Tag Archives: Helen Hall

Animals

Recent sightings: Co-existing with wolves on Cortes Island

There’ve been reports of wolf sightings on Cortes island, which actually isn’t too surprising.

“We’re incredibly lucky to have wolves on Cortes. They’ve disappeared on a lot of the other islands. This is one of the last islands in the Salish Sea with wolves on it. Obviously we want to do everything we can to make sure that they can carry on living here, and that we can coexist alongside them,” explained Helen Hall, Executive Director of the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI). 

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Animals, Rivers & Oceans

No European Green Crabs in the Discovery Islands, yet

The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) have not found any European Green Crabs in Manson’s lagoon, and so far there’ve been no sightings north of Nanaimo.  

“We haven’t found any, that’s really good news, but we’ve been very pleased to partner with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).  Hopefully, if we ever find them, we’ll be able to trap them out and stop them from harming the valuable habitat here,” explained Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI.

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Transportation

The Cortes Island ‘Room for Rider’ Initiative

 Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) is launching a new transportation initiative

“We’re really excited to be launching this new ‘Room for Rider’ initiative. It’s a mirror tag that people can hang in their rear view mirror to let people know that they’re willing to give people a ride across Quadra,” explained Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI.  

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Environment

Things to do: Summer with FOCI

The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) have a full slate of events this summer. 

They started July with a tour of the off-grid agricultural oasis, Blue Jay Farm, followed by a low tide exploration of the natural and local history of Mansons Lagoon.

“They’ve gone really well, and we have these other six events coming up,” explained to Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI.

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Animals

Provincial Biologist visits Cortes Island; Second Western Screech Owl discovered

A provincial biologist visited Cortes Island over the weekend. Emily Upham-Mills is an ecosystems biologist with the Ministry of Water, Lands and Natural Resource Stewardship and an important member of the team working with the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) on the Western Screech Owl Project. 

Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI, explained, “Emily very kindly came up on the weekend to talk to the community. This project is really important for FOCI. We’re doing really interesting scientific work and that data is going back both provincially and federally. It puts us in the spotlight with this particular species. It’s a project that’s running for three years. We’re in the second year of trying to discover whether there are Western Screech Owls on Cortes Island.” 

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