File consists of transcripts of speeches by W. Arthur Benson entitled "Demands for and of the Land" and "Land Information and its Relevance to Planning".
Series consists of works written or collected by G. Gary Runka.
The 2020.4.2.1 Speeches sub-series includes manuscripts of speeches written by G. Gary Runka.
The 2020.4.2.2 G. Gary Runka Writing sub-series includes publications, manuscripts, and drafts of worked written, co-written, or edited by G. Gary Runka over the course of his career.
The 2020.4.2.3 Collected Works sub-series includes works collected by G. Gary Runka. Runka collected a comprehensive resource library of publications, reports, and rare grey literature that reflected the depth and breadth of natural resource issues in British Columbia. Material from this resource library was intrinsically tied to Runka's work; selected unique items from the resource library are contained within this sub-series to contextualize the scope of land management issues.
Subseries consists of speeches written and delivered by G. Gary Runka over the course of his career. Runka's earliest speeches relate to the Canada Land Inventory. While at the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC), Runka was often asked to present to various audiences on BC's unique agricultural land preservation program, the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). After leaving the ALC and setting up Land Sense Ltd., Runka continued to make presentations on the ALR, both specifically and in the context of rural land use conflict in general. Runka's key message was very consistent - the importance of first understanding the inherent biophysical messages of the land; then recognizing the complex challenges of sorting out who gets to use which rural lands for what purposes. Runka's speeches were often accompanied with 35mm slides from his slide collection. Unfortunately, however, the speeches do not include a listing of the slides that were used, although a notebook remains that contains references to slides used in presentations.
Item is an original copy of "Spallumcheen: The Visual Environment" by W. C. Yeomans, Landscape Architect created for the B.C. Land Commission.
Item is a photocopied version of "Soil Survey of the North Okanagan Valley" Interim Report by P.N. Sprout & C.C. Kelley for the BC Department of Agriculture.
Item is an original copy of "Soil Resources of the Smithers-Hazelton Area" by G.G. Runka at the Soil Survey Division, BC Department of Agriculture. Includes two accompanying maps.
This CD-ROM contains two digital images depicting a soil profile and a mapped agricultural capability landscape.
Item is a copy of "Soil Productivity and the Potential Food Supply of the United States: An Address before the Academy of Political Science at the Annual meeting on Food" by Bradfield, R.
File consists of correspondence and draft Strategic Farmland Task Force policy position documents.
Image depicts an aerial view of what appears to be a small farm, possibly in the McGregor Canyon.
Photograph depicts small building speculated to be a house in a farm yard. Frozen water crosses midground, opposite shore in distance.
Photograph depicts small building speculated to be a house in a farm yard. Frozen water crosses midground, opposite shore in distance.
Gary Runka was a hobbyist photographer and documented his work and personal life through photography as he travelled across every region of British Columbia. This slide collection documents the evolution of British Columbia communities and regions over a 30 year period. Gary Runka's core interest was land and changing land uses. Many of these slides tell a story of urban edge and/or natural resource compatibility/conflict. There are also a substantial number of slides related to soils, including soil profiles, soil erosion and land (topography, drainage etc.) capability for agriculture. The collection also includes specific client-related photos, tied to Land Sense Ltd. client file job numbers.
The collection also documents personal travels and hiking trips throughout British Columbia and backpacking in some historic areas, such as West Coast Trail and Cape Scott. These slides also represent land evolution over time, including extent of alpine glaciation or biodiversity/plant species inhabiting the area.
Floppy consists of G.G. Runka Land Sense Ltd. client file records for jobs.
Floppy directories and file listing:
- CORK.DOC
- INFOME3.DOC
- OPED2.DOC
- SIXMILE.DOC
- SIXMILE.ED
- SIXMILE.FAX
- SIXMILE.FX2
- SIXMILE.LTR
- SIXMILE.MAC
- SIXMILE.PRE
- SIXMILE.REP
- SIXMILE.TTL
Item is a copy of "Silviculture - a site degradation consideration?".
Herd of sheep grazes in ditch. Gravel road in foreground, fence and trees in background.
File consists of a speech given by Gary Runka entitled "Sharing the Land Resource - 1990 and Beyond" for Symposium: Local Agriculture, 1990 and Beyond (CNC, FAS-UBC & BCMAF) - November 28,1981.
