Six to eight hundred adult Chum Salmon used to come up Hansen’s Creek. Now there are 30 in a good year and as few as 3 in poor ones. Though we were talking about Cortes Island, this is a common phenomenon along the West Coast of British Columbia. What happened to the salmon?
Continue reading Cortes Streamkeepers in Basil & Hanson Creeks: What happened to the salmon?By Roy L Hales
During the course of an interview with Gwen Barlee, of the Wilderness Committee, I asked if bees are an indicator species.
This transformed what started out as a conversation about the Canadian Standing Senate Committee’s findings on bees and bee health into a wider discussion. If bees are an indicator species, then the massive bee die-offs are another indication of what we are doing to our planet.
Continue reading If Bees Are An Indicator SpeciesBy Roy L Hales
May 29 is the “Day of the Honeybee.” BC is celebrating the growth of an industry that started with the arrival of two hives in Victoria during 1858. There are now 47,000 colonies, whose activities a $250-million-a-year agricultural industry. BC also produces $10 million worth of honey. The provincial Minister of Agriculture, Norm Letnik, says this is a time to remember how much bees contribute to “our lives, our economy and our food supply.” Gwen Barlee suggests we should celebrate the Day of the Honeybee by Banning Neonicotinoids.
