Down to earth, for the Earth

The Kinder Morgan Pipeline plan remains under consideration. At least there's now a Ministerial Panel holding meetings, fielding further input before the final decision gets made.

It's hard not to be discouraged when things take this long, especially after the initial optimism so many of us held when Justin Trudeau was elected.

Despite the size of Surrey, and despite the fact that the proposed 'twinned' pipeline will pass through part of the city, no Task Force hearings were scheduled for here. As a result, I made my way instead to Langley, the nearest such event.

The jar pictured above, containing the thick sludge-like material, bitumen, was passed around the room as part of one of the presentations. Where everyone was limited to five minutes, facts were flying fast, and it was nearly impossible to keep up with any note-taking. Luckily, it appeared that there were court-style stenographers, keeping better track than I of all that was said.

I wasn't the only one who'd come from outside Langley. One of the most passionate (and informative) speakers was a woman who identified herself as a 'mom' from White Rock. There were also engineers, former oil patch and refinery workers, all of them with strong reasons for opposing the
plan.

Okay, not fair, I did hear one presentation that seemed in support of Kinder Morgan's plan and I was glad that the assemblage remained respectful, despite the elephant so obviously in the room.

As for my presentation, I took, as might be expected, my own track and read part of the poem I wrote as a fundraiser for the Burnaby Mountain Defenders. As introduction, I cited the Han Shan Poetry Project, which succeeded in saving a forest -- a forest in Langley, no less, and on a site not all that far from where the day's meetings were being held.

I was also happy when, at the break, one of the government representatives asked if I had a copy of the poem. I was very glad I'd brought one of the original fundraiser chapbooks, as it's now on its way to Ottawa as part of the input gathered by the panel.

There are more meetings coming up -- in Burnaby, Vancouver and other cities in British Columbia. The full schedule is at the link cited earlier in this post -- but, in case you can attend (or even submit an email response), here's that link again.

Han Shan Project -- revisited

It was just about two years ago that poets from around the world heard the call sent out by Susan McCaslin, a writer from Fort Langley, B.C.

She'd learned that the Township of Langley had plans to sell off a tract of forest, and that once sold it would be developed for 'estate' housing. Because Susan knew how valuable this forest was -- how important it would be as greenspace for future generations -- she set about organizing the Han Shan Project.

Poets from as far away as Australia submitted poems. Susan and her husband printed out the poems, put them into plastic sleeves and suspended them from trees throughout the forest.

Soon the project received national press (thanks in large part to the involvement of artist Robert Bateman) and hurrah, the forest was saved. Then, even more miraculously, Langley's Blaauw family stepped forward to purchase a second tract of the forest, ensuring a sustainable number of trees would endure. The bench in the picture above shows a bench dedicated to the memory of Thomas Blaauw, whose estate funded the purchase.

Trinity Western University, now charged with caretaking the forest, has sponsored a symposium -- some of which has reported on confirmation of endangered species discovered in the forest. To celebrate, they have remounted the Han Shan Project, again hanging poems from the trees.

Just as the first time this decoration-of-the-forest occurred, the feeling created is magical.

The poems will be on display in the forest until early December.

Poem bears

Turns out that yesterday was International Polar Bear Day. If it weren't for those video news blats the Internet providers love to insert, I'd never have even known it. And I somehow doubt that many others would have either.

My observation of the day ranges from the silly set-up photo above (who says it doesn't pay to not defrost in a timely manner?) to the poem below, expressing some of my concerns about this mysterious creature.

Last day of February, and no doubt things are beginning to melt everywhere.

Night of the Bears 

While we sleep this wintry night away, you’re saving bears

dreaming metal islands for an ocean with no ice:

floating metal platforms for polar bears to walk on

artificial stepping stones so they won’t have to drown.

I see water dense with bears, nose to tip to nose,

like pieces in some Escher tessellation

swarming in a sea gone soupy warm.

Their whitish fur, slicked back so smooth,

makes them look like fish, thick as schools of salmon

used to be, spawning in some woodland stream, dense

so we might walk, carefully, on tiptoe cross their backs. 

Erasing borders

This is the flag of the not-yet-in-official-existence Cascadia, a country/nation/region that extends from Northern California up through Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia.

The idea has been around since at least the 1970s. Boundaries of Cascadia are based on geography and geology rather than on wars or political decisions that might have been made half a continent away.

I first encountered the notion (or something similar) in the works of Ernest Callenbach, a Pacific coast author. He called the region Ecotopia. The basis of that nation was the will of its people to live in ecological harmony with the earth. Shortly after Callenbach's death in 2012, a kind of manifesto of farewell was published -- a document found on Callenbach's computer called "Epistle to the Ecotopians". It's an important document and worth taking the time to read. If you click here and then scroll down, you'll find it. I'd recommend waiting for a time when you don't have to simply skim it. Have a cup of tea at your side, and settle in for words that will likely echo long after you finish.

This past weekend, I participated in the Second Cascadia Poetry Festival, held in Seattle, Washington, the heart of Cascadia. I say the heart, as that's where David McCloskey, a geographer known as the Father of Cascadia taught for many years. As part of the festival, McCloskey presented a session explaining the many unique characteristics of our region.

And the poets, well they certainly demonstrated some of the artistic attributes and elements that make this region so special.

The two most remarkable panelists (for me) were Stephen Collis, who spoke about innovation in poetry, especially as manifested by work in our region and Derek Sheffield, who gave the most lucid explanation of eco-poetry eco-poetry

The festival was an extended weekend (Thursday through Sunday, with follow-up on Monday morning) that will remain lodged in memory for a long while.

The idea of Cascadia is an important one. One man I met takes its message and goals seriously enough that he's decided to wear one of its emblems on his skin for the rest of his life.

Hmm. I'm not ready to go as far as a tattoo. Still, I'm ready to start counting sleeps until next year's Cascadia Three. That will happen this side of the invisible (geographically, at least) border, in Nanaimo, BC.