East Sooke Feature Article
Photo by Brian White
Restructure: Connecting With Nature and Neighbours
By Gloria Snively
The other night, while sipping a glass of fine local red wine, I came to the conclusion that our East Sooke and Metchosin rural communities enjoy democracy in ways that are not available to urban friends. Vancouver to too large by a million people, Victoria is reaching elephant size, while Langford and Colewood are growing, growing, growing; and small towns like Sooke are trying to morph into cities. Community size is important—we either know a lot about what is going on around us and who thinks what, or we don’t. We either chat with our neighbours or we don’t know them. Size matters.
For eight months of the year a typical Saturday in East Sooke begins with a trip to Ragley farm where neighbours come shopping for fresh organic vegetables. The same beautiful fresh vegetables that Josephine Hill supplies to Sooke Harbour House adorn the simple vegetable shed. Neighbours help themselves to fresh brewed coffee and a selection of baked delights. Here, the honour system works. Everybody knows everybody else. It doesn’t make any difference where you are on the pave it/save it spectrum—we all sit on wooden chairs and chat, everybody’s polite.
Many folks in East Sooke drive to Metchosin to the farmer’s market to purchase their vegetables. Some ride their mountain bikes over the Galloping Goose Trail: past shale outcroppings and the deep blue waters of Mount Matheson, past legions of sword ferns and moss covered rocky knolls, past remnants of Gary Oak meadows decorated in rare and endangered orchids —a 30 minute ride.
Several times a year folks meet at Glenairley, Center for Earth and Spirit in East Sooke, for the best potluck dinner anywhere. This past summer our visitors from Metchosin remarked, “This is amazing, all these people, everybody enjoying everybody else!”
Some folks say that East Sooke is even “more rural” than Metchosin. Folks in East Sooke have no café, no commercial center other than a very small general store, not even a local school. Most folks have evolved a rather “East Sooke” style of living and interacting with one another that folks in cities might find too peaceable—or even boring.
A small community, like a small tidal pool of inter-dependent organisms, is stronger for its close-knit neighbourliness and the strength of people who understand each other and who realize their inter-connections. We hear about stresses and needs and make it our business to offer a hand.
To see the people of East Sooke turn out to a community meeting is to see home-style democracy in action. How can democracy function in big cities where nobody knows anybody else, where people often seem suspicious, and where populations are no longer names and faces, but numbers? It is probable that living democracy simply cannot survive in big cities where it may take forever to notice a problem, let alone do something about it. I can drive from the far end of East Sooke road to the My-Chosen Cafe in 20 minutes, as much time it takes to find a parking space in most cities.
Who can say why some small towns want to bathe themselves in growth hormones and go all out for expansion? History is thick with sad stories of unchecked population growth—so is cellular biology. Organisms can become too populous to feed or breed. We rely on earth, air, and water—do we really need to cram our home place with endless infrastructure and problems that can be solved only with more and more expensive services and taxes? Why can’t folks who love the city life just go find cities and live there? Why should anyone look at my peaceful home place and say, “If I buy this calm and beautiful area I can build it into a city and get rich?”
What principle allows peaceable rural communities to stay that way? It is nothing other than democracy. Rich or poor, we all have a voice and as long as we pay attention to what is being said or offered; we can protect our quality of life and plan changes intelligently.
The most fundamental of life’s necessities for animals (or humans) are food, water, shelter and space in a suitable arrangement. The biggest single factor leading to endangering or eliminating wildlife is habitat destruction. Wildlife requires large areas of uninterrupted nature to enable migrations and sustain populations. Diversity of plants and animals ensures thriving ecosystems.
A “bioregion” or “life territory” is a geographical area in which the boundaries are set by nature—flora, fauna, water, climate, rocks, landforms and the human residents. Every effort to protect the natural system involves social and political decision-making. Neither goal can be achieved without the other.
The Metchosin-East Sooke region contains sensitive ecosystems that are fragile and/or rare, such as coastal bluffs, Gary Oak Meadows, woodlands, rainforest, wetlands and marine systems. Forested areas, including 2nd growth forests, provide vital corridors between natural areas that promote the movement and dispersal of many forest dwelling species. Animals as varied as black-tailed deer, northwestern salamanders, northern flying squirrels, black bears and cougars use second growth forests for feeding, breeding, and migration. Forested lands provide an important role in buffering the adjacent sensitive ecosystems.
East Sooke has a long rural history that was confirmed when 76% of its residents rejected amalgamation with expansionist Sooke. The Silver Spray lands were annexed to Sooke when it was deemed “contiguous by water”. Ironically, the pipes and dreams of Silver Spray are now Sooke’s problem, not ours!
Some people say that growth and development is inevitable but this is simply not so. Those who want rapid growth and development should certainly live in cities. If Ottawa statisticians want Canada to grow by 4 per cent a year; well, let them figure out housing that doesn’t destroy farmland and natural ecosystems. Those of us who prefer to live in rural communities have a democratic right to maintain our rural life style. In democratic societies communities have certain powers of self-government. It’s as simple as that.
Imagine if Metchosin restructured to include East Sooke! Our union would keep things together by connecting the earth, sky, and people of our common bioregion in place. Small and large ecosystems could be protected, as would democracy and our rural lifestyle. By creating an expanded rural area Metchosin would increase its boundaries, thus reinforcing and buffering its borders with Langford, Colewood and Sooke. We would realize the potential of the Regional Growth Strategy and the Sea-to-Sea Green Belt vision to include a corridor of forests and green spaces stretching from Saanich through Metchosin, Mount Matheson and East Sooke Park. Green belts like this must exist to preserve multiple values: wilderness areas, agricultural areas, biodiversity, and to facilitate our (including urban people’s) interaction with nature.
By restructuring and working together we can develop an expanded sense of personal and communal power. We can support cooperative relationships that encourage ideas about how to care for others, the planet and the rural communities we love.