Editor:
FortisBC and the City of Vancouver are to be congratulated for taking action to remove methane gas from the Vancouver Landfill at Burns Bog.
This landfill is a monument to outdated thinking about what to do with peatlands like Burns Bog. Peatlands are the most neglected, ignored natural resource in the world. Canada has no national or provincial legislation to protect our disappearing peatlands.
Scientists across Europe and the UNEP recognize the need to stop destroying peatlands like Burns Bog if we are to meet our targets to reduce climate change.
Locally, the mayors of the Lower Mainland are only too happy to approve the destruction of our local peatlands. This was demonstrated dramatically last month when Metro Vancouver overwhelming approved the destruction of 63 hectares of unprotect Burns Bog for an industrial site.
By converting those 63 hectares of peatland to an industrial site, carbon is going to be released into the atmosphere and habitat for rare and endangered plants and animals will be lost.
If the mayors of the Lower Mainland are really serious about combating climate change, they would be offering incentives to the owners of that 63 hectares to keep that bogland/peatland working to store carbon and to keep it there.
Scotland supported the destruction of their peatlands in the 1950s when industrialization took over. That has changed dramatically in the last few years. The Scottish government is offering grants to landowners to block drainage ditches that the previous owners were encouraged to dig.
Once Scottish farmers block the ditches they find that bog plants return within two years. Within five to 15 years, the bogs/peatlands are back to storing carbon and offering safe places for a wide range of wildlife like they did before.
The findings of the Scottish government about the restoration of peatlands is similar to the findings of scientists at the University of Laval, Quebec. They have been working with the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Society to restore cutover peatlands in Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba.
It is time that we started protecting our local peatlands.
What you can do: Congratulate FortisBC and the City of Vancouver for taking the steps to remove the methane from the landfill.
When you go to your local garden shop refuse to buy any product that has peat in it. Coir or coconut fibre and compost are great alternatives to peat. In other words, “for peat’s sake, don’t use peat.”
Oh, and don’t forget to thank the garden shops that carry peat alternatives.
Eliza Olson
President
Burns Bog Conservation Society
