Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - “Our findings show that salmon farms are, indeed, a source of infection for wild fish. Viruses leave a genetic fingerprint and the genetic fingerprint shows that the same viruses that are on the farms are in the wild fish. All the evidence suggests that the virus is being transmitted from the farm to wild fish and I haven’t seen any evidence that says that’s not happening,” said Dr Gideon Mordecai is a viral ecologist at the University of British Columbia and the lead author of a paper published in Science Advances last month.

Cortes Currents was not able to connect with him until late last week, at which point I also had a list of responses from the BC Salmon Farmer’s Association.

Mordecai pointed out that most of the resulting interview questions arose from industry responses to his research:

“Which is fine and I am happy to speak to anyone who has questions and I’ll answer them to the best of my ability … (but) I didn’t put much weight to the industry response to my paper and that is because I do not think they come from a place of scientific integrity, free of bias. It is a bit like approaching an oil company to comment on the latest climate change research - you maybe wouldn’t trust the answer.”

The anonymous industry correspondent pointed out that this study comes out of of the Strategic Salmon Health Initiative (SSHI) – “and highlights yet again the long-standing concerns of the BC salmon farming industry regarding the credibility of its research.”

“Their publications have largely focused on viral discovery; they have failed to publish any scientific studies that investigate whether the viruses they discovered are actually threatening wild or farmed stocks.”

Photo: Dr Gideon Mordecai, lead author of the study - Amy Romer photo

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - The Fairy Creek blockade is far from over and there are still a stream of people from the Discovery Islands going there.

Oriane Lee Johnston and two other Cortes Island residents have just returned. When I mentioned she was the eighth Cortesian that I heard of making the trek to Fairy Creek, Oriane responded, “It is quite a lot more actually.” She was informed the stream of visitors has been a pretty consistent.

Geraldine Kenny said a lot of Quadra Island residents have also gone and named three that left on Friday.

On Saturday Dr. Saul Arbess, spokesperson for the Rainforest Flying Squad, explained, “This very day there would be at least 2,000 people around headquarters and then dispatched, if they wish to go, to some of the blockade sites. Every week-end it is extraordinary. The police set up roadblocks to deflect people. I do not know how successful they were today, but there have always been 1,500 – 2,000 people that actually make it.”

Arbess described the roadblocks as illegal, and pointed out that this past week they have prevented tourists from visiting the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park and Avatar Grove.

The RCMP report for Saturday June 19th mentions seven people arrested after they were removed from various locking and tripod devices. Two were minors. Someone else was arrested for assaulting a police officer, which brings the total number of arrests, since the crackdown began, to 254.

“We were asked to leave on April 1st by Chief Jones of the Pacheedaht First Nation. They have collaborated, now, with the two other interested First Nations, the Huu-ay-aht and Ditidaht and asked all third party interests to leave while they are preparing their forest stewardship plan. We don’t know where that plan stands, what level of development it is at, but we decided it might be reasonable to look at it before we made a decision to leave,” said Arbess.

“There are other interests with the Pacheedaht and the Ditidaht. We are working in that larger traditional territory of the Pacheedaht at the invitation of elder Bill Jones, of the Pacheedaht. He has continued to be steadfast, has certainly asked us not to leave and the actual request for us to leave was never discussed with the people. Their community was not consulted on how they should respond to us.”

Photo courtesy Fairy Creek Blockade Facebook page

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - The Strathcona Regional District is the latest local government to endorse the recommendations of the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel.

>>> The motion

There were only two opposing votes at the SRD Board meeting on Wednesday.

The Comox Valley Regional District and municipal governments of Courtenay, Cumberland, Lantzville, Metchosin, Nanaimo, Powell River, Port Moody, and Victoria have all passed resolutions urging the province to implement this plan.

Mayor Martin Davis of Tahsis introduced the motion that the Strathcona Regional District endorse the recommendations of the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel and write a letter to the Provincial Government in support of this document.

>>> Mayor Davis’ recommendation

“What they came out with several months ago, was a strong set of recommendations which I think are quite fair and balanced. It is unfortunate that this did not come up as an item in our agenda until this morning, but hopefully people have had a chance to look at it - or at least look at the recommendations,” he said.

