Tag Archives: Environmental Law Centre

‘Hard to believe it’s real’: B.C.’s energy regulator repeatedly gave Coastal GasLink a pass on alleged environmental infractions

Editor’s note: Another account of how government regulators are not equipped to do their job and the resulting lack of oversight may be putting the public at risk.

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

When officials from the BC Energy Regulator travelled to Wet’suwet’en territory in September 2022, they were planning a routine inspection of a fish-bearing stream.

Two years had passed since Coastal GasLink completed installation of a section of pipeline through the stream, a tributary of Tchesinkut Creek, near the community of Burns Lake in northwest B.C.

They discovered Coastal GasLink had never finished restoring the waterway and, for two years, pipeline construction had been impacting fish habitat. It was a mess. 

Continue reading ‘Hard to believe it’s real’: B.C.’s energy regulator repeatedly gave Coastal GasLink a pass on alleged environmental infractions

Conservationists urge B.C. to protect bear dens ‘before it’s too late’

Click here for ‘The need to protect Black Bear dens on Vancouver Island

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The photo of a baby black bear scrabbling around the woody debris of its destroyed den is certainly heart-rending, conservation biologist Tony Hamilton says.

The former large carnivore specialist with B.C.’s Environment Ministry recalls being called to attend the incident, despite it occurring more than a decade ago. 

A mother and her cub were displaced from their nest in a huge, old stump that had been destroyed during logging operations in a second-growth forest on Vancouver Island near Campbell River.   

Continue reading Conservationists urge B.C. to protect bear dens ‘before it’s too late’

The need to protect Black Bear dens on Vancouver Island

Unlike their Mainland cousins, Vancouver Island’s Black Bears make their dens almost exclusively in large-diameter old trees, stumps, logs, or root wads. Dens are normally left dormant for a while after use, due to parasite infestation and the need to escape predators. However a study in the Nimpkish Valley, south of Port McNeill, found that 72% of the dens were reused over a 15 year period. In one case, the den was occupied during four winters. 

Continue reading The need to protect Black Bear dens on Vancouver Island

Two Nanaimo Men On A Hunger Strike For BC’s Old Growth Forests

Robert Fuller and James Darling are on the second day of a hunger strike. The 61-year-old former BC Forest service employee/ treeplanter/ sawmill worker and 35-year old musician had just returned from their Nanaimo MLA’s constituency office when I phoned them. Around ten people were with them, waving signs. Fuller remarked that if the response from people walking or driving by is any indication, as much as 98% of the public may want to see BC’s old growth forests preserved.

Continue reading Two Nanaimo Men On A Hunger Strike For BC’s Old Growth Forests

Who Is Protecting Wild Salmon Behind The Fraser River’s Dikes & Side Channels?

By Roy L Hales

There is more than 1,400 km of salmon habitat behind floodgates in the lower Fraser Valley. The lead author of a Simon Fraser University study wrote, ” … Floodgates are installed to protect homes and farms from flooding, however, when they are closed, they also bar native fish from accessing valuable habitat.” A related study by the University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre found that there is little ongoing government oversight of fish habitat behind dikes, or fish passage through flood structures. Who is protecting wild salmon behind the Fraser River’s dikes & side channels?

Continue reading Who Is Protecting Wild Salmon Behind The Fraser River’s Dikes & Side Channels?