Community Stories
Nature Activities and Climate Solutions Resources for Busy Parents, Educators and Nature Lovers
This free downloadable e-book for parents of children age 0 – 12, is filled with creative activities, practical tips, nature activities and climate friendly solutions. It will spark environmental awareness, foster nature stewardship and make sustainable habits a part…
National Food Security? Not Without a Healthy Diet
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization describes an agri-food system as encompassing everything from “field to fork.” Unfortunately, Canada’s new National Food Security Strategy fails to pay much attention to either the field or the fork end of the system.
Send a Wake-up Call to the Forest Practices Board
The BC Forest Practices Board calls itself “BC’s independent watchdog for sound forest and range practices”. The Board is the BC public’s only avenue for holding logging companies and the government accountable when either transgress a narrow range of forest-related…
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Let’s Make It A Great Day Again
It was a great day when the council and mayor the City of Victoria approved the Urban Forest Master Plan in 2013. It is comprehensive, sustainable, and inspiring. The trouble is – it hasn’t been implemented. This plan recognizes the disconnect between what has…
An Antidote to Despair
We are in a climate crisis. Daily we witness or hear about climate disasters all over the world. A recent windstorm in Italy wiped out over a million trees that were 200 years old. Currently in California drought conditions have caused horrific wildfires resulting in a loss of lives, of homes, of trees, plants and wildlife.
Suggestions For Tree Health and Preservation
Trees perform important eco-services, such as creating oxygen, cooling the air during our increasingly long, hot summers, reducing storm water, and most importantly, they store carbon. Big trees store a lot more carbon than saplings do. Big trees do more of everything on that list than saplings do.
Development With Vision
Victoria’s lush natural environment is what the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral is to Paris, a crowning jewel. No one would suggest taking the Notre Dame apart stone by stone to the ground and selling it off, however, that is exactly what we are doing to our…
Vancouver Street -Traffic Calming & Active Transportation Project
In May 2018 the City opened the Fort Street protected bike lanes. Earlier this month, the City completed the all ages and abilities (AAA) multi-use path in Beacon Hill Park. Construction of the Wharf Street and Humboldt Street AAA routes is anticipated to start in the…
Healthy Saplings Lead to Healthy Ecosystems
The first three years, especially the first, are the most critical to tree saplings as they don’t have a developed root system to gather water, ward off pests, avoid being trampled or damaged. We lose the benefits mature trees provide when we replace them with…
Losing trees in Victoria: one mature tree equals 269 saplings
We should all be concerned about global warming. We can see the changes happening now; our summers are longer and a lot drier. But I wonder if the City cares. Because I don’t see much evidence they’re trying to save our mature trees, one of the few factors that reduce…
Why Trees Matter, A Lot!
Mankind has embarked on a huge, uncontrolled experiment – we have destroyed about 80 per cent of the world’s forests. More are destroyed every minute. How long can we last without them? Instead of waiting to find out, many people are planting thousands, even millions of trees.
Proportional Representation: Getting More of What We Want
Would you like to live in a fairer, more compassionate world where community issues are are given consideration and you are inspired to have someone and something to vote for? This fall we will have a historic, once in a generation opportunity to say goodbye to First…
Community Trees: Questions for Candidates
Thank you to the candidates who responded to our tree preservation questionnaire and put themselves forward to run in the 2018 municipal elections. Congratulations to all! Updated October 19th with new responses Dr. Jennie Moore of BCIT recently estimated the…
One-Planet Questions For Candidates
As the Oct. 20 municipal elections loom, I suggest we should be asking all candidates about a very serious issue — in fact, in my view, the most serious challenge we face in the 21st century, both globally and locally: How do we make the changes that move us toward being a One-Planet Region?
Skaana Podcast: Saving Scarlet, surrendering on Scoter, grieving with Tahlequah and praying for pregnant orcas. A news update on the southern residents
Listen to the podcast here! Saving Scarlet, surrendering on Scoter, grieving with Tahlequah and praying for pregnant orcas. A news update on the southern residents with Skaana host: Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung).
