Letter to Ahousaht

Dear Chief and Community Members:

We are the 2008 Sustainability Camp from Maaqtusiis Elementary School from Ahousaht. We have been staying at the Clayoquot Field Station for the past three days. We have been learning about sustainability and fossil fuels. Being sustainable means being respectful of nature and making judgments considering future generations. It’s important to be sustainable, because we want to make things last.

We have ideas for how to help our community become more sustainable.

We think we should have a recycling centre in Ahousaht where people of the community can bring their bottles and cans and cardboard. This way, we don’t have to fill our landfills and pollute the earth.

We think it’s important to keep our beaches clean and harbors clean. In order to do this, we could organize community clean-ups once a month. Also, we think the roads should be cleaned up and signs posted to reduce litter.

Solar power is a really cool source of renewable energy. We think Ahousaht should put up solar panels to power our houses and heat water and run cars.

We could collect rainwater to flush our toilets.

Driving less in Ahousaht would reduce the use of fossil fuel consumption, as well as reduce pollution in our area. It would be cool if more people rode bikes and walked short distances.

Because our harbor is really oily and dirty, we think it’s important for boaters to check for leaks and be more cautious. There should be stricter regulations about emissions and leakages on boats to reduce spills.

Our time spent at sustainability camp was really fun. We learned a lot and cleaned up a lot of garbage.

Thank you for listening to the voices of kids in the community and considering our suggestions.

Kleco kleco,
Grade 6 class of Ahousaht