Tag Archives: Read Island

Community, Politics

Area C matters at the March 29 SRD Board Meeting

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A number of Area C Initiatives were passed at the Wednesday March 29, 2023, Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Board Meeting. 

The only audio clip I am using in this broadcast comes from a segment dealing with Grants in Aid. Chair Mark Baker is speaking throughout most of it. He brings a levity to the board that I do not remember witnessing in four years of observing SRD meetings. You can hear an example in the podcast. There is usually some laughter, even if only for a few moments, in most meetings. As none of the directors had anything they wished to say, this segment is almost like a drum roll: “Discussion: All in favour? Opposed? Seeing none the motion is carried.” 

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Animals

Provincial Biologist visits Cortes Island; Second Western Screech Owl discovered

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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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Animals

Success: The search for Western Screech Owls on Cortes Island

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Up until now, there have not been any reports of Western Screech Owls on Cortes Island since 2017. That just changed a few weeks ago in the island’s more remote northern forest. 

Field biologist Sabina Leader Mense reports, “I was sitting in the skiff with my husband Dennis, under an unbelievably brilliant sky of stars. It was the last station of the night, pushing midnight, and in the 16th minute of that 17 minute call playback sequence, I heard something. I remember pivoting around in the boat. The sound was behind me and you do what owls do, you turn around.  I think your ears and the muscles and your ears cup and you’re just straining to hear something. Then I heard the call again. It was very distant, but I recognized it was an owl. I began analyzing the audio disks in my head going, ‘is it a Northern Pygmy Owl? Is it a Northern Saw-Whet Owl?’ As I was doing this, it called the third time and I recognized it was a Western Screech Owl.”  

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Food

The Garden Share and Food Recovery Programs on Quadra Island

Quadra ICAN started up two food security initiatives last week. 

The Garden Share program is designed to increase the amount of food grown on Quadra Island. 

Marc Doll, a local farmer and one of the candidates during the last election, said Vancouver Island grew about half of its food prior to the Second World War. He believes this statistic is currently closer to 4% or 5%.

ICAN Coordinator Ramona Boyle explained that this is the Garden Share program’s second year.  

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Food

Tiny B.C. island community’s answer to climate change? Feed everyone

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Quadra Islander Ramona Boyle is rummaging through cardboard boxes when her friend lets out a triumphant shout.

“Look at this!” exclaims Dood, known by a single moniker similar to Madonna, plucking a package of thick-cut bacon from a box and waving it in the air.

“This normally costs at least 15 bucks.” 

Boyle peers into the box filled with various packages of frozen meat. 

“There must be hundreds of dollars worth of food in here!” she replies.

The pair, members of the Quadra Island Climate Action Team (I-CAN), are appraising their first haul for a new project to tackle climate change and food insecurity in their rural community. 

Continue reading Tiny B.C. island community’s answer to climate change? Feed everyone →