THE DAY IS HERE

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow Saturday May 31(technically today) will be an opportunity to get a free guided tour of Creekside Forest in Aldergrove. Details here.

Here is a quick summary.

The tours  will be from 10 am to 3 pm at 274th and 28th Avenue.

Also between 10 am and 3pm there will be from a Community Event at Aldergrove Athletic Park. There will be crafts,games and facepainting and Harriet the Owl will bet there from 10 am to 11 am.
The address is 29th Avenue 267B Street.

So to recap Harriet the Owl and facepainting at Aldergrove Athletic Park. You can  have your picture taken with her for five dollars.

HARRIET the OWL

and at the same time you can get a FREE tour of Creekside Forest.

I hope you can make it.

THERE'S A REASON IT'S CALLED CREEKSIDE FOREST

 Taken from the west side of Bertrand Creek looking into Creekside Forest.

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

Here is another view of the forest. This one has some trees  that have seen better days.But there are others still standing proud in the background.

CREEKSIDE FOREST PHOTO

This is what people will be able to see at the free guided tours this Saturday May 24 and next Saturday May 31. See this blog post for details.

 Inside Creekside Forest May 2014

Here is a link to the latest  Langley Advance story
And here is a link to the latest Langley Times/Aldergrove Star  story.

EFFORT TO SAVE ALDERGROVE FOREST

In the spirit of working together to keep natural places in urban spaces a group of Aldergrove residents,with some help from Watchers of Langley Forests(WOLF)  are putting on some events to raise public awareness about  the Creekside Forest in Aldergrove. This urban forest,owned by the Township of Langley, has been slated for development by the municipality. Township Council recently voted to rezone the property to allow a sixty-one lot subdivision. SEE THESE STORIES FOR BACKGROUND

On Saturday May 24 and Saturday May 31 10 am to 3pm members of WOLF will be giving free guided tours of the Creekside Forest located between Shortreed Elementary/Creekside Park and the Abbotsford border. This forest runs along Bertrand Creek on a Township owned property approximately between  26th and 28th Avenue. The tours will be an opportunity for the public to see for themselves this bit of wilderness so near to Aldergrove but so different than the urban spaces that mostly surround it.

The tours will start at Creekside Park (28th Ave and 274th St) just by the bridge that crosses Bertrand Creek.

Also on May 31  a  family friendly event will run from 10am until 3pm at the Aldergrove Athletic Park under the covered picnic area.There will be an information station informing residents of Langley Township about the proposed development into our local forest. Residents can sign a petition in favour of stopping the development into the forest.  There will be a craft, games,and facepainting  stations for kids. Harriet the Owl will make an appearance for about an hour in the morning.  Visitors can have their picture taken with the owl for $5. All  money raised will be donated to WOLF.

Hotdogs and beverages will be served at lunch time for free or by donation.

Should the Township plans go through most of the forest will be cut down to make way for houses. The streamside setbacks required by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans will not allow this forest to survive as an intact ecosystem. Some trees will remain but this bit of natural space will be no longer be much of a forest.

For more information contact Jessica Horst at ecological-footprint@outlook.com

TWO OLD FRIENDS

Check out what poet Susan McCaslin and artist Susan Falk are up to this month.

Susan Falk's art exhibition(in collaboration with Kristin Krimmel) The French Connection runs from May 9-25 at the Fort Gallery in Fort Langley. Tonight May 17 at 7pm Susan McCaslin and fellow poet Lee Johnson will join the exhibition for a joint poetry book launch. Susan McCaslin  for her book "The Disarmed Heart" and Lee Johnson for his book "Poetria Nova"
  

Susan McCaslin and Susan Falk were instrumental in helping  Watchers of Langley Forest save Mclellan Forest East(now the Blaauw Eco Forest) and ensuring that WOLF was well funded. Susan McCaslin's launching of The Han Shan Poetry Initiative brought great publicity to the cause of the forest and truly became a global happening. Susan Falk's generous donation of the proceeds from sale of her art show in May 2013 are the reason that WOLF has insurance. The continuing news coverage that these and other events garnered are what brought the forest's plight to the attention of Mrs. Blaauw and family. These are just the practical prosaic contributions that they have made. By allowing the forest to inspire themselves and each other they made an artistic gift to the world that would have survived even if the forest had not . WOLF is  enormously grateful that we have both around to appreciate. I myself have fond memories of the mad chaos of those times that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Susan McCaslin has emailed me to say that nature will be a theme for the night and that she will be reading from some poems she wrote for the Han Shan project. 

Kirk Robertson
WOLF Chair

Poetic Form and the Mystical Muse:

A Collaboration of Poetry and the Visual Arts

Saturday May 17

7-9 pm

You are cordially invited to attend a free poetry book launch with

Susan McCaslin & Lee Johnson

in collaboration with local visual artists

Kristin Krimmel & and Susan J. Falk

at their exhibition, The French Connection

The Fort Gallery

9048 Glover Road, Fort Langley, BC