Cortes Currents

Anastasia Avvakumova/ CKTZ News - A month into BC’s phase 3 of re-opening, locals and visitors to Cortes Island are able to enjoy well-loved perennial as well as brand new reasons to gather.

On July 1, British Columbia officially lifted its mask mandate, opened up to Canadians for recreational travel and now allows for gatherings of 50 people indoors and 5,000 outside.

Although still scaled down compared to pre-pandemic times, Cortes is not only seeing an influx of vacationers, but also regular events. Here is a selection.

The Gorge Harbour Marina Resort is delivering live music 5 nights a week for the rest of the summer. The impromptu stage on the Fireside Patio hosts musical acts -- some local and some from further afield -- from 7:30 to 9:30pm.

The Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery is in the midst of their first show of the season, running for two more weekends. Thursday through Sunday from 2 till 6pm, the gallery is open for viewing of the pieces by 24 member artists in a wide variety of media.

A Squirrel Cove resident, Reid Wescott, and a few friends set up a volleyball court near the General Store, and weekly games just switched from Wednesday to Thursday evenings. Come from 5pm onwards to play and swim. Wescott says, “It is a great location, and we are hoping for more sand. We always need more players!”

At the south end of the island, Cortes Men’s Circle is having another open night on Wednesday August 11 from 7 to 9pm, thanks to a community microgrant. Host Tommaso Biasiolo started the bi-weekly event several years ago on Quadra after being inspired by an online men’s circle. He also saw the opportunity to address the underlying issues he felt led to societal dysfunction such as became exposed by the Me Too movement. The circle meets at the Sanctuary on the Hollyhock campus.

Hollyhock Leadership Institute has presenter evenings, which are free or by donation events open to the whole community. All proceeds go toward the Island Scholarship fund, which enables reduced program tuition for Cortes residents. The next one is Saturday August 7. It is entitled “Yoga as Intuitive Movement” with teacher Robin Stamm, and runs 8-9:30pm.

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - CKTZ news recently asked Dr Diana Allen, head of the Groundwater Resources Research Group in the Department of Earth Sciences at Simon Fraser University, some vital questions about Cortes Island’s aquifer.

Does drilling a well threaten to collapse Cortes Islands aquifer and thus inadvertently threaten the community’s water supply?

The question arose during an interview last week, in which it was also pointed out that what used a to be year round wetland now dries up every summer.

Local well driller Red Williams says that while he sometimes hears the idea of collapsing an aquifer, he has never encountered a case of this happening. The main problem he has seen is shallow wells going dry: you will always have shallow wells that dry up and the aquifer is replenished by rainfall.

“Yes, I agree with him,“ said Allen, who immediately added, “Well, I guess it depends what someone considers to be collapsing an aquifer.”

Allen went on to talk about subsidence, adding that she has heard of it in places like California’s Central Valley and Mexico City, but not British Columbia.

“When you take ground water out of an aquifer that consists of interlayers of sand and clay, there is the potential for the clay to lose whatever water it has in it and squish. That can cause subsidence,” she explained. “You have to take a lot of water out … huge quantities, or also where oil and gas have been taken out of deep sedimentary rocks … but for small aquifers, like what you would find on Cortes Island, I do not think subsidence would be a real problem.”

Taking CKTZ News on a tour of the registered aquifers on the iMapBC website, Allen discovered that all three of the aquifers that cover much of Whaletown (#843, #844 & #845) are in crystalline bedrock rock, where subsidence is not an issue.

Aquifer #841 which feeds most of the land between Mansons Landing and Sutil point, is sand and gravel.

“When the glaciers were all melting, they would have dumped a whole bunch of sand and gravel on this point. This is actually a confined aquifer, so there is some clay over the top of it that is providing natural protection to that aquifer. So this would be a good quality aquifer,” she explained.”

Aquifers #842 and #846, which feed the area between Mansons Landing and Cortes Bay, are in rock.

“So it is really only this southern tip. All the other areas that have been mapped with aquifers show bedrock,” said Allen.

