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Fernie Food Action and backyard hens update
Submitted by Wildsight Elk Valley
“Hens are pets with benefits,” proclaimed Gaetane Carignan from the Community Energy Association, presenting to the City of Fernie’s Committee of the Whole meeting on January 17.
She and Dawn Deydey from the Wildsight Elk Valley Branch, co-authors of the 2021 Fernie Food Action Strategy, delivered a progress report on the strategy for the new Fernie Mayor and council, and requested an update from the city on a previous recommendation to open backyard hen ownership community-wide, and announced an upcoming, free webinar on February 16.
The 2021 Fernie Food Action Strategy, funded by the Real Estate Foundation of BC, was written after extensive research, community engagement, and consultation of food security experts, to support a community-level, resilient local food system. The strategy includes recommendations and examples of actions to integrate food systems into existing municipal services through food-positive, enabling bylaws, policies, and land-use decisions.
“Fernie has many examples of supporting local food initiatives,” remarked Deydey, “The Community EcoGarden, Fernie FoodShare, Fernie Family Garden, Salvation Army Food Bank, Cold Climate Seed Library, and Mountain Market are examples of successful initiatives that are already strengthening the resilience of our local food system.”
One of four strategy recommendations is to allow backyard hens city-wide. The document reports that over 25 B.C. municipalities currently permit backyard hens, including the neighbourhood of West Fernie.
The strategy also includes examples of animal control bylaws from the communities of Revelstoke, Terrace, Smithers, Kamloops, and Squamish. Since releasing the report, regional momentum for backyard hens has been building, with hens now permitted in both Sparwood and Elkford.
Reviewing the benefits and challenges of allowing backyard hens, Carignan noted, “Not only do hens provide nutritious eggs, they are also a child-safe livestock-raising opportunity that helps us connect to our food sources, and help recycle our food waste into a valuable soil amendment and garden fertilizer. The potential challenges of hens in an urban context have already been successfully dealt with in other similar B.C. municipalities.
“If the goal is to encourage greater food system resilience” stated Carignan “Fernie needs enabling policy to reduce unnecessary obstacles and barriers to urban food production.”
City staff responded to the presentation with an update that the animal control bylaw to allow backyard hens has been completed and is currently being reviewed internally. The community can expect the first draft of the bylaw to be brought back to Council this spring.
During the presentation, the pair invited Mayor Nic Milligan and council, staff and the public, to participate in an upcoming Backyard Hens Webinar on February 16.
Presented through financial support from the Community Food Action Initiative, in cooperation with Interior Health, the free webinar on backyard hens will include a panel discussion. Community members can register for the upcoming webinar and learn more about the Fernie Food Action Strategy at www.wildsight.ca/foodaction.
