Harper Government’s Oil Spin

Conservatives Spin Oil on the West Coast

My old friend Rick helped clean up the crude oil from a small spill in the early 1980′s at Long Beach near tofino Pacific Rim National Park … it was an ugly job and a decade before exxon valdez up in Alaska.

You know about exxon valdez in alaska don’t you?

What do we know about the Harper Conservative Federal Government.

Well we know they are in power ……. unfortunately via an electoral system that is not truly representative of the people

WE know they extoll the tar sands which is environmentally unsustainable.

WE know they want oil on the west coast of Canada, pipelines and tankers for China.

We know they are an environmental embarrassment to the world and Canada by not supporting
the Kyoto Protocol when we should be leaders.

WE know the Harper Government now wants to rewrite the fisheries act and any other acts and laws that have the potential to slow economic development of oil pipelines pulp mills etc.

We know the Conservatives want to and are negating public debate and consultation, due process and transparency in forums that are not only environmental.

Many people, groups and organizations and previous governments have worked long and hard to ensure environmental integrity.

The 2012 Olympics had an introductory show that highlighted the environment with state of the art 3-D holograms of the orca and grizzly and spirit bears.

With no environment we just have the spin and the holograms.

Does that matter to you it matters to me.

Four previous fisheries ministers even of the same party do not agree with Harpers Government and their proposals

My conservative MP says I am not on the same page as him ………… I told him he was right.

You have to write and call all these dickheads and let them know what you think ……… tell them that you support oil on the west coast of Canada….. if you really do.

Enbridge has had major oil spills from ruptures in North America… research it …. Kinder Morgan too. Halliburton in the Camisea Project near Machu Picchu in Peru has had 5 pipeline ruptures since 2004.

There’s collateral damage, thats fact ….. is it something that you can live with? It might be alright if you are oblivious and don’t know what British Columbia has to offer.

The West Coast is a nutrient pool unique. Do you want an oil slick on it? What are you going to do?

UPDATE OIL PIPELINE Rupture RED DEER ALBERTA JUNE 8 2012 Threatens city water supply OIL SPILLS HAPPEN

NO OIL ON WEST COAST OF CANADA get rid of the Harper Dictatorship

Surf Vancouver BC

Well, when the light is good you gotta get out. I found myself alone, not that I found myself but I was in an interesting local area with a sunny day forecast before the sun rose, knowing that the sun also rises so I’ll take a walk with my camera. A pleasant surprise to find a tide ebbing and thinking that this would be a great place to practice some kayaking surfing before heading out to the west coast. Before long a couple surfers arrive and I wander over and crank a couple of shots. Funny this is only 10 minutes by car from downtown Vancouver. Enjoy the weekend.

Endangered Vancouver Heritage Building Carleton School

I went to elementary school here Joyce and Kingsway. It was great. I remember November just after Halloween clear day, a day where you can see every tree on the N Shore etched against the sky in all clarity, grade 3 recess Mt Seymour first snow brilliant I was dazzled portent of the all the mountains to come.

I was there recently. It was almost all the same except smaller. So big when I was little.

A year or two ago a homeless man was murdered in the shrubs in the front of the building. I wonder if it has been solved?

if you are not happy with a shot or you want better light go back again ……..

Environmental Portraits

The environmental portrait. What is photography. Photography is light and how it is rendered. Photography asks questions.

Like whats the story here. Look at the people look at the terrain. This was a small Dene aboriginal girl near the arctic circle.

It’s after 11pm the light “magic hour” the photographer’s cinematographers dream light exists for hours. The weather is harsh here its alpine and trees are small. We traveled by bike on this trip part of a compilation of stories we did on the yukon and adventure.

On this iron-worker I used fill to bring up the detail in the facial shadows.

Bit of a tricky shot to light top of highrise in a breeze we were (and gear) tied in.

Watch the condensation on Camera Gear reduce the differential of hot and cold on camera will fog lenses when moving to a warmer place in extreme cold do not breath on camera gear it will ice up. And sleep with batteries on overnight trips.

Grizzly Bear Hunt Begins

British Columbia fails to stop the Grizzly Bear hunt. It began on the weekend. Just as they are coming out of their dens after winter.

If you want it stopped write your MLA in Victoria BC Out of country people can do this to. A hardcopy letter is better than an email and a telephone message is better than a letter, do all 3 just let the powers that be (shutter…to think that these people do in fact have power over me arrggg) know that you do not support such atrocity.

