The ECOreport

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Quadra Island’s 3-month-long beach clean-up finished over the weekend

“Once a week, usually on Wednesdays, we would go on a remote beach hike,  to different areas on Quadra that were hard to access.  We had to go hiking for maybe an hour or so to some of these places and then collect and leave debris, and then we'd have to return by boat another day,” explained Nevil Hand, who organized the campaign.

“Near the beginning, it was just Heather and I. We'd put out an announcement on Facebook then maybe I'd make a few phone calls, but come the time when everyone was supposed to be there, it was often just her and I.”

“As the weather got better, more people started coming out.  I think that some people realize that  it's not just picking up garbage.  You tie it in with a hike and you're enjoying the beaches and we're seeing wildlife. Probably a core of less than15 people were keen and it's hard to keep them motivated.” 

“That's why we came up with the prizes. In previous years everyone got coffee, cookies and cake and that seemed to be enough. Now we have to do it twice a year, maybe more. It’s hard to motivate someone to pick up other people's garbage.” 
 CC: How big of a problem is debris on Quadra Island? 
 Nevil Hand: “It’s a pretty big problem,  just how the weather patterns and the tide and how Quadra is situated at the north end of Georgia straight. We seem to receive a lot of debris directly from the south of us, from all the big townships and cities even as far away as Bellingham. We've had signage and floats from all the way up from North Vancouver, Vancouver, you name it.” 
 “Before 2019, the Sierra Club used to do a one day beach cleanup event, which was tied in with Earth Day. Then they just decided they weren't doing it anymore,  maybe partly due to COVID.” 
 
“In 2020  my wife Heather and I  decided that we still wanted to get exercise and go out on the beaches.  Once a week we'd go out for three or four hours and fill a few sacks full of garbage.” 

“After about a year,  I came up with the idea of starting a Facebook page because we had no funding and Facebook is free. We were able to attract a few other interested people.” 
 “Then there was the COVID relief money from the provincial government and  maybe a bit of the federal government's money. Spirit of the West kayaks got a contract to do a fall cleanup in 2021.  245 We assisted with some of our Facebook group members on that cleanup.  They had a commercial contract, paid staff,  boats and all the equipment that we didn't have, and they were able to do a big thorough cleanup.” 

“Then six months later, it's all back again and there was no more covid relief money.  We're back to doing it ourselves.” 

CC: People have been talking to me about what you've been doing the last three months. How did you come up with the idea of having a contest?  

NH: “We came up with the idea of the contest in late November last year. We knew  it  takes a long time to motivate people and the best chances to remove the debris in my mind. Is after the winter storms,  when the weather starts to get better and before  people get busy with family and visitors and want to do other things in the summer. We timed the contest to start at the beginning of March and end just yesterday, at the end of May.

Cortes Currents

Quadra Island's 'Dream Team Beach Clean-up'

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - In the two months that ICAN’s food recovery program has been in operation, close to 1,300 people have have felt the benefits.  

“Since the beginning of March we've distributed 1040 8.4 kilos of food, and that has been  distributed to 338 individuals who were feeding 671 people.  In addition to that, we have been supplying various agencies like Quadra Circle, the Read Island Aging In Place program, the Reed Island Community Kitchen. These agencies have been feeding an additional 600 people. In  total, we estimate that that food has provided meals for 1,271 people,” said Ramona Boyle, Coordinator of Quadra ICANN.  

CC: These are separate people, not just meals? 

RB: “We've kept track of individuals.” 

“The distributions have been gradually increasing in not only the amount of food that we have to distribute, but also the number and diversity of people who are coming to access the program. So we're very, very pleased about it. We do need to access more sources of food, so that we can make sure that we are able to provide for everybody that turns up at our distributions.”

“We are still collecting from both Tru Value stores and Amped on Nutrition. Talking to the owner of Amped was really, really interesting because she said that she had wanted to have a business that had  a circular economy, but was unable to get rid of food because the food bank, for example, has rules about not being able to accept food from them. So she was very happy to be able to send food that was, in many cases, really high quality, organic, gluten-free, vegetarian fare for distribution.” 

“Those three businesses have really been fantastic, but we're also pursuing a couple of other options for regular donations. Increasingly individuals are coming to us and saying ‘I have excess kale,’ or ‘I have lettuce that needs to be cut before I go on my holiday. Can ICAN use it?’ And we are able to pick it up and distribute fresh food. 

“We're really very happy with the program.”  

