Three groups once labelled enemies of the province by a B.C. premier have been given an international award for their work in helping to protect the Great Bear Rainforest. The Rainforest Solutions Project, a collective effort of Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and Stand, has received the $100,000 Buckminster Fuller Design Award for a decades-long effort…

One of B.C.’s toughest aboriginal critics during the decade-long negotiations for preservation of the Great Bear Rainforest on the B.C. coast has turned his attention to provincial politics. Dallas Smith has been outspoken in his role as president of the Nanwakolas Council representing six aboriginal communities on northern Vancouver Island and the adjacent coastline. He…

City council’s consideration of a plan to confront the invasive emerald ash borer has been delayed again. Administration’s $6. City council’s consideration of a plan to confront the invasive emerald ash borer has been delayed again. Administration’s $6.8-million proposal to manage the inevitable decimation of local ash trees over the next decade was to have…

The possible closure of the B.C. Wildfire Rapattack barracks in Salmon Arm came up at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) convention which ran from Sept. 26 to 30 in Victoria. Salmon Arm coun. Ken Jamieson said the possibility of closing the barracks in Salmon Arm was discussed during a meeting with B.C. Minister…

Drone flights over Manitoba flood and forest-fire zones have disrupted aerial mapping efforts to help emergency personnel on the ground, says the business development manager for Taiga Air, a Winnipeg-based commercial aircraft operator. Taiga Air business development manager Rob Walker says his company had to suspend mapping operations over the Portage Diversion flood zone in…

Using intensely-coloured purple and green traps, and pulling them high into a tree’s canopy, is one of the latest tactics being used by scientists attempting to capture more insects in the hunt for invasive species. Natural Resources Canada is trying out the latest forms of traps in an attempt to snag any invasive species that might…

A Vancouver Island First Nation is at odds with a proposed ban on logging old-growth forests. Huu-ay-aht Nation chief-councillor Robert Dennis says a resolution made by the Union of B.C. Municipalities to abolish old growth logging in the province was done without their consultation and therefore tramples on their land rights. “It’s interfering with our rights to manage our land and our territories in…

The Alberta government says it’s moving ahead with the oil and gas industry to restore habitat for dwindling caribou herds. The province announced Saturday that work is beginning that will eventually see trees planted along thousands of kilometres of land that were cleared for seismic lines in the Little Smoky and A La Peche caribou…

In response to UBCM Resolution C-27, Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson re-affirmed government’s commitment to Vancouver Island’s old growth forests and stated there was no need to cease logging. The province’s old growth forests, including those on Vancouver Island, are managed for a multitude of resource values. There’s approximately 1.9 million…

Mayors and councillors from across the province are calling for a halt to logging of old-growth forests on Vancouver Island. On Wednesday, delegates to the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention endorsed a resolution put forward by Metchosin and championed by Metchosin Coun. Andy MacKinnon, a retired forest ecologist, calling for protection of the Island’s old…