Ski Whistler Spearhead and Winter Camp

In behind Whistler there is a bit of a secret ski adventure. The Spearhead Traverse isn’t a secret to the locals or coast mountain travelers but a secret to those that come from afar to ski the lifts.

The area is dangerous to skiers that have no backcountry experience. Unpacked steep slopes beckon but have their own secrets. Avalanches are common and happen frequently and without warning and the variety of snow conditions can be a challenge to ski. Wind pack, crust, slop, powder, ice just about everything can happen here, its usually a great 3-4 day trip but has been done in less by people that have usually skied it before.

And it’s great to sleep in the alpine open above 2000m and just roll over and see the sun rise.

Snow Graphic

One of the things I really like to do is play with shape and form in nature.

This struck me as being kinda cool snow melting into a tarn. Reflection too. What do you think??

Sun cups are formed by the sun radiation. Sometimes they provide great steps and on those early alpine mornings they freeze so you need crampons. If you look close you can see red algae in the snow its not blood from ski accidents but ….
… Red snow algae is a unicellular, photosynthetic plant which, in the spring, accumulates on the surface and within the upper 20 to 25 cm of old snow. It is concentrated in shallow depressions where its dark colour absorbs solar heat and further deepens the growing “sun cups.” Under a microscope each spherical cell is seen to be about 4 times the size of a human red blood cell. Their thick walls and bright red carotenoid pigment help protect delicate cells from intense ultraviolet radiation.

for more on red algae go here whistlernaturalists.ca are a great group with tonnes of info.

Grizzly Bear Germans

Germans present Christy Clark with large petition regarding habitat threat commemorating Exxon Valdez disaster.

Does anybody in Canada get it? Countries that have experienced loss of habitat and wild areas (European Countries) want Canada to stand up to the plate and realize that we have profound natural areas full of biotic wonder in need of protection.

Biotic wonders – the Grizzly Bear, The Orca and forest and ocean ecosystems.

It’s interesting that when our provincial and federal governments want to hold a big party they bring Canadian iconography like the Grizzly and the Orca into play. The holographic show for the 2010 Olympics featured these animals.

Yet these governments do very little to protect them. They are only used as representation all is forgotten now that the party is over.

We shoot the Grizzly and in the not to distant past have shot the Orca when they were a perceived threat to salmon stocks.

First Light in New Westminister

The light is right this morn so I thought I’d add this silhouette. Transportation is proving to be very important in big cities especially Vancouver and the lower mainland.

We have several problem areas. Access from the Fraser Valley is terrible and will continue to so. We lack transportation that is viable and fast that doesn’t involve internal combustion engines. We are more concerned with twinning road bridges over the Fraser River rather than building rapid transit out to Chilliwack.

We have marginal rapid transit out to Maple Ridge – Mission as well. Maybe that will change one day the airshed will love it and so will commuters stuck in gridlock.

Ski Manatee

It seems a bit odd but in Eastern Canada today its warm on the west coast its snowing.

So I thought I’d post this contrasting shot today … Manatee echos warmth, the mammal is found in Florida, they may even be a threatened species there I can’t remember. I do remember seeing pictures of them with prop blades etched into their skin. They are slow moving and come to the surface every-once-in-a-while to get air. And get hit by boats towing water skiers
They like warm water

So the Manatee Range in BC west of Pemberton just north of Whistler got its name because a few of the peaks looked like the beasts + the first people that skied into this area named the peaks in the 1960′s had a very cold trip so it may of reminded them of warmer climes.

Coast Mountain explorer John Clarke a modern day John Muir who my friend Lisa Baile is writing a book about ….. was on that trip his first expedition … he went on the trip with one of those old fibre fill/cotton sleeping bags you know the ones with the duck hunters on the flannel interior… and froze his butt off. He said it took him a week to warm up after he came home from the trip.

This photo was from a climbing trip into the area, we used skis to get around notw the suncups. A tarn is a small alpine pond. Note also in the photo where some of the cornices have melted off probably causing avalanches earlier in the season. This area is used by heli-skiers in the winter.

Workshop Spring Portrait Fawn Lily Tripod Management

Erythronium oregonum. The white fawn lily is a delicate little flower something sensual, among the first to emerge in the wildflower spring.
Springing forth parting the ground in the shady understory giving its own light for a limited time.

It does not transplant well so if you see them leave them be.

Tripod was strung out and teetered over a 5 foot gap over a seaside bluff just before a shower hit, a few quick shots.

reminds me of The Who pictures of lily I wonder why …… lily oh lily

updated this We found a chocolate lily

Thanks for attending the workshop Great Lily finds by the sea. As you can see a tripod is super useful as well as a Flash. Yes Lindsey Manfrotto is a quality pod.

