It’s a bad year for certain kinds of popular mushrooms on Vancouver Island. We went mushroom hunting with two local experts to find out what’s happening It’s dumping rain when I pull into the tiny parking lot at Blinkhorn Lake in Metchosin. Andy MacKinnon and Kem Luther are Gore Texed and rubber booted, pocket knives […]
Environment
Women hobby farmers are part of a food revolution
Raising livestock and families: the young women farmers of Sooke Kristy Sivorot does not shy away from hard work. She’s a nurse, a mother of two, a homeschool teacher for the last year, and a livestock farmer on the Sooke and Metchosin border. She didn’t grow up on a farm. She never had to collect […]
Vancouver Island farmer shares secret for inventing a new potato
Using seeds anyone can name their own variety Ever hear that to grow potatoes you just cut up any old tuber and plant the pieces? Well, you certainly can plant tubers, though they’re far more productive if planted whole, but what about planting potatoes by seed? Growing potatoes from potatoes gives a genetically identical product, […]
Wild bees need messy gardens to survive
The year-long nesting period makes habitat a primary concern for wild bees Gardeners might be itching to clean up dead leaves and stalks from the winter, but they could be holding wild bees who haven’t emerged yet. “A big impact is to keep your garden messy. We always have this urge to tidy up but […]
Orca pod returns to the Broughton Archipelago
The A5 pod brought a new calf to their former Broughton Archipelago winter hunting area ZOE DUCKLOW, LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER Jan. 8, 2021 6:30 a.m After more than 20 years a celebrated orca family has ventured back into an old haunt near the North Island. The A5 pod has returned to the Broughton Archipelago, […]
Canada ‘stole Christmas’ says Vancouver Island’s aquaculture industry
Federal decision to phase out 19 Discovery Island fish farms has sent shivers across northern Vancouver Island ZOE DUCKLOW, LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER & BINNY PAUL, LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER Dec. 24, 2020 11:30 a.m. Canada’s decision to phase out 19 Discovery Island fish farms sent “shock waves” throughout north Vancouver Island, say some associated […]
Kwakiutl First Nation angry at logging in Douglas Treaty land
The nation is calling on government to honour the Douglas Treaty ZOE DUCKLOW, LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER Dec. 4, 2020 8:30 a.m Kwakiutl First Nation’s Chief and Council are calling on the government to stop Western Forest Products (WFP) from logging on Douglas Treaty land, a two-mile-thick strip of shoreline between Port McNeill and Port […]
Human-altered Landscapes: Visions of the Anthropocene
It was two years ago, while hovering over the Niger Delta in a two-dollar-per-second rented helicopter that Edward Burtynsky saw an oil-soaked scene of apocalyptic scale. Images of oily waterways flicker in dull rainbow hues; landscapes shine black and are littered with scorched trees; a boat speeds away from the helicopter. He had heard about […]
Site C Injunction Request Has Strong Argument but Poor Odds
Construction needs to stop so that rights ‘aren’t gone before the First Nations can have their day in court,’ lawyer says. The federal government made a splash in the Site C news cycle earlier this month when Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould announced it would not oppose an injunction application from two First Nations groups. It […]
There’s still time to stop Site C
An excerpt from a new book on the dam project that’s divided B.C. Damming the Peace: The Hidden Costs of the Site C Dam Wendy Holm James Lorimer & Company (2018) Site C is a behemoth of a project. Its every twitch initiates a chain reaction in no less than five spheres. I recently contributed, […]