Tag Archives: Port Renfrew

Animals, Energy, Rivers & Oceans

Feds urged to use emergency order to save endangered orcas

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Emergency protections for endangered southern resident killer whales are urgently needed because of increased oil tanker traffic from the expanded Trans Mountain (TMX) pipeline, says a coalition of conservation groups.

Six environmental organizations are formally petitioning Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and Fisheries and Oceans Minister Diane Lebouthillier, urging them to recommend that cabinet issue an emergency order under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) to save the remaining 74 whales, said Margot Venton, nature program director of Ecojustice, a legal charity working for the environmental groups. 

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Indigenous Nations, Parks

Canada takes steps to rectify land grab for Pacific Rim park with coastal First Nation

Editor’s note: Given the vast amount of land taken from First Nations without their consent and the amount of this that is now designated parkland, this article points to a trend we may see more of in the years going forward. There are three provincial parks (Mansons Landing, Smelt Bay and Von Donop) and a variety of Regional Parks (Blind Creek Boat Launch, Carrington Bay Park, Cortes Skate Park, Hank’s Beach Forest Conservation Park, Hayes Park, Gnat Park, Kw’as Park, Moon Park, Seascape Park, Siskin Forest Park, Siskin Forest Trails, Whaletown Commons) on Cortes Island.

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The federal government and the Pacheedaht First Nation celebrated an agreement Wednesday to return stewardship control over territory taken without permission to create B.C.’s world-renowned Pacific Rim National Park. 

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Forests

Fairy Creek protesters release video highlighting BC’s ‘hypocrisy’

Campbell River Mirror, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A new video made by Vancouver Island activists at the forefront of the Fairy Creek watershed blockade in Port Renfrew has gone viral on the internet as it takes a dig at B.C.’s destination marketing brand, Super, Natural British Columbia.

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Forests

Fairy Creek logging blockade enters fourth week

Campbell River Mirror, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

An ongoing protest against old-growth logging in Port Renfrew has moved into its fourth week and now boast three blockades. A group of “forest defenders” launched action on Aug. 10, to prevent Teal Jones Group’s construction crews from building a road to the Fairy Creek Watershed, which the call the last intact unlogged old-growth of Southern Vancouver Island’s San Juan River system. On Aug. 16 the second blockade was established east of the Fairy Creek watershed. The following week, on Aug. 23, a third blockade was set up on a logging road on Edinburgh mountain – home to the famed old-growth Douglas-fir tree, ‘Big Lonely Doug.’

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Forests

Fairy Creek environmental blockade near Port Renfrew

Campbell River Mirror, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Government and company officials continue to avoid comment as an environmental blockade near Port Renfrew reached its fifth day Friday.  Attempts by the Mirror to speak to representatives of logging company Teal Jones and area MLA and Premier John Horgan went unreturned, as protesters continued with a blockade launched Monday to stop Teal Jones Group from punching road access into the Fairy Creek watershed. 

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