Reprinted from the News-Leader/Pictorial, April 28, 2007

Dear editor

On a recent sunny walk at Echo Heights we heard our first singing orange-crowned warbler of the spring. In the wetland on the northern boundary, a Virginia rail was calling on territory but declined to reveal himself. We encountered many species not yet recorded by Madrone Environmental Services.

Echo Heights is a remarkably diverse ecosystem, but it is threatened because it is isolated. In biodiversity jargon it is an island of habitat, surrounded (almost) by a sea of different habitats.

A fundamental principle of what is known as “island biogeography” is this: The smaller the island, and the more removed it is from other similar islands, the fewer species it will support. Chopping Echo Heights into pieces for development-even if a significant parcel is set aside for wildlife-will mean the loss of some of the species that call it home. Why sacrifice any species? Why not protect Echo Heights?

For the habitat conservation movement, islands of habitat are constantly under pressure. The solution is usually to raise enough funds to pay market value for land in a market that has gone crazy.

Echo Heights is different. The community already owns the land, with strong community support for protecting it. North Cowichan council has a rare opportunity to create a permanent conservation legacy in the heart of a growing community, by setting all of Echo Heights aside as a park. To do anything less would be at once unfathomable and foolish.
 

Bruce Whittington, Ladysmith