Sooke Rally – Protect Fairy Creek & Support Blockades – Sat. April 17
Hats off to all who attended last Saturday’s Sooke rally. And thank you to Rene and Jane for being safety peeps and Wow to banner makers! yes!! We can support the Rainforest Flying Squad and help protect Fairy Creek… We will rally to defend Fairy Creek and... Read more
Historic Moment for our Forests and Climate Change
John Horgan will have an emergency cabinet meeting on the Fairy Creek situation and our old growth forests this month. This is a good time to send letters to the premier and MLAs. Contacts are provided below. Please ask your friends, family, neighbours and other... Read more
Metchosin Wilderness Camp Update
As a new step in Metchosin’s response to concerns with subdivision of the Metchosin Wilderness Camp, community members have initiated a Go Fund Me campaign, to assist in bringing professional legal knowledge in the practice area of non-profit and charity law, into the... Read more
REFORM to TRANSFORM: Climate Education Reform BC Action Toolkit
As youth who grew up unaware of the magnitude of the looming Climate Crisis, our team’s concern arose knowing how complacent our governments and the educational system has remained amidst the downfall and unnecessary destruction of our natural world.
Read moreCitizens Stand to Protect BC’s Old-Growth Forests
Premier John Horgan will be making an announcement at a forestry convention Thursday, April 8th Please get your emails and letters in today as soon as possible! On April 1, the BC Supreme Court handed down a decision to impose the injunction sought by Teal Jones. The... Read more
The Hidden Torture Chambers Nobody Thinks About
On World Day For Animals in Labs we educate ourselves about the virulent reservoir of cruelty to animals which exists in the international network of experimental labs, & take time to communicate with our political representatives on the issue.
Read moreTruth Matters: Media and the Science Behind Truth
Why do people reject the science of climate change; what are the consequences of accepting misinformation and what role does psychology and the media play in overcoming this resistance? This webinar features internationally…
Read more
Old Growth Forest Rally
So great to see such a fantastic turnout for the old growth forest rally at the Victoria Legislature. Thank you to everyone for taking a stand for our forests. Here’s a letter, complete with email addresses to share: Subject: A call for a New Forest Framework in... Read more
International Dark Sky Week
International Dark Sky Week (April 5-12) is just around the corner! We invite you to take a look at the new International Dark Sky Week website. There, you will find a map with popups that tells the stories of a small snapshot of the beautiful International Dark Sky... Read more
Practising Democracy as if the Future Mattered
Too often, politics is focused on the short term. We see it everywhere: Support for clear-cutting the last stands of old-growth forest, fishing to the last fish, maintaining and even expanding the fossil-fuel industry — the list goes on. Only when it is almost too late do we act — and not always even then.
Read more
Sustainable Forest Management Will Help Drive Our Net Zero Future
Governments and stakeholders agree that we must urgently work together to build our net zero carbon future. The cost of inaction is simply far too great. The sooner we act, the more effectively we can reduce the risks and protect the health and safety of Canadians. It... Read more
Highlands Not the Place for a Strip Mine
The Highlands District Community Association (HDCA) is asking for public support requesting MLA’s (the Premier’s) support in stopping the OK Industries (OKI) strip mine, and in changing the Province’s Mines Act so this won’t happen again – here or anywhere in BC. Our... Read more
Greater Victoria Group Pushes Local Conversation for Climate Action
Humans act as if we have several planets to sustain us when in reality we only have one – that’s the motive behind a new six-week series of Monday evening conversations called Re-imagining Life In A One Planet Region.
Read more
Personal Reflections on Climate Change, Covid 19 and Stress
One of the common topics of conversation these days deals with how well we are faring with Covid lockdown. All the in-person people that I’ve met seem to be coping fairly well, even the dog walkers passing by or the strangers I meet at the nearby park. Actually, the... Read more
Opportunities to Help Protect Nature
Two opportunities to help nature are coming up soon. You may not be aware that in BC, there is less than 1% of the biggest old-growth trees left. Keeping these forests standing is among our best tools for mitigating climate change. Yet government and industry still... Read more
The Nanaimo Area Land Trust is Calling all Interested Wetlands Stewards!
