Blake Andreassen is a lifelong skier, coach and FIS Technical Delegate whose interest has been piqued by ski history and antique ski poles in particular.

“I collect a lot of old ski equipment; I’ve got some old antique wooden skis on my wall and I wanted some bamboo poles to go with them,” he explains. “Now there are lots of old antique skis around, but very few pairs of old bamboo poles. The poles would get broken and thrown away. Because they’re so hard to come by, I made a few pairs for my display.”

On display in his Squamish car dealership, clients began to take an interest in the prototype poles.
“Everyone would ask me about these poles I had in my office,” Andreassen states. “And so I started making them and giving them to customers as gifts.”

The popularity of his poles is a combination of nostalgia, environmental consideration, practicality and funky style.

“It’s an old, antique looking ski pole and it’s very green, and it’s sort of retro looking. Most people ski with aluminum ski poles; if you fall on it, or bend it, it kinks and it breaks. The bottom part gets thrown in the bush, and it’s an environmental disaster, and now you have a sharp weapon in your hand and you have to head down the mountain and get a new pair. With the bamboo, if it breaks, it just sort of splinters and you put a bit of duct tape around it and you can probably finish the day skiing with the broken pole. And even if it does get thrown in the bush it’s going to rot and fall apart,” explains Andreassen.

Andreassen manufactures the poles himself, in small quantities. He uses bamboo for the shafts, plastic powder baskets and cork handles. Lately word has gotten out about these retro poles, and Andreassen is working to keep up with demand.

“I took ten pairs to Banff with me and everyone went nuts and I sold them all quick, boom.”

Closer to home, Sun Peaks local Peter Smith acquired a pair and likes the new feel.

“I like the fact that there’s give in the poles,” he says. “They have more flex than aluminum or steel or carbon fibre poles would give you, and it’s easy on the wrist because there’s a bowing nature. If you’re on blue ice (the aggressive tips) will be the best thing out there.”

The poles are being sold through Andreassen directly, and at McSporties at Sun Peaks.

“People like the look of them,” says McSporties employee Elise Benoit. “They keep commenting on them, so I’m sure they’ll sell.”

Since my life began as a seedling years ago, I have existed for one primary purpose – to spread joy and holiday cheer during the Christmas season. Being the center of attention comes and goes as the decorations go up and come down, but are you aware of just how brief my life cycle is?

It all starts with my production in a nursery. When I’m old enough, I’m cut down, fastened to a vehicle and transported to the home of a loving family where I’m decorated and put on display. For the duration of the holiday season, I’m the main feature of family gatherings and I always take centre stage on Christmas morning. But when the holiday season ends and Christmas decorations are put back in storage, I’ll be left out in the cold. The final stage of my life will involve being sent to a landfill where I’ll slowly decompose . . . or worse, go to an incinerator to meet a fiery death!

I’m speaking out to say that it doesn’t have to end like this.

Millions of Canadians will have a Christmas tree this year, but many don’t recognize that I and thousands of my fellow tree friends can be recycled and put to greater use. Adding to this bad news for us trees, one in three Canadians aren’t even sure if a tree recycling program exists in their community!

To my relief and that of thousands of natural Christmas trees across the country, there are ways we can be re-used long after the holiday season has come and gone. The best thing to do with your tree after Christmas has passed is to recycle it. You can recycle me through tree mulching and recycling programs, which are both fast-growing practices across Canada. Once trees are recycled, we can be turned into erosion barriers, garden mulch and can even be used to create feeding grounds for lake fish.

Christmas trees aren’t just a symbol for cheer and tradition; we can be recycled to have a tangible, positive affect on the environment long after the holiday season is over.

Christmas tree recycling is available at the Heffley Creek Landfill, and other locations in the City of Kamloops, from Dec. 29 until Jan. 18. In the 2010-11 holiday season, 3,616 trees were recycled in Kamloops, with 400 of those being composted. To date, Kamloops has recycled almost 150,000 trees. Click here for facility information.

Studies show that while most people recycle their containers most of the time, there’s one group that’s responsible for 87 per cent (or 242 million) of the containers that hit the trash, rather than the recycle bin. They are usually single, male and between 18 and 34 years of age.

“The push is really on to recycle as much as we can,” says Dennis Lebrie, environmental health safety technologist for the Thompson-Nicola Regional District. “I know it’s a lot of work, but they’re going to inherit the earth.”

