Local Leader Spotlight

This local leader is working to turn Vancouver’s False Creek into a marine park

Meet Zaida Schneider, a retired TV journalist that co-founded the nonprofit False Creek Friends. Zaida and the team at False Creek Friends are working with marine scientists and urban planners to restore the False Creek marine environment.

Read on to learn more about Zaida Schneider and how he became involved with this work. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Meet Zaida Schneider, a retired TV journalist that co-founded the nonprofit False Creek Friends. (Photo supplied by Zaida Schneider).

What got you interested in marine conservation?

When I got out of the TV news business 20 years ago, I felt somewhat corrupt and needed a deep cleanse. The life of a TV reporter in those days was rewarding, financially and professionally, but at the end of my career I needed a serious reset.

So, my wife Wendy and I bought a sailboat and spent the next ten years cruising tropical waters, yoyo-ing between Southern California and Southern Mexico, heading south when the hurricane season was over, and coming back north before the big winds showed up again.

When we returned to Vancouver in 2018, I bought a tug-style powerboat and moved aboard. It was very pleasant in most ways but I was surprised that no one seemed in control of False Creek’s marine environment. Usually when gunkholing from one coastal community to another, there was always some park ranger or port captain who would visit soon after my anchor went down. Along the California coast, there were always rules about how long you could stay, where it was legal to moor, and if you pumped your sewage overboard, you could find your boat impounded. In some places, like the very lovely islands offshore La Paz, Mexico, a ranger would show up, collect fees, and hand you a receipt and a list of rules. And if you were new to the area, the ranger might share where there was a good place to buy groceries or connect to the Internet. It was a welcome greeting. Knowing the rules meant the environment was safe.

Coming to False Creek was something of a shocker. No ranger, no welcome, no guidance to what you could or could not do. Yes, there was a token requirement to get an anchoring permit, but it was at best casually enforced. (As of December 2024, of the 51 boats at anchor, only 5 have valid anchoring permits.)

It seemed, and remains, totally absurd. The superficially gorgeous, eye-popping grandeur of the Salish Sea lapping at the ground floors of gorgeous high-rise towers seemed like an urban paradise, without any custodian or sea steward in sight. No official came out in a government-issued zodiac to ask for the ownership papers for my boat, or prove I had a way to dispose of my sewage properly.

My sense of civic propriety, based on years of political reporting, was insulted. Why was there a total absence of regulatory oversight? Who or what was in charge? No park rangers, sea stewards, or even a harbormaster?

What action did you take and what inspired it?

In the summer of 2020, I took my first photo of damage that had been caused by visiting boaters. It was a section of the seawall stone cladding, just below False Creek Elementary. Some visiting boat owner had removed the stones so they could drag up their dinghies more easily and with less damage to their precious small craft. I started watching this, and in a few months there were several episodes of visiting boaters “reconstructing” the seawall for their comfort.

I reported it to a City official responsible for foreshore assets, and then started sending him photos to the point where I began to realize I was becoming a zealot.

I took lots of photos of boats that had run aground, and then been abandoned. Each one was like a personal insult. And then I had an idea. Suppose that False Creek could become similar to those very lovely islands offshore La Paz, Mexico, that had become a UNESCO World Heritage Site? Might that happen here?

That hole in the seawall – that deliberate vandalism, the contempt for this precious marine environment evinced by boat groundings and the spillage of diesel fuel, gasoline, antifreeze and sewage. There had to be a way to get people to appreciate that this marine treasure needed to get some love. A lot of love.

And so, the idea of a False Creek Marine Park was born. And not just as an inanimate, legalistic entity, but as a living natural entity, with its own intelligence, and deserving of the right to be protected and loved. False Creek Friends Society was officially incorporated in 2021.

Can you tell us about the work you’re doing with the False Creek Friends Society?

We think False Creek can be so much more than it is today. Since industrialization began to disappear in the 1960’s, this sliver of the majestic Salish Sea has improved significantly. But sadly, it still faces barriers regarding its capacity to support a natural range of life. Can humans swim in it? No, the B.C. government says. People should not get more than their hands wet in it. Think about this the next time a heat dome creates an existential need for shelter.

We believe that in a few years this will change. It will take widespread public support, and importantly, leadership by Indigenous governments.

For us, the most compelling path forward is by way of a National Urban Marine Park because there is precedent and there are evolving models. The one that has inspired us deeply is the Plymouth Sound National Urban Marine Park in the UK.

And some cities have managed to “rewild” industrial urban wastelands. One of the most successful is the High Line in New York City. Like False Creek, the High Line was an industrial corridor to move raw materials into local factories, but unlike False Creek, it was an elevated steel and concrete railroad that cut Manhattan in two. Now it is a spectacular ribbon of parkland that is visited by 8 million people a year.

False Creek is a marine ribbon and, despite popular opinion, far from dead. We work with marine scientists and urban planners from all of Vancouver’s major universities to understand what needs to be done to restore it. We have partnerships with scientific research teams, such as the Hakai Institute, and have allies in many major conservation NGOs. And we count on neighbors to become involved in restoration activities.

Our goal is to have False Creek obtain protected status by 2030, hopefully as a National Urban Marine Park, or other suitable administrative regime. We are confident we will be successful.

How did Sierra Club BC support you?

I do not know exactly how it happened, but I received an invitation from SCBC to attend something called Sierra Club BC’s Mother Tree Local Leaders Program. In a series of amazing gatherings, the first a dinner with Reuben George of Tsleil-Waututh Nation, his message of interconnection and “kinship” among all beings was powerful and laid the groundwork for a more ‘spiritual’ approach to conservation through the twin lens of environmental and social justice and an introduction to “two-eyed seeing,” which braids Indigenous knowledges with scientific investigation. In eight gatherings including a stroll among Douglas Fir trees in Stanley Park with Sierra Club BC’s Campaigns Director Dr. Shelley Luce, a traditional water ceremony with Rueben George, and others, I was able to meet with other environmental leaders, create allyships, and share resources for mutual benefit.

In particular it has been tremendously enriching to have made real friendships with SCBC’s Shelley Luce, Mahalia Reiner, and Ascher Goodman that are still deepening.

A sunken boat in False Creek. To help fix situations like these, False Creek Friends is hoping to create something like a “False Creek Conservation Council” composed of community groups, NGOs, stakeholders, businesses and institutions to help governments develop a long range plan to remediate its marine ecosystem, make it more accessible and environmentally sustainable for the benefit of both human and non-human communities. (Photo by Zaida Schneider).

Are you looking for additional support?

Yes, False Creek Friends is hoping to create something like a “False Creek Conservation Council” composed of community groups, NGOs, stakeholders, businesses and institutions to help governments develop a long range plan to remediate its marine ecosystem, make it more accessible and environmentally sustainable for the benefit of both human and non-human communities.

We believe that SCBC will be instrumental in helping us take the next few steps. Its leadership in promoting leadership is a magnanimous commitment to breaking down “environmental silos”. For too long, the paucity of support from government agencies and philanthropies has produced a toxic ecosystem where NGOs have to compete with one another for limited funding, we become competitors instead of allies. SCBC has shown us another way forward and we hope that other major organizations will join in helping one another rather than competing with one another.

So far it is just an idea. But we are a very junior organization and do not have established relationships (yet) with Indigenous Nations. We are working very hard on this and we realize that nothing will happen without Indigenous consent, participation, leadership, and importantly Traditional Knowledge and knowledge keepers. We hope to work towards meaningful relationships with Indigenous Peoples built upon trust.

We can really use your help. Please write us at info@falsecreekfriends.org