“Considering what’s going on these days, we seem to be shaping up for another war in the woods. I find that really unfortunate. I believe it is because the government has not acted quickly enough to rebalance the issue. The Premier actually endorsed this when he was running in the last election and just in the last few days the government has endorsed it once again.”

Davis described the recommendations as pretty basic:

Committing to partnerships with Indigenous Nations

better data

deferral of logging the remaining ‘at risk’ old growth in valley bottoms: “the high quality stuff, which is very rare now”

Prioritizing ecosystem health

“There is nothing really radical here, considering how big of an issue this is. So I am really hoping the government will move on this and I hope our Directors will support it,” he said.

Campbell River Director Claire Moglove said she would be supporting the motion. She agreed that most of the recommendations are fairly straightforward. As for the somewhat controversial recommendation to protect old growth: “the Devil will always be in the detail.”

Photo credit: Aerial view of log booms by Richard Lee on Unsplash

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Last November, a Black Bear started raiding the fruit trees, garbage cans and compost piles in homes backing onto Basil Creek, on Cortes Island. In response to a complaint, the Conservation Officer Service brought a trap over to the island. If they had caught the bear, it would have been put down – but the Squirrel Cove Bear escaped.

As Autumn Barrett-Morgan, a volunteer co-ordinator with the Friends of Cortes Island’s wildlife COEXistence program, explained last December, “The Conservation Officer was called by someone in Squirrel Cove. This resident was feeling very fearful of the bear breaking into their home, so the Conservation Officer had no choice but to bring a trap here. Once the bear is trapped, it will be put down.”

Only, it turns out they did not catch the bear.

Yesterday, Conservation Officer Chris Hamlyn confirmed all of this, adding that was last year. If the Conservation Officer service does not receive any fresh complaints, they will not return. Hamlyn says whether the bear lives, or not, is up to the people of Cortes Island.

Photo credit: Bear by Chris Grier via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)

Roy L Hales / CKTZ News - North Island Medical Health OfficerDr Charmine Enns recently gave Campbell River’s city council an overview of the pandemic’s impact on the Greater Campbell River Health Area, before and after vaccinations.

The intervention we have been waiting for

“Everything we did to the point in time before we had the vaccine was to buy us time for vaccine. We had to have these population restrictions, which has caused significant harm. There were public health orders; there were public health restrictions; businesses were shut down; people were afraid,” she said.

“The vaccine is the intervention we have been waiting for. There is nothing more to wait for, this is it … and it is very effective. Not only is it effective for the previous strains of COVID, it is equally effective for the variants that we know are here – including the Delta variant.”

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - You are probably going to hear a lot about Rainbow Ridge trail system over the course of the next month.

As Project coordinator Sandra Wood explained, “we’re going to be doing a big publicity campaign to let the community know how we’d like to reroute the trail system.”

More coming

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News -  Rainbow Ridge is not one of the six Vancouver Island projects that BC Housing is funding this season.

"We suspected that was a possibility because there were so many applications and so much need across the province. We definitely had our fingers crossed and hoped we would be accepted but, unfortunately, we were not,” said Elizabeth Anderson, President of the Cortes Community Housing Society (CHS).

Project coordinator Sandra Wood spoke in terms of the twenty families who had hoped they would have a more permanent rental homes next year.

“As a result, some of those people are going to leave the island. The rest of them will keep hanging on and doing the island shuffle, from seasonal rental to seasonal rental. We know that’s hard, that’s the whole reason we are doing what we are doing. It is a sad situation that I wish we had a faster solution for.”

Anderson added, “It still bothers me so much that one of the more vulnerable people, who lived on this island for many, many years, was looking for safe housing. Before he could find it, his unsafe housing burned down around him.”

Wood said, “A lot of our community members have to move twice a year. Moving out in June or July … when the owners return … and having to seek new accommodation again in September. It is so stressful for them and such a loss of productive energy. It is not a good use of their time and does not contribute to our island economy.”

Some of the island’s most creative are caught up in this. Wood observed that the time consumed by these moves could be used “creating events, creating art” or serving on the board of the island’s many volunteer organizations.

“It is a huge cost and that is why the Housing Society has worked so hard to bring this to where we are today. I want to give a big shout out to all of our supporters, all of the donors who have helped us to purchase this incredible piece of land and all of the people who have helped us do the predevelopment and design that we have accomplished in just three short years,” said Wood.

