Vancouver should put high-density housing next to its major parks and along every one of its major streets, suggests the first draft of Vancouver's ecodensity charter, released today.

The city should also close down some roads to cars and require developers to include solar power, rainwater collection, and laundry drying facilities in any new project ...

The over-arching idea [is that]Vancouver needs to redefine what it means to be livable city.

Progressive stuff -- and likely to solidify the city's first-place status as the most energy-efficient, transit-oriented metropolis in the Northwest.

And then, on forests:

Victoria intends to remake the coastal forest industry with a new set of policies aimed at shifting harvesting away from old-growth forests to second-growth, Forests Minister Rich Coleman said Wednesday.

Forest management -- particularly the industry's long-time policy of encouraging old-growth clearcuts -- has been a bęte noire of BC's environmental policy. The new plan may have its flaws -- but still, it seems to herald a shift away from logging pristine coastal forests. And that has to count as good news.