Tag Archives: We Wai Kai Nation

Mawhinney reviews 2023 in Area C and looks ahead to 2024

Editor’s note: Some activities that are of interest to Cortes listeners as well are: the fact the proposed SRD housing service is designed to be virtually cost neutral to the electorate and how Quadra ICAN is mapping that island’s aquifers and wetlands, as well as monitoring water levels in a number of wells. 

Robyn Mawhinney has learned a lot since she was elected Regional Director almost 14 months ago. As we enter into yet another new year, she gave her reflections of 2023 and what is ahead for Area C in the coming months.

“I’m really pleased that there are new avenues for having community voices heard and included in decision making,” she began.

Continue reading Mawhinney reviews 2023 in Area C and looks ahead to 2024

A coastal First Nation’s Guardians are ‘testing the water’ to prepare for climate change

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A coastal First Nation’s Guardian team is gearing up to test the waters to try to limit the impacts of drought in their traditional territories on northeast Vancouver Island.   

The We Wai Kai First Nation’s environmental stewards are partnering with other local groups to map and monitor wetlands, watersheds and streams on Quadra Island as summers get hotter and drier, said Guardian program manager Shane Pollard. 

Continue reading A coastal First Nation’s Guardians are ‘testing the water’ to prepare for climate change

Robert Bringhurst on local history, science, poetry, the ridge where he lives and much more

On Saturday Robert Bringhurst (RB) brings his own brand of literature, local history, science and humour to the stage of the Quadra Community Centre. He just gave Cortes Currents a taste in a rambling conversation that at one point went off topic to include remarks about Cortes Island, Campbell River and Whistler. Bringhurst started out by describing his intentions in the epic description of ‘the Ridge’ on Quadra Island where he lives.    

RB: “I wanted to make good poetry out of, among other things, good science. I wanted  to walk the ridge and relish it as one does without any thought of scientific measurement or accuracy, but I also wanted to think about it as a real place in historical time and to look at the species in relation to other species on the planet, and at the rocks in relation to other rocks. I began to wonder how much biology, geology, astronomy and climatology I could put in this poem without sinking it. The answer turned out to be quite a bit.” 

Continue reading Robert Bringhurst on local history, science, poetry, the ridge where he lives and much more

Small island community launches big effort to develop water security

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

As a landscape architect specializing in wetland restoration, Bernie Amell knows how water moves across the landscape. 

However, he has had a crash course in drought after Amell and his wife moved to their Quadra Island agricultural acreage on B.C.’s so-called “Wet Coast” three years ago. 

“We arrived in 2021, in the ‘heat dome’ summer, and the shallow well dried up,” said Amell, a member of Quadra Island’s Climate Action Network (I-CAN).

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SRD acknowledges Kwiakah and Tla’amin First Nations

The Kwiakah and Tla’amin First Nations are now recognized in Strathcona Regional District (SRD) territorial acknowledgements. The SRD added their names in response to strong requests from both nations. A series of motions to this effect were passed at the July 19 SRD Board meeting, in Campbell River.  

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