Mapping Out Our Future
Dear Editor,
For me the key ingredient of what makes Bowen, Bowen, is our expansive rainforest. Not just the trees that poke out of our backyards, but the real, sinous, continuous mass of plants, animals and waterways.
I’m inspired by a global wilderness initiative under way to protect 30% of the natural spaces on earth by 2030, and 50% by 2050. It’s sometimes dubbed ’nature needs half’.
So I thought I would catalogue what we have protected of nature on the island, and how 50% preservation might look. Currently, much of Crown Land on the island is in the Timber Harvest Land Base, and some has rural residential zoning.
It turns out we’d need to add about 1% of Bowen’s land base to protected status per year to achieve both targets. Not only would a park at Cape Roger add 1.9% (two years’ worth of our target), but it would connect the Wild Coast Nature Reserve to Fairy Fen, which in turn connects with Quarry Park and Headwaters Park, linking ocean to mountain forever. I hope we can view the Official Community Plan amendment process as a opportunity for finding solutions, rather than giving in to pessimism and ending the process prematurely.
Below is a link to three maps I made showing what 50% would look like; what’s preserved today; and how the natural lands on the island are zoned, including tables with the numbers. I encourage anyone interested in our future to check them out. If we create a clearer vision of how we want Bowen to look in 2030 or 2050, we can judge the wisest course to getting there.
Link: https://bit.ly/3LkJh92
- John Dowler
Why we all fight so hard for Bowen
In the fall of 2015, working with the Bowen Island Municipality Economic Development Committee, we designed and analyzed a Bowen Island resident survey. The purpose of the survey was to discover insights about our residents: the most memorable experiences they have had on Bowen, and the emotional benefits they receive from living here. A representative number of residents responded to the survey, providing opinions and stories rich in imagery and emotion.
From the findings we were able to construct a common narrative that captures the heart of Bowen residents’ experiences: The Bowen Resident Story: The real moments in life
From the very first time we set eyes on the natural beauty of our island, we knew Bowen is where we belong. It is a special place we can truly call home; a place that provides purposeful and meaningful connections to the things that matter most in our lives.
The peace and quiet of our island are valued and soothing respites from the stress and cares of everyday life. Here we can still feel the serenity of being completely alone with our thoughts, amid the joys of the natural world.
We know that choosing to live on a small island can be challenging. But we also know there is a vibrant and caring community willing to pitch in and help if we are ever in need. It is a community that gives us so much: lasting friendships, wonderful festivities, the arts, learning. We are grateful to live in this island paradise so close to a major city and we take our responsibility for its stewardship very seriously.
Bowen Island is where the real moments in life happen.
Is it any wonder when our island and our quality of life faces potential great change, we fight so hard to protect it? Islands need special care. They are unique and fragile ecosystems. Their stewardship cannot be approached using standard, cookie cutter methods that endanger the island uniqueness. We must be creative and far-sighted in our decision-making.
- Sheree Johnson & Edward Wachtman
Hoping for a change to local tourism approach
Dear Editor,
I was dismayed to read the Tourism Destination Development and Management Implementation Guide prepared for the Vancouver, Coast & Mountains Tourism Region.
Bowen Island is seen as a tourism resource ripe for the picking, rather than a community on a fragile island and in need of careful planning and protection. I feel that the consultants have put the cart before the horse in that they are planning for tourism development before they have a clear notion of what it should look like.
For all the lip service paid to notions of sustainable tourism, collaborative destination management, and working with the local community, we have seen not one bit of collaboration with the community to date. Rather, there have been unwelcome assumptions that Bowen Islanders will simply accept, even welcome, a large increase in visitor numbers. However good their intentions, the consultants have provided no detail or examples of how tourism development can be aligned with the community’s unique characteristics and “values of place”, to quote just one claim.
I resent, too, that Bowen Island, having in place committees and community organizations concerned with related issues, can be called upon to contribute, free of charge, to the problem of managing the impacts of the business of tourism. To expect that a community of a few thousand people, can absorb hundreds of thousands of visitors to the island each summer is naïve and insensitive.
Unfortunately, we have no control over the number of tourists who choose to get on the ferry and come to Bowen Island. However, we can control the amount of accommodation on offer, and the types of services provided for tourists and others. No doubt, there will be an increase in tourism from its already high level, and there seems no doubt that it will continue to place a burden on Bowen Island’s natural and other resources.
One thing we should do immediately is make arrangements to introduce a 3% Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT) and to use the funds for projects dedicated to low-cost housing. Such a tax would raise funds from overnight visitors in paid accommodation, but would still leave day visitors untouched. Without a way to tax them too, all of us who are not currently gaining income from tourism are, in effect, subsidising the tourist industry. Our provincial and federal governments already give huge subsidies to the industry, in the form of funds for tourism promotion, the provision of infrastructure such as roads, airports, ferry services, water, sewers, policing, public trails, parks, and so on.
There is some debate as to what extent tourism benefits the local economy. Some positive benefits might be increased number of restaurants and stores for those Bowen Islanders who value such things, and some jobs (although these tend to be poorly paid) but they come at the cost of crowding on our roads, ferry overloads, overcrowding at our beaches in the summer, and so on. There can be no debate that increased tourism is beneficial to a small number of islanders who offer accommodation in the form of B&Bs and Airbnbs, run restaurants and stores, and provide other tourist services. But, for the rest of us, mass tourism is a nuisance and is not particularly wanted.
I do not expect that Bowen Islanders should have the island entirely to themselves and I do not believe that visitors should be unwelcome, but it is another matter entirely to go out and promote the island as a destination and encourage visitors to come here. They need no encouragement. Social and traditional media already provide more than enough encouragement and information. The list of places overrun by tourists having been over-promoted by social media is very long and spans the globe. I do not want to see Bowen Island added to that list.
I have little enthusiasm for the management of tourism, and none for the promotion of it; my own experience is that the unmanaged and unpromoted places are often the best places to visit. I suspect it at the very least, we will have to manage tourism to the extent that we mitigate and limit its impacts.
I request that Council initiate its own research and planning for tourism, beginning with the question of what Bowen Islanders would like to see. After that we could move on to what level of tourism would be appropriate, how best to accommodate tourists and how to manage the industry on Bowen.
At the same time, we should take steps to limit the number of private homes that can offer accommodation, and to limit the number of nights and visitors to each. We should also investigate how to recoup funds from these businesses which are currently being subsidized by the rest of us.
I hope that Council rejects this report and ceases to fund any form of tourism promotion by Tourism Bowen Island.
Yours faithfully,
- Peter Williamson
