Our focus will be the District of Squamish and surrounding area north and south on the Sea to Sky Highway in BC Canada. Population 15,000. The whole area is traditional Squamish Nation territory and we are endeavoring to involve youth and elders from the local band in the group.
This region will be hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. Squamish is in the middle of the region geographically, halfway between Vancouver and Whistler. It is also in the middle of coping with all the development, activity and attention that comes with such a massive world level event. There are many environmental, recreational, conservation, and economic development issues that are converging at this time and place. Two examples: we want to be known as the Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada but there are many issues raised by expanding and maintaining all the outdoor recreational amenities this encompasses; there is a land development and housing boom that is putting sensitive environmental areas at risk and also impacting on the small town quality of life and citizen groups are forming to ensure that residents have some input into decision making.
This Green mapping project is a way to simultaneously accomplish two broad goals.
One is to identify, raise awareness and educate ourselves and visitors about the elements of our community & environment that we value and that are at risk. This also involves identifying what we have successfully defended and preserved in the past and the work that is being done right now to preserve what we have here.
Two is to take advantage of the Olympic fall-out to benefit local youth and the many non-profit community groups who have done, are doing and will continue to do the work long after the Olympics are over.
We want a high quality process and a high quality product but we need to separate the two somewhat.
We want to design and produce a piece of educational art that we can market to the world during the Olympic period and beyond. Our target date would thus be the winter of 2010.
We would like to include information about the natural history of the region and the many mountains that surround our valley as well as the heritage and history of the people here.
We want to involve many voices in the choices that are made about what to put on the map especially those that are usually not heard –such as the voices of youth, the aboriginal community and people often considered to be at the margins.
We envision a series of public forums followed up by a series of focused working groups with a priority to ensure outreach to those who will not attend public forums.
We plan to access project funding that will allow us to engage diverse local youth in the process.
