Sam Dabrusin wants to save the environment — one hanky at a time.
He’s giving out free handkerchiefs at UBC, hoping that anyone who takes one will use the hanky, rather than a paper towel, to dry their hands after they use the washroom.
It all started when Dabrusin, now a third-year political science student at UBC, went on a high-school exchange to Japan. “For the first month or so, my hands were always wet; I was wiping them on my pants,” he said. “They don’t have paper towels or hand dryers in over 90 per cent of the bathrooms there.
“It’s the cultural norm to carry around a handkerchief…. Then when I got back to North America, I started using [handkerchiefs] again without thinking.”
While canvassing for Greenpeace after his first year of university, Dabrusin tried to think up a project he could start to help the environment, and his mind went to his hanky habit.
“I made the connection in my head that [paper towels] were dead trees that we just throw in the garbage…. I was just using less.”
Dabrusin approached the sustainability committee at the AMS student society, and he learned how much paper towel waste comes from just the Student Union Building. “I found out the SUB goes through about 40 bags of trash a day, just out of the bathrooms,” he said. “At least 90 per cent of that, or more, is going to be paper towels, right?”
He made a pitch to the AMS about a plan to offer free hankies outside bathrooms, but they weren’t able to offer him grant money for the project.
“We didn’t see the connection between buying a handkerchief and then getting people to consistently use a handkerchief instead of paper towel,” said Tristan Miller, AMS VP Finance.
Undeterred, Dabrusin wound up getting $1,100 for his project from another group, the Student Environment Centre. He used it to buy hundreds of handkerchiefs from Hankettes, a Vancouver Island company.
He’s been handing them out at a booth in the SUB since Tuesday, and suggesting that anybody who takes one also donate to the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The response has been pretty good,” he said. “It’s a behaviour change thing, so it’s a big project. We’re aiming to do this next semester as well.”
Dabrusin hopes that the project won’t just save trees, water and energy; he also wants it to get people thinking about how much they consume.
“This is a really good way to get into a discussion about the disposable culture that we have right now…. On campus, we’ll have a meal and we’ll throw out some plastic, we’ll throw out some styrofoam, all without thinking about it.
“We’ll do that on a daily basis, and that’s just for meals, you know? There’s so much other stuff, too, that’s very disposable. I think this would be a good way to start that conversation.”
A UBC student campaign wants to help you kick your paper-towel habit
/in News CoverageSam Dabrusin wants to save the environment — one hanky at a time.
He’s giving out free handkerchiefs at UBC, hoping that anyone who takes one will use the hanky, rather than a paper towel, to dry their hands after they use the washroom.
It all started when Dabrusin, now a third-year political science student at UBC, went on a high-school exchange to Japan. “For the first month or so, my hands were always wet; I was wiping them on my pants,” he said. “They don’t have paper towels or hand dryers in over 90 per cent of the bathrooms there.
“It’s the cultural norm to carry around a handkerchief…. Then when I got back to North America, I started using [handkerchiefs] again without thinking.”
While canvassing for Greenpeace after his first year of university, Dabrusin tried to think up a project he could start to help the environment, and his mind went to his hanky habit.
“I made the connection in my head that [paper towels] were dead trees that we just throw in the garbage…. I was just using less.”
Dabrusin approached the sustainability committee at the AMS student society, and he learned how much paper towel waste comes from just the Student Union Building. “I found out the SUB goes through about 40 bags of trash a day, just out of the bathrooms,” he said. “At least 90 per cent of that, or more, is going to be paper towels, right?”
He made a pitch to the AMS about a plan to offer free hankies outside bathrooms, but they weren’t able to offer him grant money for the project.
“We didn’t see the connection between buying a handkerchief and then getting people to consistently use a handkerchief instead of paper towel,” said Tristan Miller, AMS VP Finance.
Undeterred, Dabrusin wound up getting $1,100 for his project from another group, the Student Environment Centre. He used it to buy hundreds of handkerchiefs from Hankettes, a Vancouver Island company.
He’s been handing them out at a booth in the SUB since Tuesday, and suggesting that anybody who takes one also donate to the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The response has been pretty good,” he said. “It’s a behaviour change thing, so it’s a big project. We’re aiming to do this next semester as well.”
Dabrusin hopes that the project won’t just save trees, water and energy; he also wants it to get people thinking about how much they consume.
“This is a really good way to get into a discussion about the disposable culture that we have right now…. On campus, we’ll have a meal and we’ll throw out some plastic, we’ll throw out some styrofoam, all without thinking about it.
“We’ll do that on a daily basis, and that’s just for meals, you know? There’s so much other stuff, too, that’s very disposable. I think this would be a good way to start that conversation.”
