Campbell River Community Walking Program

Campbell River has received a $5,000 walking program grant from WalkBC with help from the Heart & Stroke Foundation of BC & Yukon and the BC Recreation & Parks Association. A portion of this funding has gone towards a free eight-week guided walk every Tuesday from noon until 1pm starting at Robron Centre. The program is well underway with just two sessions left. The last day to drop-in is November 10th.

Find out more:
-WalkBC site
-Walking Program Resources through the BC Recreation and Parks Association
-Campbell River Mirror article

Have a Green Halloween

Decorations, candy wrappers, costumes...
Holidays are hard on the environment. This year try to keep it green by taking some tips from Green Halloween. A couple of their ideas are a little far-fetched, such as shouting “Happy Hallo-green!!!" at trick-or-treaters but the rest are very sensible.

Tips to get you started:
-Buy a locally grown pumpkin and use the entire thing. Bake a pie or cook the seeds.
-Make your costume from things around the house. Mine is made entirely of used paper bags.
-The Toronto Sun has more.

Happy Halloween!

Quatchi, Sumi and Miga in Town Saturday

picture: Times Colonist

oh hai! Cutesy characters Quatchi, Sumi and Miga will be at the CR Community Centre this Saturday from 12 noon until 4 pm. This brings to mind Spirit Square which is expected to be done on time and the new CCR Strategic Plan 2009-2011. Do you see the connection? Planning, community space...

The new plan ranks Council's top five priorities. Much to our delight 'Living Green' and 'Planning for a Livable Community' are ranked second and forth respectively. An outline of the plan can be found here in pdf format.

Follow the CR Torch Relay here

It's Waste Reduction Week

Oct 19-25 is waste reduction week in Canada.

Rethink, reduce, reuse and recycle! Our planet is too good to waste.

Here are some tips on how to reduce your waste from the Campbell River Mirror. Check out the snazzy official site for more information and cute clips of Oscar the Grouch in public service announcements.

Greening the City

First launched as Green Roofs for Healthy Cities in '95, Living Architecture Monitor (LAM) has their recent digital issue up in a convenient flip through format. This issue recognizes excellence in green roof design and features buildings in Victoria and Vancouver. My favorites are the Gary Comer Youth Center in Chicago and the Macallen condominiums in Boston. Of course our own green roof at City Hall is a wonderful accomplishment too.

Read the full issue here.



The Macallen building
Photo John Horner Photography

Campbell River Communities are in Bloom

Campbell River has received a 5-Bloom rating from Communities in Bloom (CIB) for communities of 20,001-55,000 residents and a criteria award for community involvement. We also collected a special mention for volunteer effort in conservation and community culture.

See the CIB results for 2009 here.
Read a full article from the Campbell River Mirror here.

Central Valley Greenway Vancouver

The Central Valley Greenway is growing, adding greenspace throughout the lower mainland. TransLink has created the buzzer blog to showcase the project and what riding the path is like. There is also a short clip to explain it's further expansion here.

Translink Cycling


Map by Translink

Courtenay Links Trails

Last month, our neighbor the City of Courtenay brought together two greenway paths for cyclists and pedestrians. The Hawk Greenway and the Idiens Greenway extension connect East Courtenay creating an unrestricted 3.5 km trail. Great work!

More information can be found at the Comox Valley Record

The Funding is Here

With funding from the federal and provincial government the Beaver Lodge Forest Lands will receive $415,069 worth of trail improvements. The Campbell River Mirror has the full story here.

We are excited to see the results. Updates to follow.

Enter Academia

Academic Earth is a fantastic education tool that allows anyone to take a seat in classrooms at world-class universities. The site has helped to remove some of the barriers associated with post-secondary education by supplying free video lectures from MIT, Harvard, Yale, and more. There is an entire course on Climate Change: Law and Policy from William Collins at Berkeley that I found particularly interesting. A compelling topic considering the Summit on Climate Change at the United Nations last month and the approaching Climate Conference in Copenhagen this December.

Happy learning!

Designing greenways: sustainable landscapes for nature and people

An interesting book that blends ecology, conservation, design and recreation with greenway creation. A good source of best practices for those interested in building sustainable trails for both nature and people.

Check it out at Island Press

Miracle Beach Fall Fun Run

Annual Miracle Beach Walk or Run this Sunday, October 18th.
5K or 10K and 1K for Kids.
Walkers at 10:30
Runners at 11:00
Kids follow at 12:00 noon

Register at Shore Runners ($15)

More information can be found on their site.