S. Okanagan-Similkameen National Park
February 14th, 2012 by Alison Wheatley in General
Recently, the Okanagan Nation Alliance and the four South Okanagan bands asked the B.C. Government to return to talks to consider the establishment of a national park in the South Okanagan-Similkameen region.
“This is one of the most critically endangered ecosystems in Canada,” stated Chloe O’Loughlin, Director of Terres...
Tags: CPAWS, national parks
February 7th, 2012 by Alison Wheatley in General
February 2nd, as well as being Groundhog Day, is World Wetlands Day. It’s an important day in Canada partly because there are more wetlands in Canada th...
Tags: Canada, Nature Conservancy, Wetlands
February 1st, 2012 by Alison Wheatley in General
There has (rightly so) been a considerable amount of media buzz recently about the Canadian National Women’s Soccer Team winning entry to the 20...
Tags: Because I am a Girl, Plan Canada
January 30th, 2012 by Alison Wheatley in General
More than 130 scientists across North America have just signed a declaration calling for permanent protection of Clayoquot Sound’s remaining intact old...
Tags: Clayoquot, logging, rainforest, Sierra Club
January 19th, 2012 by Alison Wheatley in General
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is cheering the January 11th announcement that a large area of Manitoba’s Boreal Forest will be p...
Tags: boreal forest, CPAWS, Manitoba
World Bank and Google
January 17th, 2012 by Alison Wheatley in General
On January 16th, the World Bank and Google announced an agreement aimed at improving the ability of developing countries to access a web-based community mapping tool and data to help better monitor public services, and improve disaster and humanitarian res...
Tags: Google, Humanitarian, map, World Bank
Vancouver Island Meeting
January 9th, 2012 by Alison Wheatley in General
In 1969, Vancouver Island grew 70% of its own food. Today, they grow less than 5%, according to the Wilderness Committee. And this week the Wilderness Committee will present an opportunity to help stop that number from shrinking even further.
The municipality of No...
Tags: agriculture, Food, Wilderness Committee
BC Climate Change Letter
January 4th, 2012 by Alison Wheatley in General
One major environmental issue left over from 2011 is that Canada stepped out of the Kyoto Protocol. This might lead people to move ahead without the federal government, and handle the related climate change issues on a more local level. According to th...
Bird Songs in the City
December 5th, 2011 by Alison Wheatley in General
Just as people sometimes adjust their tone of voice to be heard in cities, researchers have found that songbirds do as well. In a study published in November’s issue of Behavioral Ecology, researchers from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Migratory Bi...
Tags: bird songs, Smithsonian
Nanoose Bay Forest Logging
December 1st, 2011 by Alison Wheatley in General
The Wilderness Committee just sent out a press release stating that Timberwest’s contract to buy logs from Nanoose Bay Forest — one of the last remaining parcels of rare, endangered Coastal Douglas-fir forests — appears to exceed ...
Tags: forest, logging, Wilderness Committee
UK and Tar Sands Oil
November 28th, 2011 by Alison Wheatley in General
Today 50 Greenpeace UK activists blocked their Department for Transport with two immobilised cars parked in front of the entrances and a giant handshake. This is because the UK government is trying to scuttle legislation that will block tar sands oil fro...
Tags: Greenpeace, tar sands, UK
Cook Inlet Beluga Whales
November 23rd, 2011 by Alison Wheatley in General
Good news came out of Alaska recently when the Center for Biological Diversity announced that the State of Alaska’s challenge to “Endangered” status of Cook Inlet Beluga Whales had been rejected.
On November 21 of this year, a federal judge rejected ...
Fish Lake Revisited
November 8th, 2011 by Alison Wheatley in General
The Wilderness Committee released a statement yesterday expressing deep disappointment in the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency’s announcement that it will agree to Taseko Mines Ltd.’s request for a new environmental review of its propose...
Tags: environmental, Fish Lake, mine, Wilderness Committee
Fish Lake Update
November 1st, 2011 by Alison Wheatley in General
Taseko’s revised proposal for a Fish Lake gold and copper mine would be even more of “an environmental disaster” than the company’s original proposal and must be turned down for federal public review, ten environmental groups said recently, re...
Tags: environmental, Fish Lake, mine, Sierra Club
In a rare bit of good news from the environmental activism front, the Wilderness Committee recently announced that Chief Marilyn Baptiste, leader of Xeni Gwet’in community of the Tsilhqot’in Nation, would receive the 2011 Eugene Rogers Environmental Award. Chief Baptiste was a passionate activist on behal...
