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LETTER: The North Island’s 2022 wood stove exchange program has launched

Grassroots has been installing air quality monitors around the region, with more locations to come
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Dear editor,

The North Island’s very own Wood Stove Exchange Program is kicking off! This is the first year for this program on the North Island and it is funded by a grant from the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Strategy and the BC Lung Association.

The Wood Stove Exchange Program aims to assist B.C. residents in switching to cleaner burning heating options and to provide education on clean wood burning practices.

A statement from the 2020 BC Lung State of the Air Report emphasizes the importance of “[a]ggressive action now to retire older high emission woodburning appliances…”

Particulate matter (PM2.5) released from activities including wood burning, has been found to negatively impact the body, especially the lungs and heart.

Typically, every winter, air pollution increases in our region. Smoke from wood stoves plays a major role in this phenomenon. Grassroots has been installing air quality monitors around the region, with more locations to come. You can check your location’s air quality in real time at: https://cyclone.unbc.ca/aqmap/#12/50.7334/-127.4126

Even though non-emissions-certified stoves have been illegal to sell in British Columbia since 1994, there are still many old, polluting stoves in use.

Emissions from certified stoves can produce 70 to 90 per cent less smoke while burning about one-third less wood.

What does this program do? It provides rebates to qualified purchasers who upgrade their primary heat source from an old, polluting stove to a new certified stove, pellet stove, or heat pump. These rebates are in addition to eligible Clean BC or Greener Homes rebates and range from $300 - $750, depending on the upgrade.

For more information contact:

Dawn Moorhead, Executive Director, Grassroots organic9@telus.net

Post Office Box 2015, Port Hardy, BC V0N2P0 250-230-4243 grassrootslc.org


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Tyson Whitney

About the Author: Tyson Whitney

I have been working in the community newspaper business for nearly a decade, all of those years with Black Press Media.
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