'With sadness,' a distinguished warrior leaves the Sierra Club

Stephen Hume
Vancouver Sun
October 11, 2006

Vicky Husband, among the most decorated warriors in British Columbia's environmental movement, has resigned from the Sierra Club after being ousted from the organization's conservation chair.

Lindsay Cole, chair of the board, confirmed Tuesday that Husband left the organization after "a conversation" in which its directors outlined "a new strategic direction."

Kathryn Molloy, the club's executive director, said the board decided Husband's present marine campaign would be a "better fit" with another organization and "her post as conservation chair more or less dissolved."

She said Husband's campaigns are heavily science-based while the club wants to be more "communications-based and people-focused."

Husband declined to comment on either the Sierra Club's decision or her subsequent resignation from a board position with the Sierra Club of B.C. Foundation.

"Let's just say it is with great sadness that I leave my role with the Sierra Club after 18 years," she said.

Husband has been the public face of the Sierra Club's B.C. chapter for almost two decades, serving as a director with national and B.C. boards while winning international recognition for campaigns she planned and led.

She holds the Order of Canada, the Order of B.C., a United Nations Global 500 Award, an honorary doctorate from the University of Victoria and a special service award from the Sierra Club's U.S.-based parent body, and is an honorary citizen of Victoria.

"She is the founding mother of environmentalism in B.C. She's had the respect of everyone she's dealt with and there are virgin forests with trees still standing because of Vicky Husband. There are millions of salmon swimming in our waters today because of her," said Terry Glavin, a prize-winning environmental author.

Glavin advised Husband on oceans policy issues while she was leading the Sierra Club's marine conservation campaign, ruffling feathers in the fishing industry by demanding strong protections for groundfish and for endangered salmon runs like the Cultus Lake and Sakinaw sockeye and Thompson River coho and steelhead.

By way of contrast, the Sierra Club's website posts a direct link to sites promoting a commercial fishing company, which the club cites as a supporter.

For almost a generation, Husband was prominent in virtually every major environmental story in B.C.: Protecting the Nitinat Triangle of lakes on the west coast of Vancouver Island; bringing the debate over Clayoquot Sound to international attention; protecting the Carmanah, Walbran, Tahshish-Kwois and Tsitika watersheds; protecting the whale-rubbing beaches of Robson Bight; forcing moratoriums that eventually set aside much of the Great Bear Rainforest; defending the Tatshenshini watershed from mining; establishing the Khutzeymateen grizzly bear sanctuary and the Gwaii Haanas national park reserve in the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Among her less-known but important initiatives was the Sierra Club's role in developing a satellite-based mapping system that provided accurate independent inventories of old-growth forests with which to challenge industrial logging plans.

Before her involvement with the Sierra Club, Husband was active with the Friends of Ecological Reserves in fighting for legislation that protects sensitive and scientifically significant ecosystems. She's a director of The Land Conservancy of B.C.

The provincial government's website outlining the reasons for Husband's order of B.C. describes her as a passionate defender of the province's natural heritage.

"She has become for many the outspoken voice of environmental reason -- speaking straight to the point with courage and determination, fuelled both by the science and by personal knowledge of the salmon, trees, bears, people and places of our province," the brief biography says. "Vicky has worked alongside others, an irreplaceable source of inspiration and support for her colleagues, a tireless champion for biodiversity and natural places in the halls of government, school gymnasiums and the daily news."

In August, as her relationship with the Sierra Club was unravelling, Husband was asked to deliver the prestigious Birgit and Robert Bateman Bursary lecture at Royal Roads University on the basis of her "contributions to conservation and public education locally, nationally and internationally [that] have created a lasting impact on society."

Gee, if that doesn't meet the criterion for "communications-based and people-focused," I wonder what does.