Tag Archives: Ministry of Land

Animals

The Call That Changed Everything: Western Screech Owls Return to Cortes Island

Originally published, as part 7 of the Cortes Island Resonance series by the Cortes Community Radio Society.

“The only word I can find to describe that feeling… is gobsmacked,” exclaimed field biologist Sabina Leader Mense. 

She was referring to the moment she heard a Western Screech Owl respond during a call playback survey near Bullock Bluff on Cortes Island. It was nearly midnight, the final station of the night, and her team had conducted over a hundred surveys without a single response. This owl’s call — unmistakable and repeated 12 times — marked the first confirmed sighting since 2017.

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Environment

What FOCI Achieved in 2023

With the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) AGM coming up on November 28, it seemed like an ideal time to ask Executive Director Helen Hall what the society achieved in 2023. 

“We’re actually doing 14 different projects, which involve everything from habitat restoration and conservation through to environmental monitoring and community education.  I just wanted to highlight some of those projects,”she explained.

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Indigenous Nations, Politics, Rivers & Oceans

Land and water in B.C. have a new ministry. We spoke with its leader

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Josie Osborne seems careful with her words as she talks about her new job. The former mayor of Tofino, turned MLA,  is heading up the new B.C. Ministry of Land, Water and Resource  Stewardship and is the minister responsible for fisheries. But through  her political composure are glimpses of a lifestyle associated with the  little west coast community on Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation territory —  she lives on ten acres with her husband, dog, three goats and chickens  and works out of a brightly coloured tiny house office. 

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