Beautiful British Columbia

This province is truly the most beautiful place on earth. The more I see of this province the more I am convinced that the greatest resource we have is the incomparable beauty in every little corner of it. When I was a child my family used to take camping vacations in various parts of this province. We traveled to many different towns and of course as a child you don't think of the esthetics of the area as much as the fun you can have and for me fun was nature. I loved the excitement of having bears and skunks and raccoons invade our campsite! While everyone screamed and ran I was fascinated by it. The towns along the way always seemed to be built around some wonderful resource of nature. Towering mountains, rolling hills, rivers that changed colors, lakes that went on endlessly into the sunset and sandy beaches that seemed to beg to be explored added a grand dimension to even the smallest town and made me dream of returning long after I had gone home. I myself was fortunate to grow up in what I consider to be one of the most beautiful places on earth - the Sunshine Coast.
Today as a middle aged woman I have again lucked out - I live just a few blocks from Burns Bog. I walk there most days with my dog and as I watch her run through the forests chasing the squirrels, birds and butterflies I wonder what this place and this province will look like when my daughters are my age. I see governments who are more interested in the bottom line than in preserving the natural beauty of this province. Roads cutting through environmentally sensitive areas so tourists can flock to Whistler to ski, forests being clear cut to build more condos for tourists and foreign investors and rivers polluted by companies who feel they cannot compete on the world market if they spend the time, manpower and money on environmentally friendly manufacturing equipment and practices. Our oceans , not only are becoming polluted and destroying natural habitat for sea life, but the oceans are being fished out by improper fisheries management. The majority of the people of this province seem unable to grasp the incredible richness that is in their backyard and is their rightful inheritance to it let alone put any kind of a value on it. I wonder if they will feel that concrete towers, miles of pavement , polluted rivers, lakes and oceans were the right economic choice when they show their grandchildren pictures of what this province used to look like. I wonder if that generation will feel that the bottom line in the bank statement that their was their grandparents choice justified the destruction of their inheritance. Once it is gone it can never be restored.