Mission, BC: A threatened ecosystem

Through environmental activism and citizen science, supported by The Footprint Press magazine, Mission, B.C. residents are learning about the species and habitat in their region, and about the devastating impacts that unsustainable housing developments will have on the fragile ecosystem.

When I started to work on this project, I planned to document the work of Dr. Tracy Lyster, who has encouraged scientists, artists, poets, photographers and other members of the Mission, B.C. community to contribute to The Footprint Press, which she and other concerned citizens have been publishing since 2010.

This magazine was developed to educate the community about the incredible ecosystems in their region, and the threat that unsustainable housing developments would cause to those unique ecosystems. I thought it would be an excellent example of Citizen Science.

As the project evolved, I interviewed one of the scientists who wrote for the magazine,

Dr. Marvin Rosenau, and was intrigued by his story, so added it. Tracy introduced me to an interesting artist, Peter Gong, and I included some of his perspectives.

A 3-5 minute documentary turned into a 9 ½ minute documentary.

Making documentaries is new for me, so all aspects of moviemaking are still a significant challenge—including filming, lighting, sound, story, and especially editing.

During my Graduate Liberal Studies program, I have been motivated to learn how to make documentaries, so that I can tell stories that will be more accessible to a larger audience than the traditional academic papers I have written in the past.

An informal list of references is below. I spoke to several SFU librarians about how to set up the equivalent of a bibliograhy for a video. The short answer was that they didn’t think that there was an established protocol, yet. I decided to list the references chronologically, as it made the most sense to me.

References

2008

https://www.mission.ca/wp-content/uploads/Silverdale-Plan_Juy_15_reduced_size1.pdf (Genstar-- SILVERDALE NEIGHBOURHOOD ONE PLAN DRAFT – July 15th, 2008)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/genstar-plan-will-destroy-ecosystem-former-government-scientist-warns-1.728215 (CBC News, Posted Sep 30, 2008 8:02 AM)

Link to archival video, “Mission to Save Silverdale”, 2008, Damien Gillis. http://causs.footprintpress.ca/video/silverdale.html (includes footage of 2008 Public Hearing and photos of Mary Hill subdivision in Port Coquitlam taken from an airplane)

2011

https://www.bclocalnews.com/news/updated-p3-water-project-rejected/ (BC Local News, Carol Aun, Apr 5, 2011, 5:00 pm)

2012

https://www.straight.com/article-674101/vancouver/david-suzuki-fundamental-failure-environmentalism (Georgia Straight, David Suzuki: The fundamental failure of environmentalism, May 1, 2012, 4:05 pm)

2015

https://www.missioncityrecord.com/news/hawes-says-genstar-sale-a-new-beginning/(Mission City Record, Carol Aun, Mar 27, 2015, 10:00 am)

2016

Watson, James EM, et al. "Catastrophic declines in wilderness areas undermine global environment targets." Current Biology26.21 (2016): 2929-2934.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/08/humans-have-destroyed-a-tenth-of-earths-wilderness-in-25-years-study (The Guardian, Adam Vaughan, Sep 8, 2016 1700 BST)

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-04/documents/nacept_citizen_science_publication_eng_022318_rf508_508.pdf (Environmental Protection Belongs to the Public, A Vision for Citizen Science at EPA, NACEPT, Dec 2016)

2017

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/canadian-scientists-open-about-how-their-government-silenced-science-180961942/ (Smithsonian.com, Joshua Rapp Learn, Jan 30, 2017)

2018

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5925785/ (A Global Mitigation Hierarchy for Nature Conservation, Published online 2018 Apr 18. doi: [10.1093/biosci/biy029]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/new-book-dissects-governments-relationship-to-science-but-narrowly/article15955773/ (Globe and Mail, Book Review by Ivan Semeniuk, published Dec 13, 2013, updated May 11, 2018)

http://fraservalleynewsnetwork.com/2018/08/13/district-of-mission-starts-master-infrastructure-strategy-for-silverdale-lands/ (Fraser Valley News, August 13, 2018)

https://www.mission.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018-09-19-Public-Hearing-Agenda-Linked.pdf (District of Mission Public Hearing Agenda September 19, 2018)

http://mission.ca.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=411 (video of September 19, 2018 City of Mission Public Hearing)

Link to website and all issues of “Footprint Press” Magazine, 2010-2018 https://www.footprintpress.ca/