Controlled burns help restore Cariboo-Chilcotin grasslands

Chilcotin grasslands, near Farwell Canyon

BC grasslands have been shrinking for various reasons, encroaching "civilization" being one of them. Less obvious, because it happens more slowly, is the encroaching of trees. In the era of maximum fire-prevention, fires were extinguished and the trees steadily move into the grasslands. In recent years, realizing this, fire-fighting authorities have allowed selected controlled wildfires to burn themselves out; and deliberately started others, to help the restoration of more natural grassland. This is happening today in the Cariboo-Chilcotin grasslands.

Burns planned to restore Cariboo-Chilcotin grasslands

by BC Forest Fire Info on Thursday, October 18, 2012 at 9:05am ·

WILLIAMS LAKE – Prescribed burns are planned in the Ward Creek, Becher’s Prairie, and Farwell Canyon area west of Williams Lake between now and Nov. 16, 2012, weather conditions permitting.

The burns are planned for ecosystem restoration purposes. Individual burns will be between 10 and 600 hectares in size.

The largest burn, expected to be about 600 hectares, is in the Ward Creek area north of Gang Ranch. This burn will decrease sagebrush and Douglas-fir encroachment on critical California bighorn sheep habitat along the Fraser River.

Historically, the grasslands in the Cariboo-Chilcotin were renewed through frequent, low-intensity ground fires. Such fires prevented tree encroachment, rejuvenated under-story plants and maintained more open grasslands and forests with large trees. The reintroduction of managed, low-intensity ground fires to these grasslands is intended to restore and maintain the traditional grassland plant communities that are natural for these areas. These fires are part of an ongoing ecosystem restoration program administered by the provincial government in consultation with First Nations, local ranchers, the B.C. Wildlife Federation and the Cariboo-Chilcotin Conservation Society.

More Chilcotin photos by Stanton Newman

Great Bear Rainforest: Art for an Oil-Free Coast

"This past summer, fifty of BCs most celebrated artists took a journey up the coast, into the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. Five-hundred kilometres north of Vancouver is a wild coastline: home to the Spirit Bear and whales, wolf packs and grizzlies, First Nations and coastal communities. With the looming threat of a proposed oil pipeline and hundreds of oil tankers a year, it is a magical place on edge."

Art for an Oil Free Coast - Film Trailer from StrongHeart Productions on Vimeo.

 This is the film trailer for the 22 min documentary, Art for an Oil-Free Coast.  . . . the story of a Raincoast Conservation Foundation expedition into a stunning and remote landscape, weaving together the artists’ work and their emotional response to a people and a region at risk.

Art for an Oil Free Coast (22 min. 2012. Canadian doc.)
Produced by Raincoast Conservation Society & StrongHeart Productions
With Robert Bateman, Ian Reid, Raincoast & friends.
World Premiere Announced: Vancouver International Film Festival, October 3rd 2012

Help permanently protect B.C.’s spectacular Flathead River Valley

A spectacular and environmentally exceptional area needs protection. This movie records a lot that has already been done - and there's more needed. Watch some of the best wildlife photographers do what they do - and see the Flathead Valley like few have.

Flathead Wild ReEdit from EP Films on Vimeo.

"Help permanently protect B.C.’s spectacular Flathead River Valley. We need a National Park in the south eastern one-third of the Flathead and a Wildlife Management Area in the rest of the valley and adjoining habitat - to complete Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park and preserve one of North America’s richest wildlife corridors."

More evidence that First Nations leadership is against the Enbridge Pipeline

It's becoming increasingly clear that Enbridge optimism about support is on pretty shaky ground. In case there's any doubt, here's what Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs' Stewart Phillip has to say on their opposition to the Enbridge pipeline:

 CBC Television, July 30, 2012

Shale gas: Sound the fracking alarm

NEW: A Fractivist's Toolkit

The evidence is being reported across the continent: first-hand reports, scientific studies . . . fracking may get more gas but it is very bad for people and the planet. Here are some reports from British Columbia and beyond:

• France looks at America, says non to fracking France’s energy minister looked at the destruction being wrought on America’s environment by hydraulic fracturing and said “non, merci” to the latest push by her country’s business lobby to make fracking legal. Grist, 7 June 2013.
• B.C. should cap gas sector growth, report says
  The report describes B.C.'s pursuit of shale gas development, including exclusive access to water and lax regulations for greenhouse gas emissions, as 'reckless.'


UPDATES:

• Andrew Nikiforuk tackles top claims fracking industry uses to reassure public.
• Is there really 100 years’ worth of natural gas beneath the United States?
• REPORT: Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st Century?
• Shale gas subsidies threaten BC water supply: CCPA report
• A Fracking Disaster in the Making: Report
• Fracking tests near Blackpool 'likely cause' of tremors
• France Cancels Shale-Gas Permits Over Fracking Impasse
• Albertan, Tired of Her Tap Water Catching Fire, Sues
• Natural gas fracking reviews launched
• BC gov must rein in shale gas industry, says enviro group
• Critics slam B.C. government plan to report on fracking activity
• Fracking Operations Cause Thousands of Earthquakes in Arkansas
• Unlike BC, Wyoming Won't Allow Fracking Secrets
• Down the Drain Goes Public's Right to Know about Fracking
• The U.S. has one-fifth the shale gas once projected

Harper restrained by environmentalists

Murray Dobbin in The Tyee, points to the ability of sustained and strong resistance by environmental coalitions to keep Conservative economic single-mindedness in check. For example:

The rejection of the B.C. Prosperity copper-gold mine proposal and the saving of Fish Lake was a good example. Approving the mine in the face of very effective publicity on the part of opponents proved just too much for even Stephen Harper to pull off. Defying many of the pundits' predictions, the Conservatives backed off and actually listened to their own environmental review panel.

Now comes a bigger issue:  The Enbridge Northern pipeline plan:

It's a huge issue. Harper has invested a lot in supporting the project. But the opposition is formidable: an informal alliance of some half dozen environmental organizations, 61 First Nations, and many municipal governments that may well be unprecedented. Eighty per cent of British Columbians are opposed to allowing oil tankers in coastal waters. If Harper gives a green light to the project he will unleash an enormous backlash, and the movement which is now simply campaigning for a rejection of the project by a federal joint review panel will move into higher gear, including civil disobedience.
It would be a public relations nightmare for the Harper government. Enbridge, which between 1999 and 2008 had 610 spills releasing 132,000 barrels of oil, is now pumping dirty oil allied with Alberta's Harper. This against a diverse alliance who want to save the pristine wilderness, B.C. coastal waters and First Nations' livelihood. That alliance also has the backing of all the opposition parties, two of which have put forward private members' bills trying to ban oil tankers (an informal moratorium now exists).

Read more

The Campaign to protect Fish Lake 

Beetle-killed trees probably less flammable than green trees

NASA Satellites Reveal Surprising Connection Between Beetle Attacks, Wildfire
The results may seem at first counterintuitive, but make sense when considered more carefully. First, while green needles on trees appear to be more lush and harder to burn, they contain high levels very flammable volatile oils. When the needles die, those flammable oils begin to break down. As a result, depending on the weather conditions, dead needles may not be more likely to catch and sustain a fire than live needles.

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For some years Dave Neads has been pushing this point. Perhaps it takes an authority like NASA to get past the sceptics and vested interests. In 2004, in his series, The Other Side of the Story, he wrote:

On the bright side, once the trees are dead, they actually are less of a fire hazard than the green tree that used to stand so prettily in your garden. This is because all those oils and turpentines have left the tree needles, and they are actually not as prone to explosive crown fires as green trees.

One they reach the gray stage, they are very low risk for naturally occurring fires, but once felled, these naturally air dried trees make good firewood, so there may be a bonus if you have several of them on your property.