The aquifers feeding more than three quarters of Cortes Island – Tiber Bay, Squirrel Cove and all the lands in the north – are not mapped.

Allen explained that this would have been because this area is so sparsely settled.

The 2002 geological survey of Cortes Island map show that most of Squirrel Cove is sand, mud and gravel, but the rest of northern Cortes is primarily rock.

So, if Cortes Island’s aquifers aren’t collapsing, how do you explain that wetland, that used to be filled with water year round and has dried up the last few summers?

She explained, "That's where Climate Change comes in."

Photo credit: Photo by Roy L Hales

Anastasia Avvakumova/ CKTZ News - The air quality and visibility over the weekend was noticeably affected by particulates in forest fire smoke traveling across the landscape, and will likely be present in the region into Wednesday afternoon.

The BlueSky Canada interactive online visual tool shows an animated forecast of wildfire smoke as it’s expected to behave over the next 2 days in specific geographic regions. According to the website, Cortes Island and surrounding area have been experiencing an elevated PM2.5 rating, colour-coded to represent a range of 10-28 micrograms per meter cubed (µg/m3). These elevated levels nevertheless do not cross the threshold considered unsafe during a 24-hour period by Canadian Ambient Air Quality Standards.

The large cloud of smoke from the interior is predicted to start clearing by early afternoon on Monday. However, the closest fire situated roughly 45 kilometers north of Powell River will likely send more smoke our way as wind direction changes. This fire, which is under control, has an estimated size of 7 hectares and was discovered on June 27. Its approximate location is stated as Daniels River.

As of 8 p.m. Sunday, August 1, there were 244 active fires across the province, according to the BC Wildfire Dashboard. Seven were new as of this week, and 6 of those had been added to the total since noon on Sunday. A small fire of less than 0.01 hectares was briefly shown on Vancouver Island between Qualicum Bay and Qualicum Beach on Sunday afternoon, however it was no longer being reported by the evening. There were no other fires on Vancouver Island.

The vehicle which started a fire on the Brewster Lake FSR. The blaze was extinguished by RCMP and nearby campers – photo courtesy Campbell started River RCMP

In a news bulletin released on Friday, July 30, Campbell River RCMP detailed a vehicle fire that had spread to the forest in the vicinity.

“This was the third incident of a vehicle fire on Forest Service Roads in as many weeks in the Campbell River area.”

Photo credit - screenshot from Smoke Forecast.ca - Wildfire smoke forecast for August 2, 2021

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - The preliminary stages of Cortes Island’s first wetland restoration project are underway at Dillon Creek, on Linnaea Farm.

“Back in 2014, we had a very large algae bloom in the lake. There was a very annoying smell and taste in the water for about two weeks and then it lingered on for about another two weeks with the smell in the air,” explained lead author Rex Weyler, when the first Hague & Gunflint Lakes Monitoring Report was published in 2017.

The problem was human septic and livestock nutrients draining into the lake.

“Everyone who lives around the lake is a contributor,” said Autumn Barrett-Morgan, a Biological Monitoring Technician with the Friends of Cortes Island Society (FOCI).

However, Dillon Creek has been a vector for a significant amount of the nutrient and sediment input into Gunflint & Hague lakes. Prior to the advent of what is now Linnaea farm, the field used to be a wetland and a series of meandering streams that would have naturally filtered out nutrients and sediment. This wetland was drained via man-made Dillon Creek, and turned into agricultural land decades ago. Draining wetlands was a common farming practice around the world, to gain access to rich soils and relatively flat land.

FOCI and Linnaea Farm have partnered to restore wetlands in a lower portion of the field, up from the mouth of Dillon Creek into Gunflint Lake.

The construction work will take place from August 15th to 17th, but in the meantime FOCI has been carrying out invasive species removal and biological monitoring.

CKTZ News interviewed Autumn Barrett-Morgan on July 29th, the day after a crew of volunteers removed Himalayan Blackberries, thistles and holly from the site.

