Community Stories
An Open Letter from Elder Bill Jones
As the NDP government and the forest industry continue to clear cut on unceded Pacheedaht lands and wildfires rage throughout BC and Canada, Elder Bill Jones calls again for the protection of the old-growth forests he calls his cathedral.
Towards a Drought-Ready British Columbia
Drought Ready analyzes the last decade of droughts and drought management in B.C. and offers practical guidance to move away from reactive crisis response and toward proactive drought planning. The authors focus on the provincial government’s foundational role in…
Petition Launched: That the CRD be Fully Transparent in Regard to Its Felling of Trees by Elk/Beaver Lake:
Readers of CRD Watch or the Creatively United for the Planet blog, will likely be familiar with recent articles about the felling of trees by the CRD in Elk/Beaver Lake Regional Park. Like Wooden Tombstones: The Latest Tree Decimation in Elk/Beaver Lake Regional Park…
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When Housing Debates Erase Ecology: The Story of 4015 Braefoot Rd. and the Garry Oak Ecosystem
In spring 2025, a piece of land in Saanich, BC—two acres of former hobby farm at 4015 Braefoot Rd.—became the flashpoint for a wider conflict. It supports a functioning Garry oak meadow and woodland, including approximately 120 mature Garry oak trees.
BC Could Use This Leading Example
The UK has introduced legislation requiring all new homes to be net zero carbon. This is a leading example of what we need in BC. Original article by Esme Stallard,Climate and science reporter and Justin Rowlatt,Climate Editor, from the BBC. Heat pumps for all new…
CRD Heat Map Shows Remarkable Difference in Temperature Between Natural and Built Environments
The results have major consequences. The CRD’s Regional Heat Map shows a stark difference in temperature between natural and built environments. A closer look: The first thing that becomes very apparent is high density in terms of built environment and low nature, not…
How Understanding Wind-Driven Pollen Dispersal Can Improve Urban Green Space Planning
In response to extended pollination seasons driven by climate change, researchers from the United States and France have developed an advanced computational model to examine how tree geometry influences the dispersion of airborne pollen grains.
The Infill Shock Doctrine on Arbutus Road: A Photographic Essay
Government in order to sell the idea, typically euphemizes “infill” as “gentle density”, but when applied as it is without protections for the natural environment and habitat, it is nothing other than another manifestation of the ‘Shock…
Will You Help Put Comfortable, Affordable Homes Within Reach for More Canadians?
A House of Commons petition is calling on the government to make energy efficiency a nation-building priority. We’re asking the federal government to set double the rate at which we improve energy productivity, and to end energy poverty. The benefits of…
New Westminster Joins Sue Big Oil
In February, the New Westminster City Council became the 12th BC community to support a proposed class-action lawsuit seeking to recover a share of climate-related costs from global fossil fuel companies. Local residents and young people played a pivotal role in…
Is This the Way the World Ends?
ChatGPT has been all over the media, and none of the news is good. The mother of a Tumbler Ridge shooting victim is suing OpenAI (the mother company) for culpability in the mass killing. And a recent article in The Guardian expressed the deep concern of academics who…
War in Middle East Fueled by Oil Industry
“The world is caught again in the bloody tangle of war, fossil fuels and climate change,” writes Chris Hatch in a recommended piece this week in Canada’s National Observer. The unintended dominoes are falling. As in the past, it appears this war will last much longer…
Valhalla Wilderness Society Seeks Support for Parks
Valhalla Wilderness Society (VWS) is campaigning in support of three proposed parks for the Inland Temperate Rainforest—the result of 25 years of research: the Rainbow-Jordan Wilderness, the Selkirk Mountains Ancient Forest and Quesnel Lake Wilderness. The aim is to…
BC’s Timber Numbers Don’t Add Up
New Video from Jennifer Houghton Jennifer’s videos are always worth the watch. She simplifies, clarifies and takes a scalpel to the policies and words of the Ministry of “Forests and Corporate Logging”. In this latest 12-minute video she cuts to the chase:…
Camosun College’s Devastating Clear-cutting Last Week
It’s been an ongoing theme on CRD Watch, and in my writings that Post-Secondary Institutions on Southern Vancouver Island, shackled to the unsustainability of ecology destroying growth-based capitalism and a government also under its shackles, in particular to the…
