Elected:

• Sheila Malcolmson: 1162 votes
• Gisele Rudischer: 825 votes

Not Elected:

• Maggie Mooney: 730 votes

Source: Islands Trust elections result page.

RDN election results:

Elected:

• Howard Houle – 781 votes

Not elected:

• Jordy Alexander – 573 votes
• Eric Moeller – 158 votes

Source: RDN’s Declaration of Preliminary Results page.

(If you’re curious about how this compares to the last election, see the 2008 election results post.)

Now look what’s opened at Folklife Village: a Maggie Mooney campaign office, staffed with volunteers, and sporting campaign literature that points readers to the Maggie Mooney.com website. Wow. That’s pretty organized! (Is this campaign office a first for Gabriola?)

Maggie’s website asks for volunteers, some of whom may opt for going door-to-door with Maggie or a key campaign team member to discuss the election and the issues with your neighbours.

Door to door? On Gabriola? Eek. I hope they skip my neighbourhood. Door to door stuff is too much like religious proselytizing for my taste.

Anyway. Of the candidates who are running for election on Gabriola at the moment, Sheila Malcolmson and Maggie Mooney seem to be the only ones with websites.

For the position of RDN rep for Gabriola:

• Jordy Alexander
• Howard Houle (website: howardhoule.wordpress.com)
• Eric Moeller (website: www.gabriola.org/moeller)

For the positions of Islands Trust Trustee for Gabriola:

• Jeremy Baker (Jeremy is no longer running for this position.)
• Sheila Malcolmson (website: sheila-malcolmson.ca)
• Maggie Mooney (website: maggiemooney.com)
• Gisele Rudischer (website: giselerudischer2011.com)

(Candidates: if any of you would like to tell us why we should vote for you, send me a note. We’ll give you space to say your bit, and blog readers will be able to comment on whatever you write.)

According to the candidate nomination packages page on the RDN site, no candidates from Gabriola have filed papers yet. (Gabriola is area B.) So who’s planning to run, anyway?

If you’re thinking about it, see these RDN pages:

• Notice of Nomination 2011 – RDN Electoral Area Directors
• Notice of Nomination 2011 – Islands Trust Trustees
• Qualifications for Nomination

The information for potential candidates doesn’t seem to include anything about salaries, which seems a bit of an oversight. Hmm. Well, here’s what we know about what Islands Trust trustees get paid. What’s the renumeration for RDN reps?

Coats Marsh Regional Park (Coats Marsh RP) is located on Gabriola Island in the traditional territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation. The park lies entirely within the Hoggan Lake watershed, in the southwestern portion of the island, and consists of two endangered ecosystems: a dry sub-maritime Coastal Douglas-fir forest in the north, and a rare Gulf Island freshwater wetland in south. The 707 Community Park, the largest park on Gabriola Island and the second largest park in the Regional District of Nanaimo, is located diagonally across from the northeast corner of Coats Marsh RP.

Prior to its designation as a Regional Park, Coats Marsh RP was a parcel of farm-land owned by the Coats family and known locally as the Stump Farm. Recognizing the significant conservation value of the property, Clyde Coats donated half the value of the current Coats Marsh RP parcel to The Nature Trust of BC (TNT) through the Environment Canada Ecological Gifts program. In 2008, TNT assumed ownership by purchasing the remaining value of the property; the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN), in turn, agreed to purchase 50% of the property interest from TNT over a five year period. The Coats Marsh RP property is owned by both RDN and TNT, and managed by the RDN as a Regional Park through a 99-year lease agreement.

Although Coats Marsh Regional Park is largely undeveloped with no formal trail system, signage or amenities, evidence of the park’s history and former uses are found throughout the site. An old abandoned barn and a small log cabin located in the northeast corner of the park (the Stump Farm) are remembered by local residents as the site of a commune in the 1960s and 1970s, and concrete foundations for both a radio tower and electrical shed in the south end of the park are remnants of a radio station that was operated by the previous owner in the 1970s and 1980s. The Coats Marsh property has recovered from a series of human activities including logging, burning, draining and flooding; it is now a peaceful place where indigenous plants and wildlife thrive and where local residents come to appreciate the park’s natural beauty and to remember with affection its endearing and eclectic past.