Recycling has been available at the Sun Peaks transfer station since 2008 when the TNRD collected 840 metric tonnes of garbage and only 41.77 metric tonnes of recycling. In the time since, recycling has grown to 100.57 metric tonnes, while waste has gone down to 388 metric tonnes, proving that we’re doing something right at Sun Peaks.

While this dramatic reduction of waste and increase of recycling is impressive, we can always do more.
“We’re really quite pleased,” noted Lebrie. “We’d really like to bring that up to 50 per cent. That’s our goal, to ramp up and double what we’re recycling currently. It’s just so much better for the environment.”

The TNRD makes it easy for residents and visitors to recycle by providing a collection station at the Sun Peaks transfer station, located on Industrial Way. Simply put your recyclables in a see-through blue bag (keeping glass and cardboard separate) and drop them off during normal business hours.

For some people the additional cost of blue bags can be perceived as a barrier to recycling.

“If you don’t want to put it in a blue bag and you have a tote or a cardboard box, you can put all your stuff in that and you can dump it in the bin and keep the box, keep re-using it. You can get around the eight cents, that shouldn’t be a stumbling block,” commented Lebrie.

In 2011 the federal government announced the return of the ecoEnergy Retrofit for Homes Program, granting up to $5,000 for homeowners to improve their home’s energy efficiency. Including an allowance of $1,250 for installing a year-round solar hot water system. As homeowners evaluate their home’s energy efficiency, many are turning to solar thermal systems.

Advancements in solar energy production have resulted in two main types of solar energy systems.
“Flat panel is the old technology,” says Sun Peaks resident and systems architect Vladimir Grebenyuk. “Although they’ve been proven and work quite well in many installations, the new technology is vacuum tube which uses not only the visible light, but UV (ultra violet).”

The ability of the vacuum tubes to capture UV light is especially important for homeowners in British Columbia.

“They (the panels) could be covered in two feet of snow, it still penetrates,” notes Grebenyuk.
A vacuum tube solar thermal system is slightly more expensive than the older solar panel technology. Regardless of your choice, you will reduce greenhouse gases, improve energy efficiency, and reduce costs, while helping to save the planet.

Photo contributed by the UBC Solar Team

Unlike what most people think, it’s really not that hard to give your beloved gas-guzzling, carbon-belching vehicle a vacation. All you need is commitment.

“It’s really just a matter of making the mental switch to say ‘Yeah I want to do this.’ And once you start, it’s not that hard,” said Kamloops resident Gisela Ruckert.

After a test run last year, Ruckert is getting better at using sustainable modes of travel in her daily life.

“This year, I’ve been using my bike for transportation on a regular basis,” she said. “It’s no fun in the rain, but it’s been great on a beautiful day. And the more I do it, the better I get at it.”

She’s also started walking more. She now walks with her family from her Lower Sahali home to downtown Kamloops to watch the Blazers.

“It’s probably about a 20-minute walk. We make more of an effort to just walk. It’s better for us, so why not? There’s no downside.”

As a member of Kamloops 350, an organization that aims for a healthier future by preserving the environment, Ruckert knows how important it is to cut down on her carbon emissions.

Kamloops 350 is an offshoot of 350.org, an international organization spearheading a global campaign on climate change. The number 350 stands for 350 parts per million, the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere according to the world’s leading scientists and climate experts. When CO2 levels exceed this limit, it initiates an irreversible chain reaction that adversely affects life on earth.

“We’re currently at 392,” said Ruckert. “We not only have to maintain, we also have to reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to avoid the really catastrophic effects of climate change.”

To get there, every little bit counts. Choosing a smart mode of transportation is a great way to start.

In partnership with the City of Kamloops and the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association, Kamloops 350 is launching the Great Green Transportation Tune-Up to help people reduce their travel-related carbon emissions. The event will run from Sept. 26 to Oct. 1 in Kamloops.

The lineup of activities combines fun and information. Those who love a good game can join the Transit Treasure Hunt, where participants ride the bus to pick up clues and win prizes, or the Bike, Bus or Boogie Challenge where contestants complete a set of errands by cycling, bussing or running.

The “Green Your Transportation” pledge encourages people to commit to walking, biking, taking the bus or carpooling for a chance to win prizes.

At the Cool Wheels display, sustainable vehicles like hybrids, electric cars and e-bikes will be on display. A solar car built by a team from the University of British Columbia will also make a stop at this event. At the Imagination Station, people can share their vision of sustainable travel through text or drawing.

Change doesn’t happen overnight, and nobody knows it more than Ruckert.

