Thoughts on BC Politics and More

BC Hydro is bracing for another year of potentially severe drought in key watersheds that feed its major dams, as the B.C. River Forecast Centre reports below-average snowpacks. The utility is used to managing the ups and downs of high water years and low water years with a history that stretches back 80 years, but “this is towards the worst end of what we’ve seen historically,” CEO Chris O’Riley said. “We are wary about the potential for extreme weather with climate change and yeah, it’s definitely something where we’re managing and using all the tools we have" . . . . CLICK HERE for the full story

  B.C.’s small rural communities striving for water security as droughts become the norm still sink or swim without much assistance from the province, policy experts say.    Most of the province has been in the clutches of unprecedented — but long anticipated — climate-induced drought for most of the summer. About 55 per cent of B.C.'s water basins are at Level 5 on the provincial drought scale — the point when adverse socioeconomic or ecosystem impacts are almost certain.    Vancouver Island, renowned for its rainforests, has experienced prolonged severe or extreme drought for the past three summers. In an effort to preserve water for people, fish, livestock and growing food on central Vancouver Island, the province has imposed temporary water restrictions in watersheds for the Tsolum River and Koksilah and Cowichan rivers. Industrial water users and farmers growing water-intensive forage crops have had to shut off their taps. It has also imposed simi...

Vancouver Island farmers Arzeena Hamir and her husband decided they wanted nothing to do with the British Columbia government’s mismanaged water licensing system.    Even as drought hit their 10-hectare certified organic Amara Farm hard this summer and they face destroying crops because there’s not enough water, Hamir doesn’t see joining the provincially regulated system as the answer ... CLICK HERE for the full story

  As a landscape architect specializing in wetland restoration, Bernie Amell knows how water moves across the landscape. However, he has had a crash course in drought after Amell and his wife moved to their Quadra Island agricultural acreage on B.C.'s so-called “Wet Coast” three years ago.    “We arrived in 2021, in the ‘heat dome’ summer, and the shallow well dried up,” said Amell, a member of Quadra Island’s Climate Action Network (I-CAN).  “We had to buy water in jugs while we were building the house. We could barely water any plants in the garden.”   Most of Quadra’s 2,700 residents depend on groundwater, from shallow or drilled deep wells, to meet their water needs ...,   CLICK HERE for the full story

Amid the worst drought in provincial history, many experts are urging reforms to conserve fresh water on Canada’s West Coast   CLICK HERE to read the full story

The other day, I invited readers to think about, and maybe even share, something that you are thankful for. I am inspired by the transformative power of gratitude. If practiced consistently, it begins to rewire our minds which absorb so much negativity each day. It came to me as I was mid-morning walk that I did not share something I’m grateful for. Last week I got to walk in the rain! I’m thankful to be soaked by the cleansing rain! S Ƚ EMEW ̱ is the word for rain in SEN Ć O Ŧ EN, the W ̱ S Á NE Ć language. There is a beautiful story, passed down from one storyteller to the next, about the first man in W ̱ S Á NE Ć . He fell to the earth in the rain. His name was S Ƚ EMEW ̱ . You can hear the story in a short YouTube video and better understand our deep connection to water and the importance of water in the teachings of the W ̱ S Á NE Ć . Flowing waters The sacred bathing rituals connect us to the purifying creeks that are the earth’s...