Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - “What exactly do we do need to do as a community to survive, and thrive, through what is coming. Through the climate crisis; through climate breakdown; to mitigate as much as possible so that hat we can forego the extreme worst case scenarios and avoid them,” said Ashley Zabartany.

>>> Climate Action Plan

After the informal launch of Climate Hope, a year and a half ago, the organization was sidelined by the COVID pandemic. Zabartany was hired to get it going again. Her first project will be drawing up a climate action plan for Cortes Island.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Campbell River RCMP are experiencing a marked increase in the number of emergency calls in January.

In a issued last night, media relations officer Cst Maury Tyre, "2020 was the busiest year in terms of calls for service at the Campbell River RCMP for at least 10 years. This makes January 2021's file count thus far concerning when we compare to our 2020 numbers."

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Campbell River RCMP are experiencing a marked increase in the number of emergency calls in January.

In a issued last night, media relations officer Cst Maury Tyre, "2020 was the busiest year in terms of calls for service at the Campbell River RCMP for at least 10 years. This makes January 2021's file count thus far concerning when we compare to our 2020 numbers."

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Campbell River RCMP are experiencing a marked increase in the number of emergency calls in January.

In a issued last night, media relations officer Cst Maury Tyre, "2020 was the busiest year in terms of calls for service at the Campbell River RCMP for at least 10 years. This makes January 2021's file count thus far concerning when we compare to our 2020 numbers."

David P Ball/ Vancouver Coop Radio - A growing number of First Nations in British Columbia and beyond are ramping up their urgent demands for control over the welfare of their own children, particularly after numerous reports of "birth alerts" surfaced in the media this year.

A birth alert is the longstanding practice of social workers being alerted to an Indigenous mother going into labour so they can seize the newborn baby from her as soon as it is born. Sometimes, hospital staff alert children's ministries.

The issue sparked controversy after recent media reports, including an investigation by IndigiNews' reporter Anna McKenzie, who told The Pulse on CFRO the issue has deep personal impact for her not only as a child welfare reporter, but as an young Indigenous mother herself.

But her attempt to get information released by the government of B.C. about what it knew of the practice — before banning it, at least on paper, last year — hit a wall when the province gave her documents revealing the government's own lawyers suggested the practice could be unconstitutional.

McKenziw said the government demand the documents back and attempted to suppress IndigiNews' publication. After consulting with a lawyer, McKenzie said the Indigenous-run outlet refused to back down and published the exposé in the public interest.

The provincial children's ministry said in a statement that it would not tell parents if they had been subject to birth alerts in the past, because it wants to look "forward" not back in time, out of concern for "retraumatizing" parents. McKenzie called that explanation, "problematic."

She said now more First Nations are stepping forward to join the few who already negotiated self-determination over their own child welfare systems in B.C.

David P Ball/ Vancouver Coop Radio - A growing number of First Nations in British Columbia and beyond are ramping up their urgent demands for control over the welfare of their own children, particularly after numerous reports of "birth alerts" surfaced in the media this year.

A birth alert is the longstanding practice of social workers being alerted to an Indigenous mother going into labour so they can seize the newborn baby from her as soon as it is born. Sometimes, hospital staff alert children's ministries.

The issue sparked controversy after recent media reports, including an investigation by IndigiNews' reporter Anna McKenzie, who told The Pulse on CFRO the issue has deep personal impact for her not only as a child welfare reporter, but as an young Indigenous mother herself.

But her attempt to get information released by the government of B.C. about what it knew of the practice — before banning it, at least on paper, last year — hit a wall when the province gave her documents revealing the government's own lawyers suggested the practice could be unconstitutional.

McKenziw said the government demand the documents back and attempted to suppress IndigiNews' publication. After consulting with a lawyer, McKenzie said the Indigenous-run outlet refused to back down and published the exposé in the public interest.

The provincial children's ministry said in a statement that it would not tell parents if they had been subject to birth alerts in the past, because it wants to look "forward" not back in time, out of concern for "retraumatizing" parents. McKenzie called that explanation, "problematic."

She said now more First Nations are stepping forward to join the few who already negotiated self-determination over their own child welfare systems in B.C.

David P Ball/ Vancouver Coop Radio - A growing number of First Nations in British Columbia and beyond are ramping up their urgent demands for control over the welfare of their own children, particularly after numerous reports of "birth alerts" surfaced in the media this year.

A birth alert is the longstanding practice of social workers being alerted to an Indigenous mother going into labour so they can seize the newborn baby from her as soon as it is born. Sometimes, hospital staff alert children's ministries.

The issue sparked controversy after recent media reports, including an investigation by IndigiNews' reporter Anna McKenzie, who told The Pulse on CFRO the issue has deep personal impact for her not only as a child welfare reporter, but as an young Indigenous mother herself.

But her attempt to get information released by the government of B.C. about what it knew of the practice — before banning it, at least on paper, last year — hit a wall when the province gave her documents revealing the government's own lawyers suggested the practice could be unconstitutional.