“I don’t want to say that I don’t drive my car anymore,” she admitted. “But little by little, I’m offsetting a little more of that all the time.”

For Kamloops 350, the goal is showing how change, even in small collective increments, is possible.

For more information, visit www.kamloops350.com.

Canada's Seafood Guide by SeaChoice

Do you know if your supermarket sells at-risk seafood species?

Research has shown that overfishing coupled with the increasing demand for seafood is steadily depleting the world’s oceans. Destructive fishing and harvesting practices, such as bottom trawling, destroys corrals that took years to form and endangers marine life unnecessarily. Fish and other aquatic life don’t have ample time to replenish their numbers.

Supermarkets are in a unique position to help change this situation by engaging their clientele and their producers about the issues.

“The retail sector is a major buyer and seller of seafood,” said Sarah King, Greenpeace Canada’s oceans campaign coordinator. “They have a responsibility to the consumer to provide sustainable, legally caught and socially responsible products. They also have a strong relationship with the producers and have the buying powers to actually demand change.”

For the last two years, Greenpeace has been ranking Canada’s eight major
supermarket chains to see how well they fare in their seafood buying practices. The most recent report shows, for the first time, six out of the eight major chains are out of the red zone.

Loblaw is first on the list followed by Overwaitea Food Group, Safeway, Sobey’s, with Metro and Wal-Mart in a tie. Federated Co-operatives Ltd. and Costco are in seventh and eight places respectively; both are still in the red zone.

It ranked the eight chains on seven factors: the existence of a sustainable seafood policy, strong policy criteria, support of sustainable practices, product traceability and labelling, removing Redlist species from shelves and raising awareness.

Items are added in Greenpeace’s Redlist if they’re at-risk or illegally fished. Species may also end up on the Redlist if the fishing practices for it are harmful to the target species or other marine life.

Loblaw’s sound sustainability policy puts the company in the lead, said King who authored the supermarket report.

“Their policy is more comprehensive than other supermarkets. Loblaw has clearly said that their policy applies to all products in the store that contain fish products. That extends to pet food, cosmetics, and health supplements,” King explained.

They’re also creating awareness. They’re screening a documentary in schools on overfishing, and they’re engaging customers both online and in-store.

Costco is at the bottom of the heap and was the last major chain to adopt a sustainability policy, said King.

“There’s a lot of missing pieces in their policy at this point and it’s not clear how it’s going to fully roll out in Canadian stores. And it really hasn’t been communicated well enough to Costco members.”

Kelly Roebuck, Living Oceans Society’s sustainable seafood campaign manager, has worked with some of these retail companies helping them to establish sustainable in-store seafood programs.

“One of the biggest challenges overall is trying to find information on the items that you’re selling,” said Roebuck. “That means you really need to engage your supply chain. In Canada, the traceability and labelling law is quite weak when it comes to seafood.”

Traceability is crucial because approximately a quarter of the worldwide fishery catch is illegal. “That’s approximately 25 million tonnes per year worldwide,” said Roebuck.

Greenpeace said the supermarkets’ progress will be monitored closely until policies are fully implemented.

“The next real measure of progress is those deadlines—have they lived up to their commitments or not?” said King. Greenpeace has added six more species to the Redlist to keep the momentum going.

In the end, it’s not only the oceans that are going to benefit but the retailers’ bottom line as well.

“Selling things to extinction is not good business,” said King. “Their stock has to rely on indefinite supply. If they aren’t ensuring the health of the ocean and of their fish stocks, not only is it devastating to our oceans but they won’t have anything to sell. It’s good business for them to be looking to the future and not only making decisions based on short term profit.”

For a handy guide on which seafood to purchase, visit www.seachoice.org/page/resources.

A provincial initiative, Farmers Appreciation Week is about acknowledging our local farmers and showing appreciation for all their hard work. B.C.’s Farmers Appreciation Week kicks off Sunday, July 31 and runs through until August 5.

Now in its sixth summer, the Sun Peaks and Region Farmers’ Market has continued to grow and develop and more residents and tourists realize the importance of bringing local, sustainable meats, fruits and vegetables to their family dinner table.

On Sunday, July 31 as part of the Alpine Blossom Festival, Tourism Sun Peaks will host the Farmers’ Market Olympics to highlight some of the fantastic products offered by area farmers and to show our continued appreciate for their efforts. Husk corn on the cob and eat it as fast as you can, build a scarecrow as a family and participate in a balloon toss. It all takes place right in the middle of the Sun Peaks Farmers’ Market. A card for the vendors will also be available to sign.

