by Roy L Hales | Aug 5, 2021 | Currents
Green party MLA Adam Olsen has been listening to the calls for a better ambulance service since 2017. The need became even more apparent after 808 people died during the last five days of June. 75% of them are believed to have perished because of the heat wave that stuck the province. A large number were allegedly waiting for ambulances that arrived too late. BC Emergency Health Services was already moving towards an enhanced emergency services program, expected to create more than 170 regular positions across the province, when this occurred. Written article article...
by Anastasia Avvakumova | Aug 4, 2021 | Currents
A month into BC’s phase 3 of re-opening, locals and visitors to Cortes Island are able to enjoy well-loved perennial as well as brand new reasons to gather. Photo by Jannes Glas on Unsplash On July 1, British Columbia officially lifted its mask mandate, opened up to Canadians for recreational travel and now allows for gatherings of 50 people indoors and 5,000 outside. Although still scaled down compared to pre-pandemic times, Cortes is not only seeing an influx of vacationers, but also regular events. Here is a selection. The Gorge Harbour Marina Resort is delivering live music 5 nights a week for the rest of the summer. The impromptu stage on the Fireside Patio hosts musical acts — some local and some from further afield — from 7:30 to 9:30pm. The Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery is in the midst of their first show of the season, running for two more weekends. Thursday through Sunday from 2 till 6pm, the gallery is open for viewing of the pieces by 24 member artists in a wide variety of media. A Squirrel Cove resident, Reid Wescott, and a few friends set up a volleyball court near the General Store, and weekly games just switched from Wednesday to Thursday evenings. Come from 5pm onwards to play and swim. Wescott says, “It is a great location, and we are hoping for more sand. We always need more players!” At the south end of the island, Cortes Men’s Circle is having another open night on Wednesday August 11 from 7 to 9pm, thanks to a community microgrant. Host Tommaso Biasiolo started the bi-weekly event several years ago on Quadra after being inspired...
by Roy L Hales | Aug 3, 2021 | Currents
As the level 4 ‘drought’ continues and some shallow well owners are concerned about their water supply, CKTZ News asked an expert about Cortes Island aquifers. Dr Diana Allen is the head of the Groundwater Resources Research Group at Simon Fraser University. While she has not been to Cortes, Allen has been working on islands like Hornby, Mayne, Saturna and Salt Spring since 1996. Will the Cortes Island aquifer collapse? The most alarming concern is that people drilling wells could punch holes in the island’s aquifer and cause it collapse. This idea was expressed during an interview last week, during which John Preston also pointed out that what used to a be year round wetland, in Whaletown, has been drying up every summer for the past five years. CKTZ news contacted Red Williams, a well driller from Parksville who serves the surrounding area on Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast, Quadra and Cortes Islands. While he sometimes hears this fear expressed, Williams said he has never encountered a case of an aquifer collapsing. The main problem he has seen is some shallow wells run out of water during dry spells. He said this is an ongoing problem, but there ways that homeowners can extend their supply and the aquifer is replenished when the rains come. “Yes, I agree with him,“ said Allen, who immediately added, “Well, I guess it depends what someone considers to be collapsing an aquifer.” Allen went on to talk about subsidence, adding that she has heard of it in places like California’s Central Valley and Mexico City, but not British Columbia. Subsidence: the registered aquifers “When you take ground water out of an aquifer that consists of interlayers of sand...
