The Honorable Judith Guichon with future stewards and me
The current Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia is the Honorable Judith Guichon. Judith has a love and respect for the land.
For many generations her family has ranched in the southern interior of BC. Along with her late husband, Judith introduced the practice of ‘holistic management’ to local ranchers. Holistic management is a farming method which promotes sustainable management of livestock. It’s based on the principle that a healthy relationship between people and the land must underpin all our actions in respectful and responsible ways.
One of Her Honour’s priority programs as Lieutenant Governor is called Stewards of the Future. The aim of this program is to encourage BC youth to get outside, to explore the landscape in their respective communities and to learn in a hands-on fashion about the importance of stewardship.
I spent part of this weekend at the first ‘Stewards of the Future’ Conference on Sustainability and Stewardship. This conference brought together 85 urban and rural students from all regions of the province to discuss sustainable resource issues. The Conference was held on the beautiful campus of Pearson College UWC near Victoria.
BC’s stewards of the future! These high school students spent the weekend together at Pearson College (what a perfect setting!) collaborating and learning from each other about sustainability issues.
I enjoyed meeting and learning from the students. Groups of students shared the details of stewardship projects that they had led in various BC communities over the past months.I also had the opportunity to share with these young people how my privileged view of Earth from space has bolstered my resolve to sustain its ecosystem.
I showed many illustrative photographs of the Earth taken by astronauts from space. I showed, for example, the following image of the Betsiboka River valley. This image shows inadvertent damage that has been permanently inflicted on the Madagascar landscape by human activity in past decades. As a result of rapid removal of the native forest for cultivation and pastureland purposes, catastrophic erosion of topsoil is now occurring. Some regions of this island nation are losing 250 metric tons of soil per hectare each year! The massive soil loads erode off the hillsides and choke the river below. And then this valuable topsoil is washed away with the river outflow into the Indian Ocean. Thoughtless and unregulated deforestation has left a denuded landscape for all time. Heartbreaking.
Unregulated deforestation in Madagascar has tragically eroded the watershed of the Betsiboka River and choked off the river valley below.
This orbital perspective of our home planet has certainly reinforced my sense of planetary stewardship. I better appreciate now the intricacy and fragility of Earth’s natural ecosystem.
The Lieutenant Governor’s first Stewards of the Future Conference on Sustainability and Stewardship was a success. It was a privilege for me to participate and heartwarming to meet BC’s emerging leaders. The passion of these youth for stewardship will inspire us to fight destructive human impulses and help us to work together on community and global sustainable goals.
The citizens of British Columbia are fortunate to have Judith Guichon serving as their Lieutenant Governor. Her Honour regards the youth of BC as an incredible resource and takes it upon herself to mentor them to be stewards of the future. She reminds us that it is our collective responsibility to leave our world in better condition for those who follow. What an incredible role model!
