Tag Archives: Dillon Creek Restoration project

Only A Week From Now: FOCI’s 2024 AGM

The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) 2024 AGM is coming up at 5 PM on December 3rd. They are celebrating more than 30 years with their Marine Stewardship program. Sabina Leader Mense will be the guest speaker. 

“That’s the second part of the AGM. For the first part, we will be talking about  the work we’ve done in 2024. We’ve just produced our 2024 Annual Report and that’s bursting at the seams with amazing work that we’ve been doing over the last year,” explained Helen Hall. executive director of the Friends of Cortes Island.  

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FOCI: Continuity & Change

The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) has a new President, is getting prepared to launch out in new directions and is also trying to raise $30,000 by the end of the month. The first two of those announcements may be interrelated, the third definitely is not. It is a result of two large contracts coming to an end, more on that later. First, Mike Moore has been one of FOCI’s members for decades and is now taking on a more active leadership role.

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What FOCI Achieved in 2023

With the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) AGM coming up on November 28, it seemed like an ideal time to ask Executive Director Helen Hall what the society achieved in 2023. 

“We’re actually doing 14 different projects, which involve everything from habitat restoration and conservation through to environmental monitoring and community education.  I just wanted to highlight some of those projects,”she explained.

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Miranda Cross to manage Beaver Coexistence project for Cortes and Quadra Islands 

The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Board awarded Rewilding Water & Earth Inc. the contract to manage a Beaver Coexistence Project on Cortes and Quadra Islands. 

The first phase is purely informational

“Beavers are the ultimate wetland managers, and they’re on it all the time. They’re checking their dams every day. For us humans to be able to not only co exist, but partner with wildlife like beaver will be a huge benefit to us as we see the climate changing and as we’re trying to adapt to and be more resilient to climate change,” explained Miranda Cross of Rewilding Water and Earth. 

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Farming for the climate future

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Tamara McPhail’s morning chore never changes, but the infinite variety of sounds and seasons makes milking cows every day unique. 

On this spring morning, Zinnia and her new calf Equinox are restless and nagging — bellowing, bleating and raring to get outside into the fields. 

Other mornings, they greet McPhail with gentle grunts and low moos as she enters the barn as if relishing the connection they’ll have with her. 

“I’m really attached to the livestock system,” says McPhail, who along with her partner Adam Schick, has been part of a team stewarding the land at Linnaea Farm on Cortes Island, B.C., closing on 25 years. 

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