By Lynda Richard

“The Good The Bad & The Bug-ily”

Do you know that it takes seven years or longer to develop a new variety of daffodil? How do they get the pollen off of a bee? How do you encourage the “good” bugs and discourage the unwanted pests in your garden? Find out at the 87th annual Bradner Flower Show. 

This year we are celebrating all of Mother Nature’s critters that inhabit our garden and we are hoping to bring you a show that is interesting, informative and fun!  Our guests and activities at this year's show will help you understand some of the aspects of growing flowers and vegetables with a focus on how we can help our gardens naturally, and without chemicals. We will have something different and of interest for everyone each day of the show.

Join us Friday, April 10th, when Jim Matteoni of Kwantlen Polythenic University and the Institute For Sustainable Horticulture will be our special guest to open the show. After the opening, Jim will be on hand just outside the doors in the “Speaker’s Corner” to answer all of your gardening questions. There will also be a performance by our famed and much loved Bradner Elementary Handbell Choir. Other special guests throughout the weekend include Bert the Mole Man, Chris Bodnar of Glen Valley Organic Farm and Jim Sadowski, an expert on Mason bees. 

In addition to the hundred's of varieties of daffodils that local growers present each year, there will be plant sales, crafts, and lots of food.  On Saturday and Sunday we'll expand our venue to include additional displays in the Bradner School gym that will include Gerry Powers of the Central Valley Naturalists who specializes in birds of prey, The Langley Spinners & Weavers and too many more to list! There will also be musical performances from recording artist Ryan McAllister and the always lively Interurban Band.

The show dates are April 10, 11 & 12 from 10 am to 5 pm daily at Bradner Hall, 5305 Bradner Rd, Abbotsford. Admission is still only $2. For more information visit Facebook.com/BradnerHall, [email protected] or call 604-856-8441.  Please note: this is a community fundraiser, in addition, all proceeds from cut flowers will be donated to Abbotsford Regional Hospital.

HEADS UP BRADNER! 
We are looking for donations of home baked goods for the Tea Room. If you can spare the time your donation is badly needed very much appreciated. You can drop off baked goods at Bradner Hall all day long, the day prior to the show, and any time during the show. 

By Brian Kingman

Some fifty people, a mix of older and younger folks attended the viewing of the University of the Fraser Valley produced film, “Directly Affected”. The film presented a slick overview on the possible dangers of shipping crude oil via a pipeline to the Pacific Coast for export to many global destinations. The film was quite professional, but the event organization was not as smooth due to the absence of a microphone, some special guests and a somewhat lengthy ceremonial procedure. There were many questions from the audience that were unable to be answered due to a Q&A panel who seemed unprepared and in my opinion, ill informed in regard to several questions that were asked about the actual workings of the current existing Trans Mountain pipeline.

There were several people in the audience that could have contributed meaningful answers, but this venue was by nature, against the construction of the second line and surely the facts surrounding the answers to questions such as separating the chemical ingredients in the Diluted Bitumen; or more commonly known as Dilbit; a bitumen diluted with one or more lighter petroleum products, typically natural-gas condensates such as naptha gas. Diluting bitumen Tar Sands crude makes it much easier to transport in pipelines. Other questions posed and unanswered included basic ones such as the depth in the ground of the existing pipe. 

Some panel members reported a doom-and-gloom on the horizon for not only B.C. but also for Canada and the world too. One panel member discussed the risk of a pipeline oil spill that could pollute the Fraser River and would wipe out the world’s largest Salmon runs. Disasters do happen but there was no discussion of the tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil traveling through the lower mainland daily by tanker cars on a train carriers that pose much greater chance of a disastrous oil spill than what a pipeline presents. 

In my opinion, that was a focus point that the environmental expert panel could have made some compelling arguments to gain political will that is needed to have the cooperative environmentalists gathered last night and gain the needed credibility for each of their specific organizations. 

By Brian Kingman

On March 11th, the Abbotsford based activist group known as Pipe-up will host a twenty minute video event called 'Directly Affected'. There are actually some 800 landowners in the Fraser Valley that will be truly Directly Affected when Kinder-Morgan/Trans Mountain commences construction of the new larger pipeline in 2016. The National Energy Board (NEB) regulatory body is well underway and actually closer to winding down as it began in December 2013.

I am the Secretary Treasurer of a 90 member landowner association using the acronym CGLAP; short for the Collaborative Group of Landowners Affected by Pipelines. We are a recognized society who consists of Directly Affected landowners, many with property in Mount Lehman and the Bradner - Jubilee region of Abbotsford who, by the terms of the NEB are the recognized Directly Affected landowners. I understand that Pipe-up (pro-information pro-environment united people) are using the title of the video as a protest to the NEB who only allowed 400 applicants to be Intervenors as they laid out a qualification regulation to apply for Intervenor status that made it very difficult for residents not on or near the expansion project to achieve the official voice to be heard by the NEB in the Intervenor role.

Even though CGLAP is not against the pipeline, it is, in my opinion, very important that residents of the Fraser Valley attend this function at UFV on March 11th to show concern to Trans Mountain that residents, no matter where they live in the Fraser Valley have the right to be concerned and if needbe, voice their opinions on the expansion project. Apathy will be the message Trans Mountain receives if there is a poor turnout to this event. 

The event will include an expert panel including Chief Dalton Silver of the Sumas First Nation, film director Zack Embree, UFV agriculture expert Lisa Powell, Lynn Perrin of PIPE-UP and Raincoast biologist Misty MacDuffee.

March 11th, 2015 - 7:00 - 9:00 pm - Admission by donation. 
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), 33844 King Road, Abbotsford BC