Alpine Art Coast Range BC

There was an impending storm in the distance, it crossed the valley, covered the peaks, and inundated me and the snow cups on which i stood.
It came raging with dark squalls and electric light disappearing as fast as it arrived.

and left me with shape and form

Canada Vote

We in Canada have an upcoming election; and it is hoped all around that Canadians VOTE for change.

In other less fortunate parts of the world governments don’t let their people vote because they do not want to lose dictatorial power. This is true in LIBYA SYRIA CHINA North Korea and Myanmar. The people recently demonstrated against a corrupt government in Egypt and won.
People can win only by being united.

You Don’t Want Change Don’t Vote. WE are fighting a war in Afghanistan don’t make those lives lost a waste.

The video is somewhat graphic but it depicts the reality of oppression of what is really happening in less fortunate parts the world. Savour your freedom. Many have fought for it.
filmed with d7000 and post processed in imovie

Issues you might want to consider are:

1. The protection of our West Coast Salmon Fishery.
2. Offshore property ownership of Canada
3. The Tar Sands in Alberta
4. Harm Reduction in Downtown Vancouver.
5. The proposed pipeline to Prince Rupert from Alberta
6. Oil/Development Tanker traffic on the west coast of British Columbia.
7. The Kyoto Protocol
8. The Prosperity Mine Proposal and The Destruction of Fish Lake (85000 trout) in the Chilcotin
9. Support of the Grizzly Bear Trophy Hunt in British Columbia

I believe most of these issues are of concern for the livable future of all Canadians.

Have you heard of them, do you care, have your candidates addressed these issues? The present conservative government has not.

Geological Data Japan Earthquake and Cascadia Fault

Here’s some recent news from my geologist buddy Marco.

The plate displacement during the recent Japan quake was roughly 27 metres, of which 7 metres were vertical movement, so the starter wave was already that high. The wave made it more than 10 miles inland in places. A wave traveling through deep water will not change its wavelength while its traveling, but only once it hits the shallows. The travel time is quite extreme, pretty well 1000 kph, or slightly less, so in the case of the Cascadia fault, the wave would arrive only 5 minutes later on the West Coast of Vancouver island. The Japanese fault is pretty close to the same distance the Cascadia Fault lays from Vancouver Island. Kind of sobering if you think about around the campfire on Vargas Island in the Clayoquot.

Richmond BC Earthquake Geology Japan Study

Don’t move to Richmond or any delta or riverine areas in the lower mainland with sediment deposition. Read what happened in Japan. If the big one comes jiggle jiggle sink sink. water and soil becomes one. Mud.

The duration of the Japanese earthquake, about five minutes, could be the key to the severity of the liquefaction and may force researchers to reconsider the extent of liquefaction damage possible.
“With such a long-lasting earthquake, we saw how structures that might have been okay after 30 seconds just continued to sink and tilt as the shaking continued for several more minutes,” Ashford said. “And it was clear that younger sediments, and especially areas built on recently filled ground, are much more vulnerable.”
An event almost exactly like Japan’s is expected in the Pacific Northwest from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and the new findings make it clear that liquefaction will be a critical issue in the young soils there.
“Young” sediments, in geologic terms, are those deposited within the past 10,000 years or so.
“Entire structures were tilted and sinking into the sediments, even while they remained intact,” said Ashford, who is based in Corvallis, Ore. “The shifts in soil destroyed water, sewer and gas pipelines, crippling the utilities and infrastructure these communities need to function. We saw some places that sank as much as 4 feet,” or 1.2 meters.

Coast BC Dodd Narrows

Water mercurial malleable a cold weight bent by the tide waiting for the monthly moon to dodge and skip the stars — here no wind.

Spring Floral Arrangement

Clematis in floral arrangement. Its been such a cool spring that the sprigs of this vine are just shooting through the soil now.

don’t feel especially wordy like these flowers though something lush and robust about them like kiwi fruit the soft first bite pastel and yielding tip of tang

Ts’yl-os Provincial Park Chilcotin BC

This is a valley. It is glacial. Carved out eons ago. A big U-shaped valley. It’s called Tchaikazan.

Bryan Adams Autographed Record Album Found

Found this Bryan Adams signed album at a garage sale in Vancouver. Just by fluke riding by and sorted through some old records Cuts Like a Knife Signed Bryan Adams 1985. 26 years ago! It was in a darker pen so I highlighted in Pshop with grey to make it more noticeable in the photo you see. Interesting what you can find in garage sales if you spend the time to look. He used to work at the Tomahawk Restaurant in NVan near the Lions Gate bridge that bridges the gap (first narrows) between Stanley Park and the North Shore. Local boy does well, good food at the restaurant too.