“The Farmers’ Market Olympics at Sun Peaks began back in 2008 as our way to celebrate our vendors during the BC150 Celebrations,” explains Janice Nankivell, events coordinator with Tourism Sun Peaks. “We enjoy the opportunity each summer to show our appreciation for our farmers and host this event right in the heart of the weekly market!”

The Sun Peaks & Region Farmers’ Market takes place weekly from 12 pm to 4 pm until Sunday, Sept. 11.

For a full list of vendors attending each week as well as upcoming musical performances, head online to www.sunpeaksresort.com/farmers-market.

Photo contributed by Linda Bodo

Does your family dread recycling day? Piles and boxes of used plastic, tin and glass have to be cleaned, sorted and hauled over to the recycling centre. Lessen your load with upcycling.

Upcycling is the art of recycling old things into new, better things. Plastic shopping bags become reusable grocery totes, scrap wood becomes a new piece of furniture. The list of things you can make is only limited by your creativity.

If you need a little help consider having a look online at what you can make, or ask Linda Bodo, Edmontonian Do-It-Yourself (DIY) fashionista. She manages to take things you wouldn’t even imagine to be reusable and builds art and furniture from them. With a little paint, fabric, glue and basic tools she teaches people how to divert recyclables and garbage from landfill, and create one-of-a-kind art pieces.

Bodo grew up in a recycling family. Her European parents found value in reusing things as much as they could before recycling them.

“Recycling was just a way of life for them,” Bodo explains of her parents. “They were very conscious of using the absolute most out of everything; they used recycled paper to make gift wrap.”

Bodo is now the author of two DIY upcycling books, Enjoy Life Outside and The Art of Upcycle, as well as a columnist for The Edmontonians Magazine and Source Media Group, and a contributor to Enjoy Gardening magazine. She’s constantly coming up with many great projects for the average person to use as inspiration for gifts, home decor and children’s art projects. From plastic bottle lampshades to double-decker vases and twig chandeliers, she blows Martha Stewart out of the water.

Gaining inspiration from garbage to high-end boutique items, Bodo says she has a never-ending list of projects on the go.

“I’m always in various stages of working on stuff,” she says. “I’m working on a third book . . . and making great things made out of shopping bags, fusing them together to make fabric.”

As consciousness towards the care of our planet and the use of our landfills grows, reusing products even before they become recycled is very important. Bodo says she’s noticed a lot of growth in people getting into upcycling and trying to reuse things that would normally end up in the heaps of garbage.

“The biggest compliment I’ve received is that people are now taking my ideas and tweaking them to their own light,” she says. “I’ve given them inspiration and the ground rules; they’re taking them and making something new.”

Besides the advantage that these types of projects divert materials from landfills, Bodo notes upcycling has other benefits.

“It gives you a huge sense of accomplishment,” she says. “It feels amazing to know that with your own two little hands you can make something usable.”
Bodo is currently on tour to promote The Art of Upcycle. She’ll be making a stop in Kelowna July 17 and 18.

You can find a great number of fun projects to try at www.absolutebodo.com.

A giant puffball mushroom grows near Sun Peaks.

Mushroom picking has an aura of secrecy about it, and seemingly no one wants to disclose their hidden spot. But, you can eye a good growing area by the trees, ground cover, water, slope, and the region’s humidity.
Another not so subtle clue is whether a forest fire has passed through.

Morels grow best in burn areas the year after a fire. For that reason many local enthusiasts took to the forests around Little Heffley Lake, Community Lake and Fadear Creek after fires left their mark in 2009.

“Pickers come in from out of the community, and you also have the community start to get involved,” said Whitecroft resident Seth Worthen.
Some people pick for their own consumption, while others seek to make a profit.

“Last year there was a (buyer) on the road to Scotch Creek because there were quite a few fires in that direction. People buy out of the back of their truck.” Worthen continued, “A lot of the commercial people were going (to Momich Lakes Provincial Park) because that was a large hectare fire.”

Sun Peaks resident Brenda Carter picked mushrooms at Momich and attests that there were many buyers scattered around that fire area as people covered in soot packed baskets of mushrooms out of the burned forest.

Other mushroom pickers such as Brenda Mansfield-Cadieux pick a wide variety of mushrooms in all sorts of different mushroom habitats. Cadieux owns and operates Forest to Fork Wild Mushroom Products, a business that picks, processes and sells wild mushrooms. Forest to Fork is a staple at the Kamloops and the Sun Peaks Farmers’ Markets. This year it’s expanding with a mobile food cart selling mushroom crêpes and other fried mushroom products made from mushroom flour and wild mushrooms harvested by Cadieux.

