To the Editor:
(Open letter to Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall and Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy George Heyman)
We were interested to read, in the Creston Valley Advance, about your recent visit to Nelson Creston to discuss environmental concerns. And we applaud you coming to “our” valley, the Central Kootenays, to listen to our concerns and discuss issues. As we read through the partners/organizations that were involved, we saw many Nelson-based, Kootenay Lake-based groups.
But, wow, did you involve anyone from the Creston Valley?
The largest environmental organization in the Kootenays is Wildsight. Nelson has the Ecosociety, but there is also a Wildsight presence/staff in Nelson; everywhere else in the Kootenays, Wildsight is the only environmental organization. Creston’s Creston Climate Action is the group leading climate action work and involves an amalgam of Citizen’s Climate Lobby, 100% Renewable Kootenays, Wildsight, Ecosociety, the RDCK…apparently they weren’t made aware of this meeting.
My husband, Drew, is on the Wildsight board and I am on the Creston Climate Action board. Creston is the “apple of the Kootenays”, with our dairy farms, beef operations, grain growing, mixed organic farms, orchards and vineyards. So, as we read about warm congratulations that Mr. Heyman came out to our fair area and that you, Ms. Mungall (our MLA), visited Nelson-Creston, it was very evident that yet again, Creston’s unique concerns and needs were ignored.
From a Creston Valley farm,
Drew and Joanne Gailius
