling practices have rippled out to other B.C. centres. A 15,000-signature petition was spearheaded here for including milk cartons in provincial recycling systems. Consider all the types of materials we can now recycle right here on the island and thus avoid transportation and land fill. Many of us actively embrace the Reduce/Reuse/Recycle motto and take advantage of the drop-off shelves at the depot to obtain others' unwanted household items. The Thrift Shop has been doing the same thing for decades and supporting multiple island projects in the process. Our Artists and Writers have produced world class works that lure us into enhanced understanding of the web of life that supports us all. The beautiful coffee table map book “Islands in the Salish Sea”, available at our own bookstore, was published in 2003. “The Last Great Sea” and “Waiting for the Macaws” are other prime examples. Local art has long been utilized by the Mayneliner and Recycling Centre in their education items. Artisans are creating self employement that benefits the island economy. The covenants our Centre for Child Honouring promotes a bill of rights for children that includes a healthy planet in which to raise their families. Check out the Island Trust's major survey of many island attributes and its report card on how we are doing in maintaining and re-creating a healthy rural setting for our societies and our families. (See www.sustainmayne.org for a copy of the report, “Sustaining the Islands, Measuring Our Progress 2003”.)     All the above will be ever so helpful as      governments retreat from social services due to population aging,       and as we face dramatic climate change,        modify our energy usage,         make our food supply systems locally self-sufficient,          redress inequitable wealth distribution with its horrific political consequences           and at last learn how to let Nature support us in perpetuity.     For these challenges we will need strong communities, working together,       since many of the solutions lie in the hands and minds of individual citizens. Your comments and suggestions, critique and dreams are important to this process of creating our future. Please leave them at www.sustainmayne.org We will include them in ISUNI's future information offerings. Peter Judd, AScTechnologist, Mayne Island ------------------------------------------ Richard Iredale, Peter Judd and Michael Dunn formed ISUNI in the Fall of 2005 to provide information for the stimulation of public discussion and innovation concerning our collective future.