want to learn how to make your home more energy efficient the r t m is offering free home energy coaching sessions between september seventeenth and october seventeenth invite five friends or neighbors to attend a session in your home with a certified energy advisor and get a free home energy good morning welcome to changes the program on sustainability i'm susan gregory the coordinating producer of the show who and today marjorie stewart is in the studio good morning mar step the first thing we wanted to do to kind of set the context of our discussion is to note that if embark on a career which will lead you into potentially becoming a conservation officer in the how they were awarded about how they competed for so i thought we'd just ask you the question what brought this award to your attention and how did you well i've been i've been a big fan of the freshwater fishery society of b c for a while now they do a lot of work in our province with regards to promoting fishing freshwater fishing as well as playing a key role sort of in the conservation  and they also wanted to provide and and as a aligning an environmental issue in d c that i actually was important so for this i spoke about how how i feel there's not not not like common but i feel it is sort of a general theme of some not all anglers obviously but some anglers being unaware of fishing regulations in their area where they're fishing so i think there needs to be more emphasis put little bit of sleuthing on the subject of fresh washer or sport fishing as it sometimes cold and learned some lovely statistics there over two million lakes and rivers in canada which flow into five major ocean drainage basins so that's a lot of territory that it's in need of protection particularly in the out of the way areas because it's the fishing that takes so where my where my line of questioning is leading the moment is it's a it's a fish that is being stopped you know actually they they natural conditions and i don't think they would be stocking a lake with a species that will compete on native species yeah so when i thought about that for a while the next thing i thought about was well we do a lot of stalking readers yeah and management is a big issue and one of the things that the freshwater fisheries society who who gave you the award have managed to achieve is that they work pretty closely with government they they they are not so critical or so antagonistic to government that they can't work together on the subject of of fisheries and canada so the freshwater fisheries societies income comes from fisheries licenses anglers fisheries licenses understand it so they are you are they have to create a balance between exploitation of the fish our management as you call it and the economic returns and that's pretty hard to do with government  fishing and more people there be a greater awareness for conservation and i think with with a greater awareness you'll generally have greater support for conservation efforts so that's get back to you or your personal experience you what makes you happy when you're like i think i mean just the enjoyment of being in the odors event for anyone who's a fisherman can relate to that i think you and the fish certain kind of a relationship at the time that you're fishing i've always wondered how that relationship is affected by catch and release programs fly fisherman yes for sure but also the people who own the water shed or the the right perry in areas what they're thinking about and i'm sure i'm sure it's color and it's the same as the you connect the user to the reserves the right moment they have a connection there they're going to be more prone to support conservation efforts and such and we see salmon so often in canada gorgeous fish at what point might turn angler tip over into the madness of thinking if the fish is in danger nigh unto death i want to be the person to catch the last one readers critical standing up and one of the one of the questions that we sent to the head of the program owner was did you have any special plans for this fall windfall of money that came your way you'd gone up north and worked on the know so so you're earning through through labor and and you're playing this as they hoped it would be applied to towards your career as as a future conservation officer on our behalf in b c no yeah for sure y specialist in terms of freshwater fate fishing are you are you encouraged to think of taking your education further than the conservation officer level or do you just want to get out there into the outdoors any connections with the pacific by logical station for instance because that's obviously a federal effort in terms of the field that you're interested in for sure y angling and sport fishing and about balancing sustainability i asked a question about balancing sustainability in economics and maybe both will come back to that and see whether they are in fact this has as completely connected as as might be initially thought but let's look at the broader area of being a conservation service officer the first thing that leapt into my mind was fires because that was a big issue for  us this well this last summer and we read about some conservation officers being faced with some pretty defiant people didn't  was the big one with the rifles and people actually threatening to if somebody was going to interfere with their god given right to have a campfire they were maybe going to lift up those of the field field aspects of the job so i have had through my school have had firearms training and defensive tactics training and verbal judo training which which is great it definitely helps these characters who were trying to present a threatening appearance what were your first thoughts in reading about that incident how would you if handled it did you wonder about what i mean and i mean actually i just know what happened i haven't actually read too much a boating to be extreme but obviously when there's a fire ban there's a car ban for a reason and having having a camp fire isn't isn't worth the risk of starting a rules and regulations that they don't care if they start a fire and they might like to perhaps maybe i think i think the majority of people out there are going to have a conscience and i would like to think that they would be aware and foremost would be to provide education to the public on how to properly manage manage