When you vow you’re going to do something, it’s a good idea to keep your word, and while Portia Miller is only five, she already knows that.

On Friday, the Qualicum Beach resident followed through with a pledge she made in a bid to both protect trees threatened by logging and also help some other little girl threatened by cancer.

“I’m cutting my hair off because they saved the trees for me and I said if they saved the trees for me I would cut my hair off and give it to Locks of Love, for children who have had cancer,” she said.

The land in question is a 3.5 hectare portion of DL10, located on the west bank of the Little Qualicum River. Although the land is owned by the Town of Qualicum Beach, the logging rights had been owned by Island Timberlands. The Town of Qualicum Beach last year purchased those rights for approximately $180,000 in order to ensure the trees remain standing.

“Along with the pledges for cutting her hair, Portia, also included her birthday and Christmas money, which she requested instead of presents, to preserve the Little Qualicum River Floodplain forest, often referred to as the Qualicum Beach Salmon Forest,”  said Wilderness Committee mid-Island spokesperson Annette Tanner.

The group, she said, has led tours through the area, located on the west bank of the Little Qualicum River, on Earth Day every year to show people the site is important to the future of the area’s water supply. Her husband, Qualicum Beach Councillor Scott Tanner, was also on hand to watch Borealis Hairbar N Tanning 2 stylist Andrea McDowell transform her below-the-waist tresses into a shoulder-length bob.

“It’s terrific to see someone with the youthful energy Portia has in bringing attention to these areas that are so rare and in desperate need of protection,” Scott said. “There is so little of it left.”

Locks of Love (www.locksoflove.org) is a non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada.

Photo: Young Portia Miller gets ready to have her hair cut by stylist Andrea McDowell. Miller was fulfilling a pledge she made to support the town’s saving of the trees in District Lot 10 — and to help young people with cancer by providing her hair for wigs.