The wetlands of Nanaimo are a precious ecological resource. To understand their natural values they need to be properly mapped, classified and monitored. This wetlandkeepers course will give you the tools to help steward our local wetlands. Sign up now for the 2021... Read more
Update on Metchosin Wilderness Camp
Metchosin council took a bold move on March 15 in passing a bylaw that downzones the Boys and Girls Club property that we know as Metchosin Wilderness Camp. The community rallied to provide letters of support for this move. We have been blindsided by the Club’s... Read moreBiodiversity Matters – Re-Imagining Forest Management
‘The spiraling decline of our planet’s biodiversity is the true tragedy of our time’ – David Attenborough from A Life on our Planet The road to carbon neutrality can only be successful if nature’s biodiversity is not only…
Read moreA Holistic Approach to Agriculture
I missed the Reimagining Agriculture webinar in February but was able to listen/watch it today and was pleased to see the references to organic agriculture, water usage, and the spiritual connection to land use provided by the poet, Rhona McAdam. That research on... Read more
Cancel TMX Insurance
Last week, Indigenous youth land defenders Braided Warriors were violently assaulted and removed while holding a peaceful sit-in and engaging in ceremony at the offices of Trans Mountain’s insurers. [1] They were demanding these insurance giants stop backing the... Read more
Old Growth Blockades
Here’s some info on the old growth blockades (www.fairycreekblockade.com) that are in place near Port Renfrew: Since August 10, 2020, ancient temperate rainforests in the Fairy Creek watershed (TFL 46) near Port Renfrew have been protected from Teal Jones... Read moreWelcome to the Koksilah Watershed
The Koksilah Working Group is a group of community volunteers who address concerns about the impacts of land use and climate change on their local water and environment on Vancouver Island, Canada. It was established in 2015 by the Cowichan Station Area Association,... Read moreRe-Imagining Agriculture – Adapting to a New Climate Reality
Water required for agriculture is becoming a major concern for water and food security across the province of British Columbia. This issue will only get worse over the coming decade as the climate dries and warms….
Read more
Transportation, Climate Change, Public Health and Equity
Vancouver has a wonderful Climate Emergency Action Plan (https://vancouver.ca/green-vancouver/vancouvers-climate-emergency.aspx ) that increases resource efficiency (it significantly reduces per capita energy and land consumption), plus housing and transportation... Read more
CRD Now Spreading Sewage Biosolids at Hartland Landfill
After full commissioning of the Residuals Treatment Facility for the Capital Region’s Liquid Waste located at Hartland Landfill, the CRD has confirmed the Facility is now producing bio-solids from dewatered sewage sludge, and is spreading them at the Landfill. The... Read more
Making Peace with Nature
“Humanity is waging war on nature. This is senseless and suicidal. The consequences of our recklessness are already apparent in human suffering, towering economic losses, and the accelerating erosion of life on Earth.” – UN Secretary-General António Guterres “We... Read more
Langford Is About to Change
A lot has happened in our community in the past few years: entire mountainsides clearcut and blasted, residents unable to adequately access council meetings during the pandemic, residents of Danbrook, and Tri-way mobile home park displaced, all in the pursuit of... Read more
The Future of Saanich Wetlands
On Monday, Feb. 22nd, Saanich Council will be deliberating on the future of the Panama Flats. The 2013 master plan for this remarkable 62-acre property has the ingredients of bird and wildlife sanctuary, wetlands, walking paths, Garry Oak preservation, flood plan... Read moreSeeing Beyond the Obvious – Artists as Changemakers
Join three incredibly talented and well-established visual artists: Roy Henry Vickers, Roberta Pyx Sutherland and David Ellingsen for an insightful look beyond the obvious, hosted by multi-media artist Frances Litman….
Read more
Our economic system needs to recognize the price – and value – of nature
A cynic, Oscar Wilde wrote, is someone who “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” On that basis, our dominant economic system — corporate capitalism — is beyond cynical. It takes Wilde’s aphorism one giant step further because it doesn’t even know or take into account the price of everything, never mind recognize and account for that which is priceless.
Read more
Can you support the Yellow Point Ecological Society?
