Tag Archives: Nature is Good For You

The Most Exciting Conservation Story on Cortes Island

Transcript of a radio broadcast by Sabina Leader Mense

Just last weekend several of us were at the Cortes Island Museum for the launch of Sheila Harrington’s new book ‘Voices For The Islands: 30 Years Of Nature Conservation In The Salish Sea.’ What Sheila does in this book is she celebrates this amazing community of conservationists that are living and working in the Salish Sea.  

In the foreword, Briony Penn wrote, “If you’ve picked up this book, chances are that you’ve fallen in love with the islands in the Salish Sea. You might have wondered how the heck they’ve retained their natural beauty against the hostile tsunami of contemporary clear-cuts, cookie cutter suburbs, and mindless malls that are encroaching elsewhere.” 

Briony talks about the collective efforts of thousands of people over generations that have actually been working to maintain the beauty of the islands. 

Sheila’s book documents the last 30 years of people (voices in the islands) who have been working at conservation. She includes a chapter on Cortes, so we’re in there with the best of them! I encourage everybody to pick her book up and have a read  to see what the island community of conservationists have been doing. 

The most exciting conservation story on Cortes today is definitely the Children’s Forest! This is the 624 acres of forest lands that stretch all the way from the Carrington Bay Road trailhead, east across Carrington Lagoon to Goat Mountain, just on the northern shore of Blue Jay Lake.  These are lands owned by Island Timberlands. It’s part of their privately managed forest land base on Cortes Island.

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Beating the winter blues: a local therapist’s perspective

CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

With fewer daylight hours and, typically, less social interaction, winter can be challenging on mental health — but we don’t have to suffer through it, a Cortes Island therapist says.

Registered clinical counsellor Kira MacDuffee has a practice, Opening Works, in Mansons Landing. MacDuffee said that the long winter months are comparable to COVID-19 lockdown periods: all that alone time can be confronting but is, simultaneously, a huge opportunity for healing and transformation, she said.

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Reel Youth: Responding to Social Issues

In the fourth of a series about Reel Youth, Mark Vonesch explains how young filmmakers pick the issues that are shaping their future.   

“One of the things that I love about working with young people, especially when they’re talking about issues, that they care about, the changes they want to see in the world, young people are impatient.  They don’t easily take no for an answer. They’re not afraid of speaking up,” he explained.

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Being In Nature Is Good For Us

Originally published on Cortes Radio.ca

Most of us intuitive understand that being in nature is good for us. On Friday May 22 Helen Hall joined Manda Aufochs Gillespie on Folk University’s Friday Folk U Talk Show on CKTZ 89.5 FM to explain just how true this is according to the research. 

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Folk U Friday: the Dawn Chorus

Originally Posted on Cortes Radio.ca

This is a fabulous time of year to hear the dawn chorus and begin to listen for bird calls as birds are establishing territories or trying to attract a mate. The result is an amazing orchestra of bird song, right on your doorstep every morning. It’s free and all you have to do is roll out of bed a little early, sit back and listen! It’s a wonderful way to start the day!

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