Despite frigid weather the two Gabriola Trustees had a splendid and busy Earth Day celebration on Friday April 21 at the Gabriola Commons. On Gabriola, we celebrate one day before International Earth Day so the school children can join us after lunch, first for a parade around the village, then for a walk around the environmentally-themed displays, and finally for singing and dancing to the wildly popular and totally delightful music of The Kerplunks.
Tobi Elliott and I are both Islands Trust Conservancy Board members and we proudly displayed and talked about ITC work on Gabriola and across the Trust Area. Our table was set up next to the local Library table (whose fishing for treasures attraction brought many children to our table) and near the Gabriola Lands and Trails Trust (GaLTT) display whose beautiful pamphlets and native plants array complemented the ITC handouts very nicely.
The most popular handouts at our table were the You have to be more careful with an Island buttons, which every child passing by wanted – I saw them later pinned on to jackets, shirts, backpacks, and stuffed critters brought along for the parade. Adult visitors to our table were attracted to The Heron, the ITC’s quarterly newsletter, and the brochures on ways to care for private property, including the pamphlets on Natural Area Protection Tax Exemption Program (NAPTEP).
Tobi and I enjoyed being able to sit at the same table and share the successes and promises of the Islands Trust Conservancy, without worrying about being ‘at a meeting’. On the official Earth Day (April 22) we celebrate our community’s natural surroundings separately but in harmony with our fellow islanders at many different locations, including a native plant walk with Snuneymuxw elder Geraldine Manson at the Museum and GaLTT’s Nature Stewards Tour de Terre, a self-guided tour of 7 properties to learn more about land stewardship and gardening for biodiversity.
Susan Yates
Trustee, Gabriola Island Local Trust Area
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