“It went really well. We’ve had multiple invasive species removals now, and yesterday there were four of us … We started late because of the heat wave. We might do another work bee, going forward, into the evening because it is a lot cooler,” she said. “Invasive species feel much more manageable when there is a team removing them.”

Barrett-Morgan said that a very large percentage of the world’s wetlands have been drained for farming and human development.

“Wetlands are the Earth’s kidneys. So we’re removing [draining] our filtering system, our kidneys, and that has been a very large contributor to global climate disruption,” she said. “Being able to restore even a little bit of that here is [hopefully] going to be really impactful and it can also be a really cool precedent setting project on Cortes Island. Measuring and monitoring its success, will hopefully lead to restoring even larger areas of wetlands on the island and along the coast.”

Photo credit: The field at Dillon Creek - Photo by Roy L Hales

Anastasia Avvakumovah/CKTZ News - As the RCMP continue arrests of peaceful forest defenders at the Fairy Creek blockades, legal and political questions abound following the BC Court’s decision to take over the persecution of arrestees at the request from logging corporation Teal Jones.

“I find it reprehensible that the government is going to be using taxpayers’ dollars and jailing its own citizens, because of its own failure to implement its own policy. I think history will look back on this moment in time in British Columbia's history and all of these people -- these teachers, these scientists, these nurses, these Olympic swimmers, amazing people that I met, who are blockading at Fairy Creek -- they are not criminals. They are heroes. And I think that's how they're going to be seen.”

Long-time activist Tzeporah Berman, founder of Stand.earth, was deeply involved in the Clayoquot Sound old-growth-logging protests in the early 90’s, the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, with more than 900 arrests of forest defenders. As of Wednesday, July 28, the Fairy Creek Blockade’s official media channel reports 496 arrests to date and counting, since police enforcement of the court injunction granted to Teal Jones Group began in late May of this year.

Berman spoke about her arrest and objectionable treatment she received while in police custody on Saturday, May 22, as well as her recent hearing on Thursday, July 8, when she successfully challenged her bail conditions. The latter had prevented her from going back to the entire Fairy Creek area. Although the judge’s ruling applied to her only, she encourages others arrested at the blockades to use her legal arguments, which are now on public record, to contest their own bail conditions and win the right to return to the protests.

Berman is still charged with civil contempt of court and will have another hearing in the fall. Since her arrest, BC Attorney-General David Eby approved Teal Jones’ appeal for the responsibility of prosecution to be handled by the Supreme Court of BC, meaning it will now be funded at taxpayers’ expense. Teal Jones also lobbied for civil disobedience charges to be escalated to criminal conduct.

Meanwhile, a coalition of independent media outlets won the right in a BC Supreme court ruling to be present and document the arrests at Fairy Creek without undue obstruction by the RCMP. Until the ruling last week and even in the days following, media access was at the whim of RCMP officers on the scene.

The protesters at Fairy Creek, who prefer to be known as forest defenders, employ non-violent direct action, such as physically blockading loggers from road building and tree falling. Arrests have at times turned violent at the hands of the RCMP, notably so when dealing with indigenous youth blockaders.

Berman remains hopeful that BC’s remaining old growth, key to the planet’s life-support systems, will be protected, and offers smart solutions for alternative economic development.

Credit: Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Sometime this fall, the Cortes Foundation will be offering the community of Cortes Island a public venue to explore, and bridge, the issues that divide us.

The topic came up during a discussion of the water shortages some of the island’s shallow wells are currently experiencing, while Cortes is at drought level four.

“We’re going to set up a much larger conversation, island wide, on any topic. Yesterday we were at a meeting that discussed sponsoring a facilitator to be present through the fall, on specific dates, to get together and start airing out some of the issues that people are encountering on the island, any divisiveness between groups,” said John Preston, one of the

Directors of the Cortes Foundation. “So we are aiming at taking the next step, offering the island a voice to speak to itself and try to reach consensus on many different issues.”

As we come get closer to the launch date, they will be explaining how, where and when these discussions will take place.

