While we weren't looking, control of our rivers has been taken away from us

500 BC streams risked for private profit.
By Rafe Mair
Published: February 25, 2008
TheTyee.ca

Thanks to the Campbell government, British Columbia will be a much different place when they're finished. It will not be a pretty picture and unless there is a public protest of sufficient impact to get the government's attention, the new B.C. will be in place with no turning back.
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and another (March 17) quote from Rafe Mair that pretty much sums up the situation:

Now we have a new environmental disaster in B.C. unfolding through a plan called the Run of Rivers project, which will, pardon the scientific term, bugger up hundreds of streams and rivers in this province. Independent power companies will make hundreds of millions of dollars for using our rivers and, by transmission lines and roads into each power site, destroy the remaining wilderness in our beloved province. All this not to deal with our own power needs but to help export power -- and our environment along with it -- to the United States!

• See video: Power Play - the Theft of BC's Rivers
• Power Grab: BC’s rivers and streams at risk - The Wilderness Committee
  
• Ask your MLA to Take Action to protect public control of BC's rivers

Tyee article sheds some light on BC Native land claims

Aboriginal land claims in BC appear so complex that, given so many other matters that take my time, I seek to find simple principles amidst the details. There is little written in the mainstream media that has brought me much closer to understanding. This opinion article by Dave Porter, Chief Judith Sayers and Grand Chief Edward John in The Tyee (which is not quite mainstream), seems to cast some light on the processes and principles involved:

New Day for BC Native Claims
'Xeni decision' casts doubt on provincial authority over First Nations land dealings.

The inspirational words in the judgment of Justice Vickers of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Tsilhqot'in Nation v. British Columbia ("Xeni decision") ought to convince both Prime Minister Harper and Premier Campbell of the existence of Aboriginal peoples, and to recognize and respect the Aboriginal rights and title of each.

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British Columbia Grasslands book

BC photographer and author, Chris Harris, is launching his next book: Spirit in the Grass - The Cariboo Chilcotin's Forgotten Landscape.

The Cariboo Chilcotin grasslands are one of the ecological wonders of the world and British Columbia's most endangered ecosystem. It covers less than 1% of the province yet supports over 30% of its threatened or endangered plant and animal species.

The book will be launched in Chris' home town of 100 Mile House on October 19th and then the promotional tour will move on to locations around BC.

The travelling Grasslands Gala multimedia presentation will include slide-sound sequences in combination with stories behind the images and how they and the book were created. As a photographer, I will speak from the creative visual arts perspective rather than the science perspective. In this way I hope to provide a new and fresh avenue to appreciate our beautiful British Columbia grasslands.

Details

Birds from a Cariboo Deck No.5 - American Robin

A pair of robins have honoured us with setting up a nest nearby. They join others in the neighbourhood in their sweet evening singing. Aside from singing, the most popular visible activity of robins is their flamboyant bathing:

More Birds from A Cariboo Deck

Kamloops/Thompson School District gets free software

Some interesting news on the computing front:
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Kamloops school district gets an education in free software
Tuesday June 05, 2007
By: Bruce Byfield

The Kamloops/Thompson School District in British Columbia, Canada, is a free software success story. Gregg Ferrie, manager of information technology for the district, believes its infrastructure may be "the largest Linux on-the-desktop implementation in Western Canada" in public education. According to Ferrie, hardly a week goes by without another of British Columbia's more than 60 school districts consulting Kamloops. Currently, five other districts are considering or planning to implement the Kamloops district's custom-built thin client solution, and the department of education at the University of British Columbia is also investigating the possibility.

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