BC

by Julia Prinselaar

Nearly two decades after the last of 10,000 protesters packed their bags and left Clayoquot Sound in the final days of a summer-long logging blockade in 1993, the fight to protect the region’s ancient temperate rainforest continues. 

In some ways the demonstrations were a success.

When the province announced a Land Use Decision

by Joe Foy

Wild nature and human cultures that spring from wild nature are under assault over the entire planet. Large scale urban expansion, logging, indus­trial agriculture, mining, and petro-chemical developments are disappear­ing nature’s landscapes and peoples from Guatamala to the Philippines.

Here amongst the wild mountains and inlets of the North Pacific coast we suffer the same kinds of destruction. But over the years a new form of land designation has given some hope.

Tribal parks in British Columbia were designated for the first time in the 1980s on Meares Island in Clayoquot Sound by the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation, and on Gwaii Hanaas off the northwest coast by the Haida Nation.

Although typically grounded in environmental concerns

The most endangered ecosystem in Canada – the Coastal Douglas Fir Ecosystem – has less than 2% remaining in a wild condition. But despite a constant stream of people coming to see the rare plants and animals found there, Premier Clark’s government still OK’d the logging destruction.

by Joe Foy

Everybody loves a cute baby. As our bus wound up the steep mountain road I found myself eye to eye with a beautiful little girl who was looking intently at me from the safety of her mother’s arms. Something was bugging her and she would alternate between smiles and spates of crying as we bumped and swerved ever higher into the mountains.  

We were headed for the town of Dalat, which is in the central highlands of Vietnam.

Preserving the wilderness from Tweedsmuir Park to the Fraser River in BC.

by Ric Careless and Sheena Careless

Two hundred kilometres north of Vancouver, the Chilcotin Ark is a 565 kilometre swath of world-class wilderness that stretches from

by Stephanie Orford

Thanks to renewed interest in ocean energy in Canada, entrepreneurs are starting to harness the waves and tides off the coast of BC to generate electricity, and kick-start a new energy sector in the process. 

“There is a renewed interest in Canada ... in extracting energy from waves and tidal currents,” said Andrew Cornett, who leads ocean energy research for the Canadian Hydraulics Centre at the National Research Council. 

Shuswap flooding and impacts of development & clearcut logging.

by Jim Cooperman

Preface

Federal and provincial government staff operate under a gag order that restricts the flow of information to the public. Communication staff manufacture the only information allowed to be disseminated. Consequently, it is difficult for the

by Jim Cooperman 

In 2008, groups from throughout the province supported the efforts by Shuswap residents and organizations to halt the proposed condo and RV development adjacent to the Adams River, home to a world famous sockeye salmon run. Although they successfully prevented re-zoning for the proposal, the developer went ahead and installed new infrastructure and began marketing RV lots. Plus, in spite of the regional district’s rejection of the plans for a huge marina, 75 large buoys were installed in the sensitive fresh water estuary that provides critical salmon nursery habitat. 

by Jim Cooperman

In 1985, the rapidly growing amount of not-satisfactorily-restocked (NSR) land in BC forests became a crisis. This resulted in a joint provincial and federal $300-million funding plan, the Forest Resource Development Agreement (FRDA) that restocked many thousands of hectares.

A similar crisis is again occurring in BC's forests, but this time the cause is not logging by irresponsible forest companies. Instead, the massive amount of NSR land is a result of climate-change fuelled fires, diseases and beetle kill.