One of the immediate topics of concern will undoubtedly be a collective response to the island’s water issues.

Preston believes the deep wells some people are drilling punch holes in the aquifer and threaten everyone’s water supply.

As regards the Cortes Foundation itself, Preston said, “It is a game changer for Cortes. We now have an instrument that will allow us to attend to these kinds of issues. Cortes now has a basket that it can fill with resources that are for everyone. The foundation is island wide and we are going to be putting out a message that we want to hear from people: What are their needs? What are their worries?”

He described the Cortes Foundation as an organization that will allow the people of Cortes to cumulatively contribute to their future.

Photo of Norman Rockwell’s 1942 painting Freedom of Speech at the townhall in Cambridge, Vermont - photo by George Putnam, Chair of Cambridge’s Select Board (town council).

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - At their July 14th Meeting, the Strathcona District Board moved that “a letter be sent to the Minister of Forests encouraging the province to become more involved in research and distribution of science-based information.”

As Mayor Martin Davis of Tahsis, who made the motion, explained, “In the last several years there has been a real drop off of participation of Ministry of Forests in providing the research and background that we would hope would be impartial. I think that is a real lack. To depend on the logging companies for our information is really not the best place to be going for this. There should be independent research we can depend on.”

The idea came out of the SRD’s Municipal Services committee where Charlie Cornfield, one of the more influential of five Campbell River directors that recently carried placcards at a pro-industry rally, agreed.

“It has always been a problem to find an acceptable source of information,” he said.

The was one of the few points that Cornfield and Davis agreed on.

Photo courtesy the Wilderness Committee

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News -Cortes Island is in the midst of a level four drought.

There have been worse dry periods in the instrumental records, much worse according to a University of Victoria study of tree ring data, and most likely more severe droughts in the years to come.

“Summer is very typically a very dry time of year for the Island, as well as for the Gulf Islands. The problem is that because we didn’t get the Spring rains, we’re starting at a level that is lower than what it would be within a typical year,” said Ashlee Jollymore, a Hydrologist with the Water Management Branch in Victoria

>>> Shallow wells

Some of Cortes Island’s shallow well owners are approaching a critical point.

John Preston describes the situation in terms of the Island’s aquifer.

“When we moved to Cortes Island, 18 years ago, a dear architect friend who looked over this property for us said, ‘you will need water.”

“I said, ‘Okay. we’ll drill a well.’”

“He said, ‘Please do not drill a well. Have a high quality surface well. Every well we drill now ultimately weakens our long term water aspect.’”

Preston agreed and now has a 27’ deep surface well, but the water situation appears to be worsening.

The marshland above his property used to remain swamp all year round; now it is dry during the summer.

Preston has been dealing with water shortages every summer for the past five years. This is the worst. The water shortages he usually deals with in late August is already here.

“We are four weeks early in our water deprivation and there is a chance our water deprivation will go longer into the Fall than usual,” he said. “We may have to close down our business.”

He has two choices: drilling a well (and hope the aquifer won’t fail) or moving to a rainwater catchment system.

>>> Rainwater catchment

His friends Kristen Schofield-Sweet and John Shook have been dependent on a catchment system for 31 years.

“Of course at that time, we didn’t know about climate change or that rainwater would become an issue. We are, if anything, more pleased now that we have that system, rather than feeling anxious and alarmed that somehow we’ve misjudged and are going to run out of water,” said Schofield Sweet.

One of their small concrete cisterns is dry and the water level is low in the second, but their big 3,000 gallon cistern is untouched.

The cisterns were partially dug into the earth, which means the water is always cold. As the system is gravity fed, it is also impervious to power shortages. It supplies all of their needs except drinking water, which they obtain at the Gorge Marina.

Anastasia Avvakuma/ CKTZ News - At a city council meeting in Powell River last month, elected official Jim Palm made unsolicited comments that have been labeled as hate speech against transgender people.

Palm took issue with a proposed definition of gender for public signage that would include LGBTQ2 persons and steered his criticism toward transgender women athletes whom he compared to competitors illegally taking performance-enhancing drugs.

