Tag Archives: Salt Spring Island

Cortes Is Different

Originally Published on the Cortes Tideline

During all the fire and fury over Cortes’ proposed “Hall Tax,” it occurred to me that the problem of increasing difficulty in operating and maintaining our Community Halls can hardly be unique to Cortes. Surely other communities are facing similar challenges; it would be worth finding out how (or whether) they were solving the problem. So I set out to investigate the funding basis of as many coastal community halls as possible, in communities not too different from our own: smallish, rural-ish, remote-ish.

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Going Beyond Organic Farming

Michael Ableman started farming organically in California during  the 1970’s and is considered to be a pioneer of the organic farming and urban agriculture movements. He is the author of four books: From the Good Earth, On Good Land, Fields Of Plenty and Street Farm; Growing Food, Jobs, and Hope on the Urban Frontier. Michael has been the head farmer at Foxglove Farm, on Saltspring Island, B.C.,for close to twenty years. I recently asked him about going beyond organic farming.

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Humpbacks Return To Cortes Island

Humpback whales were passing through our area long before Europeans arrived. The first colonial settlement was named Whalteown and Whaletown Road run across the island to Squirrel Cove. There is also a “Whaling Station Bay,” on Hornby Island and “Blubber Bay,” on Texada Island. However up until a few years ago, there have been no humpback whale sightings since 1871. This morning’s broadcast consists of a series of interviews about the humpbacks return to Cortes Island.

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The Capital Regional District Might Expropriate Grace Islet

By Roy L Hales

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British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource will not intervene to protect the recognized First Nation’s burial site on Salt Spring Island, but the Capital Regional District might expropriate Grace Islet.

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