Cara Cornell does not claim that themarshesnear her home are protected and felt passionately around the world.
But she knows she does.
She woke up at 5 a.m. to hear a choir singing to start her day, after worrying about birds and animals had disturbed her sleep for the past few weeks. Hummingbirds, swallows, finches, cedar jacks and red-breasted sap suckers. I have a Red Douglas squirrel and now have several families.
Cornell travels from the infamousCanadian tar sands from Alberta's Heartland to British Columbia's coast.
Progress on the project was temporarily halted after several Supsucker nests were discovered, forcing workers to unload their tools. However, she believes it will resume in due course.
"We want them to go under the wetlands," Cornell told The Independent. Inhabited by bears, rabbits and bobcats.
"I must speak for birds and animals. I see them every day. This is also their home."
Douglas squirrels live in swamps, activists say
(Courtesy of Cara Cornell)
I joined a member of that environmental group and created a "Notice of Motion" to force Trans Mountain (TM) to put pipes under the wetlands. Part of an extension of the original project. They also ask the company to agree to a number of environmental protections to clear the forest near Cornell's home in Rosedale, 70 miles west of Vancouver.
Their actions come at a crucial time, in the context of the growing impact of the climate crisis and the decades-long controversy over the extraction and distribution of polluting fossil fuels in Canada. ing.
Justin Trudeau Governments are working with nearly every country on the planet to reduce carbon emissions as part of the Paris Agreement, and Reduce warming by 1.5C and prevent catastrophic climate impacts. In 2020, Canada committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% from her 2005 levels by 2030 and to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050. did.
“Canada is a great country, but Prime Minister Trudeau, who made climate change a goal in his 2019 campaign, said:
Now. , oil and gas extraction and sales account for more than 7% of the country's GDP, and industry is concentrated in Alberta, home to the vast Athabasca tar sands deposits.
and , TM and others play a powerful role in the broader political landscape: TM, now owned by the Government of Canada, has employed thousands of people since the first pipeline opened in 1953.
The section through Rosedale is an extension and the TM is subject to 156 conditions enforced by the Canadian Energy Regulatory Authority (CER), a government agency.
"Our desire is to protect wetlands," said Peter Branikovich of Save the Planet, a group committed to non-violent, direct action to protect habitats. increase.
"This means that the pipeline company must either excavate under it or place pipes around it."
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Pointing to how we've become accustomed to fighting to protect each patch of habitat rather than the whole, he says the wetlands in Rosedale, near Bridalveil Falls State Park, are experiencing old growth. increase. Wood, that helps make it so special. Such northern veterans are especially important for storing carbon.
"This is a beautiful wild area. It has never been cut down, or was cut down 150 or 250 years ago.
There are barn owls, screech owls and other "unique species not found elsewhere in recent logging".
Another activist who joined the authorities' petition is Lynn Perrin of Pipe Up, a group made up of residents of southwestern Columbia. She says the wetlands close to Bridal Veil Falls have increased in importance as a result of clearcutting and depletion in nearby areas.
"In addition to nesting birds, the wetlands are home to amphibians such as the endangered coastal giant salamander," she says.
Cornell is quick to point out that the effort to save the wetlands near her home is a team effort involving many people.
Last year, the project was put on hold for about five months after an activist discovered a tiny nest of Anna's Hummingbird, a migratory bird known for its bright yellow-green plumage.
"They're tiny. Only 4 centimeters (1.5 inches)," says Sarah Ross, a member of the Community Nest Finding Network (CNFN), a group that spotted and alerted the birds. federal authorities.
In June, Ross discovered a nest belonging to a red-breasted sapsucker, forcing work to stop again until at least the end of her nesting season at the end of August.
"We will use any small nest to stop this project, because we can't build any more fossil fuel infrastructure," she says.
"It's killing our world. It's killing our world. This isn't about the nest, it's about my seven year old, my child, myself.
She added, "So I must help the government do the right thing."
According to Ross, the Canadian government and TM are committed to being environmentally responsible and promoting that the extraction of tar sands and its transportation over 600 miles has no impact on the environment. He spends a lot of money to do so.
But she says that such an image is wrong.
"They tout tar sands oil as environmentally safe***. Tar sands is the dirtiest fuel on earth. It requires the most water to purify." , changes the climate more than anything else.You can sell it whatever you want, but it's not true.”
TM was acquired by the Canadian government in 2018. A spokesperson said the entire operation is monitored by his CER and its own team that monitors bird nesting sites.
"Transmountain has developed more than 60 of her environmental protection and management plans related to specific aspects of construction," a spokeswoman said.
"These plans are approved by CER and must be implemented on the pipeline site, facilities and associated access areas before, during and after construction."
104} Regarding the Bridal Veil Falls area, a spokesperson said: “Prior to construction activities in the Bridal Falls area, various studies were conducted by wildlife resource experts to establish appropriate buffers, including those associated with red-breast zapsucker cavities. Nest of the ”.A CER spokesperson said CER experts "conducted a thorough environmental and socio-economic assessment before the Trans Mountain expansion project was approved. It included an assessment of project corridors, including , wildlife and marine environments.”
A spokesperson added: "There was also a series of hearings that detailed each section of the project's route, including the route around Bridal Veil Falls."
The first thing to stop was a hummingbird nest like the one in California
(Getty Images)
Government of British Columbia environmental protection department spokesperson said several studies were conducted and accepted before the project began to assess its impact.
Asked if the pipeline could go under wetlands, a spokesperson said the TM said, "If you want to make changes to the project that are not permitted by the environmental assessment certificate, you can modify it." will need to be asked," he said. Include evaluation of proposed changes.
A spokesperson said Douglas Squirrel "British He has not been identified as an endangered species within the province of Columbia."
Cornell and her husband, who are local businesses, have lived in the area their entire lives. Five years before her, the two moved into a home in Rosedale next to a swamp that straddles "two football fields."
She says the community is divided on the pipeline. Some support it, some don't. Not everyone feels they can speak up. Asked about the cost of laying a pipeline under the
swamp, she said she didn't know, but she speculated it would cost more.
Yet she asks what price can be paid for a serene sensory wetland full of birds and animals and trees. You can feel the wind, you can hear the birds, you can see a lot of them – it really makes me feel calm and reminds me of the peaceful times in my life,” she says.
"And we need those places.Some people don't specify, they don't know, but that's what those places do for people and that's what they do for me.
She adds: