Tag Archives: Read Island

Fire

An Open Burning Bylaw for Cortes Island

SRD staff is preparinig an open Burning Bylaw for Cortes Island. 

This is in response to Coastal Fire Centre’s decision to allow campfires, on June 20: ‘due to cooler conditions and rainfall, which has reduced the fire danger rating in these areas.’ However appropriate this may have been in other areas under the Centre’s control, it was not on Cortes Island. As Nancy Kendel wrote in the Tideline, “We have had basically NO RAIN since beginning of May, and our forests are tinder dry!”

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Community, Politics

Approved: Area C’s Integrated Community Sustainability Plan

Quadra Island’s Community Plan was drawn up in 2007 and some of the Outer Discovery have land use plans dating back to the 1990s, but Area C needed an overall comprehensive vision. The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) started the consultation process leading to an Integrated Community Sustainability Plan in 2019. Then COVID arrived, and everything was put on hold. Last year the SRD recruited a community focus group, hired a facilitator and proceeded to finish the job. On Friday, June 16, The SRD Board announced the approval of the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan for Electoral Area C (The Discovery Islands & Mainland Inlets).

“Anytime we do any sort of comprehensive planning process, one of the biggest challenges that we have is finding common ground amongst all  the disparate ideas, visions, goals and challenges of people living in different areas – and with being diverse people themselves.  In this case because it is a vision for the entire region, it was much more important that we were able to come together, find that common ground and that shared vision.  That required a lot of intense discussion and a lot of work together,” explained Meredith Starkey. SRD Manager of parks and planning.  

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Transportation

CCEDA encourages Cortes to take the Survey on Rural Passenger Transportation

Cortes Community Economic Development Association

Recently, the province announced a new rural intercommunity transportation study. Cortes Islanders will be familiar with efforts over the years to explore improvements in transportation options for residents and visitors while reducing the island’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

This new transportation study will address rural intercommunity transportation. For residents of Cortes, Sonora and Read Islands, this is mainly about finding affordable and reliable ways to get across Quadra Island to access essential goods and services without the use of a personal vehicle.

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Food

First 2 months of ICAN’s food recovery program: almost 1,300 people benefit

In the two months that ICAN’s food recovery program has been in operation, close to 1,300 people have received benefits.  

“Since the beginning of March we’ve distributed 10,408.4 kilos of food, and that has been  distributed to 338 individuals, who were feeding 671 people.  In addition to that, we have been supplying various agencies like Quadra Circle, the Read Island Aging In Place program, the Read Island Community Kitchen. These agencies have been feeding an additional 600 people. In  total, we estimate that this food has provided meals for 1,271 people,” said Ramona Boyle, Coordinator of Quadra ICAN.

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Animals, History, Indigenous Nations History

A Breed Apart: What was the Coast Salish woolly dog, and can we bring it back?

Editor’s note:  Salish Woolly dogs are believed to have been common throughout Coast Salish territories, so were most likely kept by the ancestors of the Homalco, Klahoose and Tla’amin First Nations. The oldest remains of this breed date back 4,000 years and were found in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea. Sheep wool is believed to have replaced dog wool in Indigenous communities after 1862.

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

If you had been wandering the Coast Salish territories of British Columbia some 4,000 years ago, rambling dense woodland and visiting village longhouses, you would likely have spotted a number of small, white, flocculent pooches.

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