West Coast

The Behr’s hairstreak could go extinct in Canada if we don’t protect the rare desert ecosystem it depends on. — Every June, the Behr’s hairstreak butterfly takes flight over the Okanagan Desert in southern BC. The butterfly, like the desert, is a lesson in hidden beauty. With its wings folded, it appears drab: a fuzzy insect with alien-huge eyes and dusty grey wings. …

A former boxing-gym owner takes on climate denial. — by Sandy Ibrahim as told to Tosh Sherkat Sandy, 54, is a writer, student, activist, and mother living in Victoria, BC. She immigrated to Canada from Germany as a baby, and was raised on an acreage outside of Edmonton, AB. Her father owned a compounding pharmacy and worked long hours…

From heat domes to polar vortexes, the last year made the climate crisis heartbreakingly real in BC. — Almost everything changes by inches, so slowly that you don’t realize it’s happening. When children are little, we cannot quite fathom that they won’t always be small enough for us to protect. The Earth, too, shifts in slow arcs of evolution, its shape worn down by wind and water, its…

In a previous blog post, I wrote about some of the best hikes located on the east coast of the United States. In this post, I’ll be going over some of the best hikes on the west coast of the country. The west coast is home to not only some…

This BC First Nation is using green technology to live out its ancestral values. — by Leona Humchitt The Haíłzaqv (Heiltsuk) community of Bella Bella is located on a remote island off the central coast of BC, in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. We have continuously occupied and stewarded this territory for over 14,000 years. Our 2,400-member nation relies on marine fishing for…

Indigenous communities on Vancouver Island are healing forests for the future. — by Odette Auger and Lauren Kaljur Every year, thousands of tourists descend on accessible pockets of old-growth rainforest on the west coast of BC’s Vancouver Island, drawn to towering, 1,000-year-old trunks as tall as lighthouses. For the Indigenous peoples who live on this land, these trees don’t exist for a…

How these climate activists got the gas out of their home. — When Christine Boyle and Seth Klein purchased their Vancouver home, they had a problem. Although the 13-year-old house was well insulated and energy efficient, it was a gas guzzler. …