“We have to remember how much we have accomplished together. Even though we are disappointed that we weren’t selected to start construction this year, it is just a matter of time. We know the next steps we have to take.”

Roy L Hales/ CKTX News - There were two opposing logging protests in Campbell River, last Thursday.

According to Quadra Island resident Rod Burns, by the time they reached MLA Michele Babchuk’s office there would have been close to 30 people protesting in support of old growth forests. This group assembled at the Logger Mike statue. Burns was among the half a dozen, or so, that crossed over from Quadra Island. There were Campbell River residents, as well as people from Comox, Courtenay and possibly someone from Cortes Island. (Cortes Currents received an email stating the last cited individual’s intention.)

Burns said, “When we got through the [Tyee] parking lot, I looked over to my right and, oh my goodness, there was a contingent of approximately 100 forest workers, partners, a few dogs, and three logging trucks.”

He found the presence of five placard toting City Counsellors among them – Charlie Cornfield, Kermit Dahl, Colleen Evans, Ron Kerr and Sean Smyth – disconcerting.

“I though council would be trying to be neutral, and hearing all sides of the issue, but this is definitely not the case. Council definitely did not want to hear the old growth retention people,” he said.

The two groups proceeded to the joint offices of MLA Michele Babchuk and MP Rachel Blaney.

“We’re having a forestry support rally for Campbell River, coming out to support the forest industry, our families and our communities,“ Carl Sweet, a Campbell River resident and Director of the BC Forestry Alliance, told the Campbell River Mirror.

He pointed back to the pro-industry contingent, “There is a sign down there that says forestry feeds my family. It built Campbell River. Campbell River will cease to exist as we know it today, without forestry.”

“We’re not against logging, we’re against current forestry practises, because forests feed many families,” responded Burns.

More at

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - A two-year old grizzly bear’s month long visit to Quadra Island is about to come to an end.

The Conservation Officer Service (COS) set a trap for it on Tuesday.

At 4:15 PM yesterday (Thursday), COS emailed Cortes Currents that they are still monitoring the situation and in consultation with Provincial Wildlife Biologists.

Anyone spotting the bear is asked to call 1-877-952-7277 (RAPP) or #7277 on the TELUS Mobility Network.

>>> Incident at SouthEnd Farm Winery

A pregnant goat disappeared from the SouthEnd Farm Winery shortly before 9 AM last Monday. The owners, Ben and Jill McGuffie, their two children and some neighbours combed the woods, but were unable to find the missing animal.

Around 9:50 that night, the McGuffie’s noticed that their two remaining goats were not in their usual spot. Ben got out of bed and stuck his head out the door for a closer look. That’s when he noticed ‘something large and brown’ chasing one of his goats. Clad in nothing but his underwear, McGuffie grabbed a deck brush and ran outside to intervene, His wife Jill followed with a piece of plywood. They started yelling. Ben started questioning his sanity, when the grizzly came to a stop ten metres away. He threw his brush at the animal. when that didn’t faze the bear, Ben threw a rock.

“I think I got it. I don’t image missing it would have made it take off. It took off into the hill at the back,” he later told CTV news.

The McGuffies have brought their two remaining goats inside their home until the situation is resolved.

Much more in podcast

Photo credit: Beary Thoughts by Matthias Götzke on Unsplash

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - The most recent provincial modelling shows that if enough British Columbians are vaccinated and personal interactions remain well below pre-pandemic levels, we may nearly wipe out COVID 19 by September.

While the number of active cases in North Vancouver Island has risen slightly since CKTZ’s report last week, from 5 to 8, the most recent data BC Centre for Disease Control report states that most of have a Daily case rate of zero out of 100,000.

The exception is the Comox Valley, where the rate has risen to 1 per 100,000.

In the most recent map, for the EPI week ending on June 5th, there were 3 cases in the Comox Valley.

There were no cases in the Greater Campbell River Health Area. This is an improvement over last week’s report, when there was I. As the numbers in the Surveillance Dashboard are obviously rounded off, it states the daily rate has dropped from zero to zero.

As of yesterday, the number of active cases on Vancouver Island has dropped to 49. Eight of these were in North Vancouver Island.