Country Inn Motel in Nimpo Lake burned to the ground

I am sad to report another loss to fire in the Chilcotin:

Yesterday, the Country Inn Motel in Nimpo Lake burned to the ground. Fortunately there were no casualties. Apparently the manager of the motel was able to alert all the guests in time to move themselves and their vehicles to a safe place. The owners, had moved to the Inn only a month ago, and lost everything. This is what the site looked like after the fire:

If you have more to add to this information - words or pictures - I'd be happy to post them here. E-mail. You can also add a comment by clicking on Comments at the foot of this post.

Close to the Nimpo Lake float plane base, the Inn was an important part of the local tourist scene and was recommended by such operations as The Nuk Tessli Alpine Experience.

Another decrease in medical service for small-town BC

Fewer Doctor Visits Approved for Rural, Isolated Towns

By Ethan Ribalkin
Published: September 27, 2006
TheTyee.ca

A lot of small towns in B.C. rely on the care of visiting family doctors and specialists. It's the only alternative to flying or busing people miles to medical centres. But this year the B.C. government has lowered the number of approved doctor visits to rural and isolated communities, according to a Health Ministry report obtained by The Tyee.

Read the article

Pictures of the Farwell Canyon bridge fire

[updated 8:20 pm PST]

Thanks to Dan Laurie, we have some dramatic pictures of the fire that took down the bridge. (Click on image to see a larger version.)

The loss of the bridge will affect many people, not least those involved in area logging. Radio 94X in Prince George reports:

Roy Halls, a local trucker says drivers will now only be able to make one trip a day carrying logs to williams lake from a large section of the South Chilcotin. He says the added trucking distance will increase costs for mills, while drivers will lose out on the additional work from when they hauled two loads a day. Halls says logging was supposed to continue in the affected area this winter, but those plans now need to be re-considered.

More on the Farwell Canyon Bridge fire

Thanks to Kate for alerting me to this report in the Williams Lake Tribune. Pretty dramatic picture and story too.

It appears that there is a connection between the cause of the fire and the mudslide of two years ago: on Sunday night someone started a fire underneath the bridge, using brush that accumulated during the flooding caused by the slide. This quickly got the bridge support posts burning. In this picture, you can see how in 2004 the debris was lifted around the bridge by the rising water:

Dan, from Fort Nelson, has "some stunning shots of Farwell Bridge as it was burning", which I'm hoping to get soon.

Farwell Canyon Bridge burnt down

Photo: Chris Harris

Photo: Stanton Newman

I hear the Farwell Canyon bridge burnt down on Saturday night. Police and fire services were there through the night. Apparently there is a long way round alternate route.

Anyone out there know more about this and/or have pictures?

(If you're interested, I have pictures of the flood that occurred there in 2004)

A very big baby cowbird

This year brought a lot of heat and an unprecedented hailstorm to my Cariboo backyard. The hail stripped the bushes and trees of a lot of their (protective for the birds) foliage. Perhaps the most unusual happening was the pairing in this picture on the left. The bigger bird followed the Junco around for days, treating it like a parent. I didn't see it again after the hailstorm. The mystery: what is the "baby" bird?

And . . . I got the answer - from Tom Godin: "The large bird in the picture is a fully fledged cowbird that was no doubt raised by the junco that it was begging food from. Juvenile and female cowbirds look quite similar."

Visit Backyard Birds - 57 BC Interior birds

Concerted opposition to Fairmont Hotsprings East Kootenay development

One Community's Firm 'No' to Tourist Boom
TheTyee.ca

Looking across Columbia Lake to Lot 48, the small cleared section in the distance. Photo A. Bergles.

On Columbia Lake, Fairmont Hot Springs Resort has big plans - and creative opponents.
By Adrian Bergles. Published: August 29, 2006
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At the headwaters of the mighty Columbia River, a battle is being waged over some of the last untouched land in the area.

Read all about it.

Running out of water

A quarter of us, many in rural areas but many more in the suburbs of the Lower Mainland, on Vancouver Island, in the Okanagan and elsewhere, depend on wells for tap water. Business and industries in those areas do the same. With each passing year, we're pumping more from the buried lakes and slow-moving underground streams known as aquifers.

So says Chris Wood in Pumping Blind and I think we'd better pay attention. If you use a well, how has it performed over time? Do you know the level of your water table? Is it rising, falling, staying the same? As for the big picture - how many wells in this province pumping how much water? etc. - it seems that nobody knows.

It's not a pleasant picture but you might as well find out about it now. It will only be worse if you wait. You will not be alone: there are many reader comments at the end of the article. If you feel so inclined, some back here and let me know (via the Comments section below) what you think about it all.

Plan to build pipeline from Alberta oilsands to BC Port of Kitimat

Plans are in the works for an oil pipeline from the Alberta oilsands to the BC port of Kitimat. To many this sounds wonderful: jobs for locals, profits for the companies involved and taxes for the BC and Alberta governments. To many, however, the nature and scope of the project is a disaster - in process and in consequence.

If the plan goes ahead, the Gateway pipeline will be the largest petroleum pipeline project undertaken in North America in more than 50 years; at a cost of over $4 billion, it will be among the largest private infrastructure investments in B.C. history. Planned to begin construction in 2008, . . . that pipeline will employ 5000 full-time workers for two years, generating $25 million in taxes each year between B.C. and Alberta. In B.C. alone, the underground pipeline will be engineered to cross at least 1000 streams, rivers and lakes, each necessitating a separate file by Transport Canada.

Read: Massive Gateway project faces serious legal obstacles. A special report.

Alarm for the northern spotted owl

Alarm bells are ringing loudly as the northern spotted owl population drops to near extinction levels. According to Larry Pynn in the Vancouver Sun:

The number of known mating pairs of Canada's rarest bird, the northern spotted owl, has dropped to three from six and the overall population to 17 from 22 since last year, says the Sierra Legal Defence Fund.

The organization is urging the B.C. government to act immediately to save the endangered species. "If 17 birds doesn't constitute an imminent threat to survival, nothing does," staff lawyer Devon Page said in an interview.

"If they don't step in to save the spotted owl, they won't step in to save any species."