Protect Echo Lake Ancient Forest
/in Take ActionDirect link to YouTube clip: https://youtu.be/HPstV14oZ6s
Please SIGN our PETITION at https://ancientforestalliance.org/ways-to-take-action-for-forests/petition/
Echo Lake is a spectacular, unprotected, lowland ancient forest near Agassiz, BC on the east side of the Lower Fraser Valley. It is in the unceded territory of the Sts’ailes First Nations band (formerly the Chehalis Indian Band). The area is home to perhaps the largest concentration of bald eagles on Earth, where thousands of eagles come each fall to eat spawning salmon in the Harrison and Chehalis Rivers and hundreds roost in the old-growth trees at night around Echo Lake. It is also home to bears, cougars, deer, mountain goats, and osprey, and was historically populated by the critically endangered northern spotted owl. The vigilance of local landowners on the east side of Echo Lake, whose private lands restrict access to the old-growth forests on the Crown lands on the west side of the lake, have held-off industrial logging of the lake’s old-growth forests for decades. Local conservationists are interested in increased protections for eagles in the Harrison/Chehalis area and the protection of the Echo Lake Ancient Forest where the eagles roost at night.
Filmed and edited by TJ Watt.
Eagle photo by Christian Sasse.
Music – “Razorback Sucker” by Tom Fahy (https://tomfahy.org/)
The Great Turning Variety Show – Fundraiser for AFA! Friday, Nov. 9th.
/in AnnouncementsThis Friday night folks in Victoria are generously hosting a fundraiser for the AFA at the Cenote Lounge (768 Yates Street) with awesome live music, DJ’s and food! Doors open at 7:30pm & tickets $10 at the door. The show goes until close at 2am. We’d love to see you there!
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/524612457566693/
Spend your conservation dollars for Echo Lake and eagles in the local communities
/in AnnouncementsThe Ancient Forest Alliance is currently campaigning to protect the Echo Lake Ancient Forest between Mission and Agassiz in Sts’ailes First Nation territory. When visiting this region, including the Fraser Valley Eagle Festival on Nov. 17-18th, please show your support for the local communities by spending your dollars in those towns. Lets make it clear that conservation is good for business!
Below are links to the local business listing and tourism webpages:
Sts’ailes, Mission, Agassiz, and Harrison Hotsprings.
VIDEO: The Eagles have landed
/in VideoConservationists are pressing government to preserve some old growth forest near Harrison Hot Springs that is habitat to many eagles; a grove surrounding Echo Lake.
Read it on Global News: The eagles have landed – News Hour – Videos | Global BC
https://www.globaltvbc.com/video/the+eagles+have+landed/video.html?v=2300019245&p=1&s=dd#video
Slideshow Presentation: The Ecology and Politics of BC’s Endangered Old-Growth Forests
/in AnnouncementsVIDEO: Protect Echo Lake Ancient Forest
/in VideoVideo: Protect Echo Lake
https://youtu.be/HPstV14oZ6s
Echo Lake is a spectacular, unprotected, lowland ancient forest near Agassiz, BC on the east side of the Lower Fraser Valley. It is in the unceded territory of the Sts’ailes First Nations band (formerly the Chehalis Indian Band). The area is home to perhaps the largest concentration of bald eagles on Earth, where thousands of eagles come each fall to eat spawning salmon in the Harrison and Chehalis Rivers and hundreds roost in the old-growth trees at night around Echo Lake. It is also home to bears, cougars, deer, mountain goats, and osprey, and was historically populated by the critically endangered northern spotted owl. The vigilance of local landowners on the east side of Echo Lake, whose private lands restrict access to the old-growth forests on the Crown lands on the west side of the lake, have held-off industrial logging of the lake’s old-growth forests for decades. Local conservationists are interested in increased protections for eagles in the Harrison/Chehalis area and the protection of the Echo Lake Ancient Forest where the eagles roost at night.
Please SIGN our PETITION at https://ancientforestalliance.org/ways-to-take-action-for-forests/petition/
Send you LETTER to government at https://www.ProtectEchoLake.com
Filmed and edited by TJ Watt.
Eagle photo by Christian Sasse.
Music – “Razorback Sucker” by Tom Fahy (https://tomfahy.org/)
For information on printable coupons for bed bath and beyond go to this coupon site.
Manage forests for the future
/in News CoverageAs it looks for ways to shore up the province’s timber industry, the B.C. government is in danger of not seeing the forest for the trees.
The harvesting of pine beetle-damaged logs is winding down, and now lumber mills in the Interior face a shortage of logs. The government, as it should, is looking for the means to save jobs and keep the industry viable.
Among the remedies considered are reviewing restrictions on logging environmentally sensitive areas and marginally economic stands, and giving lumber companies more leeway to manage forest lands.
