Lakes

A massive open pit mine threatens Fish Lake, which currently contains so many rainbow trout it’s been listed as one of the top ten fishing lakes in the province.

by Joe Foy

The more I travel the province of British Columbia where I was born and raised, the more I am in awe of BC’s home-grown diversity. This amazing place has more wildlife species than any other province and more First Na­tions’ languages than all the rest of Canada combined! A rich and ancient record of human history flows along the salmon rivers and forested valley bottoms like a mist and rises to cover even the very tallest of peaks.

Learning to hear the echoes of these past times is a tricky business. But if we want to know where we are headed in the future, I figure it’s best to know where we have been.

The vast Chilcotin Plateau is one place where the past

by Jim Cooperman 

Some time ago I received an email about the dismal status of lakes worldwide due to pollution, diversion, siltation, development and evaporation. In comparison, Shuswap Lake sparkles. But underneath our lake’s shimmer are problems, with more concerns on the way if development expands unchecked. 

Excerpted from a press release by Catherine Coumans and Maggie Paquet 

On October 18, two lakes in Newfoundland that are habitat to trout, Atlantic salmon, otter, and other species, received a death sentence as the newly amended Metal Mining Effluent Regulations (MMER) went into law. 

by David Williams

In 2002 the federal government, in virtual lockstep with the Bush regime, created a special exemption to federal environmental rules that would turn many of Canada's lakes into toxic waste dumps for mines. At least sixteen lakes across the country are slated to become repositories for waste rock laced with heavy metals like arsenic and mercury. Six of these lakes are

by Will Koop

The protection of drinking water sources is an ancient wisdom of the Commons practiced throughout the world. A report to the Albany Institute on June 4, 1872 by New York state senior librarian Henry Home, described how the city of Constantinople's drinking watershed, located along the ridges of the Balkan Range, with its ancient chestnut and oak forests, had been protected for 1,500 years. Home stated that it was a wise "custom and a stringent law" originating from the "edicts of Greek Emperors."

Wars, over-population, corruption, change in ruling authorities, etc., sometimes resulted in the abandonment of these customs to the detriment of the