LiveSmart BC Community Hero
Long-time Tofino resident Spencer Baird, a LiveSmart Hero
Longtime Tofino resident Spencer Baird is a LiveSmart hero. Spencer and his wife Judy have been living in an environmentally friendly lifestyle long before it became a popular notion.
When they moved to Catface Mountain in 1974 from the United States, they built their "off the grid" house complete with solar panels. They also used batteries as well as hydroelectric power from a nearby creek that only ran in the winter, said Spencer.
To further reduce their footprint, Spencer rigged up a boat with an electric motor powered by solar panels on the roof, and they used it to get back and forth to their home on Meares Island.
The Bairds now live in a house built by Tofino's current mayor on the Inlet. They make use of rainwater for outdoor watering and have a solar water heater. All their lights are energy efficient and they have one dual flush toilet and another in the plans.
They also drive one of the coast's only electric vehicles, a Toyota Echo that they had converted three years ago. Before that, there was a Chevy pickup that Spencer himself converted to an electric motor.
Recently, Spencer also helped a friend set up a water collection system.He maintains it's not as hard to do this stuff as people might think. "If you can read you can do almost anything," he said.
Spencer credits Judy, a former geneticist, with being the planner behind their projects. "I was a university lab technician, so I'm good with my hands," he said.
