Birds From a Cariboo Deck No. 9: Ruffed Grouse

This was the grandest-looking of a family of four that visited in the fall; so, probably the adult male. They are not the most refined of flyers, especially when startled: flying into fences and walls. Fortunately I saw this one in time.

More Birds from A Cariboo Deck

Introduction to the Chilcotin War - Tom Swanky

Tom has been researching and collecting historical date long and hard. Here's an opportunity to learn about this remarkable and often disturbing part of our history in this part of Canada. Click on poster to see a larger version. In case the text still isn't easy to read, here's what Tom says:

I am presenting the slide sequence in the Quesnel Museum Heritage Speaker series, Oct. 27 at 7pm in the Atrium at the UNBC campus in Quesnel. [Admission free]

The trouble with DEET

New research on DEET health risks

DEET, the active ingredient in many insect repellents used by some 200 million people every year, appears to affect proteins in mammals as well as mosquitoes and other target insects. Some previous studies have implicated DEET in seizures among children. A new study (PDF) by an international group of scientists, supported by Agence Nationale pour la Recherche in France, published August 5 at BioMedicalCentral.com (BMCBiology), reports that DEET "is not simply a behaviour-modifying chemical but that it also inhibits cholinesterase activity, in both insect and mammalian neuronal preparations." Symptoms of lowered levels of cholinesterase, an enzyme essential to proper nervous system function, can include nausea, headaches, convulsions and, in extreme cases, death. Health risks increase when DEET and other pesticides are used together. The researchers concluded that "DEET is commonly used in combination with insecticides and we show that deet has the capacity to strengthen the toxicity of carbamates, a class of insecticides known to block acetylcholinesterase." The new findings are "consistent with previous studies, says Bahie Abou-Donia of the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC," speaking to Science News. Abou-Donia's research found increased toxicity when DEET and chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate insecticide hazardous by itself, were used together. "These effects should be clearly labeled on products containing DEET, or N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide," says Abou-Donia. In Canada, he noted, "insect repellents can contain no more than 30 percent DEET. The United States - where 100 percent DEET repellents are available - should consider such restrictions."

- Pesticide Action Network of North America

Mosquito Repellants and Deterrents

Some Insects of British Columbia

Nuk Tessli Update

Just received from Chris Czajkowski:

August 3, 8:55 a.m.

"When the helicopter flew over Knot Lake yesterday the fire was still on the far side of Knot Lake which is very good news. There was little wind yesterday and none last night. Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to cool dramatically, which will help, and a chance of showers is forecast. It is supposed to rain in a few days. "

• Read Chris' full report
• Photojournal of evacuation

Chris drew this map at the time of the 2004 fire.

Fire threatens Nuk Tessli. Chris Czajkowski has to fly out.

Five years later and once again, Chris Czajkowski has had to evacuate Nuk Tessli. In an e-mail sent a couple of hours ago, she reports:

"Even if the fire did not reach us, the smoke would probably be very unpleasant. Been there, done that. 11 clients and a wwoofer/guide had flown out that morning and 4 clients had flown in. These were a couple my age, their 80+ mother, and their 9-year-old grand-daughter. The fire would likely stay away for a couple of days but the smoke would be distressing: at least now the visibility was good enough to fly out."

• Read Chris' full report and photojournal of today's events
• The 2004 fire

The Battle for Our Rivers and Our Fish

Despite their victory in the last provincial election, the way is not open for the BC Liberals to continue their ceding of river access to corporate power-sellers. The tactical attempts to sneak through the legal requirements are being countered by an alert and growing resistance. The Tyee reports:

Far from being deterred by the denial of a meeting in Nelson, local environmental groups banded together to provide bus transportation and other means for getting people to the Kaslo meeting. The result was staggering.

People of all ages came with costumes, banners, marching bands, meticulously researched and passionately articulated speeches. First they rallied outside the school before the meeting, then they lined up one after another at the microphone to say a resounding "no" to the project and the whole idea of privatizing our rivers for power we don't need and can't use. Why can't we use it? Because the bulk of this power would come in spring, the time of our lowest demand and highest supply) vowing that this project would be stopped.

As local NDP MLA Michelle Mungall told the company to rousing applause, "These people are not uneducated about your project. They understand it. They don't like it. They don't want it."

After a disappointing provincial election for those who care about protecting our rivers, fish and wildlife, this night served to re-energize the movement around the province and showed this battle is really just getting started. And the people of the Kootenays, famous for their love of nature and commitment to protecting it, are once again leading by example.

More from The Tyee
Facebook: Help Save Wild Rivers in the Kootenays

BC Election: Rafe Mair's call to action

Today I'm making online space for Rafe Mair. I couldn't find this most recent letter of his online so, to give it a little more exposure, here it is. There comes a time when politics is more than just that and I think, for BC, this is one of them:

Fellow British Columbians –

I’ve been fighting injustice my entire life. I have long looked with considerable skepticism at those in charge feeling strongly that they must have the closest possible scrutiny.

I’ve been in government and know how the spin is administered to issues so that evils in government policies are disguised. I’ve long been guided by what I call Mair’s Axiom I, namely, “one makes a serious mistake in assuming that people in charge know what the hell they’re doing”.