Conservation Photographers Enbridge Great Bear Rainforest

This is a trailer SPOIL its about how we will not let an oil pipeline from ALBERTA TAR SANDS be constructed to the west Coast of British Columbia. You can not support this. This ecosystem is incredibly unique.

we have a real short period of time do you think we should do any thing about it?

Storm Mt. Baker Powder Plumes Avalanche

Ever drive in the Fraser Valley and notice the big hulking mass of snow and ice to the SE. Well that’s Mt Baker and its roughly 10700 ft high. It’s a volcano not active right now … it only vents gas and steam but it will probably active again. Maybe the mega-thrust earthquake we are way over due for will liberate the solid lava plug now damming the magma, waiting, like some pregnant pimple waiting to issue forth. Who knows …geologic years are gauged in the thousands, could happen tomorrow or a million years from now. Ahhh the whimsy of nature.

Anyway a bit of morning digression …. the past few days before this low gave us snow, it was extremely windy at high elevations. Hearlding a buildup of Premo avalanche conditions. Since the high winds came from the west they scoured west and probably NW facing slopes and deposited all that snow on their opposite sides south and south east sides. The snow lays deep on those aspects ready for triggers big pillows of snow. So be safe. The scoured slopes on the north are now loaded again with new snow that has dumped in the last 48 hours, since these slopes were scoured by the wind, probably down to hard-pack they probably will not hold large amounts of new snow well, so these slopes will potentially be unstable. So heads up.

Hike Nootka Island

Naturalist attack hiking, you want to go somewhere the crowds don’t go and see wild ocean terrain with great photo ops. Everyone has heard of BC’s West Coast trail. Hit the Nootka Trail its better in my opinion. for more adventure yet, getting there is sweet adventure in itself you fly in. Any trip that begins with a flight is fun. Want to know more lets go.

New stuff and recommended check out the gutenberg project and Librivox for audio books all free.

Recently downloaded Robert Falcon Scott’s Journals of his South Pole expedition …. great naturalist observations of sea ice, bergs, penguins etc
as audio book 500megs of mp3′s to an itouch ….. bomber stuff as in bombproof state of the art as good as it gets, take a 50m leader fall on it and the gear won’t even come close to pulling. How can you beat that?

Ski Powder Telemark

N Selkirks Esplanade Range Mottled light high lit falling crystals one foot powder pillow avalanche free.
ski with a guide here for the best experience

Ernst Haas Okanagan British Columbia

Ernst was one of my early mentors. An eye for colour, Euro came to the states post WW2…. Hit NYC and shot film lots of first generation Kodachrome and Kodacolor. An eye for colour forsure. Shot lots of stuff from still life to fashion. This was taken in the interior near Pentiction.

Storm on the wind. A warm wind. A warm summer wind and electricity in the air so the little hairs on the back your neck just stand right up.
Do you know that feeling? A summer storm coming.

Salish Sea Georgia Strait

The Gulf it’s big. There is current. There are waves, sometimes there is swell.

You can see across the gulf on clear days. San Juans to Ballenas, Sunshine Coast to Active Pass.

Sometimes you can’t cross the gulf.

Water with Your Columbine hey rosetta

While Arcade Fire has been on my radar for many years check out Bowie with them on utube, and sort of continuing with my outdoor growth theme Listen to Hey Rosetta’s new album “Seeds” Yer Spring and you know spring is coming. Its that poet orchestral thing.

oh, did I mention NFLand one of the hottest,coolest places in Canada from Burgeo to Gros Morne to St Anthony that’s where hey rosetta’s from.

the tag the tag now that you have watched this often enough drinking from the cup
ballerina tag
what are we missing … you tell me …. what is endearing … what is honest .. attention to detail in all art, textures revealed, visual artist, wordsmith whatever spring is 30 days away

On Mt Baker at Sunset

This is enroute to the Coleman Headwall which is on the nw side of Mt Baker. Bruce and I tried to get a start on it but it was guarded by some pretty deep crevasses and tottering serac blocks all dripping wet and slouching. We slept in big crevasse at 9000 ft to keep out of the wind. Some climbers woke us up at about 3 and we went back to sleep till 5. We passed them at 530 below the Roman Wall. They got lost? And got to the summit just as the sun rose. Baker is just under 11000 feet 10 seven I think.

