by Paul Schachter

Scratch a Powell Riverite and you’ll find someone who loves the outdoors. Even if we haven’t headed into the bush in years, we consider the right to do so part of our heritage—witness the torrent of protest unleashed by a power-development company’s recent threat to deactivate the Goat 2 forest road. Whatever the legal niceties of title, we consider the lands granted to the mill and to the forest companies as our lands.

We have a right to feel so proprietary. The lands were to be used to secure the prosperity of Powell River. When they are being sold for corporate profit, we feel betrayed. We are left to protest the injustices, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

Fighting back is important, but there is also a new way to preserve at least some of our heritage—through Malaspina Land Conservancy Society. MLCS is a non-profit, registered charity which facilitates any landowner’s desire to protect important pieces of land from destructive development.

Plenty of individuals in our area want to preserve the unique natural features of their property and can’t abide the thought of having their lands clear-cut or fragmented.
Unfortunately, that is what landowners usually face because of taxes and inheritance laws. Now they can preserve the pristine beauty of their lands by donating all or part of them to a land conservancy, either by gift or in their wills. They can continue to enjoy the property in its natural state while it is protected forever from division, development and destruction. The habitat of thousands of species, including our own, is protected and helps maintain the diversity of life. While this is a reward in itself, a donation of property to a registered charitable land conservancy can return a substantial tax benefit.

Alternatively, private owners can retain ownership, yet protect land, by placing a “conservation covenant” on the title. This is an enduring way to preserve land from destructive development: the conservancy holds the covenant and takes the responsibility for enforcement. Conservation covenants can range from a blanket prohibition of alterations to specific limitations, such as maintaining the scenic characteristics, requiring no-disturbance buffer zones, preserving native plants, trees and wildlife areas, prohibiting subdivision or strata development, restoring historical, cultural and archaeological features, or restricting land use to agricultural purposes. The possibilities are endless.

Most land conservancies focus on protecting the lands and waters that plants, animals and natural communities need to survive. In the MLCS area, however, where access to land is integral to our way of life, our conservancy is also authorised to conserve property with agricultural, scientific, historical, cultural, scenic and compatible outdoor-recreation values.

Agriculture is a primary concern for Powell River. As long as we are geographically cut off from easy access, and until we are self-sufficient, our food supply is at risk. If—or when—oil prices shoot up again, so will food prices. Our land conservancy can help maintain the area’s supply of agricultural land and promote cultivation of crops for local consumption.

Companies that own land with exploitable resources face increasing pressure to show environmental responsibility, even as they continue to take from the land. In many places, these companies have yielded to public pressure to donate the most ecologically sensitive areas to land conservancies as a way to demonstrate that they care about the ecosystem. Even areas already degraded, often by the very companies donating them, will have time to recover under watchful eyes once put into a land conservancy. Every donation improves the odds for eco-diversity and the survival of individual plant and animal species.

Through our new regional land conservancy, we can break out of the pattern of acting to protect our heritage only in times of crisis, when it may be too late. Do you own or know of a special piece of land? Do you have a minute to urge a forest company or developer to consider donating a piece of property to MLCS as an investment in Earth’s future? Giving land—or money to conserve land—is not just a charitable donation which lowers taxes. It is a major step in rebalancing the ecosystem and an endorsement of our true community values.

Talk to the Malaspina Land Conservancy Society about options for protecting land that you are passionate about by emailing info@malaspinaland.ca or call president Janet Alred at (604) 485-0077.

Guest columnist Paul Schachter, a refugee from city living, is Treasurer of MLCS.