Commentary on this speech by Barry Smith of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands:
"This speech starts by looking at land philosophically and states (p. 2): "We sometimes need to be reminded that we are borrowing the land resource from the next generation".
The speech includes several important points made with clarity. A few examples include:
- the need to provide adequate linkages and lines of communication between agencies and different levels of government;
- while understanding the land is prerequisite to its wise and proper use - we still have incomplete and small scale inventory work available;
- nature's laws affirm rather than prohibit. If you violate her laws, you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury.... and hangman;
- do our planning and direct our growth from within the confines of natural systems to take advantage of their attributes and avoid their negative aspects; and
- we need to not only understand land and water ecosystems but the people complex as well - and a great deal of patience and interdisciplinary compromise is needed.
A number of issues are reviewed:
- The agricultural - forestry interface
- Urban dreams meet rural realities
- The challenge of educating an increasingly urbanized population
- Escalating energy costs
- The competition for water"
File consists of correspondence, research material, and drafts regarding Runka's participation in the SFU Research Workshop on Environmental Ethics. Includes a copy of Runka's paper, "Response to Environmental Management as a Bargaining Process: For Better or Worse?".
Image depicts a type of gate system for the river water, possibly controlling irrigation, located somewhere in Seton Portage, B.C.
File consists of an inaugural Summer 1993 issue of a newsletter from the Seedy 2000 Club of Vanderhoof about heritage seeds.
Item is an original Canada Department of Agriculture Publication 1147 entitled "Seeding Forest Ranges in the Dry Belt of British Columbia".
Unidentified man standing next to farming equipment in a newly ploughed field on the Scholander Farm.
Item is a copy of "Scheduling of Irrigation" by Brownlee, C.H. and J.C. Wilcox.
Photograph depicts a Sawyer Massey traction engine in Nanton, Alberta. The device parallel and topside of the boiler to heat feed water. The water tank is small so it must have had a water cart in constant attendance.
Photograph depicts a Sawyer Massey steam engine in Nanton, Alberta. It was built in Hamilton, Ontario. It has a single cylinder and large fire box for burning wood or straw.
Photograph depicts H.F. Glassey standing between two women. Sarah stands on right, holding umbrella. Cleared area in front of fence crosses midground, forest in background.
Floppy consists of G.G. Runka Land Sense Ltd. client file records for jobs.
Floppy directories and file listing:
- Dec 2001.lst.doc
Typed caption glued to album page directly below photograph reads: "21. Rich vegetables and wonderful crop near Fort Fraser." Photograph depicts farmland; a house and a wooden fence visible in background. Photographer: Dominion Stock & Bond Corporation.
Typed caption glued to album page directly below photograph reads: "18. Rich farmland near Fort Fraser." Photograph depicts farmland surrounded by a wooden fence. Photographer: Dominion Stock & Bond Corporation.
Typed caption glued to album page directly below photograph reads: "47. Rich farm land at Fort Fraser." Photograph depicts farmland surrounded by wooden fencing. Photographer: Dominion Stock & Bond Corporation.
Typed caption glued to album page directly below photograph reads: "45. Rich Farmland at Fort Fraser." Photograph depicts a cleared section of land and a log rail boundary line (?) Photographer: Dominion Stock & Bond Corporation.
Typed caption glued to album page directly below photograph reads: "26. Rich farm-land and crops near Fort Fraser." Photograph depicts hay stacks in a field situated at the base of a small forested mountain. Photographer: Dominion Stock & Bond Corporation.
Typed caption glued to album page directly below photograph reads: "34. Rhubarb near Fort Fraser." Photograph depicts a close up of a crop of rhubarb. Photographer: Dominion Stock & Bond Corporation.
Typed caption glued to album page directly below photograph reads: "42. Rich growth of rhubarb at your kitchen door." Photograph depicts a large rhubarb plant at the side of a house next to a doorway, kitchen utensils and firewood also visible against the house. Photographer: Dominion Stock & Bond Corporation.
Item is an original copy of the 2010 "Review of the Agricultural Land Commission - Moving Forward: A Strategic Vision of the Agricultural Land Commission for Future Generations" submitted by Richard Bullock, Chair of the Provincial Agricultural Land Commission.
File consists of a speech given by Gary Runka entitled "Resource Use Conflicts - The Fight Over What's Left" at the Canadian Bar Association Winter Meeting, Harrison Hot Springs.
