Name game
What’s in a name? Take Paradise Valley for example.
History has it that Paradise Valley was named by in the 1930s by Tom Lambert and a Mrs. McQuarrie. The name supposedly arose as an off hand sarcastic remark about the area following a destructive forest fire in 1918.
Sarcastic name aside, the area today is a near paradise—with horse farms, orchards and shady exhibition grounds home to the weekly Open Air Farmer’s Market.
Names have impact. And whether or not a name, like Paradise Valley, originally fit it is known that a person, place or thing can grow to suit a misplaced moniker.
For example take Lot 450, which includes Willingdon Beach and Millenium Park. Its name is hardly one that evokes its significance as Powell River’s Stanley Park.
Lot 450 is an area of importance to the people who use it. With heron nests, and endangered snails, the area is a sanctuary within a stones throw of Powell River’s main shopping street.
Protestors have been fighting to keep a part of Lot 450 from being logged. However, without a more evocative name it might be difficult to garner wider public support, according to Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance who recently spoke at a public forum in Powell River.
Lot 450 is a name derived from a technical report not an entomology to be proud of—a site so beloved deserves a more fitting name.
How about a naming contest? If one set up by BC Ferries for three new vessels can come to consensus on monikers, in spite of receiving joke submissions including “Christy Clark Ark,” why not Lot 450?
Despite the silly names that arose during the BC Ferries’ contest, everyone knows the importance of names. A baby without a name is a baby without an identity. If Lot 450 is Powell River’s baby to protect, it needs a more appealing name.
Wu spoke of naming an area outside Port Renfrew, Avatar Grove in honour of the top movie that season, and garnering enough public support to be protected. Perhaps a name like Minion Meadows, Avengers Wood, Magic Mike Thicket or Jurassic Copse would do the trick.
Jokes aside, there are so many trails and tracks in Powell River’s forests, from the Spaghetti Bowl to Dipper’s Down, that it shouldn’t be hard to find a name for Lot 450. The question is, why Lot 450 has remained named thus for so long?
