2020 - The year of the backcountry recreation and conservation advocate - a personal reflection One of my New Year's resolutions for 2020 was to take it easy and to take a break from advocacy, smell the roses, and enjoy the simple and pleasant things of life; do more fun things. So what the heck happened? Where did all this muck come from and why do I always blindly charge and plunge full speed into it? Maybe I am just a glutton for punishment, or maybe I lack impulse control and just...

Black and White thinking in Outdoor Recreation and Conservation A recent phenomenon of western countries seems to be a growing polarization in both politics and in personal and institutional ideological belief. This narrow and rigid world of absolutes and all-or-nothing thinking seems to have spread to our local Outdoor Recreation Groups. The concept of balance, flexibility, open-mindedness and a world of grey/many colours appears to be, in some instances, a distant memory. In this post I...

On Advocacy and Conscience It has been a while since I wrote a general article about Advocacy. I was reflecting upon the ethics surrounding advocacy situations where the issue is of high stakes and/or high profile, and the corporate or governmental body is in fundamental opposition to the values and objectives the advocate or the advocate's organization believes in. Firstly, I don't believe that the ends justifies the means. And while there are situations where the position taken by the...

The Backcountry BC Experience - The Fall of Investigative Journalism As we at BCBC continue to take on more of an investigative journalism type of role and approach to our work, I have noticed that the official media are doing far less of it. When we approach journalists for publication, we now present a fully researched position, since journalists seem to have far less time and resources to perform investigative work these days. It also seems that they are the first to be fired as...

γνῶθι σεαυτόν (know thyself)- an Ancient Greek aphorism was carved into the stone forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The philosopher Socrates expanded its form to "The unexamined life is not worth living". Today, in modern psychology, we have the "big five" personality traits - perhaps yet another variant on Ancient Greek Wisdom. For the advocate, it needn't matter your personality type or your nature. All you need to be effective, is that you master what you are given by...

This short video on advocacy is quite good if you replace business with backcountry recreation group/issue. One other way to convince "VITO" (Very Important Top Officer) to make a decision in your favour is to dig up dirt on "VITO" or his/her political masters. My favourite method of digging up dirt is of course the Freedom of Information Request (also known as the "FOI"). At some point I will make a post on the art of filing an effective FOI. Lastly, very often to get the attention of "VITO",...

Crony Capitalism and BC Provincial Parks 101 Requirement:  A relatively unoccupied and thus considered "economically unproductive" piece of land that holds some sort of annoying and restrictive protected status regulated by Government policy and Legislation. Step 1:  Commercial Proponent or Developer comes forward with an idea/plan to plaster an excessive number of condos and houses, build gondolas, pipelines, power project, ski resorts, golf courses or run a guided heli-ski...