ECHO HEIGHTS AND THE CRA HISTORY
The 52-acre Echo Heights Forest has been owned by North Cowichan since the early 1900s. It was logged about 80 years ago and has been used as public woodland by the community ever since, with trails being built and maintained by volunteers.

When the North Cowichan official community plan was adopted in 2002, the forest was identified as an urban expansion area. Subsequent discussions with the community saw an Echo Heights development being giving the lowest priority of six projects forecast to take place in the coming years.

But shortly after the municipal election in late 2005, development and potential sale of the land was given top priority because of the housing boom that began in late 2003. When North Cowichan announced its plans for the forest at a meeting in February 2006, there was near-unanimous opposition from residents. Shortly after, the Chemainus Residents Association was formed and now has more than 400 members.

OPPORTUNITY
Last spring, the CRA received a generous gift from world-renowned wildlife artist Robert Bateman. He lives on Salt Spring Island and, after hearing about the Echo Heights campaign, sent us a limited-edition etching of a Barred owl, one of the many inhabitants of the forest.

That donation sparked an idea to hold an art auction to further the campaign. After a generous outpouring of support from artists locally and from throughout Western Canada, the CRA held the event in October at the Chemainus Legion. A silent auction, featuring a wide range of contributions, was also held during the live auction.

RATIONALE
The CRA raised more than $3,000 through the auction and there was much discussion by the executive about what to do with the money. After exploring many options (legal help, publicity and promotions, etc), the executive decided to commission an unbiased opinion poll by a professional research organization.

Since the Echo Heights Forest campaign first began, Mayor Jon Lefebure has claimed that those working for preservation of the forest were a “vocal minority”. The CRA always disagreed. From the numerous public meetings and events held for the past nine months, we were certain there was strong public support for preserving this municipally owned land.

THE POLL
Much work went into creating the poll questions. It was decided to randomly question a cross-section of residents within North Cowichan, rather than have it limited to only Chemainus residents. This was done in order to show that residents throughout the municipality genuinely care about preserving fast-disappearing woodlands and fragile ecosystems.

Carrying out such a poll was a bit of a gamble. Even 50/50 split between those who thought the land should be developed and those who wanted the municipality to consider making Echo Heights Forest park would have been a setback for us. But the CRA was convinced that, in fact, council was really the “vocal minority” and it looks like we were proved right.

Now… is council listening?