Vancouver History Nostalgia Corner Store Series

I’m feeling a bit nostalgic today. When we were small these stores were on every corner. Jaw breakers, doublebubbles Bazooka Joe’s etc. a few years ago now I went on photo quest for the remaining ones, high property values were making them scarce, ….(just like agricultural land now is under pressure in the lower mainland, I digress )

This is one of my faves. The grocer helping the lady with her purchases. The shop keeper taking a vested interest in providing a neighbourhood service.

I stalked this shot getting the location wired long beforehand, figuring its exposure to the sun and when the best time to shoot ( spring morning) and getting there at the right time to create the document I wanted. Just by fluke the grocer walked out with his customer, one of those moments where you look through the viewfinder and can’t believe your eyes, so good to be true. Like seeing deer stalked and bluffed off a cliff by a wolf in Knight Inlet. Kodachome on tripod. They don’t make Kodachrome any more.

Won a Canadian Magazine Award for a series of them in Canadian Geographic.

Perennial Seedpod

Found this little seed pod awhile ago and its been sitting on my light table in a ziplock. Shot it with a macro. Delicate little thing its super light and about a centimeter long 2.54 cm to the inch. Its feather like stock makes it a whim to the grace of the winds, ready for a journey maybe close or far away from its mother source, metaphorically, looks how we started too.

Dog Sledding Yukon/Whistler

I was up in the Yukon a few years ago for the Yukon Quest and some other touri stuff.

The dogs were great and were well taken care of. Owners loved them.

We just had an unfortunate incident up in Whistler where dogs were murdered by a dog-sledding operator. This happened after the season last year
when all the tourists went home and the snow melted, I think 100 out of 300 dogs were shot and knifed and thrown into a mass grave.

Why were they not dealt with in a humane way? Total greed situation easier just to do away with the dogs at the end of the season rather than find homes for them.

Why have so many dogs if you have to cull at the end of the season?

This company should be exposed and have their business license taken away. They are beautiful animals.

Mountain Bike Golden Ears

Golden Ears Provincial Park

Rain January. The thing about the East side trail is that it follows Gold Creek till it becomes braided and meandering about 6km from the parking lot before it peters out.

The thing that’s great about it, is that no one is on the trail especially in the winter months.
In the summer the park is pretty busy ……. now no one.

Ride your bike like the shot shows. You can not ford this this tributary stream without taking off your boots if you’re hiking … with a bike you can power through…. don’t lose your balance though or you’ll get wet.

It was fetid but great with mist and rain enveloping us, mossy understory and some storybook settings deep in the trees where you expect a gnome or a hobbit to peer out. Ride it, I think its in my book mtb adventures in SWBC.

I rarely capture stills from video but I liked this one. Photos don’t have to be sharp to convey the atmosphere. I masked a couple of copies and digitally crafted the colour this what I got.

just posted this 2 months late filmed in a rainstorm camera d7000 in ziplock bag, marcus and I on a tear over rock water and trail.

Infinite Sea

I like this shot I was inspired by viv maier whose work was found in an abandoned storage container and purchased by a real estate agent in the eastern states for 400 dollars.

Historic find beautiful artful photos that document life in the 50′s and sixties. A female Fred Herzog of Chicago. A solitary French nanny with a 2.25. Check it out.

The couple shot here … I like for a bunch of different reasons, but not obviously the watermarks because it it such a good stock shot it can be easily ripped, it might be nice in Maui right now its raining here in Vancouver.

Alpine Flora

Happy New Year.

First image of the year posted here art nature original 10000 pixels square. Big print fine art paper.

This is from British Columbia in the Coast Range in the area known as Granite Country. Want to go?

False Hellibore is kind of a lush alpine plant, grows quite big, the first frost hits it pretty good as most of the plant is fleshy full of water. Like us guess the first frost would hit us pretty good too if we were naked and alpine think we’d wilt at the edges??

Found this hiding in a small granite cove surrounded by avalanche debris. I figured I was lucky.

Catch the Light

for the h …. art of it all

don’t say you’ve got nothing to give give it to africa

Hoar and Avalanches

These are the crystals that help avalanches run.

Hoar provides the ball bearing slip that heavy weighted snow can slide on.

Hoar forms during a cold period of weather.

Hoar can form in the alpine or at sea level.

During the heavy rainfall event presently occurring one inch of rain translates into a foot of snow 2.54 cm x 12 in metric

Today the freezing level is about 5000 feet Major Snow avalanche situation above and below that for run-outs chutes gullies walls that shed to lower levels.

