Arts

Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery: Seeking Submissions to its 2026 Annual Member’s Show

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The Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery is asking for submissions to its 2026 Annual Member’s Show. Artists may bring up to two pieces. To participate, you must be a member, which costs just $10 a year. The cut-off date for submissions is May 14, and the exhibition will run from May 29 to June 14, 2026.

 ”We would like to make it so nobody feels like, ‘I don’t know if I’m good enough to hang in the gallery.’ If you are picking up paint or clay, that already is a good step. Your next step is to show it. That’s important and that’s why I’ve been volunteering and that’s why we are all volunteering because it is our passion,” explained Meinsje Vlaming, one of the Directors.

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Community, Politics

A $943,000 Question: Quadra and the Strathcona Gardens Vote

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Originally published in the Bird’s Eye

Did I set out to write a two-page article this week? Nope. Did I anyway? Yup. This is a big deal for our island — and it’s still early in the series. So yes, I’m running the longest two pages in Bird’s Eye history. Sorry, not sorry. Enjoy!

By Melissa McKinney, editor/owner of the Bird’s Eye.

On March 25, the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) board voted on whether to add Quadra Island to the Strathcona Gardens recreation service area. Around 80 Area C residents showed up to watch — enough to fill the boardroom, spill out through the open double doors into the lobby, where even standing room was tight. The SRD livestreams their board meetings on YouTube, so small groups of residents huddled around phones watching their own local government meeting from the parking lot outside. Inside the lobby, the meeting’s audio played from multiple phones on a slight delay, making it difficult to follow unless you were actually in the boardroom. 

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Politics

Cortes, Quadra and Read Island items at the March 25th SRD Board Meeting

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At its March 25 SRD Board meeting, Campbell River and its allies passed a resolution to draft a bylaw making the average Quadra Island homeowner pay an additional $588 in property taxes to help fund Campbell River’s Recreate Strathcona Gardens project. (This fight is not over yet.) Whether the proposed bylaw will pass remains to be seen, but a large number of noncontroversial Cortes, Quadra and Read Island items were passed at the same board meeting. They pertained to: 

  • A Quadra Island Right of Way
  • Vacancies in Advisory Planning Commissions for Areas C & D
  • Squirrel Cove Aquaculture 
  • Who Pays Administrative Costs for the Electoral Areas Services Committee
  • Cortes Island’s Active Transportation Plan
  • Funding Opportunities for Active Transportation in Areas B & C
  • Legacy Gifts in Regional District Parks
  • Residency Requirement for Short Term Rentals
  • Proposed Electoral Areas Grant in Aid Service 
  • Waste Pick-up Contract on Cortes Island
  • Renewal of Post Office contract for Read Island
  • Grants-in-Aid for Quadra Island 

As these are all short items, Cortes Currents decided to use them as examples of how the SRD conducts board meetings.

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Rivers & Oceans

Some species benefited from BC’s 2021 heat dome — but at an enormous cost, study finds

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Editor’s note: Millions of marine creatures may have perished in the Discovery Island’s during the 2021 heat dome. Their remains covered the beaches at places like Smelt Bay, Mansons Lagoon and Squirrel Cove on Cortes Island. Dr. Chris Harley, from UBC, initially told the media that more than a billion mussels, clams, sea stars and other invertebrates may have cooked to death in the area between Campbell River and Washington state. The article that follows cites his initial estimate. As more data became available, Harley revised that figure to possibly as many as 10 billion.

By Hope Lompe, National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Some plants and animals are better off than they were before the 2021 heat dome, despite a week of record-breaking heat intensity across Western North America. 

In a study of approximately 50 species, researchers from across Canada found more than three quarters were negatively affected by the heat dome, while about 25 per cent actually saw a positive outcome. 

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Forests, Indigenous Nations

Clayoquot Sound’s only tree farm licence subdivided into three lots to assert First Nations’ land visions

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Editor’s note: In 1993, Tzeporah Berman and Kairn Mahon Carrington were leaders of the Clayoquot Protests. They now live on Cortes Island.

By Nora O’Malley, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Clayoquot Sound, BC – The logging tenure for a landscape made famous by the “War in the Woods” protests on the west coast of Vancouver Island has been divided up into three new Tree Farm Licences (TFL) to assert First Nations’ unique land-use visions. 

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Whats Current on Cortes and Beyond