The possibility of opening previously protected old-growth forests to logging has stirred concerns – with reason. B.C. groups and residents have fought for years to protect old-growth forests, and the case has already been made for preserving these irreplacable resources. The public will not stand for invading these special places.
The government plans to re-examine areas where logging has been considered economically marginal, and to take another look at restrictions on forest reserves.
What is needed is a full-scale forest inventory. Much of the data available is decades old, and has likely been thrown out of whack by the pine-beetle infestation.
No business that sells a commodity can get by without taking inventory regularly. You don’t know what you can sell until you know what you have.
The calculation should not be how many trees are needed to support a certain number of jobs, but how many jobs will be supported by trees available through sustainable harvest. The hard truth might well be that logging should be scaled back.
Forests Minister Steve Thomson said any decisions to cut old-growth forests will be based on science, but the science used should be forestry, not political science or economics. It should look not only at the quantity of lumber, but the entire ecosystem. A forest is more than a certain quantity of two-by-fours, it’s a system that supports wildlife, generates tourism and recreation and protects watersheds. Grants for graduate students
Is it possible to have a healthy forest and still harvest timber? Of course – not only is it possible, it’s essential. Using up the timber supply faster than it can be replenished means the end of the forest, the killing of the goose that lays the golden egg. No forests, no lumber industry, no jobs.
Noted forester Merve Wilkinson proved the worth of good forestry practices on his 28 hectares of forest near Nanaimo. After 60 years, he had taken twice the original volume of lumber from the property and was still left with 110 per cent of the volume. Wilkinson, who died in 2011, sold his property, known as Wildwood at Yellow Point, to The Land Conservancy so it could continue to be a showpiece of forestry.
The methods used in a relatively small parcel might not translate easily to large tracts, but the principles should be closely examined to see how they can be implemented on a larger scale.
If forests are depleted for short-term profit, you can be sure the result will be long-term pain.
Read more: https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/manage-forests-for-the-future-4563319
Video-game firm joins effort to protect bald eagle habitat
/in News CoverageEast Side Games announced its support for the Ancient Forest Alliance initiative during a news conference Wednesday. Jason Bailey, the video-game company’s chief executive officer, said he is writing a “significant” cheque to the environmental group. But he said the company’s contribution won’t stop there.
“There is a plan to integrate this campaign directly into the games,” Mr. Bailey said. “… to take an eagle character and put it directly into the games … and make it one of the awesome items in the game that you really want to have – that will also increase awareness of this campaign.”
The Ancient Forest Alliance is trying to save about 50 hectares of old-growth forest at Echo Lake, east of Mission. Ken Wu, the organization’s executive director, said the area is home to hundreds of roosting bald eagles each fall, and also features giant red cedar trees and extremely rare old-growth Douglas firs.
The B.C. government last month invited the public to comment on Fraser Valley land-use plans. The deadline is Nov. 5. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Forests said last week concerns about Echo Lake will be considered in the process. She said the province is looking at a proposal to designate 1,500 hectares in the area for wildlife management, which could protect winter feeding areas for eagles. Nursing grants for college
Mr. Wu said while the B.C. government’s proposed old-growth management area would protect a portion of Echo Lake’s old-growth forests, it doesn’t go far enough.
Read more: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/video-game-firm-joins-effort-to-protect-bald-eagle-habitat/article4619452/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/video-game-firm-joins-effort-to-protect-bald-eagle-habitat/article4619452/
Vancouver’s East Side Games join cause to protect bald eagle habitat
/in News CoverageEast Side Games CEO Jason Bailey announced Wednesday that the company has given a “significant” cash donation and will provide online social media support for the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA).
The social and mobile gaming company, founded in July 2011, is Canada’s largest independent game developer with one million fans on Facebook.
In the past year, Bailey said, more than seven million people have played their games.
AFA is trying to save a 50-hectare old-growth forest at Echo Lake, east of Mission, that is home to hundreds of roosting eagles.
He said even though they do not have plans to specifically build a themed game around Echo Lake, they are integrating parts of the campaign into their games.
“There is a plan … to take one of the trees or an eagle character and put it directly into the games … and make it one of the awesome items in the game that you really want to have, which will increase awareness of this campaign,” Bailey added.
AFA’s executive director Ken Wu said Echo Lake is one of the last lowland old-growth forests remaining in the entire Lower Mainland.
The B.C. government’s newly proposed old-growth management area, Wu said, would protect a portion of Echo Lake, but would exclude areas containing some of the lake’s old-growth trees.
A 60-day public review into the proposed management plan ends Nov. 5.
Read more: https://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/407366/vancouvers-east-side-games-join-cause-to-protect-bald-eagle-habitat/#