Tag Archives: Village Bay Lakes

Water

Studying The Water Budget For Quadra Island; a model for the future

ICAN’s water security team and the We Wai Kai First Nation have embarked upon an exploration of Quadra Island’s water systems.

While this is a Quadra study, everything they are doing is applicable to Cortes and every other British Columbian island where there is a sizeable population. They are offering a model of how we can prepare for the future.  

“The project started a number of years ago, really centered on the concerns of local people on Quadra about the nature of their water supply. People were really worried about what was going to happen with both climate change, whether it’s going to be getting hotter (particularly in the summers) and with development. Every new person that moves on to the island usually sinks a well. If they sink a well, they’re pulling quite a bit of water out of the aquifer. We wanted to know, would the aquifer actually meet our needs? Also, what needs does the environment have? And what will happen when things like climate change influences the availability of water,” explained Colin Chapman, who, together with his partner Claire Hemingway, is a key leader in this project. 

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Disaster

B.C. firefighters battled through the night to dampen out-of-control Quadra Island wildfire

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

​BC Wildfire Service’s specialized attack crews worked through the night to tame an out-of-control wildfire that broke out in a populated area of Quadra Island Thursday afternoon.

Three first-response crews, a helicopter and two tree-fallers continue to fight the blaze east of Village Bay Lake near Bold Point Road and it has shrunk from four hectares to 1.5 hectares in size, BC Wildfire Service information officer Sam Bellion told Canada’s National Observer early Friday. 

The wildfire service’s latest alert at 11 a.m. said the fire is being held. It broke out in the island’s Village Lakes area, a popular summer destination with numerous recreational properties and homes. 

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Rivers & Oceans

Quadra streamkeepers use motion-sensor fish camera

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Stream stewards no longer need to brave wild weather, winds and rain each autumn to count spawning salmon entering Village Bay Lake on B.C.’s Quadra Island. Now, volunteers can monitor returning salmon from the comfort of their kitchen table with the help of a high-tech surveillance system, said Lauren Miller of the Quadra Island Salmon Enhancement Society (QISES). The Quadra salmon conservation group has rigged up a motion-sensor fish camera system that snaps images of passing coho salmon as they head into the lake to reach their natal creeks further afield.

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Rivers & Oceans

Quadra Island Streamkeepers protect wild salmon

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Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

With just a little bit of arm flailing and much nonchalance, Frank Gleeson regains his balance after slipping on a wet rock lodged in a steep embankment along Village Bay Creek.

Gleeson and his buddy, Pete Calverley, continue to clamber over and under trees, scramble up slopes and wade through underbrush in their search for spawning salmon.

Gleeson and Calverley, aged 71 and 78, descend into a clearing at the creek’s edge and excitedly point out about 45 chum salmon milling not far from shore.

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Disaster

North Quadra Residents Divided About Wildfire Protection

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Dalyce Dogterom recalls the night a neighbouring house, in Quadra Island’s remote community of Bold Point, caught fire a couple of years ago.

She couldn’t see the blaze from her property, but the night sky glowed red, she said.

Residents’ calls to 911 brought out the police and the ambulance service to treat the residents for smoke inhalation.

But the Quadra Island Fire Department (QIFD) wasn’t called out because fire protection services in the less densely populated and more isolated northern part of the island falls to the BC Wildfire Service, Dogterom said Monday.

The provincial wildfire service does not fight structure or residence fires, but rather forest fires.

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