Work crew labours to build a trail on North Ballenas Island.

A tiny island near Oceanside will be the focus for an unique environmental program in the near future, thanks to a wealthy Chinese philanthropist.

Ying Wang owns North Ballenas Island, located just off Schooner Cove near Nanoose Bay. Along with wife Genmai Liu, the a husband and wife team have coached competitive athletes in their native China — including the Chinese sailing team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The couple, who moved to Richmond with their two children, purchased Ballenas in 2007.

Speaking through an interpreter, Wang said he thinks environmental protection should be the mainstream for the development of society.

To this end, Wang, who owns Wayland Sports and publishes Challenges magazine, said Ballenas Island is an ideal spot to push environmental education.

“An undisturbed island near an international metropolis can be a good source for an eco-education,” he said. “We want to set up some kind of kids’ environmental education centre.”

Wang’s passion for such a centre stems, in part, from his many years of sailing and the increasingly common sight of plastic and other trash floating on ocean waves.

“There is a lot of trash and plastic in the ocean and even on this purely natural island,” he said. “There is rubbish, plastic bags, glass bottles and other plastic stuff. We want the kids to see that.”

That plastic, Wang continued, will be the focus of the centre.

“One thing we want to do is get about 10 kids and go to the island with plastic bags and make a sign on the island with them, saying no to plastic bags,” he said.

“There are too many plastic bags and we want to show how we want to keep the island and the earth green.”

In order to set up his centre, Wang has obtained the services of Lyle Montgomery, a local scuba diver who runs the boat to and from the Land Conservancy cabin on South Winchelsea Island.

Montgomery has begun working on the project, constructing a path on the virtually untouched and rocky island.

“I said there were two ways I could do it,” Montgomery said. “I said I could take some trees out and make a nice, wide path fairly quickly with some equipment, or I could do it by hand — slowly. He was adamant that no trees be taken out.”

Although the details of exactly how the centre will function remain undetermined, Wang said he wants a strong buy-in from the community to make it work.

“The program needs the involvement of a lot of kids, the support of all walks of life,” he said. “It needs to launch some eye-catching projects to improve the public awareness of environmental protection.”

news@pqbnews.com