From Backyard Beetles by Dave Neads

Other posts by Dave Neads:

• The pine beetle aftermath requires a fundamental culture change
• Perspective on the Lodgepole Pine
• Factory fences: aliens in the Chilcotin

Dave's personal blog: Chilcotin Ark

Earthship building going up in the South Cariboo

This type of energy-saving and energy-efficient structure was pioneered some years ago. As the design and especially the materials used (including much use of used car tyres and pop cans) gains credibility, "Earthships" are becoming more widespread. As I write, one of these is being built on my doorstep - in the South Cariboo, near 100 Mile House.

BC Government has lost its environmental credibility

Bob Peart, a member of the B.C. Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy from 1989-1992, reviews the many ways in which the BC government has alienated those concerned about support and protection for BC's natural environment.

A war in the woods appears to be heating up again in British Columbia to the point that a B.C. cabinet minister was caught calling a group of environmentalists eco-fascists for being critical of his position on the creation of a park in the Flathead Valley.

 The list is long and pretty damning.

British Columbia's government is cancelling funding for monitoring and updating land-use plans that took a decade of hard work to put in place; eliminating research budgets in the Ministry of Forests and Range, thereby deregulating forestry standards and moving to a system of private forestry practices; refusing to increase the number of conservation officers to a level required to protect our fish and wildlife; and failing to renew funding for valuable projects such as Biodiversity B.C., which contribute to environmental policy decisions.

Provincial policy isn't safeguarding our abundant natural resources

Teztan Biny / Fish Lake still in jeopardy

According to resource planner Tony Pearse in The Tyee, the recently-announced Federal environmental assessment leaves loopholes for the federal government to justify approving the Taseko plan, which includes using the lake as a tailings pond.

The panel had expert evidence before it that Taseko had substantially overestimated the economic benefits of its project and yet, in providing information to the ministers concerning justifiability, it did not pass on the only independent analysis available. This is bad news, because it is virtually certain that the ministers will examine the issue of economic benefits if they contemplate approving the project despite the serious environmental and cultural consequences identified by the panel.

This evidence, from resource economist Marvin Schaffer, "told the panel that the BC EAO's conclusion that 'there is no expected cost to future generations except for the loss of Fish Lake and Little Fish lake' was factually incorrect. There would be a very large, on-going cost to present and future generations from this arrangement."

Read the full article

The Campaign to protect Fish Lake

Fish Lake / Teztan Biny 

The Tsilhqot'in Fight for Teztan Biny / Fish Lake

There are areas in the Chilcotin region (and elsewhere in BC) where significant elements of the indigenous culture are still viable. This, despite the decimation of smallpox, evidently encouraged by the early settlers in their wish to take over inhabited land. The occupation continues to this day, currently in a plan to start a mine and dump the tailings in a nearby lake. This became possible after the government removed protective laws on such a practice. The video is about the lake and the people whose lives are entwined with its presence. It provides an insight into the lives of the Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) people and a culture still significantly integrated with the natural world - and what we all stand to lose if the mine goes ahead.

Blue Gold: The Tsilhqot'in Fight for Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) from Susan Smitten on Vimeo.

March 26: DFO raises concerns with Taseko fish plan.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada raised concerns about Taseko Mines Ltd.’s fish compensation plan for the proposed prosperity mine while at the federal review panel hearings Wednesday.
March 22, 2010: Williams Lake BC; Commencement of Federal Environmental Assessment Review Panel's public hearings on Taseko Mines Ltd's proposed Prosperity Mine, which would destroy Teztan Biny (Fish Lake). This coincides with 2010 World Water Day and events will be held in Williams Lake and other communities to highlight this fact.

• March 22-25: Movie may be shown at Public Hearing in Williams Lake
• Tom Swanky: The Tsilhqot'in War and the Smallpox Plot
• First Nations Women Advocating Responsible Mining

Many well-intentioned and good people have been induced by the usual false hopes for windfall profits fanned by mining speculators, or by a fear of the always unknown and certain future, to campaign in favour of Prosperity. To exhaust the natural resources owned by the Tsilhqot’in without their consent; to destroy a heritage site with a future potential for the useful education of all concerning different approaches to resource utilization; to risk the contamination of a river system; to risk a new error in the hope of compensating for the mismanagement of the forest industry; and so on. All for what gain? All for the benefit of less than $100 a head for twenty years and an artificial lake suited to the tastes of rich sports fishermen from elsewhere.  -  Tom Swanky. From a submission to the upcoming Environmental Assessment Panel.

