Heron advocates cheer Cowichan Valley Regional District board

Sarah Simpson
The Citizen

Friday, June 13, 2008

CREDIT: Lexi Bainas, Citizen
Peter Spohn dressed as Grandfather Heron, at a public meeting at the CVRD offices in May.

Great Blue Herons making their homes in their Cowichan Bay rookery are all but officially able to unpack their feathery suitcases.

Wednesday night the Cowichan Valley Regional District read for a third time a bylaw that would see the big birds' nesting sites protected.

Prior to their regular board meeting Wednesday, CVRD directors had sifted through 97 exhibits -- letters, petitions and emails -- as well as the minutes from a well-attended public meeting held May 20 at the CVRD's Ingram Street offices.

So when it came time for the bylaw to be read a third time, a quick and unanimous approval was made, much to the delight of a small gathering of heron protectors in the gallery, who now know the next time the herons get mentioned at the CVRD, it will likely be to adopt the bylaw.

Included in that group of heron supporters Wednesday was Grandfather Heron himself, Peter Spohn.

"I'm very pleased that bylaw has passed (this step) and there's now a good chance that that colony will be protected and hopefully thrive," he said from his Cowichan Bay home Thursday morning, on a break from painting a picture of a proud mother heron and her three chicks.

"It is a great step forward," he said. "I'm also pleased that through the work that we did that there is greater public awareness around the herons in Cowichan Bay and that the many, many people who care deeply about the environment and who want to see us strive to find ways to live together with these animals and not exclude them from our developments but to find creative ways to honour the local bio-system with all its incredible natural assets, that those people who really care about that had a chance to raise their voices."

Many people have spoken passionately on behalf of the herons and of developing a kind of vision that would see animals and humans coexist safely and peacefully.

Spohn said he hopes a time will come when developers and governments can work together to find ways to create developments in sensitive areas like Cowichan Bay, that respect the unique aspects of place.

"We're all going to be happier if we can sustain our relationship with the beauties of the natural world and all of the healing gifts that it has to offer all of us," he said.

Spohn said to be able to live beside a heron colony and to have a relationship with creatures as magnificent as the heron is "a great privilege and a great joy" and something that as adults, we often overlook while being busy and caught up in trying to make money and survive.

"We tend to lose our connection with the natural world," he said.

This bylaw is one step closer to reconnection.

"I'm glad it's over for the time being but I know that issues like this will come forward again," said Spohn. "I think as a culture we know how to analyze things and take them apart. But Humpty Dumpty has fallen off the wall and it's not so clear how to put the pieces back together again. We don't know how to bring the salmon back into our bay. We don't have all the answers for that and if we're going to find those answers, not only are we going to have to listen more deeply but we have to start acting differently as well."

© Cowichan Valley Citizen 2008

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