Watershed Sentinel

Watershed Sentinel We open discussions on key issues. Comments of kindness, genuine interest, and sharing are welcome. Environmental news from BC and the world

07/05/2025

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has issued a landmark advisory opinion finding that failure to act on the climate crisis violates human rights. We love to see it. 🎉

What you need to know:
✔️Advisory opinions are interpretations of international law.
✔️They have influenced Canadian law in the past.
✔️This IACHR opinion may guide Canadian judges tasked with determining the scope of Canadian’s Charter rights in relation to the climate crisis.

Read our reaction here 👉 https://bit.ly/4nt1yS1

06/21/2025

Indigenous Resistance to Fossil Fuel Expansion in Northwest B.C.

06/21/2025

Please share this information about the Town of Comox Official Community Open House next Tuesday (June 24) at the Comox Community Centre (1855 Noel Ave.) from 3:30 - 7 p.m. Drop in anytime to learn about and provide input on updates to the Official Community Plan, Zoning Bylaw, and Subdivision and Servicing Bylaw. Your feedback will help guide the Town’s draft plans before going to Council.

For more information, visit engagecomoxvalley.ca/comoxocp

I I I

04/27/2025

At the top of this hill just outside the Sugar Cane Reserve boundary near 150 Mile House, this patch of aspen didn’t burn in the 2017 fires.

Before I knew this was Reserve land I hiked up the hill to take a closer look. Apologies for trespassing but I didn’t see any signs.

This is remarkable because this was a massive fire travelling up hill and still that aspen patch survived. It’s still green, years later. Often the fire resistance of aspen is attributed to the notion it is growing in a wet site or in valleys.But here it is the top of a hill on an exposed southern facing slope. And it still didn’t burn.

Since then, it appears that the standards of industrial pine plantation forestry has been implemented on Band land. The mostly Douglas fir forest has been salvage logged and replanted with Douglas fir and lodgepole pine. Lots of plastic ribbon garbage has been littered by the tree planters to mark every single seedling. It appears most of the planted fir has already died. When you eliminate the shelter of the standing dead burnt trees and “clean up” the mess, you lose shade and protection and this isn’t great for Douglas fir regeneration in drier areas.

There is a lot of aspen regenerating across this hill.

More aspen will make a more fire resistant forest, will feed more moose, will support better watershed function, and will become habitat for many species of cavity nesting animals along with beavers. Aspen and other deciduous growth can also help Douglas fir get established again.

If the aspen are eradicated in line with the plantation concept that appears to be the prescription here, most likely this hillside will become a pine plantation, nothing like what it was before the fire.

I believe the Sugar Cane Band leadership knows this and will let the aspen alone.

02/06/2025

At 18, Elizabeth Cochrane lived in Pittsburgh when she read an article titled What Are Girls Good For, which claimed their only purpose was to have children and manage the home. Outraged, she wrote an anonymous rebuttal that impressed the local newspaper editor so much that he hired her. Following the custom of the time, he gave her a pen name taken from a Stephen Foster song: Nellie Bly.

Passionate about investigative journalism, Bly was assigned to "women’s topics" like fashion and society. However, after exposing the harsh conditions of factory workers, she traveled to Mexico at just 21 to report on the working-class population. Her writings got her into trouble with the authorities, forcing her to flee.

At 23, she was hired by Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and undertook the investigation that made her famous: she posed as a patient in the Women’s Lunatic Asylum in New York. Her shocking report led to reforms in the treatment of the mentally ill.

In 1889, inspired by Around the World in 80 Days, she embarked on a solo journey around the globe. Her return after 72 days set a record and made her an international celebrity.

At 31, she married industrialist Robert Seaman and left journalism, helping run his business and patenting two inventions. During World War I, she returned to reporting, becoming one of the first women to cover an active war zone.

She passed away on January 27, 1922, at the age of 57, leaving behind a groundbreaking legacy in journalism.

credits: Edi libedinsky

11/02/2024

Startled! Andrew Chang on our national news network on About that, says that in the last 3 years, population growth has been over 3 million, of which only 70,000 were Canadians reproducing. No wonder we have problems - not just housing and services, but cultural adaptation. Chinese, Italians, Ukrainians and Sikhs remember how long it takes to adapt to a new home, a new culture AND how long it takes for the culture to adapt to newcomers. It was brutal for the above groups, brutal for indigenous inhabitants and a seriously stupid move - seems like govt doesn't realise all their policies impact in communities, not spreadsheets or corporate lobbying points.

10/15/2024

Need to watch it again - fascinating program from the news network we all own in their National news in Ottawa's beautiful market area (which has been getting more and more troubled for decades). Now cops, paramedics, Sandy Hill community health centre are pairing up to do deep dive service. Paramedics there in a minute so lives saved and less ambulances for overdose emergs (all on the streets). Community equipped with Narcan. Cops on foot getting to know people and vice versa etc. Early days but community service as we used to.imagine it.
But one of the stories that affected me most was a woman, maybe nurse or social worker, saying: Before COVID someone would yell, Child on the block, and everyone would hide their drugs and the needles and stuff. But COVID broke that - everyone just went away into their selves.

10/01/2024

They are showing Yintah on the Passionate Eye tonight on CBC - we showed it in Courtenay with World community and Sentinel Educational Foundation a few weeks ago. So pleased to see this powerful film get greater exposure

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