BY TANIS GOWER
Special to the Record
The Comox Valley Land Trust is on a mission to protect and restore nature in the Comox Valley.
The organization has a new champion in local conservationist Fred Fern, who has been photo-documenting the alarming shrinkage of our iconic Comox glacier since 2013.
Fern, who has lived in the Valley since 1973, says that his photography work spurred him to research practical ways to lessen the impacts of climate change. He decided to forgo vacation travel and use his accumulated travel rewards to buy trees. He approached the Comox Valley Land Trust to ensure that his donation would go directly to tree conservation, and his $3,000 donation is now earmarked for the organization’s next purchase of private forest lands.
To Fern, this decision felt like a double win. Buying a piece of forest means that the protected trees will continue to sequester carbon, while the carbon pollution from his flight is avoided.
Global forests, if left undisturbed, pull about one-third of all human-caused carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere each year. Coastal forests in British Columbia are particularly important because they store huge amounts of carbon that accumulate over centuries. This makes them an ideal target for protection.
The executive director of the Comox Valley Land Trust, Tim Ennis, is thrilled to have Fern’s support.
“Our wet coastal forests are an ideal carbon storage medium,” said Ennis. “When we allow the Comox Valley’s second-growth forests to mature into old-growth for future generations, it is also a huge win for fish, wildlife, and for biodiversity in general.”
Fern is hoping to inspire others.
“Converting my travel rewards meant that I didn’t have to dip into my savings,” he said. “I hope that others will consider doing the same, because the science tells us we have no time to waste.”