On June 13, host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by community leaders and organizers, Duane Hanson, Mark Vonesch, Jemma Hicken, Sadhu Johnston, Cora Moret, and Immanuel McKenty, to chat about summer 2025. There’s a lot happening on our small island! Tune in for community updates, developments, programming, and more!
Continue reading Folk U: What’s Happening on Cortes This Summer
Originally Published May 28, 2024
Dave Blinzinger has toured Canada, the United States and Europe but, by choice, primarily plays his saxophone at local venues.
“I’m from St. Louis, Missouri. My father had moved up to Cortes Island in the 70s. I lived there from 88 to 1990. At that time, well, there wasn’t very much happening on Cortes. You could go up to the Cortes Cafe on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, hang out with the fishermen and that was about it. So I moved to Quadra in 1990, basically to get a job,” he explained.
Continue reading Dave Blinzinger: The Art, The Islands And Making A Living
Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Sunflower sea stars clinging to life in BC’s cold-water fjords are officially on the edge of extinction, a scientific advisory panel is warning.
A once-abundant predator of the sea floor along the Pacific coast, stretching from Alaska to Baja California, Pycnopodia helianthoides, has been assessed as endangered by the federal Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).
While disheartening, the decision isn’t unexpected and could offer a margin of hope for the survival of the massive, vibrant sea star, said Alyssa Gehman, marine ecologist with the Hakai Institute.
Continue reading BC’s sunflower sea stars are now endangered, but rays of hope remain
Originally published on April 22, 2021
Born in New York, he chose Canada. Another two years passed before he arrived on a remote island off the West Coast. Paul Kirmmse remembers Cortes Island in 1971.
“I originally came here in January of ’71, looking for land. A guy gave me a job for the summer, beginning in April, serving coffee to the fishers and the loggers. There was a little cafe just above Mansons Lagoon, across from what used to be the Barton store – which I understand is now the Cortes Island Museum. It was dragged up the road and put in place to become the museum,” he says.
Continue reading Paul Kirmmse remembers Cortes Island in 1971Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The climate-driven wildfires currently razing Canada’s northern forests and darkening skies across the continent may have an unexpected effect: according to a new study, the fires may reduce global warming and sea ice melt in the Arctic.
The rising impact of blazes in Canada and Siberia’s boreal regions over the next 35 years will slow warming by 12 per cent globally and 38 per cent in the Arctic, according to recent climate modelling research at the University of Washington (UW). But the study’s authors warn that while the study may sound positive, it’s just one part of a trend that overall spells major trouble for northern ecosystems.
Continue reading Canada’s northern wildfires projected to slow global warming — at a high cost