Below 5000 ft it is raining rain is percolating into the snow pack it will eventually freeze later this will provide a surface for snow slip more if it clears and hoar forms.

Lake So Blue

A remote post: was lucky to have a photo adventure in the most blue of all alpine lakes.

A hidden ridge revealed this gem of a lake, a mere dot on the topographic, there was no question that this would be the destination. No question.

Iron staining here promoted this colour unreal and un-photoshop’ed. We hiked up a series of joined undulating ridges scrambling up to around 7500 feet (2500m),
before returning.

Fish Lake Letter to Harper and Dumb Reply

Here is correspondence with Harper Gov’t concerning Fish lake …. Mining Effluent Regulations?

From : Greg Maurer Received : Jul 3 2010 9:17:26 AM >>>

Mr Harper,

You can not possibly support turning FISH LAKE in British Columbia’s
Chilcotin into a tailings pond.

That’s stupid. What do Canadians stand for….. not this.

This is a productive lake with 90000 trout, heli pilots I have talked
to say they can see schools of them massing, it’s not a toxic swamp in
the boreal forest of Ontario that no one cares about.

Where does the manipulation of nature for the almighty buck stop?

Do you ever get a chance to get out in nature like your predecessor
Trudeau? He canoed the Nahanni National Park Reserve of Canada with
his sons.

Perhaps you should? Take something away like Robert Service wrote in
Call of the Wild ‘hear the text that nature renders’

Most Canadians would not support this

Greg Maurer

http://www.alpenglowpro.wordpress.com
http://www.alpenglowpro.com
On 9-Jul-10, at 10:18 AM, Prime Minister/Premier ministre wrote:

On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to acknowledge receipt of your message regarding the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations.

You may be assured that your comments have been carefully reviewed and are appreciated. As this issue falls under the jurisdiction of both the Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, and the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of the Environment, I have taken the liberty of forwarding copies of your correspondence to them. I am certain that the Ministers will give your views on this issue every consideration.

Thank you for writing the Prime Minister.

P. Monteith
Executive Correspondence Officer
for the Prime Minister’s Office
Agent de correspondance
de la haute direction
pour le Cabinet du Premier ministre

Mr Monteith and S Harper,

Its not about mining effluent regs

Its about setting a precedent that its OK to destroy lakes their water, fish and other intrinsic biota

for economic gain in this case mining (Prosperity Mine who’s prosperity certainly not yours or mine and its our lake)

its not OK to do that for any reason

Relay that to Stevo

Iron Man

Adamant Range.
Read some guys blog recently that he put a bolt or two in this rock. I asked him what gave him the right to deface this peak so beautiful.

The crux on our route was half way + up the spire airy 10d free, shallow fingers on an out there face glacier polished on each side so it’s just toes in a quartz rimmed crack and sketchy finger tips wide, tipped in A3 pins ( angle/leeper exotic stacks flared) if you aided on deep breaths.

Iron Man its not the movie or a song it’s a granite peak in in the N Selkirks west of Golden, heli in out of Palmer Creek. Its in British Columbia hope for high pressure and 4 good days a little crisp in September. Nice line.

Bowron Traverse

The Bowron Lake circuit is a classic. East of Quesnel past Barkerville and Wells, on the flank of the Caribou and Premier Ranges West of Valemount, is a wilderness lake system that is a real adventure to explore. I took a kayak many canoe.

Found this stump on my travels on a Maui like beach and filled the shot with a little fill flash and there you have it. Stump and a stormy backdrop.

School Time

Staying with the Pete Turner theme, this hunted and spotted shot from the depths of Surrey, British Columbia echo the start of a new school year
Memories of new school September smells of fresh paint and a quickly fading summer with chill mornings, blue sky and the bus you just can’t miss.

Meager Creek Landslide Natural Disaster

Here is an overview of the natural disaster that unfolded at 530am Friday morning in British Columbia just north of Whistler/Pemberton.
A massive landslide occurred blocking two major water-flows creating natural dams composed of unstable volcanic debris mixed with vegetation trees etc.
The dams will give way when enough water pools behind the two debris flows.

It’s interesting to note the power of the landslide where the slide meets and blocks Meager Creek. The landslide flow went uphill and washed the forest away for several hundred vertical feet before turning north to block the Lillooet River.