During my time practicing law I took many cases “pro bono” because I sensed an injustice.

As Consumer Minister I battled hard for consumers passing 33 pieces of legislation in two sittings, a record before or since. In the Ministry of Environment I stopped government killing wolves, stopped exploration for and mining of uranium and negotiated the saving of the Skagit River from being made into a lake by City of Seattle raising the Ross Dam.

In radio I fought against two disastrous constitutional exercises, Meech Lake and Charlottetown, the Kemano Completion Project, a gravel pit on the Pitt River, the fish farm issue and recently the private river swindle.

I’m now in my 78th year and though I’m pretty fit, the time comes when you have to consider that your place in the front line trenches should be taken by younger people. I’ve greatly enjoyed speaking all around the province and meeting so many of you on the “rivers” issue but being away from home on the road for many days at a time takes a toll. While I have no intention to stop speaking out and writing on environmental concerns perhaps it’s time I started supporting causes but not being its torch bearer.

In short, I have to face reality.

The “rivers” issue I’m now fighting is one of the most important I’ve ever been involved in and in this fight I include the government’s appalling record on the fish farm issue. What’s at stake here is the essence, or you might say the very soul, of British Columbia. The return of Gordon Campbell will mean the sale, for money we’ll never even see, the British Columbia we love so dearly. Indeed the money will be paid by us through BC Hydro to the very people who will destroy our province!

We do not need power – the National Energy Board is authority for that. When we do require more we have four viable ways to get it.

1. Conservation
2. Upgrading our present generators.
3. Putting generators on flood control dams and new ones on existing dams
4. Taking back the power we’re entitled to under the Columbia River Treaty.

It’s critical that we all understand that private power depends upon the spring runoff for the water it needs, meaning it mainly produces power for a few short months at best and at the same time BC Hydro’s reservoirs are full to brimming. Because this power is of limited duration and at a time Hydro can’t use it, it’s exported bringing us within the purview of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

A re-election of Mr. Campbell will mean the not so slow strangulation of BC Hydro, our power company that is the envy the world and it will happen this way. Hydro has lost 1/3 of its employees to Accenture, the bastard nephew of the infamous Enron, and its transmission lines to a new crown corporation, BCTC. Meanwhile, what’s left of our public power utility, BC Hydro, is banned from developing new sources of renewable energy and is forced instead to buy large quantities of expensive private river power that we don’t need and can’t use at more than twice the market price. Buy high and sell low! With just a few private projects now up and running already Hydro owes $30 BILLION on long term indexed prices and every private project adds to the total and tightens that strangling noose. Barred from producing new sources of power and still carrying its $7 BILLION Capital debt, Hydro is on its death bed only waiting for Mr. Campbell to administer the Last Rites.

As he did with BC Rail, Premier Campbell promises to keep BC Hydro publicly owned – that, if nothing else, must tell us what he intends to do.

Of huge concern is that BC Hydro, always able to pay of hundreds of millions a year dividends to the BC treasury, which go towards our schools, hospitals and social programs, now cannot do so. In essence then, the public is paying, through BC Hydro, for the capital costs of private companies like Ledcor and General Electric, while no longer receiving the bounty of BC Hydro’s much envied ability to create clean, cheap and constant energy.

It doesn’t end there, of course. Each plant desecrates the rivers it diverts or dams (the industry prefers we call them weirs) for all time. We must remember that while economic missteps by government can be fixed by a later government, once we’ve lost our rivers and BC Hydro we can never get them back.

This is indeed a “watershed” election (pun intended) where we’ll decide if we keep “supernatural BC” or turn it over to large international companies such as General Electric.

The Liberal government, in the words of Oscar Wilde knows “the price of everything and the value of nothing”

If we re-elect the Campbell government we will, quite rightly, be condemned by our children, our grandchildren and generations as yet unborn.

Sincerely,

Rafe Mair

• Videos
• B.C. scientists urge strategic voting to protect watersheds

Vote to protect BC's treasures

While this video is definitely partisan regarding the upcoming BC elections, most of the issues covered are those I am somewhat informed on and agree with. As an election seems like the best, if not the only, way to stop much of the damage being done to our province, this video has my support; and I play my part here in giving a little boost to its circulation. Because of the scope of what's at risk, your vote can make a big difference.

Corky Evans on Taking Our Rivers Back

No-one says it clearer: the so-called "Liberal" government is selling our resources. We can stop them. Watch the video:

Protect our food and farmers: Amend BC's new meat regulations

The "sanitizing" of the BC meat industry has continued under the current government, slowing down a bit in the face of obvious faults, but pretty much holding to the same track. The effect has been ongoing limitation to the availability of quality meat in this province and financial damage to many farmers we've depended on to provide good quality meat; meat which, from most reports, is at least as safe as the corporate variety.

From a common-sense perspective, the need for local meat (and local food in general) continues to grow for many reasons - but in the political realm, no-brainers have their support. With a governing party that has successfully(?) side-tracked this issue for a damaging length of time and shows no sign of "getting it", we citizens do have an option: there is an election in the offing. Perhaps there is another party who will get it. Ask your local representative - and vote for them, if they are likely to stop this damaging and ignorant trend. Perhaps you could show them this simple video: