All posts by Rochelle Baker

Rochelle Baker is a staff reporter with Canada’s National Observer, thanks thanks to a grant from the Local Journalism Initiative of the Government of Canada. She previously worked as a newspaper reporter and photographer in BC’s Lower Mainland for over 7 years.
Forests

B.C. misses the mark with old growth update, critics claim

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The B.C. government continues to move at a glacial pace to meet an overdue promise to transform the logging industry and protect endangered old growth forests and ecosystems, say B.C. conservation groups. 

On Monday, the province issued its latest progress report on transforming forestry practices to preserve ancient forests and vital ecosystems and meet 14 calls to action from the old-growth strategic review (OGSR) completed in spring of 2020. 

Continue reading B.C. misses the mark with old growth update, critics claim →
Politics

Pierre Poilievre aims to turn B.C. coast blue at NDP’s expense

Editor’s opinion: Prior to NDP candidate Rachel Blaney’s election in 2015, our area (North Island-Powell River) was a Conservative stronghold for 7 years. Blaney won 40.2% of the popular vote, as opposed to the Conservatives 26.2%. Since then, the Conservatives have slowly been increasing their numbers in North Island-Powell River. They lost by 5.3% in 2019 and only 3.5% in 2021. Now that Blaney has decided not to run in the next election, the Conservatives have a chance to retake the riding. As of this morning, 338Canada’s projections show the Conservative Party of Canada taking as many as 5 of Vancouver Island’s 7 seats and the most likely riding to switch is North Island-Powell River.

(This is by no means certain and any swing to the right would most likely have less momentum in the Cortes, Quadra and the other Discovery Islands – which tend to lean more to the left than Campbell River.)  

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Long before the next election, Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre is setting his sights on winning seats on Vancouver Island, despite the NDP’s domination over the past decade. 

The NDP holds six of the region’s seven ridings, with the exception of Green Party Leader Elizabeth May’s Saanich-Gulf Island riding. 

Continue reading Pierre Poilievre aims to turn B.C. coast blue at NDP’s expense →
Forests

Logging in watershed frustrates Quadra Island residents

Editor’s note: On January 27, 2022, Mosaic unveiled its three year plan to log Cortes Island. Community opinion quickly turned against them after it became apparent that the forestry giant intended to harvest the forest at a rate six times greater than that of the Cortes Forestry General Partnership. Many Cortesians want to see the forest restored to what it was before the advent of industrial scale logging. In the face of a potential large scale community resistance, Mosiac has not commenced logging.

In 2010, the Forest Trust for the Children of Cortes Island was formed to purchase 600 acres of Mosaic’s land in the James Creek Watershed. Negotiations have been ongoing, and there is hope that the deal will soon be finalized.

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A Quadra Island community is increasingly frustrated by its inability to protect vital watersheds from being clear-cut despite the increasing risks of climate change. 

Many residents in the Copper Bluffs community and elsewhere on the island have been urging Mosaic Forest Management to reconsider logging remnants of mature forests, particularly in stream sheds and wetlands. 

Despite long-standing opposition from residents, Mosaic has harvested six parcels totalling five hectares from tree farm licence 47 (TFL 47), which spans most of the island north of Gowlland Harbour and Hyacinth Bay. 

Continue reading Logging in watershed frustrates Quadra Island residents →
Food Security, Indigenous Nations

Indigenous food gathering nourishes culture and climate resiliency

Editor’s Note: Some First Nations members from within our listening area may have been among the hundreds of participants, ‘from both coasts and the length of the island,’ who took part in the Island Indigenous Food Gathering. The Homalco, Klahoose, K’omoks and Tla’amin are all Northern Coast Salish Nations. The We Wai Kai and Wei Wai Kum are Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations.

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

First Nations from across Vancouver Island celebrated and strengthened traditional food sovereignty in a bid to deepen Indigenous communities’ response to climate change and other emergencies.

The recent Island Indigenous Food Gathering near Port Alberni, B.C. , involved hundreds of members from the Nuu-chah-nulth, Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations from both coasts and the length of the island, said organizer Nitanis Desjarlais.

Continue reading Indigenous food gathering nourishes culture and climate resiliency →
Rivers & Oceans

Satellites track the tiny silver fish hugely important to marine life

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A new scientific endeavour has taken to the sky using high-tech drones and satellite images to understand better the annual spring herring spawn vital to salmon and wildlife on the West Coast. 

Between February and March each year, frigid ocean waters transform to a milky tropical-looking turquoise green when male herring release milt to fertilize the countless eggs deposited by females on eelgrass, kelp and seaweed fringing coastal shores.

Unpredictable and dramatic, the small silver fishes’ spawning event is large and best monitored from great heights, said Loïc Dallaire, a researcher with the SPECTRAL Remote Sensing Laboratory at the University of Victoria. 

“It’s one of the very few animal formations that we can see from space, excluding human developments and towns,” Dallaire said. 

Continue reading Satellites track the tiny silver fish hugely important to marine life →