Dear Elders for Ancient Trees, Big appreciation to Victoria area Elders for your willingness to turn up to protect Goldstream Park. We’re hoping to build ongoing support that is manageable, given our busy lives. We are proposing the following schedule for Elders for Ancient Trees to turn out —approximately every two week, with a wrinkle.
Tuesday, Aug 19: 1-1/2 hours (10 -11 or 11:30) on the highway at Finlayson Arm Rd turnoff.
Tuesday Aug 26: 10 am unless you hear otherwise—WSÁNEĆ leadership will gather and we will support, on the highway at Finlayson Arm Rd turnoff.
Tuesday Sep 9: 1-1/2 hours (10 -11 or 11:30) on the highway at Finlayson Arm Rd turnoff.
Tuesday Sep 23: 1-1/2 hours (10 -11 or 11:30) on the highway at Finlayson Arm Rd turnoff.
Tuesday Oct 7: 1-1/2 hours (10 -11 or 11:30) on the highway at Finlayson Arm Rd turnoff.
Wednesday Oct 22, 11:00 – 1:30: SAVE GOLDSTREAM protest on the front lawn, BC Legislature
- Set-up 11am-12pm. Protest 12-1pm. Clean up 1-1:30pm.
- Event hosted and led by WSÁNEĆ Elder Carl Olsen, co-hosted by Goldstream Protectors and Wilderness Committee, with participation of First Nation drummers, speakers and Elders for Ancient Trees.
- Let’s get 200 people out!
From Christine Willes, one of the Goldstream Protectors organizers: If you wish to be kept informed by the Goldstream Protectors (the name for settler allies of Carl Olsen and his initiative to save Goldstream), please reply to Christine at cgwilles@gmail.com to be included in any further emails with information such as the following: Goldstream Protectors Calendar of Events
- Date TBA (end of August/September): Wilderness Committee sponsored walk at Goldstream Park with Carl Olsen.
- Sep 27 (place and time TBA): Goldstream Protectors Public Art sub-committee sponsored public, family-oriented art build at Goldstream Park.
- Oct 4: possible follow up pop-up Goldstream Protectors Public Art sub-committee sponsored public, family-oriented art build.
- Oct 14-17 (date TBA, in the week before the protest and after 5pm): Wilderness Committee-sponsored sign and art build at Wilderness Committee office.
- Oct 6 (time TBA) morning opening session of BC legislature, possible Goldstream Protectors sponsored “receiving line” to greet incoming MLAs and hand out flyer/1-pager at BC Legislature entrances and front hall.
- October 22, 11am-1:30pm, front lawn of BC Legislature: Goldstream Protectors and Wilderness Committe Protest
****** For the trees, Jackie, Susan & Bill P.S. Below is a reprint of our July Goldstream backgrounder, FYI.
Urgent Appeal to protect Goldstream Against Highway Expansion
Background Every week for the past 2½ years WSÁNEĆ elder Carl Olsen has stood next to the highway where the Goldstream River is visible. He, with a growing number of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, is defending the river
SELE₭TEȽ (Goldstream Park) is a site of cultural heritage and socio-ecological significance in unceded W̱SÁNEĆ territory. The stream is home to populations of chum, coho and chinook salmon, and supports the lives of a multitude of other aquatic and terrestrial life.
W̱SÁNEĆ law indicates a responsibility to ensure the vitality of the territories and their resources for generations to come. To this day, W̱SÁNEĆ harvesters continue to assert their rights to fish and gather foods within SELE₭TEȽ and to hold ceremony. As well, hundreds, indeed thousands, of people visit the park every year to watch the salmon returning up the Goldstream River.
These culturally significant and ecologically precious waters and lands are threatened by the Ministry of Transportation Highway 1- Malahat Safety Improvements project. This involves widening a stretch of the highway, installing a median barrier and pedestrian crossing, constructing retaining walls, and installing a drainage system with a concrete oil spill/water tank under the current parking lot. The project proposes to remove approximately 715 trees from along the uphill mountain side of the highway and along the stream. Healthy trees are vital to stabilize slopes and riverbanks, prevent erosion, and provide shade to keep streams cool for spawning fish. Some of the infrastructure required for this project will intrude physically into the stream.
This project was approved without any advance consultation with local Indigenous nations. Any consultations that have occurred came after the proposal was designed and/or funded, and were framed more as information sessions than as real consultation. This process flies in the face of BC’s commitment to UNDRIP as well as the Douglas Treaties, which support the W̱SÁNEĆ community’s right to resist any development that could pose a risk to their ability to access important food and cultural resources.
The environmental assessment of this project, obtained through a freedom-of-iinformation request, lists the following expected residual impacts:
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Permanent loss of mature coniferous forest habitat, including potential loss to red- and blue-listed ecosystems.
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Permanent loss or alteration of aquatic salmonid and amphibian habitatassociated with removal of riparian vegetation / habitat in proximity to the Goldstream River.
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Loss of wildlife habitat through reduction in wildlife vegetation along the alignment and habitat fragmentation.
Despite concerns and ongoing protests by W̱SÁNEĆ community members and allies, the project is now moving forward in the 2025-2027 provincial budget, to the tune of $162 million and a contractor has been hired.
How you can make a difference * Join the protest on Tuesday, August 5, 10 am – noon, on the highway at Goldstream Park. Every Tuesday at 10 am, supporters join Carl Olsen as he stands beside the highway. On August 5, Elders for Ancient Trees would like to make a special effort to join in. If August 5 doesn’t work for you, choose another Tuesday at 10 am.
*Write a letter. Time is fast running out to halt this damaging project. Write from your organization or as an individual urging a halt to the Highway 1- Malahat Safety Improvements project. For a quick action, here is a letter-writing tool to use to save Goldsteam Park, courtesy of Wilderness Committee. Or here is a sample letter to personalize. Please send your personalized letter to: Minister.MOTI@gov.bc.ca (Mike Farnworth, Minister of Transportation and Transit) Copy to:
· Premier@gov.bc.ca David Eby, Premier
· INF.Minister@gov.bc.ca Bowinn Ma, Minister of Infrastructure
· IRR.Minister@gov.bc.ca Spencer Chandra Herbert, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation
· ENV.Minister@gov.bc.ca Tamara Davidson, Minister of Environment and Parks
· Your MLA
And please bcc ReconcilAction.jbuc@gmail.
Additional Resources: James Bay United Church, Have you Heard What’s Happening at Goldstream? Jun 18, Watershed Sentinel, Standing With Salmon and W̱SÁNEĆ People Mar 10, Castanet, $162M highway project through Goldstream Park faces objections from First Nations Feb 28, Capital Daily, BC, Canada, and W̱SÁNEĆ Nation commit to a new ‘shared understanding’ of treaties. Article on the recognition of W̱SÁNEĆ Nation as a beneficiary of the Vancouver Island/Douglas Treaties.