Thanksgiving moon shot in Burnaby, BC, on our our way home this evening from dinner with friends. Canon SX730HS pocket cam at max 40X optical zoom, handheld leaning against a stop sign 
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All posts by Paul Cipywnyk
Byrne Creek Autumn – Bring on the Salmon!
I love autumn, and while the colours are starting to diminish, next up will be spawning salmon. We volunteer with the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers in SE Burnaby, BC, and for us this is the most exciting part of the year when salmon start returning to spawn and die.
There’s so much anticipation to see how many fish we’ll get as our numbers vary considerably over the years. Some years have been very poor with only a few dozen spawners counted, but last year we had over 100.
We have permission from Burnaby Parks to zapstrap two or three funny dog posters to trees in the lower ravine during the spawning season. We’ve had excellent responses to them, with dog walkers asking us when they’ll be up.
While we haven’t seen any salmon yet, they should start arriving any day now. Yumi spotted this disturbance which is likely a redd, or nest of eggs, so they may be here and hiding. That could mean coho, as they are very secretive, while chum, the other species in our creek, is readily observable.
Unfortunately the creek also attracts irresponsible types and we often find garbage dumped in it. This speaker was tossed off of the Meadow Ave. bridge.
Plastics Street Garbage Entering Storm Drains
Street garbage seen today, much of it plastics, leading straight to a storm drain at the corner of Edmonds and Fulton in SE Burnaby, BC. This was perhaps a 5-meter stretch of curb.
I am documenting more of this when I run across it because the Stream of Dreams Murals Society is researching how plastics are impacting local streams, and eventually the Fraser River and Pacific Ocean though storm-drain pollution.
The City of Burnaby is providing some support for this project.
All drains lead to fish habitat. When this garbage is washed into street drains, it ends up in local creeks, begins breaking down, and keeps moving downstream affecting fish and wildlife along the way. It will eventually arrive in the ocean, perhaps as microplastics.
Are We Up to Really Tackling Climate Change?
10, 15, 20 years ago, I’d go to sustainable communities conferences and revel in people getting charged up and excited.
Now I go to sustainable communities conferences and I see people walking out of keynote presentations in tears. . .
It’s been much the same message all along, but it’s finally sinking in with more folks that time is running out.
I work and talk with “kids” in their 20s and 30s, half my age, and more of them are afraid to have children, because there is dwindling optimism in what the future holds.
I help deliver watershed education programs to elementary schools, and there’s an unease among the kids, and alarm among the teachers. . . .
It’s like a world war.
Is this our D-Day? Environmental Destruction Day.
It’s said we can still turn things around, but it’s going to take WAY more effort than any government or almost any political candidate from the big two parties in the current Canadian Federal election has been willing to admit. . .
Are we up to this?
Can we as humans see beyond short-term gain and look a few generations into the future?
Last Day Exhibiting with Stream of Dreams at EcoCity 2019
It was yet another gorgeous day in downtown Vancouver at the EcoCity 2019 event (@ecocity2019). It was my second day helping staff the Stream of Dreams Murals Society booth @StreamofDreams . I’ve been doing some PT work this year helping deliver the Stream of Dreams watershed education and community art program in schools.
I really enjoyed this event. Talked to lots of folks over the two days, collected a bunch of biz cards, and will be following up with many.
There was a serendipitous moment as I was chatting with a conference goer who didn’t seem all that impressed with our watershed education and community art program. Just then another woman walked by and squealed “Oh my gosh, Stream of Dreams! I love your program, my kids got so much out it, and teachers at her school were raving about it!”
No, I’d never met the second woman, and no cash was exchanged under any table : – ).
It’s very rewarding to get such unsolicited positive feedback.
L-R: Project Manager Krystal, Co-Founder Lu. Great people to work with!
Stream of Dreams Booth at Vancouver EcoCity 2019
Lovely day in downtown Vancouver at the EcoCity 2019 event (@ecocity2019). I was helping staff the Stream of Dreams Murals Society booth. I’ve been doing some PT work this year helping deliver the Stream of Dreams watershed education and community art program in schools.
Had fun chatting with lots of other exhibitors and visitors, and also enjoyed meeting the folks from Royal Roads University where I did my MA, and University of Saskatchewan where I got my BA and BEd, and the University of Victoria, where I did a year of writing.
Great to see all the environmental programs coming out of these unis, and others!
While the multi-hundred-million dollar buildings are impressive, what really stands out to me is the tree. It outshines them all.
Lovely Autumn Colours on Byrne Creek
I took a walk on Byrne Creek this afternoon, something I try to do several times a week. A bit early to see salmon coming back to spawn, but there were lush colours to shoot after the recent rain.
Here are three of my fave shots from today.
Tree Walk ̓n Talk at Riverview Hospital Grounds in Coquitlam
Excellent tree walk ̓n talk on the grounds of the Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, BC. The grounds have an amazing variety of trees, and the Riverview Horticultural Centre Society has been campaigning for years to save as many of them as possible as the site faces development pressures.
This was the last tour of 2019, but Yumi and I would be happy to go on another one next year!
Thanks to Julia Alards-Tomalin, an instructor at BCIT who led the tour.
And apologies to Julia for taking half the tour to place her — I kept thinking to myself “where do I know this woman from?” Jeez, brain lag, we’re both directors on the Invasive Species Council of Metro Vancouver .
There are a couple of Ginko trees on the grounds. They were far from full aroma. . . There was lots of talk about what they smell like at peak fullness, but there are few around here. . .
But yeah, I remember them from my years in Japan when they were, shall we say, powerful reminders of nature, even on congested Tokyo boulevards…
Great Fun at Alta Vista Community Picnic in South Burnaby
Byrne Creek Streamkeepers had our booth set up at the Alta Vista Community Picnic in south Burnaby, BC, today.
This is one of our favourite events because it’s in our neighborhood, and it’s a great family and friends affair.
We also got several people interested in volunteering with our group!
No More Consultation Let’s Get Implementing!
I think governments at all levels, municipal, regional, provincial, and federal, should stop doing studies, stop doing consultations, and go back into their files for the last 10 years and look at everything that has been consulted and planned, but never implemented.
NEVER IMPLEMENTED
Talk – action = Zero
I say 10 years, because if you went back 20 or 30 or 40, the lack of implementation would be even more depressingly overwhelming.
Think I’m kidding?
I’m one citizen. A fairy active one, and I have a full four-drawer filing cabinet full of stuff on government processes that I’ve been asked to contribute to over the many years. And not a dime of compensation, just my tax dollars frittered away, again, and again, and again.
Not much joy out of those thousands of hours….
And on the other hand, what’s with governments moving forward with environmentally and culturally horrendous projects like the Site C dam?
Shame.