Tag Archives: Cortes Island

Communications

CKTZ Signs MOU With Strathcona Regional District

Cortes Island, August 29, 2017 – Cortes Community Radio CKTZ signs MOU with Strathcona Regional District, stating its willingness to provide temporary usage of the station during  emergencies.

“This memorandum of understanding is a significant milestone in our relationship with the Strathcona Regional District (SRD), and is fully aligned with the purposes laid down by Cortes Community Radio’s founders. Article 2.g of our constitution  states that one of the station’s purposes is “to establish an ongoing community radio station that can broadcast important information to the community in cooperation with emergency services,” said Roy L Hales, President of Cortes Community Radio.

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Environment

Responses To Cortes Island’s Algae Bloom Problem

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By 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.

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Forests, Housing

Fun with Firewood

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By Roy L Hales

Firewood is a vital source of heat energy on Cortes Island. Some think of it as our secret sin. There may be more environmentally conscious people here than any other part of British Columbia, per capita, yet we use a more carbon producing energy source than coal. This is the season when we cut and stack it for the coming winter. It’s also time to have fun with firewood.

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Disaster, Fire

Cortes Island’s Emergency Preparedness & Awareness Weekend

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By Roy L Hales

Cortes Island Volunteer Fire Captain Eli McKenty received the page at 8 a.m.  There was a fire at the Recycling Center on Squirrel Cove Road. As the island’s fire chief was not available, McKenty was in charge. He had, as yet, little indication of what lay ahead. Never-the-less, while he was waiting for his crew to assemble, McKenty received word that one of the recycling centre’s staff called. The  flammable shed storage is burning and there is sounds of explosions. The staff member called 911 and was fighting the fire. McKenty alerted the ambulance and, as a precaution alerted an elite provincial fire fighting unit that it might be needed. Arriving on the scene some 40 minutes later, he discovered the fire had already spread to the trees. If this were an actual event, tomorrow’s newspaper headlines would probably say something like “Cortes Island Fire Leads To Mass Evacuation“. In reality, this table talk was one of the components of Cortes Island’s Emergency Preparedness and & Awareness Weekend.

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Indigenous Nations History, Waste

Stuff

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Originally broadcast in Season One of the Deep Roots Initiative, Cortes Radio, CKTZ, 89.5 FM

Our material world is obsessed with acquiring and accumulating stuff. But how much do we all really need? Morgan Tams looks for options and solutions to this omnipresent conundrum.

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