In light of the wildfire situation in British Columbia’s interior, it seemed like a good time for an update on our area’s emergency preparedness. So I asked Shaun Koopman, the district’s Protective Services Coordinator, “Is Strathcona Regional District prepared for a major emergency?”
Continue reading Is Strathcona Regional District Prepared For A Major Emergency?By Roy L Hales
In light of the wildfire situation in the interior of our province, it seemed like a good time for an update on the Strathcona Regional District’s emergency preparedness. Only there were three humpback whales along the route, as I crossed over to Quadra Island to meet with the district’s Protective Services Coordinator. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen whales along this route, but they were still whales in the area when I returned four hours later. So I asked I asked Jessica Towers, who works on this ferry, if she had any whale tales.
Continue reading Whale TalesBy Roy L Hales
The global phenomenon of algae blooms has reached British Columbia. The BC Northern Health issued an advisory for Prince George area last summer. Severe outbreaks have been reported at St. Mary and Cusheon Lakes on Saltspring Island, and Village Bay Lake on Quadra Island. The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) recently published a monitoring report. I recently interviewed the author, Rex Weyler, about responses to Cortes Island’s algae bloom problem.
“Hague and Gunflint Lakes are typical lakes and the challenges we are having there are also typical when you have a human community that lives around a body of fresh water … The problem is human septic and livestock concentrating nutrients and then passing that into the water table, which then drains into the lake. Those nutrients are feeding the algae booms,” says Weyler.
In an era of increasing specialization, some remote locations are developing in the opposite direction. In addition to the services you might expect, Squirrel Cove’s General store is also a gas station, post office, liquor store, gift shop, hardware outlet, building supply store, shellfish interpretive centre and it hosts one of the island’s finest take-out food providers. It has become Cortes Island’s one stop shopping experience.
Continue reading Squirrel Cove General Store: Cortes Island’s One Stop Shopping ExperienceBy Roy L Hales
Last week I began a two-part interview with Guy Dauncey, founder of the BC Sustainable Energy association and the author of Journey to the Future: A Better World Is Possible. This week Dauncey tackles the question “How do we build a different economy?”
