Gambier national park idea gaining momentum

The David Suzuki Foundation, along with other partners, is hoping to get Parks Canada to study a potential national park on Gambier Island.

Stephen Foster, a Bowen Island resident, is one of the people working on the initiative.

He describes it as an extension of the efforts that have been underway for years to help Howe Sound bounce back from more than a century of heavy industrial activity.

“We are seeing life really come back as a result of the good work we’re doing here; at the same time a whole new wave of threats to that narrative are emerging – the LNG plant, a new gravel mine, a new ski centre, and a huge range of residential development that’s on the books and moving forward,” he said. “For me the core of the campaign is to say where’s the balance?”

Foster told Coast Reporter that Gambier has a few characteristics that make it a good place for a so-called “near urban” national park. “When you look at a map, there’s Gambier sitting right in the centre. If you were looking at Howe Sound as a physical body, a human body, there’s Gambier as the heart. It’s the beating heart of Howe Sound.”

He also said the large amount of Crown land on the island is another attractive feature when it comes to looking for park locations. “It is an amazingly unpopulated and extraordinary environment given how much else has happened close to Vancouver.”

According to Foster, the national park idea got a significant push forward because of the controversy over a 2014 auction of woodlot licences on Gambier. “It really shook people up, the idea of the clearcuts taking down the watershed, the lake area up there – Gambier Lake – really spooked people,” he said (the auction went ahead, but the province decided not to award the licences).

Foster said the potential is there for a park that uses some or all of the Crown land as well as the marine environment, extending out from the existing Halkett Bay park.

The idea of going at least as far as a feasibility study is already getting support from the Squamish Nation, the Islands Trust, the United Church, which runs Camp Fircom (a possible access point to a future park), both MLAs representing Howe Sound (Nicholas Simons of the NDP and Liberal Jordan Sturdy) and MP Pam Goldsmith-Jones.

The Suzuki Foundation organized two meetings earlier this month, in West Vancouver and on Gambier itself, to gauge how landowners feel. Foster said the reactions were a bit different. The West Van meeting drew mainly seasonal residents and there was unanimous support. Among the permanent residents who came out to the meeting at New Brighton there was strong – but not unanimous – support. Foster said he understands their cautious approach. “Residents have a different perspective on things and have obviously more at stake.”

Overall, Foster said this is a very good time to raise the park idea. “I think this is something that’s really on people’s minds and they know the future involves growth and change and new development, so the question becomes: what kinds of change do you want to see happen? How do you want to control it and the pace of it?” 

Foster said he’s encouraged by the support so far, and he sees it as a chance to shift from a negative conversation about projects some people oppose to a discussion of positive moves toward conservation throughout Howe Sound. He also sees a connection with the UNESCO biosphere reserve proposal.

“Typically, UNESCO wants to see at the core [of a Biosphere Reserve] a park,” said Foster. “If a park was to come alive and looks like it would happen, ultimately it does mesh well with the idea of a biosphere and would probably accelerate the possibility of our area being declared a biosphere.”

Parks Canada has already done a feasibility study on a national park for Bowen Island, and Foster said that 2010 report has been valuable, even if the park idea didn’t go ahead.

“Even if it dies there, that feasibility study is a really useful document,” he said. “The one they did for Bowen Island was over a hundred pages long. It was a thorough gathering of all the research, all of it, archeology – you name it – so just as a document it was terrifically useful, and it then sets the stage for what can we do here.”

Foster said he doesn’t anticipate any more meetings like the ones in West Van and New Brighton, but they are hoping to get some public input via the website sustainablehowesound.ca which launched March 6.