Tag Archives: Chemainus

History

How a Comox Valley fossil discovery forever changed paleontology in BC

By David Flawse, The Discourse, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In late autumn 1988, Richard Hebda — then head of botany at the Royal BC Museum — stepped into the living room of a man named Mike Trask following a report of an interesting fossil find on the Puntledge River.

According to Hebda, when he shook hands with the amateur fossil hunter, he was not expecting much. Before this, the paleobotanist had a call about dinosaur ribs in a dry creek bed near Chemainus that turned out to be dirtbike tracks.

But this stop at the Courtenay resident’s home would be different.

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

Feds ignore calls for moratorium, approve commercial herring fishing

By Sonal Gupta, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

When Kurt Irwin was growing up near Salt Spring Island on British Columbia’s southern coast, spring meant herring season. He remembers the ocean turning white as the small fish filled the harbours, the sky alive with gulls and salmon chasing them just below the surface.

“We haven’t seen that in many years… They [commercial fishing boats] literally fished it out,” said the now 58-year-old Irwin, a councillor for the Penelakut Tribe, located near Chemainus on Vancouver Island. Their members have also been pushing for a five-year moratorium on commercial herring fisheries to allow stocks to recover.

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Cost of Climate Change, Indigenous Nations History

Salvaging the sacred from climate disaster

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The floodwaters rose swiftly and silently inside Nicole Norris’s family home and other residences of the Halalt First Nation on Vancouver Island when a storm unleashed a furious deluge of rain in November 2021. 

Her brother, asleep in the home’s ground-floor suite, awoke when his leg, hanging off the side of the bed, became submerged by overflow from the Chemainus River, said Norris, an Indigenous planning officer for the B.C. Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness. 

“Our home took on four feet of water in the basement. There was no sound to it,” said Norris, also known as Alag̱a̱mił. 

“Instantly, he yelled for my daughter and they were able to start pulling things from the basement.” 

Not everything of value escaped unscathed, said Norris, a regalia maker, weaver and cultural knowledge holder. 

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Rivers & Oceans, Transportation

BC Ferries new Mate: Mike Moore

Last month, a number of Cortes Island residents recognized a familiar face directing traffic at the Whaletown Ferry terminal. Mind you, Mike Moore is better known from the days he sailed the Misty Isles than as the Mate on a BC Ferry. He was in Alert Bay when Cortes Currents caught up to him, but let’s go back to the beginning. 

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Health

Alert Bay residents worried as overnight ER services shut down for two weeks

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A remote B.C. island community is anxious as it faces a two-week overnight closure of its local emergency room due to the ongoing medical staffing crisis across the province. 

Island Health announced the closure of Alert Bay ER in the Cormorant Island Community Health Centre from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. nightly, which started Tuesday and will last until Aug. 16.  

Continue reading Alert Bay residents worried as overnight ER services shut down for two weeks →