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Page 4 West Vancouver Historical Society November 2002 SOCIETY NEWS CURRENT AFFAIRS AND NEWS OF GENERAL INTEREST TO MEMBERS By: Laureen Jones Special Events Activities, Director, Special Events Christmas Party. We issue a warm invitation to all members to join us in our annual celebration of Christmas at the beautiful old Spuraway Lodge. Good food and drink and lots of delightful company, plus door and raffle prizes, ensure that West Vancouver Historical Society members will welcome yet anotlier Christmas Season. Phone the office if you need a ride and we shall see that you get there and back safely. WEST VANCOUVER: A View Through The Trees An illustrated history of West Vancouver lamlscapes is being prepared by Elspeth Bradbury and friends. It is hoped to have this important work published in the near future. In the following article, Elspeth expains why preserving landscape memories is so important to our community. In West Vancouver, we have inherited magnificent natural surroundings. Above all, it is the forest that has shaped our history, colours our present and challenges our future. It conjures up poetic images: snow-laden branches and furrowed trunks of massive firs, ravens croaking in tlie high canopy, soft smells of spring, resin- scented summers and golden maples caught in shafts of autumn sunlight. Tliis is the romantic, the sensual way of looking at tlie forest, but it is only one viewpoint. In our long relationship with trees, there have been many otliers. ..."golden maples caught in shafts of sunlight..." For 10,000 years, forest blanketed tliis land, from sea to skyline, westward Ifom tlie Capilano River along the great hogback of Hollyburn Ridge to the mountains of Cypress Bowl. From time to time, fire and wind played a role in the unending cycles of life and death that made up the complex ecosystem. People were here for almost as long as the trees, living as part of that system and depending on it for most of their needs. They saw the forest simply as home. European immi- grants saw the forest as a magnificent resource ripe for harvesting. In little more than one life span, they logged off the more accessible slopes, and only by chance a few stands of the ancient trees remained. In the lower areas, real estate took over where logging left off. West Vancouver became a desirable Membership Report By: Joan Skipper Membership Chair Since our last issue the following new members have joined: Barbara Hryciw, Blind Bay, B.C., Jeremy Croll, Abbotsford, B.C., and Mary E. Jones, Jacquie Gijssen and Pamela Friedrich - all of West Vancouver. We welcome former WV Museum Curator, Jacquie Gijssen, who has moved with her husband, to West Vancouver. She attended our last General Meeting and we look forward to seeing her at future meetings. (Contd. from previous column) residential suburb and, piece by piece, developers and homeowners cleared the land. They introduced new tree species that grew up on roadsides, in parks and in gardens, creating a suburban woodland which reflected, in its density and make-up, the needs and fashions of the day. On tlie upper, undeveloped slopes, a second- growth forest began the slow process of natural regen- eration. As ancient forests have become more and more endangered worldwide, we have begun to appreciate better the scenic, historic and scientific value of the remnants that remain to us. Due in part to public pres- sure, untouched forests still exist on the mountains witliin Municipal boundaries, and especially within Cypress Provincial Park. In West Vancouver, we love our trees, but we also love our views. We value the ambiance that trees of all kinds lend to our residential neighbourhoods, but we also like a glimpse of sunlight in our houses now and then, and gardens that are more than moss. Sports and recrea- tion are not always compatible witli pristine forest. Skiing and snowboarding, mountain biking and golf can all take a toll. We need space for roads, and rights-of-way for hydro lines. Trees can be a nuisance, even a threat; they compete with us for living space. With this ambiva- lent attitude, we step into a new century, debating our ofticial community pliilosophies and planning dramatic residential expansion on the forested slopes of the Upper Lands. How are we to balance the needs of the forest with our own desires and our various points of view? (Contd. on page 5}