Once a year, we put out an appeal for financial support – by Becoming a Member – here! https://yellowpointecologicalsociety.ca/join-us/ Some of our initiatives cost us nothing, but we have costs to keep our various technologies going, and some of our new... Read more
Trees Matter – Shareable Graphics
Trees are among the hardest working members of our world community. Every day, 24 hours a day, they provide a huge host of incredible services that they receive little thanks or recognition for. I created these graphics to visually show some of the many attributes of... Read more
Have Your Say for a Resilient Saanich
Here is an opportunity for Saanich residents to provide input to the District on issues such as zero waste. Please take a moment and let your voice be heard by following this link. Read more
Forest Defenders Needed for West- Coast Ancient Forest Frontlines
The Rainforest Flying Squad is looking for valuable long-term in-camp volunteers to help continue to grow this movement of direct action protection of endangered old-growth forests. Currently needed are responsible, hard-working, conscientious people, who can get... Read more
Fight against the OKI Strip Mine in the Highlands – Update
Thanks in large measure to the power of the BC Provincial Mines Act, OKI has recently won two legal decisions, one each against the Highland District and the Highland District Community Association (HDCA). While the HDCA has decided to appeal one of these decisions,... Read more
Old Growth Worth More Alive
Once every five years the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) reviews its sustainable forest management certification for BC logging companies and this is a chance to let them know that logging old-growth forests, 10,000 years in the making, is not possibly... Read more
“Sustainable” Forest Management Standards Clearly Not Sustainable
Once every five years the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) reviews its sustainable forest management certification for BC logging companies and this is a chance to let them know that logging old-growth forests, 10,000 years in the making, is not possibly... Read moreSpace Environmentalism with Moriba Jah and Aaron Boley
As you read this, approximately 26,000 human-made objects are circling overhead around the Earth. Some 3,000 of them are functioning spacecraft and satellites; the other 23,000 are pieces of junk left over from 63 years of the human use of space. Literally millions of... Read more
The 2021 Conversations Program
Our Conversations in 2021 will be focusing more on imagining and starting to design and create a One Planet Region, exploring what local and personal and actions are needed and the policy changes needed to support those actions.
Read more
Stop Massive Landfill Expansion at Hartland
Did you know that 73 acres of precious urban forests situated next to our Hartland Landfill are slated to be destroyed in order to provide a bigger hole for more garbage? In an era of climate crisis, we, the Dogwood South Island Regional Team (SIRT) feel this is... Read more
Stop the Boys and Girls Club of Victoria from subdividing 40 acres in Metchosin!
Sign the petition here. As former BGCVIC employees, we are starting this petition to stop the application to subdivide an ecologically vulnerable parcel of land owned by the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Victoria (BGCVIC). This land has been used for decades for... Read more
We need your help – climate motion rejected by Victoria School Board
18 months ago, teachers, parents, and students ran a campaign to have the Victoria School District declare a climate emergency, and put together a climate plan. They passed the motion unanimously, including this provision, that the Board would: a) direct the... Read moreRe-Imagining Our Future – Charting The Way Forward
Season 3 of Creative Solutions for a New World launched January 13th, 2021 with policy experts, Bob Sandford and Jon O’Riordan, uncovering the systemic challenges to reach carbon neutrality and a review of national and local…
Read more
We Need to Learn From Indigenous People How to be Stewards of Nature
The 2019 Human Development Report from the UN focused on inequalities in the Human Development Index, but did not look at an inequality that is particularly important in Canada: the HDI of Indigenous people. Happily, Indigenous Services Canada has done this, at the request of the Assembly of First Nations, although only for “Registered Indians,” which misses Inuit and Métis people.
Read more
A Request for an Immediate Moratorium on Old-Growth Logging: A Letter to Premier Horgan and Minister Conroy
The Ecoforestry Institute Society encourages organizations and individuals passionate about our remaining old-growth forests to write their own letters to Premier Horgan and Minister Conroy. These irreplaceable forests are almost gone. Add your voice!
Read more
Introducing Tuesdays for Trees
GVAT’s Climate Action Research Team launched their Tuesdays for Trees campaign on the first Tuesday of the New Year. Due to the current Covid restrictions, only a few of us set up signage and a repurposed Xmas tree at the Legislature and walked with signs around the... Read more
Canada’s Heavy Ecological Footprint Hurts Its Human-Development Ranking
Last week, I quoted from a Dec. 2 speech by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the state of the planet. It made for grim reading, but it is the reality we need to face. Mr. Guterres did not end on a pessimistic note, however. Instead, he pointed to many indications of opportunity and hope.
Read more
CRD extends public consultation period on draft Solid Waste Management Plan
Mount Work Coalition (MWC) welcomes the CRD’s decision to extend the public consultation period on its draft Solid Waste Management Plan to February 15, 2021. MWC, joined by other community groups, requested the extension so that more people could review and comment... Read more