Support GUARD - Group United Around Responsible Development
Second growth cedar with nurse-stump
Make GUARD's fight to preserve Mountain/Cove Forests your fight!
Sign the Petition
Give a Donation
Attend the Public Hearing
GUARD, the group that's spearheading efforts to save North Vancouver District’s forestland came to life less than a year ago. Its formation was sparked by the proposed construction of a new golf course project, Northlands, at the entrance to Mt. Seymour park. Northlands development is destroying nearly 300 acres of forestland.
GUARD, acronym for Group United Around Responsible Development, organized too late to stop the Northlands project, but not too late to begin a winning fight to save the nearly 1,000 acres of nearby Mountain and Cove Forests from a similar fate.
Community response to GUARD has been electric. It took only 10 weeks of effort by the group's founders and many volunteers to garner over 10,000 names on a petition opposing development of Mountain/Cove Forests, and asking the North Vancouver District Council to consider rezoning these Forestlands as "Park, Recreation and Open space."
There was no radical formula or political maneuverings to GUARD's campaign; just long hard hours of volunteer work as members strove to inform North Vancouver residents of the proposed land sellout and forestland-destroying housing scheme. They handed out information sheets in shopping centres and took petitions door-to-door.
GUARD held a rally on June 5, 1995 at a North Vancouver District Council meeting to present the petition. It was attended by over 400 people. At the meeting, Council voted to consider designating the Mountain/Cove Forest as Park Recreation and Open space, placing the housing development on hold.
Before the formation of GUARD, the same council had narrowly approved the idea of selling these municipal reserve lands for residential development projects—totalling some 2,150 housing units. So the June 5 turn-around was quite a victory.
"We were delighted to be able to show so quickly that the system really can work," says GUARD co-founder Lisa Muri. "It was great to see young people coming forward to help on the campaign. So many high school students are caught up in all the doom and gloom."
Now GUARD needs even more public support to win its fight because thodewho would gain by these proposed developments are beginning to fight back. Winning to GUARD means getting the official designation of Park, Recreation and Open Space for the irreplaceable Mountain/Cove Forests.
GUARD's brochure sums up the group's philosophy:"Thinking globally and acting locally means being responsible for environmentally sound development in our own back yard."
