One of Cortes Island’s longstanding traditions is the Christmas Bird Count; for almost 25 years, local residents have volunteered in a coordinated week-long audit of the island’s bird life. For many years this effort has been coordinated in the field by longtime islander George Sirk, host of CKTZ’s ‘Nature Boy‘ which kicks off a new season at 9:30 AM on Wednesday, January 7, 2026.
Roy Hales interviewed George about this year’s bird count.
By Sonal Gupta, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Coastal First Nations are vowing to use every legal tool to stop the proposed Alberta-to-BC pipeline deal and tanker ban changes.
Marilyn Slett, president of the Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative and elected chief of the Heiltsuk Nation, said in a news conference that her nations “cannot support and will not support” the pipeline agreement signed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith that would see bitumen shipped from Alberta’s oilsands to BC’s northwest coast.
Continue reading BC Coastal First Nations vow to fight pipeline pactCanada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
If the oil tanker ban on the West Coast is lifted, nearly $2 billion in Indigenous-led economic gains could be scuttled, says a First Nations conservation finance organization.
A single oil spill doesn’t just threaten First Nations communities, but could sink BC’s entire economy — impacting tourism, commercial and recreational fisheries, aquaculture and marine services — all of which depend on the healthy, pristine coast, said Coast Funds CEO Eddy Adra.
Continue reading Coastal First Nations warn billions at risk if Ottawa sinks tanker banCanada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Surging numbers of free-floating logs are scouring BC’s coast, threatening marine creatures from barnacles to seabirds, a new University of Victoria study shows.
Barnacle populations, which play a critical role in ocean ecosystems, suffer declines of up 80 per cent in key rocky areas pounded by drift logs mostly from forestry operations, compared to colonies tucked in crevices protected from wood debris, the research suggests.
It’s a worrisome finding, said UVic biologist Tom Reimchen, one of the study’s authors, stressing that barnacles may be small, but their loss has a big ripple effect.
Continue reading Drift logs are scouring marine life from BC’s rocky shores
Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The BC coast is “not for sale.”
BC Premier David Eby and coastal First Nations sent that message to Ottawa on Wednesday as they called on the federal government to uphold the oil tanker ban on the province’s north coast.
Eby and First Nation leaders stressed oil spills would cause irreversible environmental harm, the destruction of critical marine ecosystems and significant economic damage to First Nations and coastal communities.
Continue reading BC and First Nations unite to defend tanker ban
