Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Around 60 representatives from non-profits on Cortes, Quadra, and some of the other islands recently gathered at Hollyhock. One of the breakout sessions was on climate adaption. Cortes Currents subsequently met with Max Thaysen, facilitator of that workshop, as well as Bruce Ellingsen, a participant.  

“I was asked to host a conversation about climate adaptation, which we expanded into climate mitigation, stopping the pollution that's causing the damage and adjusting our systems and life ways to be able to tolerate the pollution and the damage,” explained Thaysen.

CC: How does that apply to Cortes Island? 

Max Thaysen: “Climate change is a phenomenon that affects every part of planet earth with all kinds of diverse impacts. We started by just hearing from everybody about what sorts of impacts they've already learned about, that we can expect more of on Cortes Island as well as in other parts of the world that affect our lives here.”

“We talked about wildfire risk, and  food supplies. Most of the food that people eat on Cortes comes from off island, and the places where it's grown are already impacted by climate change. We talked about how much warming we can adapt to, and whether we can expect the warming to stay within that range.” 

CC: What about wells and the local aquifer? 

Max Thaysen: “We did wonder about some gaps in our knowledge about the aquifers that supply water to Cortes Islanders. We had a couple anecdotal stories about people's wells already running dry this year. We talked about some options for responding to that, such as dealing with ditches to get the water that flows at other times of year back into the ground and into aquifers. Also building some storage options, either buying tanks or digging ponds on people's land.”

“We're just starting what is normally the drier part of the year.”

CC: Can you give me any more detail for any specific climate impacts? Anything from dryness to wells, to wildfires? According to the historical record, Cortes hasn’t had more than two wildfires larger than 10 hectors since 1950. 

“I only ever heard of one, around the Gorge and over towards Whaletown in 1896, but that was purely anecdotal when I was a young person,” added Ellingsen. 

He did not know how widespread it was, aside from the fact it was in Whaletown and did not spread beyond the east end of the Gorge.

Max Thaysen: “We don't live in a place that has typically had a high wildfire risk, but I think that's changing and it's something that we should pay more attention to. Lots of climate scientists or system scientists say that we're living on a new planet now. The norms that we were used to, such as Cortes Island doesn't burn very much or very often, is changing.”

“I'm just reading 'Fire Weather' by John Valiant. It's a pretty wild story about how fire has changed in Canada. It's a completely new animal. It creates its own conditions for burning. It dries the land out before it gets to it. It creates its own wind and starts its own fires.  It's important that we don't just think about how things have worked in the past, but we also try to keep updated to the new situation that we find ourselves in.”

Photo credit: Wildfire - Photo by Marcus Kauffman on Unsplash