Updates: Landslide update… river water has found away through…only 30% of population in affected area responded to evacuation notice

My letter to Editor Walrus Magazine Links to Heighton’s book excerpt on Nangpa Pass Incident Nepal/China

Link to great on site photos Way to go DBSTEERS Pemberton SAR Please make a donation to them Check out Steers’ flicker site too

E.O. Wilson Naturalist

It was a sluggish slime-coated nymph that had metamorphosed into an electric needle of light as quickly as it appeared it hurtled away in a shearing splinter of radiance.

Biodiversity specialist, biologist E.O Wilson reveals and proposes that the foundation of our planets life lays in the small stuff we don’t know about but go about destroying in all ignorance with the intricacies of value yet unknown.

I have been reading of late on the disappearance of salmon runs from Alaska to California. Every river on the westcoast has suffered. Did you know there are microorganisms so small in the ocean, only discovered mere years ago, almost undetectable even to microscopy but play a very important part in the survival of salmon?
Its these smaller entities in nature, unknown that when disappeared can have consequences to larger species.

We have algae blooms stimulated by warm water, thousand acre gyre’s of floating plastic, billions of gallons of crude oil in our oceans, if you were living there in subsistence, gathering your food to survive as a waterborne animal you might notice something awry. You think? (Hell yeah its a no brainer eh. –forgive the colloquialism.)

As usual my subjective pursuit of objective truths are defended with vigour but sometimes wonder if it does any good … who cares I do it anyway. I am tending to get more activist/art oriented… Who will defend for those who can not speak for the founding blocks for humanities survival they represent. AT Least write some letters.

“You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path.
Aim high. Behave honourably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.
~ E. O. Wilson

Link to E.O. Wilson on video.

Link to Albatross Deaths Pacific Gyre “the plastic garbage patch” Chris Jordan Photos

FISH LAKE GOOD NEWS but not a done deal

Today the panel that makes enviro assessments to the federal government made recommendations to the federal gov’t regarding converting FISH LAKE into a tailings pond. (Interesting that our provincial gov’t OK’ed it.)

THEY recommended not to do it. The HARPER government still has to make the final decision, so write some letters don’t just cross your fingers. But it’s really good news I wrote a lot of letters hope you did too, I even contacted singer Neil Young’s manager.

Today the federal review Panel of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) made their long, and anxiously awaited, recommendations to the federal government re Taseko Mines proposed open pit gold and copper mine: the mine that would destroy Fish Lake

“The Panel concludes that the Project would result in significant adverseenvironmental effects on fish and fish habitat, on navigation, on the current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes by First Nations and on cultural heritage, and on certain potential or established Aboriginal rights or title.

The Panel also concludes that the Project, in combination with past, present and reasonably foreseeable future projects would result in a significant adverse cumulative effect on grizzly bears in the South Chilcotin region and on fish and fish habitat.

Corporations are Not Stupid

On April 9, 2010, Halliburton bought Boots and Coots, the largest oil-spill cleanup company on the planet.
 
Oil giant Halliburton announced late Friday that it will purchase emergency response oil control company Boots & Coots in a deal valued at around $232 million.
Boots & Coots shares soared on Monday by more than 25%.Goldman Sachs, who’s joined at the hip with Halliburton, unloaded 44% of its stock in BP.

Enbridge, the corporation that wants to pipeline tar sands oil to BC and have oil tankers travel the BC coast

is Not Stupid either……….

They have been spending big, big bucks trying to spin positive around oil transport on BC’s pristine coast. Last week’s tanker ban announcement by Michael Ignatieff has put Enbridge into a panic. The Corporation and its share holders have much to lose. They’re throwing millions into their pro-tanker propaganda.
Full page ads supporting tankers on BC’s coast from Enbridge’s phony grassroots “Gateway Alliance” group are appearing in the Globe and Mail. Op-eds and letters attacking a tanker ban have appeared in the Times Colonist, Vancouver Sun and National Post.
In the last decade Enbridge has be responsible for a multitude of environmental violations and spills totaling thousands of gallons; this is just one example from Enbridge on Wikipedia.

In 2006, there were 67 reportable spills totaling 5,663 barrels on Enbridge’s energy and transportation and distribution system; in 2007, there were 65 reportable spills totaling 13,777 barrels. UPDATE Late July 2010 Huge Enbridge Pipeline break Wisconsin Kalamazoo River polluted with 20000 barrels of crude

We have over 27,000 km of kayak-able coastline here in BC and it’s pretty much a huge nutrient pool for thousands of marine and terrestrial species.

But then again do we need beaches? This was in the recent travel section of a Louisiana newspaper great positive spin.

Corporations are Not Stupid…..just build an all-inclusive resort a bit back from the coast …. no worries eh?

