🌲News
August is an important money-making month for Bamfield businesses. But smoke and power outages from the nearby fire have left its tourism industry high and dry.
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Tuesday, August 19, 2025·4 min
Huu-ay-aht Guardian Kevin Peters clears a tree from the West Coast Trail. This year storm damage left hundreds of downed trees and significant infrastructure damage along the route at the start of the season. Facebook photo / Kevin Peters
🌲News
Weather damage raises issue of how much 'climate-proofing' (and funding) Island's west coast will need
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Tuesday, May 27, 2025·4 min
Forested tidal swamps like the upper reaches of the Sayward Estuary on northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, store vast amounts of carbon in their soils. Photo: Grant Callegari / Hakai Institute
🌲News
Researchers along North America's West Coast, including Vancouver Island, say the swamps provide "high carbon bang for your buck."
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Friday, April 4, 2025·3 min
VIU research assistant Lily Eggert and chemistry professor Dr. Alexandra Weissfloch examine the chemicals in a boat cleaning product. Photo: VIU
🌲News
VIU chemists have teamed up with the Pacific Salmon Foundation to guide boaters to "cleaner" cleaning products
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Tuesday, December 10, 2024·4 min
Southern resident killer whales in the Swiftsure Bank area near a container ship. Photo by Katherine Gavrilchuk / Department of Fisheries and Oceans
🚌News
A coalition of environmental organizations is urging the Canadian government to implement emergency measures to protect endangered southern resident killer whales amidst rising oil tanker traffic due to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Friday, June 21, 2024·5 min
Photo: Baum Lab / UVic
🏠News
UVic researchers are figuring out where Canada's greatest ocean carbon reserves are.
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Tuesday, June 11, 2024·3 min
🏠News
The From Review to Action plan is a lacklustre effort that fails to include any new steps, specific details, or deadlines, the Sierra Club says
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Wednesday, June 5, 2024·5 min
Joshua Charleson shows Kinsley, 8, how to prepare herring for the smokehouse at the Island Indigenous Food Gathering. Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter / Canada's National Observer
🍽️News
Island First Nations headed to Port Alberni to share cultural knowledge and strengthen food sovereignty
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Wednesday, March 27, 2024·3 min
🚌News
The company's switch to electric doesn't have a clear timeline.
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Tuesday, March 19, 2024·5 min
New research suggests some pockets of kelp forest in the southern Salish Sea can bounce back from marine heat waves. Photo Florian Graner / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
🌲News
Some bull kelp in Island waters is handling heat stress, says new UVic research
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Thursday, February 15, 2024·3 min
🩺News
How do BC shipping's economic benefits balance against its costs to the health of the sea?
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Sunday, January 28, 2024·4 min
Whale researchers with the Marine Education and Research Society helped BBC's Planet Earth film humpbacks in BC waters for the show's latest series. Hilroy (BCX1481) breaching next to Corporal (BCX1238) by Fredi Devas / BBC
🌲News
Port McNeill researchers helped iconic TV program document the “whale carbon pump”
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Thursday, December 14, 2023·7 min
The Pacific Salmon Foundation partnered with local First Nations and conservation groups to devise rapid responses to save threatened fish from drought this summer.
🌲News
BC teams aerated rivers and dug them into new directions in effort to prevent more salmon deaths
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Thursday, October 26, 2023·6 min
🚌News
Lack of accessible and affordable transit between Island communities a key issue
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Tuesday, October 17, 2023·4 min
Photo Island Class "Gwawis" by Wzelisk09 / Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4)
🚌News
Hybrid vessels' switch-over is no longer on track--and the province's 2030 target isn't either
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Friday, October 6, 2023·4 min
It's humpback song season on the B.C. coast and now people will be able to listen and learn about these underwater acoustics on the new Whale Sound platform. Photo Jenn Dickie / Courtesy BC Whales
🌲News
A new project lets you listen in on whales' noises--but those whales may be overwhelmed from hearing all of our noises
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Friday, October 6, 2023·5 min
Cortes ferry docked in Heriot Bay, Quadra Island. Photo: Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
🚌News
Tensions ran high at the Sept. 20 public meeting that led to the cancellation of future meetings
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Sunday, October 1, 2023·4 min
Nanaimo city hall. Photo by Kirk McDougall
🌲News
Nanaimo's vote to end natural gas hookups has drawn powerful opponents
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Friday, September 22, 2023·5 min
A massive Mola mola was sighted in Kyuquot Sound in early August and its photo will help inform a citizen science project on sunfish in West Coast waters. Photo by Tashi Townley / Courtesy Marine Education Research Society (MERS)
🌲News
Sunfish sightings continue in Island waters
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Thursday, September 14, 2023·2 min
Cortes Island, a remote tourist destination in B.C., is the first community to tax short-term holiday rentals and dedicate all the funds to help buffer the local housing crisis. Photo by David Stanley / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
🏠News
Has Cortes Island found a way to manage tourism's effect on local housing?
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Saturday, September 9, 2023·6 min
Klahoose Nation’s Tl'emtl'ems Canoe is one of hundreds joining a flotilla of Indigenous paddlers for the 2023 Tribal Journey to Muckleshoot.
🎭News
The yearly journey sees members from coastal First Nations reclaim their cultures and honour their ancestors.
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Wednesday, July 26, 2023·3 min
High atop a dike hemming the Koksilah River as its fresh waters meet salt, red-winged blackbirds call out as they patrol their territory. Photo: Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative
🌲News
The two-year project is a significant step in preserving wildlife in the area
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Monday, July 17, 2023·6 min
Tarmara McPhail escorts her sheep to pasture each morning on Linnaea Farm, an ecological agricultural land trust on Cortes Island in BC.
🏠News
With more extreme weather hitting the Island region, farmers are adapting to the new reality with old techniques
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Sunday, July 9, 2023·7 min
Photo: Rochelle Baker / Canada's National Observer
🚌News
New mandatory wastewater guidelines don't include prohibiting the largest source of vessels' water pollution, acidic scrubber discharge.
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer·Friday, July 7, 2023·4 min
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