Environmental short doc

[Ken Diewert]

Shot with the H1. Downconverted and edited in Vegas 6.0d

The story of a publicly owned 52 acre wilderness park scheduled to be bulldozed for a subdivision.

Available for viewing on Youtube (low rez (yuk)) or Stage6 (Hi Rez (yay)) may need to download the DivX player (it's worth the download).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtB9O0Fx0os

http://stage6.divx.com/members/109671/videos/1033909

[Ken Diewert]

I just realized the Stage6 version is the first version and needs to be replaced. It's a little long at 13 mins. I'll change it. The youtube version is current.

[Bob Safay]

Ken, that was very well done. It really showed the park and the beauty of nature, only to be ruined by developers and greedy polititions. You really need to get this on your public access tv. We had a similar incident here in Atlanta, GA where a "developer" wanted to build a series of 37 story tall condos right on our city park. We fought back, and we won. Keep up the fight. Bob

[Bob Thompson]

Ken, Good luck with your campaign.

My only comment on the video is that it would have been nice to see some hikers in the background of a couple of shots - you don't want developers to fight back by saying that the area is underutilized. Would it be possible to also show a few more "green" wideshots and the destroyed area maybe needed to have a subtitle to say human destruction.

Nice work and good luck

Bob

[Ken Diewert]

Here's the new link to DivX Stage6. It's a great codec, but they're still in Alpha testing.

http://stage6.divx.com/members/109671/videos/1039931

Bob(s),

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I know what you mean about shooting hikers in the park. This was shot over 2 visits of 2 hours each, when there was some nice light, but otherwise little activity. I had a couple of stills I inserted. I just learned how to 'Ken Burns' them in Vegas, so I might go back and do that.

One of the problems shooting in fairly dense forest is often the light is heavily filtered.

This show was also intended to focus on the small things that are often overlooked. The youtube version doesn't detail the webs and moss well.

The developer has said 'we'll save some trees', meanwhile they want to decimate the understory and rich woody debris. As well as clearing more than half of the existing forest.

One of the reasons I posted this is to get more 'views' especially internationally. We can use that for more political leverage. We are trying to shame local gov't into rescinding their decision to develop the park.

[Brendan Marnell]

If you're interested in protecting your forest wildlife it may be worth while finding someone in the botany, ecology or environmental departments of neighbouring universities, including US, and asking them for pointers on any flora and/or fauna in your particular forest that may be 1. Unique to it. 2. Unique to your State. 3. Unique to Canada. 4.Endangered locally. 5.Globally threatened. You may be prepared for a few unfamiliar terms but if you pursue the subject you may find that someone knows someone who wrote/published a paper on such a topic which you could access and quote from with the sort of authority that might rock the developers on their heels. It often happens in Europe that research scientists take great care and delight in discovering new facts but they only get published in academic media and the general public know nothing about them.

A possible starter for an interesting tree species may have appeared in your video ... I thought I glimpsed the Madronna, a beautiful arbutus tree, which is certainly on the Aleutian Islands and in Oregan. That's got a lot going for it (including Celtic hocus-pocus that might be unhelpful) which you can see by Googling Madronna.

The main thing is keep at it. If you find a species with a European connection (meaning it's endangered or absent here) I may be able to find the sort of society/group who travel all the way to your place just to see it. We are under constant threat from developers here too ... "suits" pretending to maximise anything and everything except what they're really trying to maximise ... greed, innocently labelled as profit. What price profit?

[Dale Guthormsen]

Very nicely done. The music seemed fitting too.

I loved seeing the mushrooms and all the micro biology.

If you can identify an endangered species on the grounds you can require them to do an environmental acessment, which is costly, and if it has endangered species involved they will not be able to turn the land.

[Ken Diewert]

Thanks guys,

Brendan, we've had 2 professional biologists donate their time to survey the area on our behalf and publish comprehensive reports. We have the University of Victoria Environmental Law Society donating their efforts on our side, digging for legal leverage. We also have Dr. Kelly Banister, an Ethnobotanist on our side.

The local gov't even commissioned a $15,000 environmental assessment that WE are using against them, as it identifies several blue-listed species and identifies many significant habitats. We just commisioned a public opinion poll (for $3k) that supports our position. 80% of the respondents want to delay any development untill further studies can be done and considered in public land use review. And only 13% of respondents support the gov't position. Shhh! That information won't be revealed publicly for another week.

We'll also have a public screening of the short.

So far the local gov't has said they'll set aside very small pockets of land, and put buffer zones (45 feet) around them. They simply say 'we'll leave some trees'. That's why the subtitle 'the forest amongst the trees.'

Most of the footage I shot is outside of these pockets.

I've been fielding a lot of calls actually from local media about the short. It's cool to see the power of the medium at work. It's funny, because of all the things we've done that I've listed above, the doc seems to be one of the most powerful.

[Meryem Ersoz]

nice work, ken. the macro stuff is very powerful, shows just how much irreplaceable biodiversity is being obliterated....

i wish youtube showcased the video better....but i guess the sacrifice in quality to reach a larger quantity audience is the trade-off.

[Bob Safay]

Ken, as these "polititions" are public figures, post their email addresses and I promise, they will be getting email from all over the world. Let them know that your cause is now international. Bob

[Ken Diewert]

Bob,

That would be great!

We're trying to shame them into reconsidering. We're expecting coverage from a national newspaper later this week.

Here's the address.

council@northcowichan.bc.ca

I'd love for them to get some international attention.