I live at Friendly Forest just north of Christopher Lake. Some will know about me as a member of the Forest Fringe Citizens' Coalition. Some others may know me as a person who creates functional wood art, and others may know me as a Highschool Biology teacher or school administrator.

Since August 1999, I and the other members of the Forest Fringe Citizens Coalition have learned a lot about how our society relates to the earth, air and water. Perhaps I should thank SaskPower and Eldon Lautermilch for some of the lessons I have learned, but I will let you be the judge of that after I finish speaking.

My respect for the natural world began when I was a child. I grew up on a farm about 160 km east of Saskatoon. I have great memories of sitting on a rock in a wooded area near a waterhole on my father's farm, and the special feelings I had as rabbits came up to me as if I were not there, and the deer came out of the trees to drink at the water. I remember the sense of betrayal I felt as farmers began to cut any trees left on ever growing farms, and drained sloughs and potholes that dotted the landscape so they could get big machines onto the fields a few days earlier in the spring. During my years in the classroom I tried to tell others about how completely all living things are connected to each other and to the non-living parts of this planet.

Earth Day 2002; Reflections

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About 16 years ago I started to plan for my retirement and was able to purchase a small pocket of incredibly beautiful transition boreal forest just north of Christopher Lake, which I call Friendly Forest. I built my home there and by living right in the forest with the plants and animals, I grew in a new kind of understanding of forest. It was an understanding that did not come from books or even from trips into the forest or canoe runs along northern rivers. It was an understanding that gradually entered my bones and my belly.

Perhaps I was coming a bit closer to the fundamental knowledge and respect that aboriginal elders have who have lived their whole lives with the land, and whose understanding and respect was passed down through generations for thousands of years.

My European Christian traditions sometimes interfere with a good understanding of the true relationship between humans and the earth. Some Christians read the book of Genesis in the bible and believe that God gave all of nature to humans to be conquered and dominated.

A much truer understanding of the intent of that book of the bible would be to understand God's command to Adam to name all the creatures of the earth as his command to humanity to assume an eternal care, respect and stewardship for all the creatures of the earth. When humans give their name to a child, they are declaring that they are assuming the responsibility to care for and to nurture that child in love and respect.

  

 

  With that new sense of responsibility, we look to the earth and ask new questions of ourselves. We ask; when I die, what must I leave behind? What must remain intact and good and whole? Our society dominated by a corporate, profit -based motive simply asks, "What can I rip off? What can I take for my own use now?"

 

I have used my retirement years and my retirement money to protect the parcel of transition boreal forest and to share the gift that I have been given by being permitted to live in that forest. I knew that I needed to open my home and this forest to others who could learn from it and absorb some of the peace and harmony which I had found there. I have allowed people to adopt individual trees that symbolized their connection to the earth, and which earned them the right of frequent visits to the forest.

I have created kilometres of walking trails which permit me and my guests to get out into the forest and to see it as one can not from a vehicle on a highway or from a crowded campground.

And then came August 1999 when we received our letters from SaskPower declaring that to meet the needs of power consumption in northern Saskatchewan, they were going to cut a wide swath through the forest to route a 139 kV powerline, even though there was already opened land with very few human residents just a few kilometres to the east. We thought they would listen to sound arguments about the need to respect people and the forest, and so we gathered to speak to them about our concerns with their plans.

We were treated with contempt and our arguments fell on deaf ears and cold hearts. Our fight was on. From the earliest we knew that we had to have a community vision and community action to alter the course of destruction so callously and carefully planned by Regina engineers and bureaucrats at SaskPower. That forced us to realize that we would need to organize in order to be heard.

From that came the birth of the Forest Fringe Citizens' Coalition, with membership based on acceptance of key principles of respect for the forest and for people and their homes. I was one member and gradually I was given the role of being the main spokesperson for the group. The principles that united us and have given us our direction until this very day are principles of respect for people and for environment... principles that were held in arrogant and ignorant contempt by SaskPower. This was not to be the basis of SaskPower doing business in Saskatchewan. Simple construction costing and short, direct lines close to the highway were to be the only considerations.

Within one month we had organized nearly 1000 signatures on a petition protesting this plan by SaskPower. We petitioned out municipal leaders who passed a resolution in support of our concerns. We sought the support of environmental groups and of the provincial Government which is in charge of SaskPower. We were able to get Mr. John Nilson and Keith Goulet to meet with us and see first hand what was being planned. Mr. Nilson was then the minister in charge of SaskPower, and he forced SaskPower to pause. A Study was ordered on how SaskPower plans its powerlines. Further biological data was collected, and we believed that the new, reinforced evidence supporting our arguments would bring about a change of plans. How wrong we were. All it took was for there to be a new Premier who shuffled the cabinet and moved MR. Nilson out of that ministry. Under its new leadership, or perhaps we should say, with no real leadership in place, SaskPower bureaucrats and engineers were back in the saddle and pushed full steam ahead.

 

 

  

In an effort to trigger a clause in the Environment Assessment Act, we invited people to show their support for our stand by adopting trees in the path of SaskPower bulldozers. From the end of September till December, nearly 2000 people adopted a tree that was marked with their name and the declaration, SaskPower, if you kill my adopted tree, send the marker to me at my home address. On October 29, I placed in the hands of Premier Calvert the w000 name petition, and a book with the names and addresses of the 2000 people adopting trees.

All of this, along with hundreds and hundreds of letters and other communications to government people might just as well have been sucked into some black hole in outer space. Eldon Lautermilch from Prince Albert seemed to lead the government's refusal to listen to Saskatchewan citizens and to support SaskPower instead. As you know that is still the case, and SaskPower has begun its construction and destruction , with the main construction slated for this summer.

Just as the earth, water and air are all connected in patterns that extend over the whole planet and for thousands and millions of years, to live in respect and harmony with this planet we need to have long term perspectives and we need to have a human community that truly knows its place as an integral part of nature and which has a collective and individual sense or responsibility to leave it health for future generations.

That is what I have learned in my head and in my belly. For this to happen we need a new understanding and a new political will and new political movements. We can make a difference in our own homes and with our own families. We can make a difference in our neighbourhoods and in our municipalities. We can make a difference by using the limited power of our ballot in the next provincial and federal elections.

I have broadened my perspectives. I have a new appreciation for my neighbours in this forest area near Christopher Lake. I understand, deep in my belly, that our political parties in Saskatchewan lack the vision needed . They plan for the next budget or the next election.

I have joined the New Green Alliance Party, which is a political movement that I believe offers our best hope for mobilizing the values and efforts that have brought all of us here today. If I can learn such lessons at my age, then you can surely teach your children and we can work through groups such as the Earth Advocates who organized this day, We can work through groups such as the Council of Canadians and political movements such as the Neww Green Alliance. There is hope for a better tomorrow when we live with respect and reverence and live in harmony with our earth.


Gerald