National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
In life, Betty Swift protected the plants and animals she treasured on her 52-acre private island in the Salish Sea that served as an oasis for some of B.C.’s rarest species and ecosystems.
At the end of her days, Swift and her children ensured that protection would continue in perpetuity by gifting Link Island to the Islands Trust Conservancy (ITC).
Continue reading Treasured island gifted to protect Salish Sea’s rich biodiversity
By Rachelle Stein-Wotten, Gabriola Sounder, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Union of BC Municipalities’ membership endorsed a resolution calling for changes to the BC Building Code to allow for tiny homes as permanent dwellings.
Continue reading Tiny home resolution endorsed at UBCM
Originally published in the Watershed Sentinel
By Delores Broten
Thirty years ago, I was running the tiny Friends of Cortes Island office out of the community hall at Manson’s Landing. This led to many interesting and sometimes passionate conversations. One regular visitor was Basil Seaton, veteran of the internment camps for British soldiers in Burma during World War Two. Basil took it as his mission to educate me about climate change. I remember in particular a floppy disk he brought that contained various climate change scenarios.
Fast forward thirty years. My computer is more like a Ferrari than a horse and cart, and the Province of British Columbia advises communities to plan for one metre of sea level rise by 2100, and two metres by 2200. But the predictions are still all over the place, depending on the modelling used and the assumptions made.
Continue reading Salish Sea RisingToday’s Folk U show is Lessons on Governance, Ecology and Protecting Rural Character: What Cortes can learn from the Islands Trust model.
Continue reading Folk U: The Island Trust model for local governanceOne hundred and ten delegates attended the first Rural Island Economic Forum on Pender Island, on November 7-8, 2019. Cortes Island Regional Director Noba Anderson describes the gathering as the beginnings of an alliance of BC’s rural islands, and to some extent the San Juans, “with the intend of connecting like minded communities in this time of climate chaos.”
Continue reading The First Rural Islands Economic Forum