ourselves to prevent human while both cough and i mean i think we definitely have to be in victoria at present over the presence of some quite angry deer in their midst people are worried about their dogs about their small children about their gardens about  safety and other people worried about the day here and the conservation officer is going to find itself in the middle of that kind of clash of values right for sure it's  that and then there was the case of the conservation officer who disobey the order to kill the baby deer was it killing the baby deer or what was that issue  bears was it i mean the german not too well versed on this one but he put himself in a position where he put his values above the values of the order he was given to say many they animal and i gather that he has a huge unsolicited following of people who say that should not been set but it's a difficult position for the surface to be in a snit it's a predicament for sure  announcements at this point when we come back i'm going to read you a couple of comments made by the humorist bill bryson author of a walk in the woods and and see what you think of his attitude to the park service in the united states  i'm good thanks marjorie and we'll just remind our listeners that you're listening to c h l y one a one point seven f m your listeners supported campus and community stations and we do have a few events and other things to mention here the global village seasonal fair trade store is now open at number two five seven seven one turner road that's in longwood station next to casey's boutique store hours are ten am to five pm monday through saturday until december twenty fourth this is a nonprofit church and when you purchase fair trade merchandise you are supporting people who are working to build a better life for themselves in places where fair wages and safe working conditions are not always available as well as helping craftspeople to earn with dignity the store provides customers with uniqueness and quality at fair but affordable prices there are some new suppliers this year as well as ongoing favorites and new merchandise will continue to arrive through the fall and for more information you can check global village known imo dot com something quite different here in a distinctly important historical moment eight first nations will soon be standing up in court against the proposed enbridge northern gateway pipeline and tankers project this is a landmark legal battle crowd funded by supporters and allies now more than ever people power is needed to show that these nations do not stand alone so on october first that would be this thursday the first day of course hearings there will be a solidarity rally at twelve thirty pm outside the federal court in vancouver that's on the corner of west georgia and house street and for more information on how you can help to change the provincial and national conversation around how we value land water and first nation's rights and title c w c l dot org vets for west coast environmental law who are representing two of the first nations of the eight that site also has something on the changes to fish habitat protection that have happened under the harper government marjorie n o and you may wan talk a little bit about that later on because i gather that some of those changes are quite drastic and actually of course the effects of the pipeline going all for a lot of those watersheds is another issue so anyway more information at w c e l dot org among other places but that's the one i had the information on today now for the federal election we have several all candidates meetings coming up  the ones that i have listed here are monday october fifth at six o'clock this one will be co hosted by the mid island maiti nation aboriginal center and it will be held at eighty three victoria crescent in the ny mall that's the one i'm associated in for community living building on tuesday october sixth eleven thirty am vi yoon and i am a campus building three fifty five room two eleven which is that kind of lounge that one will be on economic issues and it will be hosted by the department of economics wednesday october seventh six o'clock on disability issues hosted by the in and imo so ca sion for community living and again that's it eighty three victoria  october eighth six thirty at the eggy hall in lady smith hosted by the lady smith chamber of commerce and on wednesday october fourteenth at five vancouver island conference center hosted by then and imo chamber of commerce will mention a couple of those again next week if we have a chance but next week is the fund drive so we'll be doing something a little different the and just before we come back to the show i need to mention that next monday october fifth is c h o y's fourteenth anniversary of broadcasting we were webcasting for a while before that we went on the air fourteen years ago as of october fifth and there will be an open house here at the station from eleven am to three pm with and everyone is welcome and of course we are located in lois lane near the bottom of the china steps in downtown and imo so the program that you are listening to  because he delivers such an enormous grab bag of interesting information and he makes me laugh hard enough to fall off my chair all the time so here here's one of his evil anecdotes from a walk in the woods bryce canyon national park is perhaps the most interesting certainly the most striking example of the national park service tradition of making things extinct it was founded in  you consider that these animals had survived in bryce canyon for tens of millions of years before the park service took an interest in them the park service in one thousand fifty seven decided to reclaim abram's creek a tributary of the little tennessee river for rainbow trout even though rainbow trout had never been native to improvements creek to that ten and biologists dumped several drums of the post and cold wrote a note on home gardeners still use that and b c i believe in two fifteen miles of creek within hours tens of thousands of dead fish were floating on the surface like autumn leaves among the thirty one species of abrams creek  was one cold the smoky mud tom which scientists had never seen before here part surface biologists managed the wonderfully unusual accomplishment of discovering i think i mean park services around north