McKenziw said the government demand the documents back and attempted to suppress IndigiNews' publication. After consulting with a lawyer, McKenzie said the Indigenous-run outlet refused to back down and published the exposé in the public interest.

The provincial children's ministry said in a statement that it would not tell parents if they had been subject to birth alerts in the past, because it wants to look "forward" not back in time, out of concern for "retraumatizing" parents. McKenzie called that explanation, "problematic."

She said now more First Nations are stepping forward to join the few who already negotiated self-determination over their own child welfare systems in B.C.

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - One of the advantages of virtual AGM is that people from Vancouver, Calgary, and select locations on both the West and East Coast can also attend. Most were in houses, but one was in a parked car and another on a sandy beach somewhere in Washington state. The Forest Trust for the Children of Cortes Island (FTCCIS) reviewed significant accomplishments of the past year at a ZOOM conference on Jan 23, 2021.

“We did our first COVID compliant Mycoblitz in the Children’s Forest… We identified 66 species and added 23 new species … We build these lists over time and will clearly get into several hundred species on Cortes. I would guesstimate there are more than 2,000 species on Cortes, so this is just the very beginning, “ explained mycologist Paul Stamets, who co-led the team with Cortes Island biologist Sabina Leader-Mense.

“We took one day to focus on research and mentorship, which Sabina organized in the field with six youth. Then we had a day of education and public participation. Those youth mentored and guided us through those interpretive mycostations,” said Christine Robinson.

“We started a whole new vocabulary. I just added mycoknots to it. Mycoblitz, mycostations, mycothanks, mycomerriment, and mycowonder came out of that week-end and now I am adding mycoknots – so the vocabularly continues to expand,” added Leader-Mense.

There is much more about the mycoblitz, as well as the James Creek spawning bed project, Youth programming, and the FTCCIS board for 2021 in the podcast above and https://cortescurrents.ca/significant-accomplishments-reported-by-forest-trust-for-the-children-of-cortes-island/

Photo courtesy Max Thaysen

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - One of the advantages of virtual AGM is that people from Vancouver, Calgary, and select locations on both the West and East Coast can also attend. Most were in houses, but one was in a parked car and another on a sandy beach somewhere in Washington state. The Forest Trust for the Children of Cortes Island (FTCCIS) reviewed significant accomplishments of the past year at a ZOOM conference on Jan 23, 2021.

“We did our first COVID compliant Mycoblitz in the Children’s Forest… We identified 66 species and added 23 new species … We build these lists over time and will clearly get into several hundred species on Cortes. I would guesstimate there are more than 2,000 species on Cortes, so this is just the very beginning, “ explained mycologist Paul Stamets, who co-led the team with Cortes Island biologist Sabina Leader-Mense.

“We took one day to focus on research and mentorship, which Sabina organized in the field with six youth. Then we had a day of education and public participation. Those youth mentored and guided us through those interpretive mycostations,” said Christine Robinson.

“We started a whole new vocabulary. I just added mycoknots to it. Mycoblitz, mycostations, mycothanks, mycomerriment, and mycowonder came out of that week-end and now I am adding mycoknots – so the vocabularly continues to expand,” added Leader-Mense.

There is much more about the mycoblitz, as well as the James Creek spawning bed project, Youth programming, and the FTCCIS board for 2021 in the podcast above and https://cortescurrents.ca/significant-accomplishments-reported-by-forest-trust-for-the-children-of-cortes-island/

Photo courtesy Max Thaysen

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - One of the advantages of virtual AGM is that people from Vancouver, Calgary, and select locations on both the West and East Coast can also attend. Most were in houses, but one was in a parked car and another on a sandy beach somewhere in Washington state. The Forest Trust for the Children of Cortes Island (FTCCIS) reviewed significant accomplishments of the past year at a ZOOM conference on Jan 23, 2021.

“We did our first COVID compliant Mycoblitz in the Children’s Forest… We identified 66 species and added 23 new species … We build these lists over time and will clearly get into several hundred species on Cortes. I would guesstimate there are more than 2,000 species on Cortes, so this is just the very beginning, “ explained mycologist Paul Stamets, who co-led the team with Cortes Island biologist Sabina Leader-Mense.

“We took one day to focus on research and mentorship, which Sabina organized in the field with six youth. Then we had a day of education and public participation. Those youth mentored and guided us through those interpretive mycostations,” said Christine Robinson.

“We started a whole new vocabulary. I just added mycoknots to it. Mycoblitz, mycostations, mycothanks, mycomerriment, and mycowonder came out of that week-end and now I am adding mycoknots – so the vocabularly continues to expand,” added Leader-Mense.

There is much more about the mycoblitz, as well as the James Creek spawning bed project, Youth programming, and the FTCCIS board for 2021 in the podcast above and https://cortescurrents.ca/significant-accomplishments-reported-by-forest-trust-for-the-children-of-cortes-island/

Photo courtesy Max Thaysen