by Roy L Hales | Aug 2, 2021 | Currents
The preliminary stages of Cortes Island’s first wetland restoration project are underway at Dillon Creek, on Linnaea Farm. “Back in 2014, we had a very large algae bloom in the lake. There was a very annoying smell and taste in the water for about two weeks and then it lingered on for about another two weeks with the smell in the air,” explained lead author Rex Weyler, when the first Hague & Gunflint Lakes Monitoring Report was published in 2017. The problem was human septic and livestock nutrients draining into the lake. The field at Dillon Creek – photo by Roy L Hales “Everyone who lives around the lake is a contributor,” said Autumn Barrett-Morgan, a Biological Monitoring Technician with the Friends of Cortes Island Society (FOCI). However, Dillon Creek has been a vector for a significant amount of the nutrient and sediment input into Gunflint and Hague lakes. Prior to the advent of what is now Linnaea Farm, the field used to be a wetland and a series of meandering streams that would have naturally filtered out nutrients and sediment. This wetland was drained via man-made Dillon Creek, and turned into agricultural land decades ago. Draining wetlands was a common farming practice around the world, to gain access to rich soils and relatively flat land. FOCI and Linnaea Farm have partnered to restore wetlands in a lower portion of the field, up from the mouth of Dillon Creek into Gunflint Lake. The construction work will take place from August 15th to 17th, but in the meantime FOCI has been carrying out invasive species removal and biological monitoring. CKTZ News interviewed Autumn Barrett-Morgan on July 29th, the day after a...
by Anastasia Avvakumova | Aug 2, 2021 | Currents
The air quality and visibility over the weekend was noticeably affected by particulates in forest fire smoke traveling across the landscape, and will likely be present in the region into Wednesday afternoon. The BlueSky Canada interactive online visual tool shows an animated forecast of wildfire smoke as it’s expected to behave over the next 2 days in specific geographic regions. According to the website, Cortes Island and surrounding area have been experiencing an elevated PM2.5 rating, colour-coded to represent a range of 10-28 micrograms per meter cubed (µg/m3). These elevated levels nevertheless do not cross the threshold considered unsafe during a 24-hour period by Canadian Ambient Air Quality Standards. The large cloud of smoke from the interior is predicted to start clearing by early afternoon on Monday. However, the closest fire situated roughly 45 kilometers north of Powell River will likely send more smoke our way as wind direction changes. This fire, which is under control, has an estimated size of 7 hectares and was discovered on June 27. Its approximate location is stated as Daniels River. As of 8 p.m. Sunday, August 1, there were 244 active fires across the province, according to the BC Wildfire Dashboard. Seven were new as of this week, and 6 of those had been added to the total since noon on Sunday. A small fire of less than 0.01 hectares was briefly shown on Vancouver Island between Qualicum Bay and Qualicum Beach on Sunday afternoon, however it was no longer being reported by the evening. There were no other fires on Vancouver Island. In a news bulletin released on Friday, July 30, Campbell River RCMP detailed a vehicle fire that had spread to the...
by Anastasia Avvakumova | Jul 30, 2021 | Currents
As the RCMP continue arrests of forest defenders at the Fairy Creek blockades, legal and political questions abound following the BC Court’s decision to take over the persecution of arrestees at the request from logging corporation Teal Jones. Credit: Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash “I find it reprehensible that the government is going to be using taxpayers’ dollars and jailing its own citizens, because of its own failure to implement its own policy. I think history will look back on this moment in time in British Columbia’s history and all of these people — these teachers, these scientists, these nurses, these Olympic swimmers, amazing people that I met, who are blockading at Fairy Creek — they are not criminals. They are heroes. And I think that’s how they’re going to be seen.” Long-time activist Tzeporah Berman, founder of Stand.earth, was deeply involved in the Clayoquot Sound old-growth-logging protests in the early 90’s, the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, with more than 900 arrests of forest defenders. As of Wednesday, July 28, the Fairy Creek Blockade’s official media channel reports 496 arrests to date and counting, since police enforcement of the court injunction granted to Teal Jones Group began in late May of this year. Berman spoke about her arrest and objectionable treatment she received while in police custody on Saturday, May 22, as well as her recent hearing on Thursday, July 8, when she successfully challenged her bail conditions. The latter had prevented her from going back to the entire Fairy Creek area. Although the judge’s ruling applied to her only, she encourages others arrested at the blockades to use her legal arguments, which are...
