April 30: Design, Moziro cafe and Elkington Living Forest

In the morning, we got talking about what group design projects we want to commit to. Ideas include:
Gathering station/chalet design for the Living Forest Community's Elkington eco-forestry housing development;
Moziro coffee shop improvement design;
Eco-four-plex in Yarrow (Brian's project);
Majlis Community Art Centre (a project I'm working on in Toronto);
and within O.U.R. Ecovillage:
Bicycle shed
Meditation/hermitage space
Yoga/library space above art studio
Natural renovation/expansion of office and main house

We need to each choose one to help design. It's so hard to decide. They all sound so cool

Later, we visited Moziro, a coffee shop close by in Shawnigan Lake who are sponsoring some the internship. In return of their support, we visited the cafe, had amazing mochas bean roasted behind the counter, and discussed what design project they'd like us to work on for them. There was some brain storming around replacing their back deck with something, maybe making a rocket-stove seating area, more patio space, more bean roasting and packaging area, flowers and/or berry growing, and some way to celebrate and encourage the compostable cups they use for take-out coffee. It's such a cute space and a really nice couple running the place with their kids often hanging out there.

After heading back to the ecovillage for yet another super-healthy meal prepared by the one and only Jan, we piled back into the carpool and drove 25 minutes up into the mountain range to visit the Living Forest Community development called Elkington Forest. For many, this was our first time seeing first-hand the devastation of old-growth logging. My eyes teared up as we were driving up an otherwise pristine mountain that was being turned into 5 acre house lots and subdivisions. It went on and on with pavement, logging, street lamps, and dump trucks. Terribly sad. Our saving grace was the Living Forest group of environmental developers that are setting up their 1000 acre area to regrow the old growth and regulate the building practices of new residents. Almost all of the old growth forest on the mountain range that was hundreds of years old had been devastated in the 20s and so the 2nd growth forest is now about 80 years old. In the 90s, loggers had cleared many areas throughout the range, leaving about 50% of the trees dead in it's wake so they could only take the cream of the crop and leave the rest to off-gas it's fuel uselessly through decomposition. It had been explained that although decomposition is good for topsoil, an optimal amount of fell trees is about 25 square metres per hectare whereas most loggers leave 200-300 metres, which also creates a fire hazard. We hiked up to the top of the mountain range and enjoyed the view. Eleven kilometres later, were back at the cars, enjoyed some coffee and vegan baked goods then went home to storm up some design ideas for the Living Forest Community.