Tag Archives: Victoria

George Sirk: Frog Stories 

Cortes Island naturalist George Sirk knows a lot about frogs.  

GS: “A lot of people know me because of my interest in birds, which is really an addiction, isn’t it?  I’m just hopeless when it comes to birds.  I’m just totally into them. They’re so fascinating.  I came from Venezuela when I was 10. My parents immigrated to Vancouver and I couldn’t speak English. I could speak Spanish and I knew a little Estonian and I could understand German because my parents argued in German.”  

“So there I was in Vancouver, a little weird guy 10-years-old, and I met some other weird young people too, what we would call nerds.” 

“They were into frogs. Jim Palmer was one,  Lowell Orchid, that’s another.  Jim just passed away actually in December, but Lowell’s still with us all here. We used to collect frogs  very close to Kits Beach, the Lacarno beach area. It used to be a military base at one time.  So there used to be a lot of empty properties,  fields and it  got very wet in the wintertime. The tree frogs would all go in there and have a great time.” 

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The Quadra Project: Protecting Old Forests

At least 1,000 people, representing more than 220 diverse organizations and First Nations from British Columbia, attended the United for Old Growth March & Rally in Victoria on February 25. They marched from City Hall to the BC Legislature, demanding the implementation of the Old Growth Strategic Review, a comprehensive 2020 study that recommended the immediate protection of the remnant old growth forests in the province. Not one of its 14 recommendations has yet been implemented.

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Ellingsen Woods search for a value added market

“When I came to Cortes, I imagined just making boards is a great thing to do. I’ve had a number of years to assess and reassess that reality. It’s possible as a one man operation for me to do okay at that, but it’s a subsistence business not a business model. It’s not a business plan,” explained Aaron Ellingsen.

His company, Ellingsen Woods, is about to go through a relaunch. 

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February 25th Rally for Old Growth in Victoria BC

— with on the spot reporting, films and photographs from Helen Hall

In recent years, the BC government has made many promises, many representations to the public, about its intent to preserve what little is left of the Province’s old growth forests. Many BC residents, however, feel that — despite the arrival in office of more reality-based politicians such as David Eby — no real progress is being made.

Some of these residents attended a March and Rally in Victoria on February 25th, to express their concerns about deforestation and their frustration with the slowness of government response to what many describe as an ecological crisis. Helen Hall, longtime Cortes resident, traveled to Victoria to participate in this protest.

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NDP leader’s health-care concerns front and centre during Vancouver Island tour

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Hot off a week-long Vancouver Island tour on the state of health care, federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says protecting Canada’s public health system is a top priority in the coming year.

As Parliament returned Monday, Singh said he expects to have a one-on-one conversation with Justin Trudeau to raise concerns about the threat of privatization and the acute lack of health-care workers that are hobbling communities and hospitals across the country.

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