Champions of the Environment – Donor Series
Ellen Zimmerman
From the Kootenays to Paris and back
 Ellen Zimmerman can’t go into Golden without people asking her about her recent trip to Paris. Of course, this wasn’t just any spring time in Paris. Ellen was there, on International Women’s Day, to accept a prestigious Terre de Femmes award.
Since 2002, the Yves Rocher Foundation has been giving the Terre de Femmes awards to inspirational women who lead actions that benefit nature and humanity. This year, for the first time, Canadian women were eligible. Ellen was ranked first among three Canadians to be recognized as “Women of the Earth” for her work conserving the Columbia Wetlands.
Ellen has been an active advocate for the Columbia Wetlands since the eighties, in recent years as a program manager for Wildsight. (She is also a director for CPAWS-BC).
She has sought West Coast’s assistance many times. “West Coast ‘raises the bar’ for the environmental movement,” she says. “Their support has helped citizens be viewed as a credible voice in processes that are often like the worst possible old boys’ clubs.”
Significant harm and benefit can be done to the environment through legal and regulatory avenues. From her own work, Ellen gives two examples:
“For years we’ve been working on the issue of boating regulations on the Columbia Wetlands, and fighting challenges – when we win, and I believe we will, it will be the first time boating regulations have been used for environmental protection on such a vast waterway – there is the potential to set a precedent that will affect all of Canada.”
Wildsight is also fighting an application to change the boundaries of Columbia Lake Provincial Park in order to allow for a road to access private property. “If legislative changes are made to a Class A park to accommodate a developer, then potentially not a park in BC is safe,” says Ellen.
These are just two of many cases where it’s critical for environmentalists to have a credible expert voice in complex processes.
Ellen is a board member of the Golden Women’s Resource Center and in the past, worked as a community legal advocate. She saw what happened when funding was pulled from legal services. “It was next to impossible for people to navigate the system and protect their rights without that critical resource that gave them a voice.”
She believes there would be similar repercussions if West Coast Environmental Law ceased to exist – “without their training and expertise it would be a lot harder for citizens to navigate the system.” And so she started donating to West Coast.
Ellen is planning on retiring soon, which is why winning the Terre de Femmes award now is particularly satisfying. She won’t stop being an environmentalist – just stop being a 9 to 5 one. She’s looking forward to days when she can put a “Gone Birding” sign on her front door.
But her impending retirement has led her to reflect on a longstanding concern she’s had about the environmental movement. “We need to get better at mentoring; we tend to get so caught up in the fight of the moment that we don’t think about the future,” she worries. “We’re talking about a situation where the issues are endemic; when we are successful it is temporary at best, when we lose it’s often forever. The environment can’t afford us not to have troops at the ready. We all need to take the time to teach others how to do this critical work.”
And that is another reason why Ellen supports West Coast – by providing tools, education and resources, West Coast Environmental Law is helping concerned citizens become effective environmental advocates.
Being an advocate for the environment is “almost a Zen exercise,” says Ellen. “You need thick skin and the ability to bounce back from constant frustration and defeat and keep on going.” But, she continues, “We are fortunate to have so much worth protecting.”
West Coast thanks Ellen and all of our donors. Their donations help us give BC’s environmental champions the resources they need. To become a donor, please contact us at 604-684-7378 or online at
www.wcel.org.
— Shoni Field
Contents:
The gift that keeps giving, and giving, and giving...
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