Lambert Lake

As some of you may have heard, my wife and I have entered a definitive agreement to purchase the quarter section centred around Lambert Lake. We're a little shy, especially in person, but we're very excited about joining the Lasqueti community, and we look forward to meeting everyone as we work towards becoming full time residents over the next few years. Given the community's interest in changes like this, we figured it would be a good idea for us to introduce ourselves, and talk about our intent for the property.

My name is David, and I've lived in many different places in Canada over the years, including Victoria, Bella Coola, Castlegar, Squamish, and Burnaby. I currently work as a technical writer for a U.S. technology company, but I've been involved in a wide range of fields including forest rehabilitation, house construction, GIS, and electronics and communication technology. My wife, Laura, joins us from Los Angeles, where she is currently a student at Cal State Northridge, working on degrees in Geology and Mathematics, and where we are raising our 13 year old daughter.

We feel very fortunate to be able to purchase this property — We've been looking at properties on Lasqueti for several years, and everything came together. For the first few years, we'll be living on the property part time, mostly in the winter and summer, but also here and there depending on our work and school schedules. Over time, we plan to spend more and more time on the Island as we transition towards becoming full-time residents.

We've always dreamed about building a home made of natural materials, that fits into the local ecology and rhythms of the land, and this is our chance. We're going to take this slowly, spend lots of time on the land to find the right site that calls for us, and we expect that the construction of our home will be spread over five years at a minimum. In the mean time, we'll be repairing and staying in one of the existing buildings on the property.

As new residents of Lasqueti, we're open to suggestions and feedback about what we're looking at doing, and we wanted to share some principles of ecological sustainability that we have agreed to commit ourselves to:

1) We shall place upon the property a covenant prohibiting any subdivision of the quarter section except for further conservation purposes.

2) Any construction and clearing done on the property shall minimize disturbances to unique and/or endangered ecosystems.

3) Any construction shall prefer the use of local materials (Cob, local lumber, etc.)

4) We are committed to a measurable reduction of fossil fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, and we shall invest in solar power and the use of human-powered transportation (we bike!)

5) We shall minimize the production of waste, we shall compost and recycle, and we shall ensure that any remaining waste is safely disposed of, off-island as needed.

6) We shall support local businesses and participate in the local economy.

We're very excited about this next phase in our lives, and we look forward to hearing from everyone here living on this amazing island that we will soon be able to share as a home.

Peace,

David & Laura