Palm’s lack of appropriate vocabulary to address the transgender demographic suggested a lack of understanding of inclusivity issues.

“Whereas on the female side of the equation, females compete, they train and a lot of governing bodies now, not based on biological makeup, are allowing… I don’t know what you refer to them as… somebody that has not got a biological makeup to be able to take female hormones in order to qualify to compete as a female.”

Palm’s next remarks anticipated ongoing resistance to transgender women’s participation in female sports; in his words, so as to support female athletes.

Screenshot of several comments below Palm’s speech reposted on YouTube.

Comments posted on the YouTube video ‘Jim Palm Powell River Disturbing Transphobic Speech’

The reposted clip of Palm’s impromptu discourse resulted in a predictably polarized and inflamed series of comments below the video on YouTube. Bill C-16, passed in June 2017, was cited as legal protection of gender-diverse Canadians against discrimination, including hateful speech motivated by bias or prejudice.

Others voiced concern that Palm not only guides the city’s policies in his third term on Council but also directly influences the younger generation in his employment as Career Coordinator at Brooks Secondary School.

Photo credit: Female Track Athletes at Starting Line photo by tableatny via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)

Anastasia Avvakumova/ CKTZ News - Two hybrid diesel/electric ferries with increased vehicle capacity will begin providing two-ship service on the Campbell River – Quadra Island route starting in early 2022.

After a transatlantic journey of 64 days and 10,700 nautical miles, Island 3 – the newest hybrid addition to the BC Ferries fleet – docked in Victoria at 2:42pm local time on Thursday, July 22. Its sister vessel, Island 4, departed from the same port of origin, Damen Shipyard Galati in Romania, about two weeks later and is scheduled to arrive in the port of Vancouver on August 10.

These passenger and cargo vessels will be bestowed official names later this year. Their simultaneous deployment on the popular and unreservable Campbell River – Quadra Island route is expected to dramatically improve the speed and volume of service, as well as increase local employment and environmental responsibility.

Unfortunately, the Quadra Island – Cortes Island route is only distantly scheduled for a similar upgraded ship in the next decade. Last Thursday, a Smelt Bay resident reported leaving her house at 1pm and disembarking at the Campbell River terminal only 7 hours later at 8pm due to the backlog of ferry traffic.

Nevertheless, BC Ferries is striving toward progress. According to a press release, the Island Class vessels “use some of the most advanced clean marine technology in the world. Once in service, we believe these ferries will be among the most efficient and quietest ferries world-wide,” it said. The eco-friendly design showcases a reduction in underwater noise which can disturb marine life, as well as decreased emissions as compared to a traditional fuel-operated engine. They also feature wider vehicle lanes, dedicated pedestrian footpaths and parking spaces for bicycles. The vessels are slated for fully electric operation once the terminals are outfitted with shore charging infrastructure, pending sufficient funding.

The acquisition and subsequent replacement of older vessels is part of BC Ferries’ plan to standardize its fleet, streamlining operations and training, as well as allowing for easier substitution of vessels across the province in emergency or repair needs. There are currently six hybrid Island Class ferries already running or soon to join the BC Ferries operations.

the first two have been servicing the Powell River – Texada Island and the Port McNeill – Alert Bay – Sointula Island routes since the middle of last year

the next two will be deployed on the Campbell River – Quadra route in early 2022

two more are scheduled to arrive in the fall, ultimately destined for the Nanaimo Harbour – Gabriola Island passage, which will also transition to a two-ship service

Of the two vessels currently sailing between Campbell River and Quadra Island, Powell River Queen will be retired from service and Quinsam reassigned to the Crofton – Vesuvius passage.

Follow the progress of Island 4 on its transatlantic voyage to Canada on vesselfinder.com by following this link. https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/ISLAND-4-IMO-9900588-MMSI-375194000

Photo credit: Artists Rendering of Rendering of next four Island Class hybrid electric ferries – Courtesy BC Ferries news release.