Remembering Ed Pedersen 1930 – 2025

Published by Helen O’Brian on 04/05/2025 04/06/2025

It was around the kitchen table at Ed Pedersen’s house on Georgina Point Road that the Mayne Island Conservancy was born.

In the early 2000’s there was a threat of commercial logging on the ridge of Mount Parke by the managers of the 240 acre Glen Echo property. Most Mayne Islanders and visitors assumed that the CRD Mount Parke Regional Park, established in 1994, protected the entire ridge, but in fact only a small portion was within the park’s boundaries. Early conversations with the owners, who were in receivership, about selling the 52 acres on the ridge were positive. The CRD was willing to contribute two thirds of the money needed to protect the ridge, if the remainder could be raised within the community.

Around Ed’s table, a small group of concerned Mayne Islanders, including myself, began discussing how we could work with the community and the CRD to successfully purchase the land. In 2003 we registered the Friends of Mount Parke (FOMP) as a not-for-profit society with Ed as Chair, and went to work.

The money was successfully (and quite easily) raised through pledges and outright donations received under the umbrella of The Land Trust Alliance of BC. However, as we progressed, the owner decided that in order to protect the ridge, the entire 240 acre property must be purchased. This proposition was well beyond the scope of FOMP, and the project was shelved.

In 2005, the FOMP directors decided to change the name from one that implied a one-issue organization to the Mayne Island Conservancy Society in order to reflect a more comprehensive organization working to protect the ecology of Mayne Island. Ed remained president throughout this transition and until 2006, after which time he stayed involved as a director for another 3 years until 2009. In October 2020, the entire ridge was finally protected with the purchase of Lot 7 (113 acres) by the CRD, made possible in part by a financial contribution from the Conservancy.

Some views from the ridge of Mt. Parke, views available to the public because of the work done by Ed Pedersen and other Conservancy pioneers. Photos by Lisa Siddons.

Ed was a jovial, outspoken, no-nonsense sort of man, a former teacher of history with a loud and persuasive voice, always open to discussions and conversations on a wide range of subjects. He brought a great deal to FOMP and then to the Conservancy. Of the founders, only two of us remain on Mayne Island, Peter Askin and myself. It is important to keep these stories alive and to remember Ed, who helped with the shaping of the present Conservancy.

In conversation with Ed’s son Alan, I learned that the “cottage” Ed and his wife Dunella bought in 1976 was previously owned by Richard Hall, an agriculturalist from Guernsey. It was the site of his first large hothouses, built about 1912, where he grew daffodils and tomatoes for market. Hall subsequently moved his hothouse operations in the 1920’s to Miners Bay. The cottage was donated to the Firefighters for a training burn after salvaging some of the boards for use in the old schoolhouse, now the Paddy Lambert Hall. After building their new house, Ed and Dunella continued, without a hothouse, to successfully grow a variety of fruits and vegetables, winning many ribbons at the Fall Fair.

Alan also reminded me how Ed used his telescope and bull horn to warn boaters who were illegally fishing in the Rockfish Conservation Area he looked out on from his shoreline house.. This he did independently, but it was an important contribution, and indicative of his passion for protecting the natural world. Thank you Ed. You are fondly remembered for all that you contributed to the Conservancy, and to Mayne Island.