B.C. produces about one quarter of the mushrooms grown in Canada, and Cadieux calls it “the Mecca of the mushroom world.” In her experience, this is mainly due to the climate. Twenty years of local observation has taught her that if there’s a lot of rain in June, a bumper mushroom crop is ahead.

At Sun Peaks some of the mushrooms that grow very well are the boletus, shaggy mane, and puffball. Last year, Cadieux found a field near Sun Peaks that she thought was filled with sleeping sheep, but in fact the white balls were puffball mushrooms.

“One mushroom was so heavy that we had to break it to carry it.”

This availability of local fungi hasn’t gone unnoticed by Sun Peaks chefs. Steve Buzak, head chef for the Delta Sun Peaks Resort, has picked mushrooms in the Sun Peaks area himself, both for private consumption and for use in the restaurant.

“In the fall, it’d be different types of boletus, porcini—down by the river there’s tons,” he says. Because the seasons can be fickle, and with the constraints of preparing summer menus months in advance, it’s difficult to commit to having wild mushroom dishes on the menu, but Buzak states that they do use locally harvested wild mushrooms on features when they’re available.

In addition to the delectable mushrooms, there are many poisonous species that grow in B.C., and ingesting these may cause sickness or death. In fact, that’s what turned Cadieux’s attention to mushrooms.

“My parents were poisoned by mushrooms in South Africa. They didn’t die, but they were very ill. I’ve always been interested in why some are poisonous, and some aren’t.”

It’s important to check the identity of wild mushrooms with an expert. Important, too, is knowing where you are allowed to harvest. It’s permitted on provincial forest land, but illegal in provincial parks, and requires permission if undertaken on private land.

Becoming literate in the world of mushrooms can come from getting involved in a local mycological society, reading books and sharing your specimens with mushroomers in-the-know. There are thousands of different varieties of mushrooms growing in B.C., and as Cadieux says, “although there are look-alikes, there are no taste-alikes.”

Find out more at www.foresttofork.ca or www.bcmushrooms.forrex.org.

In Sun Peaks, a Kamloops conservation officer said bear complaints have tapered off since the beginning of June to bear sightings only. This may be attributed to more plants and food sources growing in the wild as a result of increased precipitation.

“We have received 223 problem wildlife complaints since April 1 (in Kamloops and the surrounding areas),” said Kamloops conservation officer Tobe Sprado.

A late spring and the consequent lack of food in the wild for bears were cited as possible factors in the rash of bear incidents in Sun Peaks in May. But despite the recent progress, people are advised to continue being careful as bears are still around.

“Generally, it’s an attractant issue, (which includes) freezers, compost, barbecues, pet food, bird feeders and garbage,” said Sprado. Ripe fruit can also be an attractant later in the year, he added. “If you eliminate those attractants, you may still have a bear come through but it’s not going to stay.”

“If people do have a bear in their yard, generally speaking, they should just wait it out. The bear should move on if there’s nothing to keep it there.”

Katelyn Leitch, TNRD Bear Aware coordinator, has the following suggestions for managing attractants properly: store garbage, compost and recycling in a bear-proof container until proper disposal; use bird feeders only during winter months; remove fruit and berries from trees and shrubs; feed pets inside and store food indoors, and keep barbecues clean and free of leftover food.

Living in an area that’s part of bear habitat means people may find themselves face to face with a bear. In this case, the rule of thumb is to give the animals space.

“They should stay away,” said Sprado. “They shouldn’t be approaching any bears, especially when you don’t know if that bear may have cubs. It takes a measure of respect obviously because, for most bears, there’s a personal space issue. If you get too close they’ll respond, usually in a negative fashion, to the perceived threat to them.”

If people decide to hike in areas where there’s a possibility of seeing a bear, making some noise is a good idea. And it doesn’t have to be a continuous loud noise, said Sprado. Simply carrying on a normal conversation or letting out an occasional holler should be enough to announce your presence to bears.

Another thing to consider is visual cues, such as a disturbed anthill or bear scat. “Those cues should indicate that there’s probably a bear in the area,” he said. If this happens, it’s wise to make a detour and use caution.

Bear Aware is looking for volunteers to help with disseminating information about bears in Sun Peaks. For more information, e-mail Katelyn Leitch at bearaware@tnrd.bc.ca. Human safety issues due to bears can be reported by contacting the RAPP line at 1-877-952-7277.