Tag Archives: FOCI

Animals, Indigenous Nations History

Humpbacks Return To Cortes Island

2 Comments

Humpback whales were passing through our area long before Europeans arrived. The first colonial settlement was named Whalteown and Whaletown Road run across the island to Squirrel Cove. There is also a “Whaling Station Bay,” on Hornby Island and “Blubber Bay,” on Texada Island. However up until a few years ago, there have been no humpback whale sightings since 1871. This morning’s broadcast consists of a series of interviews about the humpbacks return to Cortes Island.

Continue reading Humpbacks Return To Cortes Island →
Rivers & Oceans

How The Basil Creek Culvert Project Is Over The Top

2 Comments

By the time you hear this, the Ministry of Transportation crew will have left Basil creek. As Cortes Streamkeeper Cecil Robinson observed, prior to this “if the fish came early and the rains were late, they just simply couldn’t get through the old culvert. They died right there.” Now more of them will swim upstream to their spawning grounds. Then he proceeded to describe how the “Basil Creek culvert project was over the top from the very beginning. Everything that needed to be done, is done: and then some more, always some more.”

Continue reading How The Basil Creek Culvert Project Is Over The Top →
Rivers & Oceans

Replacing the Culvert at Basil Creek

4 Comments

Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure closed a small segment of Whaletown Road on Cortes Island. The impact on the local community is minimal. However British Columbia’s threatened fish stocks greatly benefit from projects like replacing the culvert at Basil Creek.

Continue reading Replacing the Culvert at Basil Creek →
Environment

Responses To Cortes Island’s Algae Bloom Problem

4 Comments

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.

Continue reading Responses To Cortes Island’s Algae Bloom Problem →
Environment

The Friends Of Cortes Island

By Roy L Hales

screen-shot-2014-03-18-at-3-43-47-pm

Max Thaysen described FOCI as a support group for local inhabitants confronting the environmental challenges in the Cortes Island area.  Helen Hall described the society’s role of both monitoring and protecting, as well as educating the  public. They are the President and Executive Director of the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI), respectively.

Continue reading The Friends Of Cortes Island →