The New Campaign to protect Fish Lake  2012 - 2013

Unspoiled Taku River Valley discussions on land use

Not much news about this process - at least, I know little about it. So, I thought it wouldn't hurt to give it a little more exposure. This may not be the best explanation but feel free to add, in the Comments section, links to an article you would recommend.

Gold glitters in B.C.'s last intact watershed
By Tom Fletcher - BC Local News

Published: November 29, 2009 1:00 PM

Negotiations are under way to set land use rules for B.C.’s last pristine coastal watershed, the remote Taku River valley near the Alaska and Yukon borders.
In talks similar to those that established the so-called Great Bear Rainforest agreement on B.C.'s central and northern coast three years ago, the Taku River Tlingit First Nation is moving beyond court challenges over mining to a plan that would share the resources and tourism potential of their vast traditional territory.

Photo of Taku River Valley


UPDATE Dec. 28, 2012: Yukon's free entry mineral staking rules in jeopardy
Court of Appeal says mining claims can have serious impacts on aboriginal title


UPDATE - NEWS RELEASE from Taku River Klingit First Nation

Taku River Tlingit Joint Clan Forum Rejects Proposed Tulsequah Chief Project

 

November 28, 2012:  The Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRTFN), faced with significant concerns about the state of Chieftain Metals’ proposal and negotiations, held a Joint Clan meeting on November 18, 2012 where the Joint Clan Forum rejected the proposed Tulsequah Chief Project.

The Joint Clan Mandate instructs TRTFN Leadership to "take all steps necessary to ensure that the Tulsequah Chief project, as currently proposed, is not developed on Taku River Tlingit Territory.”

The consensus decision was made based on numerous shortcomings, including Chieftain’s failure to maintain a water treatment plant to manage pollution from the original mine site, and its failure to provide a workable feasibility study.

Frustration at the Joint Clan meeting was high while citizens questioned how they could possibly consider approving the proposed project in the face of so little certainty on the requirements of responsible development on Taku River Tlingit Territory.

The Joint Clan Forum has no confidence, based on the steps taken to date, that the mine could be built or operated in an acceptable manner, and believes there is a serious risk of the project collapsing part way though, leaving an even more damaging legacy for TRTFN lands and waters than is already being perpetuated by the original abandoned mine.

Other concerns include the manner in which Chieftain’s proposed project has been approved by the BC government without the full and informed participation of the TRTFN, and in the absence of full plans on which to base their decisions.

As a responsible government, and as land owners, the TRTFN must ensure its time and resources are directed to financially viable and environmentally responsible projects.  The currently proposed Tulsequah Chief Project does not meet these minimum requirements.  

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:

CBC: Feds plan on turning good lakes into dump sites

Long time no post!

Well, this one's not very original but it does seem important. Sounds like the federal government is trying to sneak one over on all of us; and some of it will happen in BC, turning perfectly good lakes into dump sites.

CBC News has learned that 16 Canadian lakes are slated to be officially but quietly "reclassified" as toxic dump sites for mines. The lakes include prime wilderness fishing lakes from B.C. to Newfoundland.

Environmentalists say the process amounts to a "hidden subsidy" to mining companies, allowing them to get around laws against the destruction of fish habitat.

Under the Fisheries Act, it's illegal to put harmful substances into fish-bearing waters. But, under a little-known subsection known as Schedule Two of the mining effluent regulations, federal bureaucrats can redefine lakes as "tailings impoundment areas."

For example:

In northern B.C., Imperial Metals plans to enclose a remote watershed valley to hold tailings from a gold and copper mine. The valley lies in what the native Tahltan people call the "Sacred Headwaters" of three major salmon rivers. It also serves as spawning grounds for the rainbow trout of Kluela Lake, which is downstream from the dump site.

Read on