Commentary on this speech by Barry Smith of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands:
"The panel discussion that GGR was participating in was entitled "Resource Use Conflicts - The Fight over What's Left".
GGR makes the point that without legislative steps to preserve agricultural land in BC, what would be left in terms of farmland in not too many years would be "nothing at all". After this reinforcement of the need for the Land Commission Act he explains briefly the designation of the ALRs and comments at length on the different types of applications.
It is explained that the ALR is based upon agricultural capabilities of the land:
"In other words, a soil/climate combination. The ALR is aimed at preserving agricultural land in the long term. Factors, such as parcel size, economic viability, current market conditions, ownership etc. play little or no role in the decision-making process."
In light of a considerable amount of the Commission's workload being focused on the processing of applications GGR remarks that:
"If we are sincere in our attempts to preserve an agricultural land base for future generations of British Columbians, we must regard the ALR as only a first step of many that are needed."
A flow chart is referred to but not included in the package."
Item is an original copy of "Resource Planning in the Ministry of Forests: A Glossary of Past and Present Plans" by K. Ness, BC Ministry of Forests.
Item is an original copy of "Resource Management Course for Certificate in Band Planning" prepared by G.G. Runka Land Sense Ltd. for the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning.
Item is an original unbound copy of "Report to the Legislature by the Select Standing Committee on Agriculture: Phase IV Research Report" by the Select Standing Committee on Agriculture of the BC Legislative Assembly.
Item is a "Report on the Victoria Symposium: The Appropriate Use of Land", held November 28-29, 1975 at the Provincial Museum in Victoria, British Columbia.
File consists of a speech given by Gary Runka entitled "Relationship Between A.R.D.A. Soil Capability Ratings and Soil Productivity Ratings".
Commentary on this speech by Barry Smith of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands:
"This is a very useful overview of the agricultural capability ratings.
While no mention is of course made in this (circa) 1969 speech to the BC farmland preservation program, its value rests in the importance of the BCLI in the original designation the ALR and its future administration.
For anyone that is or has been involved with the farmland preservation program, this single sentence within the speech, made about 4 or 5 years before the designation of the ALR, provides an important insight into the value of the CLI and its relationship to farmland preservation. "For example. Class 5 soils while restricted in use to pasture or hay can produce very high yields."
Item is a typescript draft of a report written by M.J. Romaine entitled "Region No. 13 East Kootenay - Soil Capability for Forestry Report to B.C. Intersector Evaluation Committee".
File consists of Gary Runka's records relating to the trial of Regina v. Edward Murphy and Douglas Holme, for which Runka was subpoenaed as a witness. Includes subpoena notice, transcript of Runka's examination in court, and newspaper articles about the trial.
Item is an original typescript entitled "Recreation Land Management Guidelines in Relation to Capability Ratings" by W.C. Yeomans, Project Director, British Columbia Recreation Sector.
This CD-ROM contains digital records collected and produced by Gary Runka during his consultancy work for client job 654, the BC Trust for Public Lands' "Improving Conservation Land Management Discussion Paper". The only record contained on this disc is an opening address by G. Gary Runka entitled "Managing Conservation Lands To Keep Nature's Pulse Beating" for the Best Management Practices for Conservation Lands Workshop, BC Trust for Public Lands - Ocean Sciences Institute, Sidney, B.C. on September 24, 2009.
This CD-ROM contains digital records created by Gary Runka during his consultancy work for client job 628, Penticton Indian Band's "Consultation and Technical Review of Proposed Summerland Hills Golf Resort" project. Includes a draft "Overview of Summerland Hills Golf Resort Project Interim Report" prepared for Penticton Indian Band Working Group by G. Gary Runka MSc PAg., G.G. Runka Land Sense Ltd., April 9, 2007.
This CD-ROM contains digital records collected and produced by Gary Runka during his consultancy work for client job 601, the Grasslands Conservation Council of BC's "Development of Strategic Plan for Mitigating Fragmentation and Development of BC's Grasslands" project. Includes a PowerPoint presentation entitled "Mitigating the Fragmentation & Development of BC's Grasslands: A Strategic Plan" and accompanying slide handouts.
This CD-ROM contains digital records collected and produced by Gary Runka during his consultancy work for client job 601, the Grasslands Conservation Council of BC's "Development of Strategic Plan for Mitigating Fragmentation and Development of BC's Grasslands" project. Includes textual records such as reports, emails, agendas, budget, workplans, and project proposal.