Strange Places

put your poems to work (for the trees

Posted by Daniela Elza on Nov 26 2012

McLellan Forest East, an endangered rainforest in Glen Valley, Langley, BC is on the chopping board. Publicly owned land is slated to be sold. This remarkable and ecologically important forest will be sold by the Township of Langley for private development after Dec. 17, 2012 if something radical is not done immediately to keep Council from proceeding.

Susan MacCaslin is spear heading this project. She is calling for poems about trees from poets who care about trees and she will be putting your poems on the trees. This is one anthology among whose pages you will literally be able to walk. Let the forest be our poems. Let it be our anthology.

Any thoughts on how we can we get more media attention for this effort to speak for the trees of Glen Valley will be much appreciated. Let me know personally, in email, or email Susan with your ideas (her email is below). Alternatively, if you have 3 million kicking around you might be able to help buy it. We will still put the poems up in celebration then, not protest.

We have ganged up on posting on FB and the poems are pouring in. Feel free to share and help spread the word (if you are my friend, or a friend of someone on FB who has already shared it.) If you have sent a poem, thank you. If you have not, consider sending one tree poem to the email below. See the guidelines. Please follow them. And there is an urgency to this matter.
The time margins are just too small for the decisions.

Poets put you poems to work for the trees

The Han Shan Project: An Urgent Call for Poems about Trees from the Poets who Love Them
 
Han Shan was an ancient Chinese poet who posted his poems on the trees and rocks of Cold Mountain.  In the spirit of Han Shan….

Guidelines:
o      Send us a tree poem and we’ll post it on a tree in the forest.  One poem per poet.  Keep it to one page with your name at the bottom. Small photo of you is okay.

o      This is the west coast, so poems about species such as fir, hemlock, cedar, hemlock, spruce, bigleaf maple, black cottonwoods are especially relevant.
 
o      Send your poem immediately to Susan McCaslin who can provide more information about the forest and the issue.
smccaslin@shaw.ca

For further information: http://mclellanpark.blogspot.ca/
 
Thank you. Lets make this a success.
PS Updates:

• November 30, 2012
  Hi friends, yesterday and today Robert Bateman came to the forest we’re trying to save east of Langley and spoke eloquently on the value of wild green spaces for our children and future generations. The event will be covered on CTV News tonight at 5 and 6 and Global News at 6 pm, Dec. 30. It’s called McLellan Forest East.
• November 30, 2012
  The Vancouver Sun has an article on the issue:
  Save ‘ecologically unique’ forest, Langley urged Provincial biologist urges Langley township to spare biologically diverse forest from sale and development
• November 30, 2012
  LangelyAdvance writes a piece on the issue.
  Robert Bateman visits disputed forest: Artist Robert Bateman visited the contested forest lands of Glen Valley and supports preserving them.
• Here are some excerpts from the Chris Henderson report giving the scientific studies on the value of the forest.