Linnaea Farm’s First Plant and Skill Share was on Saturday, April 18. It may be the first on Cortes Island.
Tamara McPhail, who has been at Linnaea farm the past quarter century explained, ”I don’t know if there’s ever been a plant share before on Cortes.”
Continue reading Possibly Cortes Island’s First Plant and Skill Share
“The only word I can find to describe that feeling… is gobsmacked,” exclaimed field biologist Sabina Leader Mense.
She was referring to the moment she heard a Western Screech Owl respond during a call playback survey near Bullock Bluff on Cortes Island. It was nearly midnight, the final station of the night, and her team had conducted over a hundred surveys without a single response. This owl’s call — unmistakable and repeated 12 times — marked the first confirmed sighting since 2017.
Continue reading The Call That Changed Everything: Western Screech Owls Return to Cortes Island
A small group of people turned out to hear an overview of FOCI’s Western Screech Owl Project at Mansons Hall on Friday September 27, 2024. Participants listened to different owl calls, examined owl feathers and learned why putting up nest boxes is important. The speakers were the two biologists from Madrone Environmental who wrote FOCI’s final report. Cortes Currents interviewed the lead author, Roxan Chicalo, afterward.
“What gets me up in the morning, when I’m working at these species at risk, is thinking about balanced ecosystems. Everything is working together to create the ecosystem that supports our lifestyles as humans. In my mind, every animal and plant has a role that they play,” she began.
“Screech owls are a small avian predator. They eat anything from amphibians to small mammals to fish, insects, slugs, all sorts of different small animals in the ecosystem. As a predator, they keep a check on those prey species populations so that they don’t get out of control, and they also support biodiversity. If one of these prey species booms in their populations, they might start to compete against other populations of other animals. We might see that we’re having more extinction events. That’s why we should care to promote a balanced ecosystem and support that.”
Continue reading Roxan Chicalo: Searching for the elusive Western Screech Owl
The first truckload was filled over the roofline with beach debris. Sam Gibb drove into the Klahoose village shortly after 10:30 AM on Saturday. Alex Bernier, followed with a smaller load. Helen Hall and Autumn Barrett Morgan, two other members of the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI), were there to help them unload. Stephanie Valdal, Services Coordinator for the Comox Strathcona Waste Management Service, had come from Courtenay. The debris collected by Klahoose Aquaculture had not yet arrived. By the time the month long Cortes Island wide beach clean-up officially ended, on Sunday, there was a bin full of beach debris. This year’s clean-up was a collaborative initiative between Klahoose Aquaculture, FOCI, the Ocean Legacy Foundation and Comox Strathcona Waste Management Service.
Continue reading The Island-wide 2024 Beach Clean-up on Cortes
The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) summer programs have long been popular with tourists and summer. This year FOCI wanted to offer something for the year round community.
“ The inspiration is partly wanting to make sure that more members of the community know about FOCI. We do a lot of projects, but they’re not really shiny and we don’t really advertise them. They’re on our website, but if people don’t go there and read about them, they don’t know that they’re happening,” explained Soma Feldmar, the society’s Administrative Assistant.
Continue reading FOCI’s Create, Connect and Conserve series
