Kootenay Watershed Protectors

Brock Snyder is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

We are the Kootenay Watershed Protectors:
A community founded & community-run, not-for-profit group dedicated to protecting the integrity of our Forests, our Watersheds and our Future.

We have set up this GoFundMe on behalf of efforts to save our Kootenays forested watersheds, community watersheds, old-growth forests, and our headwaters of Kootenay Lake and inland temperate rainforest regions. Water is life. Water is collected, stored and filtered by trees. The role of trees is one of the very first steps in the cycle that provides each of us - and all other life on this -planet access to clean water. Without water, life cannot exist. Without the forests, water will disappear; This cannot happen, and to defend our collective futures, we need your help.

Total Amount Required: $17,000

Donations will go towards

Legal fees: Obtaining legal advice, or taking companies, industry, or governments to court. $10,000 (Current legal proceedings are ongoing against Cooper Creek Cedar Ltd.)

The necessity to defend great and imminent threats are many in this time of climate emergency, ecological crisis and mass species extinction, corporate rule, injustice, Ecocide: crimes against humanity and wildlife, growing food and water insecurity, health crisis, and social unrest.

Operational costs: Printing/copying/faxing of documents, petitions, and letters to submit to government. $500

Travel expenses: Outreach to the various communities under threat to investigate their forest and watershed concerns, record concerns and gather evidence of corrupt malpractice. $2,000

Communication devices

Proper radios for safety to communicate on the Forest Service Logging Roads. $300

In-Reach GPS device for sustaining contact in remote locations and for emergency navigation. $600

Recording devices: To document for media and to record documentary footage of the sites, forests, etc..$1000

Power supplies such as a battery inverter or a small generator to produce onsite power in remote protection camps. $300

First Aid equipment and general supplies for fieldwork. $100

Space Rental: Community hall rentals for future events. $500

Software: Purchase of professional software to create graphics for legal and public purposes. $500

Supplies to run educational workshops, presentations and create educational materials. $500

We must expose the risks: socially, economically and environmentally, when natural water, forested watersheds, species, ecosystems and communities are degraded or destroyed by destructive logging practices. As well as provide education about human rights, civil rights and present the solutions that we can embrace to shift to life-promoting and life-sustaining systems, economics and ethics.

Ongoing Funds

If you help us pass the target goal, future goals would be to hire environmental experts to do third party studies on this and other forested watersheds at risk.

Actions we will take

--> Ongoing Legal case against Cooper Creek Cedar to “set aside” the    injunction that has been put in place against us.

--> Influence and steer government legislation, policy, and action to stop deforestation

--> Motivate fellow citizens and communities to mitigate the climate crisis, protect forests and water, and preserve species biodiversity

-         Continue reaching out to our elected government officials:

(RDCK, MLA, MP, Minister of FLNRO, Minister of Environment)

-         Petitioning for the Argenta-Johnsons Landing inclusion into the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy

-         Petitioning for the Selkirk Mountain Caribou Park Proposal

--> Developing awareness campaigns for key contentious local areas that NEED to be protected.

--> Collaborating with experts and scientists to develop working models of sustainable logging practises.

--> Continue setting up information booths at local events and various markets

We must stand together and give our time, energy and resources to speak up for and stand up for our lands, while we still have the chance.

The area has long term value and benefits that far surpasses the value of timber, short term jobs and profits. The industry is losing places to log because of destructive practices, regulations and systems that are short-sighted, self-destructive and are leading us to economic suicide, ecological collapse and the loss of the resource base and ecosystems needed for creating truly renewable economies, sustainable communities, and the equal distribution of wealth, resources and capacity to thrive.

These companies make millions of dollars from destroying our intact ecosystems, and community volunteers often exhaust themselves and large amounts of personal money and time to work, to acquire legal support, to fully assess and report the risks to communities, gathering reports which often fall on deaf ears; This is unsustainable, and if we all hope to have a future, we need your help.

(Example of BC Deforestation)

Unsustainable logging practices threaten the integrity and health of the forests and watersheds all across British Columbia and Canada.

In search of economic gain, private-interest companies are rapidly destroying these complex ancient landscapes, and the effects are devastating and dreadful. Forests have been evolving and growing for millions of years, and they are being wiped out in just a small fraction of that time.

Clear-cutting is one of the great stupidities of humankind, and one of the most significant contributing factors to the collapse of the life-sustaining ecosystems on our planet.

When forests collapse, the benefits and balance they provide are damaged as well: air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat and sustain life.

Forests maintain biodiversity, soil fertility, and the structural mass that provides habitat for animals and protection from natural disasters. Trees are ancient, complex and crucially important to our local and global ecology. To cut them down and sell them for minimal profit, turning the materials into toilet paper or other products, completely overlooking the immense loss this creates, is absolute insanity.

Our governments are letting the destruction carry on, so, it's time to take action as concerned citizens.