Alpine Adventure Eden

4 griz sighted 1 sow 3 cubs of the year great coats well fed no worries see salvator at summit for cowboy coffee take spray just in case

play this music Madm Canadian from Montreal in a separate window read the text and imagine the time I had here …. fusion of art and music also her super conceptual album ooom get it vimeo http://vimeo.com/12416751

In the Alpine

The past months have been perfect for the formation of moss.

Wet and mostly damp especially here on the coast, Pre-historic and usually low to the ground moss has a good relationship with dirt and otherwise fecund matter to which upon it hosts.

Hopefully the weather will change and it’ll all dry up.

Fortunately for the last several days I have been in the rainshadow in the drier mountains of the coast in search of alpine wildflowers. East of Manning Provincial Park in an area that I wanted to visit for sometime, referred to me by an old sot miner/naturalist, I was super lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

In alpine meadows below melting snowpack hidden in copses’ of Englemann spruce profuse outcroppings of columbine were easily found. I have never seen petals with such a variety of colour… salmon, yellow, and lily white.

The thing about columbine they are so fragile, willowy and definitive of the contrasts in nature. Gone Like a Fleeting Moment, in what can be harsh terrain with extremes of weather, what they imbue upon the landscape a living thing beauteous,
if only for moment maybe a week in year, hey, that’s natures way a fragile emergence in the wildflower season.

On Found Objects

More on that later but found objects are so sweet especially when they can be put into projects.

Talking with a friend today stirred up a memory, he was talking about found objects especially in rivers frequented by canoeists, forgotten beers etc

I once lost a case of beer ……… left it to cool in a lake near Whitesaddle Air for two weeks while I was in the high mountains of the Waddington Range …….. the heli pilot drank it while I was gone …… I was ripped when I got back because no cold brew on hot May day (a travesty) and there was no beer store for mega miles of dirt road, and the heli pilot makes quite a bit of cash and could easily afford his own but there are temptations …. and I suppose that was one of them. Guess that was a lost object for me but a found one for him.

Reminds me of another semi-related heli-story … worked up in the Yukon for a summer geo-survey stuff on vertical crumbly mountain walls tagging veins for arseno-pyrite real haywire stuff remote, all on rappel and jumars … heli’d into pocket glaciers front skid tow ins only so steep…. everyday sometimes in the fog of low scudding cloud using murky surrounding walls for the only bearing, semi insane … the pilot was on the edge all summer he sat in his tent alone at nights harbouring his scotch at the end of the summer he shot himself … just a bit of a side story …. ask me about the Jesus Bolt (its the one that holds the rotor on — they sometimes fail.

Fish Lake Demise

And why do they call it FISH LAKE er maybe it has fish in it … 85000 trout ( I have been to a lot of lakes in the Chilcotin but this one is profound …) . This lake is in a pristine area close to several provincial parks and 2 salmon bearing rivers.

I have posted on this issue before there is a lot of backgrounding on this blog so please find it.

And on Wednesday June 9, the B.C. Liberal government granted Taseko Mines a controversial, renewable, 25-year mining lease for its “Prosperity” gold-copper project by Fish Lake.

It’s still not too late to save Fish Lake! The project has not yet passed its federal environmental assessment, and since the process is already underway the new rules may not apply to Fish Lake. Please check this website, http://www.sierraclub.bc.ca for updates and more action alerts coming soon.

Have you supported this travesty? Are you supporting this? Do you mind?

Here is a letter I wrote to the review process when the big corporate company Taseko mines was petitioning NOT to let a film be shown by the local First Nations saying it was propaganda

“Make as much trouble as you can before it’s all over.”

As I write this H.Rollins Black Flag ex band member is performing in Vancouver this show is among other things I have missed lately.
He is a master of monologue, current comment, hip and not trite. He is a firm believer in activism to do what you believe with passion..
On this tour he is oft ending his shows with “Make as much trouble as you can before it’s all over.” And that means in good way to contribute against what is often seen as the norm and destructive to a sustainable way of life, politically, environmentally and think outside the box….. what was right for past generations may not be for future. And do it before you go . Change can be good

I have a link to a utube video called Burning Ember of Rage a couple of months ago catch it.

Lose Your Bearings

Olafur Eliasson the 43 year old installation wunderkind has just concocted perhaps his most striking one in Beijing where visitors lose their ­bearings and all sense of a three-­dimensional world. I think perhaps our present provincal government have spent some time there during its construction because it appears that they have lost their bearings and their relationship with the people and the land. Just a bit of editorial comment.