AMBER PETERS
Special to the Star
As we strive for the creation of the Selkirk Mountain Caribou Park Proposal, Valhalla Wilderness Society continues to remind our supporters that writing the B.C. and federal governments is the most effective way to help achieve protection of this important wildlife habitat. On March 8th, we hosted a drop-in letter-writing event at the Nelson Public Library to bring the incomparable Incomappleux and the rest of the park proposal to the governments’ attention. I personally reside in Nelson, so I thought it would be nice to hold a local event to start fueling up the energy needed to protect the incredible wilderness in our back yard. I looked at local calendars to choose a day that wasn’t already busy with events, but I seem to have missed that March 8th is in fact International Woman’s Day. When I remembered this, I realized it was actually quite fitting. What better way to honour women than to speak our voices for Mother Earth on this day?
I have only lived in Nelson for six months, so I hoped to also begin creating a community around our cause and get to know some of my neighbours. Leading up to the event we were quite busy with an out-of-town screening of Primeval, the 19-minute documentary which tells the story of one of the world’s last truly intact temperate rainforests - the Incomappleux. As a result I didn’t get the chance to personally invite people in town. I was a bit worried that we wouldn’t get a large turnout because of this. I also considered that it could be a bit much to expect for people to take time on their lunch hour to write an essay to the government. Then on the day of the event, we had a big snowfall. That morning, I was certain I’d be sitting alone in the library writing letters.
Thankfully I had the help of two best friends who designed and put up posters around town. They are happy to help and are so supportive of the cause. I made it to the library almost an hour early and a young man was already writing his heart out. He was the first person I’d met in Nelson and he didn’t know I was working with Valhalla so we were pleasantly surprised to meet again. This was encouraging for me because I already felt like we were creating a community here. He ended up staying for the full three hours. More people flooded in to the library, including some old friends of Valhalla. Many people knew about our park proposal, and many just dropped in because they heard that a vibrant local ecosystem was in danger. Some didn’t even know how to say “Incomappleux” but were there anyway to support whoever was taking charge to speak for our threatened inland rainforest. Some people wrote multiple letters and we even received a phone call from a group of ladies who couldn’t make it out of their snowed-in driveways but wanted information so they could write from home.
We ended up with a big stack of at least 60 heart-felt letters. Since then, many people who couldn’t make it to the event have reached out to me for information on letter writing. I’m glad we got together and had the chance to also invite everyone to our Primeval screening at the Hart Hall in Nelson on May 4. Many conversations and ideas were shared and I believe we all left feeling inspired to be the little big town that does something incredible and protects our B.C. rainforest. I truly look forward to bringing my community together in any way I can for our cause and to create more opportunities for connection as Valhalla Wilderness Society has done so beautifully before I came along. I feel that my community thanks me for this and that they too will help any way they can.
Amber Peters is a biologist and campaigner for the Valhalla Wilderness Society, which is advocating for the creation of a new 156,461-hectare provincial park between Glacier National Park and Goat Range Provincial Park.