It was 1903, says Marion Moore, when her father James Collins acquired the contract to come to Bowen Island and clear what is now the meadow in Crippen Park so that the cows belonging to Captain Cates would have a place to graze. The dairy, she says, was down by the old hotel, close to Mannion Bay, and the cows were herded daily from there to the pasture. It was not until 1939, says Moore, that a dairy was built in the meadow alongside a home for the Lister family, who moved in from near Grafton Lake.
“The Union Steamship Company was worried about the Listers’ cows polluting the lake,” says Moore. “Mr. Lister was so overjoyed that they built his family this home and the dairy in the meadow, that he threw a party for the whole community. My brother Roy was there, he remembers it.”
Moore says that the history of the meadow, as some members of the Bowen Agriculture Alliance (BAA) are telling it, is not accurate.
“They seem to be getting their information from Irene Howard’s book, Bowen Island 1872-1972, and some of it is not quite correct,” says Moore. “For example, Terminal Farm did not stretch from the meadow all the way down to Mannion Bay.”
This is just one of the reasons why Moore opposes plans to build a pollinator garden in the Meadow. Since December 9, when BAA presented its proposal to build the garden, and in doing so, honour the meadow’s agricultural history, people have been voicing the importance of the meadow to them and their desire for it to remain unchanged. And now, with just a few weeks remaining in Metro Parks deadline for feedback on the project, a petition is circulating asked for the pollinator garden project to move forward in a different location.
Emily van Lidth de Jeude, who created the petition, says that she and others who have expressed concerns about the proposal do not oppose BAA’s work, but they simple want to keep the meadow as the wild space that it currently is.
“Will Husby has spent decades studying the meadow, he goes there almost every day and knows what pollinators are living there, what flowers are living there, and about many other species that call the meadow home,” says van Lidth de Jeude. “He’s also worked for Metro Parks and it is clear to him that building a garden would simply disrupt a functioning habitat.”
Husby, in his extensive comments to Metro Parks, states that the proposed plan will in fact significantly reduce the native pollinator habitat in the meadow.
“In my professional opinion,” he writes, “there will be a significant net loss in pollinator habitat, especially nesting sites for bumble bees, solitary bees and wasps and larval food plants for butterflies, moths and beetles.”
Husby also says that the creation of raised beds and a roofed structure would impact habitat for birds (at lease one red-tail hawk hunts mice and voles in the meadow, says Husby).
He says that the foundations of the former dairy, where the pollinator garden is proposed, act as a Hibernaculum for the island’s garter snakes – who are important predators for slugs, insect and mice. Husby says that using the site for gardening and as a gathering space for people would likely have a negative impact on local garter snake populations.
For others, the plan to build in the meadow is more emotional. Rosie Montgomery, who is a member of the BAA, says she stated her outright opposition to this project when it was first proposed and was shocked to hear that it was still on the table in December.
“This piece of land has been maintained as a meadow, and we love it. It is our village green, and that’s it,” says Montgomery. “With six weeks, starting just before Christmas, to comment on this, when other members of BAA have been working on it for years, well it feels like we are being railroaded.”
In response, Michelle Pentz-Glave, the board president of BAA and the driving force behind the pollinator garden idea says that after five years of work and research, it is clear to her that the meadow is definitely the best place for such an initiative.
“The point is not necessarily about attracting native pollinators but to educate about them, and to create a community gathering space,” says Pentz-Glave. “We’ve commissioned a substantial study, and Metro Vancouver has come out with its biologists. The conclusions of both of these were that we wouldn’t be negatively impacting any endangered species through this project. Any time you do anything, there is something that’s going to be impacted, but this is a very modest project, and I’m not sure that people realize that this is only 0.7 of an acre. You could fit two or three of the proposed demonstration gardens in the dog park.”
Pentz-Glave says that an appreciation for the beauty of the meadow is the driving force behind the desire to build something there.
“We feel the pollinator garden would only enhance the meadow,” she says. “Plus, it is already a destination. It is within walking distance of Bowen’s three learning centres, as well as BIRD, Bihora, and the Knick Knack Nook. The other thing is, that it is Agricultural Reserve Land, and we would like to honour that and the site’s agricultural history, even if it is only symbolically.”
Pentz-Glave says that within the next few weeks she will be contacting stakeholders and community groups to explain the project again, and remind them to make their comments to Metro Parks prior to the January 30th feedback deadline.
“The only outcome that would really disappoint me would be if only the loudest voices were heard on this issue,” says Pentz-Glave. “There might be a lot of people who don’t have the time or the energy or who simple don’t want to get caught in the middle, and who are holding back from saying anything for those reasons, but I am hoping people will take the time and tell Metro Vancouver what they want.”