The RDN’s Coats Marsh Regional Park Management Plan page offers the full draft version of the management plan (.pdf) for your perusal.

Gabriola Island is largely rural with water supplies provided primarily via private wells in aquifers that rely on rainwater recharge. Precipitation in the form of rain is the only source of water on Gabriola. Gabriola Island is unique from the remainder of the Regional District in that there is limited natural water storage capacity on the Island. In the rest of the Regional District, winter precipitation is stored in the mountains in the form of snow. On Gabriola, aquifers are the only significant natural water storage available. Due to the low coastal elevation, there is no opportunity for snowpack accumulations and storage.

There are significant concerns about the availability of groundwater. Currently, many private wells go dry in summer months and due to unreliable groundwater supplies, many residents rely on rainwater harvesting as their primary (potable and non-potable) water supply. There is a concern that there is not enough groundwater available in aquifers to support further growth based on current zoning. In addition to this,
commercial groundwater extraction for bulk water sales raises questions associated with the long term sustainability of the aquifers and issues related to equity of supply to neighboring properties.

There are concerns regarding groundwater quality in this watershed. There are no sewer services in this area and residents are concerned that failing/poorly maintained or high density septic systems will impact neighboring wells. The density of lots with individual wells and septic disposal is one of the highest in the RDN Electoral Areas. There are also naturally occurring chemicals in the groundwater in some areas (Boron,
Fluoride) that exceed Canadian Drinking Water Quality standards.

There is a great deal of interest in better understanding the availability of groundwater and aligning this with further development. There is also an interest in enabling and supporting rainwater collection as a water source. There is an active citizen’s group – the Gabriola Groundwater Management Society – that is interested in partnering with the RDN for groundwater protection initiatives.

The Gabriola content also includes the following sections: recommendations, issues, concerns, threats, opportunities, information, and vulnerabilities.

[When I posted this information, I linked to the Watershed Snapshot Report 2010 on the RDN website. The RDN has since removed that document from their site, so I've removed the link.]

Here’s one of the signs one sees on the land managed by the Islands Trust Fund. (This sign is at the Windecker end of the Elder Cedar Nature Reserve, on a trail that is liberally adorned with horse manure.) A pictogram on the sign indicates that horseback riding is prohibited. What does the Islands Trust Fund have against horses in their Gabriola trails?

Off I went to Google. The concern seems to be that horses are likely to spread invasive plants, and the conclusion, I suppose, is that horses should not be on Gabriola trails.

On the other hand, the 707 (managed by the RDN) has no such signs, and everybody seems to think that horses there are just fine.

Who’s right? Who knows? I don’t much care what land management people decide, but I do find it puzzling that the Islands Trust Fund and the RDN seem to have come to rather different conclusions when it comes to horses on Gabriola trails.

Related info

• Environmental Aspects of Horses on Trails – americantrails.org
• Germination of Invasive Plant Seeds after Digestion by Horses in California – bioone.org
• The Potential for Horses to Disperse Alien Plants Along Recreational Trails – srmjournals.org

If you live on a bi-weekly collection route and your regular collection day is missed due to weather or road conditions, every effort will be made to collect your garbage on the following day, weather conditions permitting. If that is not possible, the contractor will monitor road and weather conditions and collect your garbage on the first Saturday after the normally scheduled collection day. If adverse conditions persist, collection may be delayed until the next Saturday.

Please note that the priority will be to collect your garbage. The recycling collection service may be delayed until your next scheduled collection day.

elected:

• MALCOLMSON, Sheila: 932
• FERENS, Deborah: 870

Not elected:

• MOELLER, Eric: 172
• LOWDEN, Ian: 142
• BOEHM, David: 129
• RALPH, John: 82

Source: Islands Trust.

Regional District of Nanaimo Directors

Elected:

• Maureen Young
• Holme George
• Joseph Stanhope
• David Bartram
• Gisele Rudischer: 674
• Joe Burnett: 490
• Lucien Biggemann: 465

Not elected:

• Ceridwen Peacey: 450
• Frank Garnish: 415
• Bev Eert: 370
• Jeff Warr: 230
• John Hague: 196
• Jim Phillipoff: 115

[Source: sorry, the CBC news article is no longer available.]