america think i think they  yeah well i mean i think i think first and foremost parks they bring people in into an area right where they might not have had an opportunity to go to before so i think i think that can't be overlooked i think i think  tree unique to the southern appalachians highlands are sick or dying from a combination of acid rain and the depredations of a mall ask a park official what they are doing about it and he will say we are monitoring the but we have this problem and where we're motor of a way aware of it at the moment unusual because we're going through election silly season and we're thinking about government a lot more we have this problem of depending on the government to follow through on legislated policies which they have been advised upon previously and i noticed that in twenty ten a group of over thirty five senior scientists the scientists in the  a fresh washed their fish or his wrote a letter to the then premier campbell saying we need you to enact legislation on behalf of endangered species but more than that we need you to enforce that legislation because that is not what is happening do you think there's been much change in the five years since those scientists pointed out that not only did the provincial government not have legislation to  you're probably going into the provincial service because there's a report of september fifteenth this year from senior scientists who are interested in marine species and the report is called missing the safety net and what they say is that marine fishes in canada are missing the safety net that is meant to be provided by the spill species that wrist act fish that in addition to what they call the well known bias against listing marine fish is on the species at risk for those species that do get listed it takes years to their prolonged consideration time they receive no new conservations measures atoll under the fishery so things get worse for them while they sit in limbo so you can see that the whole business of the legislation that you need to regulate fisheries under the federal government is to put it politely in some sort of chaos and i thought it was really interesting missing the safety net report from academics was published by the n r c research pray press and i just happen to know what nic stands for it's the national research council which i happen to know was recently abolished by the federal government so i i looked a little bit further and i found that this press has been taken office a nonprofit society the federal government no longer takes the response ability of publishing important scientific material in the field of resource management and a private society has had to take it all so you see why i am happy that you're going into the provincial feel rather than to  pipeline it's do you want to rephrase that question so it's an if you still got it in mind oh well it's just that that's definitely on the issue with the enbridge proposed pipeline and of course the candor morgan as well that pipeline there's a pipeline there that already exists but they they want to twin is pump a whole lot more looted bitch human through it and of course both of those pipelines well the one that does exist and the one that's proposed would go through quite a lot of habitat harvey asli right across the province and concern is that there have been leaks pipelines like that and somehow they have not come up with ways to prevent them that are adequate so i don't know is that anything though that a conservation officer has the authority to deal with probably probably not i don't know about unless unless  plane goes through a provincial park for example i'm curious to know what kind of jurisdiction you might have if a pipeline like and bridge were to go you'll have a professional association though if you get if you get working with the parks canada with a conservation officer you will have a professional association to speak for you won't you  personal opinion on any and yeah yeah so you'll be able to to to go to that association and find out what what the people who are speaking for all of you what the policy is and how they can speak with with one voice on occasion it doesn't but it does sometimes happen that an association will speak out and ask their lords and masters to do some more serious thinking about something but that that is that is really unusual let's get back to the whole question of where you are in your career one of the things i want to ask you was to say anything stand out in what you've learn in your travels towards conservation work that is specially exciting for you that simply you're really pleased that you've gained from this  stakeholders that might have differing differing opinions on the issue so it's important that we realize that and we work with those stakeholders  was the question of habitat conservation and i understand that the two greatest threats to habitat conservation we've kind of touched on urban stroll but also pollution which i think is what susan was touching on too so how would you expect to come in contact with pollution or urban sprawl issues would you just have to pick up the pieces after somebody else made decisions or think it's really up to promote public education there is there is programs out there right now like they're aware that obviously need to be supported and they are supported so yeah i think i mean just we have to quite a bit so where they that's where the urban sprawl would come in isn't it when somebody who is innocently building a house doesn't realize that they have a particular responsibilities of their too close to a stream that i would be people have to be aware of their responsibilities people who though there's such a huge quest for waterfront these days i don't think a lot of people purchasing water from really understand it they happen portal responsibility is so of all the places in b c because the thought of leaving b c is probably not uppermost in your mind at this point is it i still two summers working in manitoba  move throughout the country are required to inform work so you're open to new experiences and it seems that everywhere in canada there are wonderful wild plants still available to not quite so i never met a ranger who wasn't cheerful dedicated and generally well and for mind you i hardly ever met a ranger because most of them being laid off well with forget it but