“We did have some concerns in the early stages from people who had been dumpster diving, worried that they would no longer have access to food 24 hours a day. To deal with those concerns, we have established one of two community fridges that is located right now in the Cove and it's stocked 24/7. We're looking for a location for the second fridge in Heriot Bay, so that we can do the same at this end of the island.” 

CC: have you heard any response from the dumpster divers?

RB: “I know that more of them are showing up for distribution. More importantly, the food is being taken from the community fridge and it's being taken in small increments. It's not like somebody is coming in and swooping it all up. It disappears a little bit at a time and then we restock, and that tells us that it is serving a need.”

“They're also telling us that food continues to end up in the dumpsters at the grocery store. So they're not completely cut off from their previous supply.” 

CC: Do you happen to know if any of  Quadra Islands at risk population are among the recipients? 

RB: “Definitely. I participate in the distributions that on both Monday and Thursday. Talking to people I know that we have people who are living in the bush. We have people that are living on boats. We have people that are unemployed and dealing with all kinds of health issues. We also have people who you would not think are in need, but the invisible stresses are being placed on the entire population. We are just overwhelmed with the positive response of those  that are coming to get food.”

Image credit‘I have lettuce that needs to be cut before I go on my holiday. Can ICAN you use it? Photo by Toshiyuki IMAI via FLickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)

First 2 months of ICAN's food recovery program: 1,300 people benefit

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - After COVID arrived in the Spring of 2020, someone gave the Quadra ICAN 'Squash The Curve Project' the use of 2 acres of land for a year. Local residents were provided with squash starts, or seedlings, and supportive tips from more experienced gardeners. The food they did not use was freely distributed to the community.  

This year ICAN was offered use of the property again, to be used by its Garden Share Program. 

“It's two acres  located at the very south of the island in quite a beautiful, idyllic setting. That land was not utilized for a couple of years, but  the caretaker came back to us again this year and said, 'would you like to do something with it this year?' We got the approval from the property owner.  It's part of a strata title, so we had to get approval from all of the neighbouring properties that it would be okay to have increased traffic on the road, et cetera. Once all of that was in place, then we were able to initiate a first meeting with the people that were interested,” explained Ramona Boyle, Coordinator of Quadra ICAN. 

She continued, “This past week about 10 people that came out to the property, walked it, decided what we needed to do to get it in shape for planting, what we were going to plant and how we were going to do it.”

“This property is flat. It is fertile. It used to be a market garden. It's completely fenced, which is a huge benefit and there are already some perennial plants on the property. There is water and hydro as well.” 

“There are three parts of the property that are ready to plant right away. We had two volunteers, one who offered to repair the irrigation system. And a second who offered to repair a rotor tiller that somebody had donated so that we could loosen up the soil where a chicken tractor had been previously. So it's well fertilized, but a little compacted.” 

“A good part of the property is going to have to wait until the fall to be prepared for next year's crops, but we're very excited about being able to grow potatoes, salad greens, corn, squash, tomatoes and beans right away. We've got a very keen group that are ready to get their rakes and the shovels in the ground.”

“ICAN's plan is to use it as an educational experience so that farmers or gardeners  that don't have as much experience can learn from more experienced gardeners in a community setting.” 

“The plan is to have four workday slash workshops throughout the season. The first time they would plant together, and see different ways of planting. The second session might be about pest control - how do we manage pests and weeds? The third might be How do you prune for better production? Then the last one would be how do you harvest? And what can you do with the harvest?” 

“Each one of those events will be a kind of community picnic and a work team where the community get together to see how their food is grown and to learn different ways.” 

“This will be a little bit of an experimental garden, so side by side methods of potato planting, for example, to see which one works best  in these conditions. Is it putting the potatoes in the ground, or is it Ruth Stout with the potatoes on top and hay mounded over top.” 

CC: Is there anything else you wanted to say?

“We're just very excited about being able to get started very quickly, because all of this happened really late in the season that the land was offered. We want to make sure that we can get certain crops  that can go in a little bit later, so that they can produce this year.”

Progress on the 2 acres given to ICAN's Growing together Project

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Laurel Bohart has volunteered her time to mount or prepare the study skins of 100 birds, fish and mammals for the Cortes Island Museum. She is a member of the Board and one of the co-curators of Wild Cortes in the Linnaea Farm Education Centre. Bohart is also a professional taxidermist, whose interest can be traced back to her parent’s missionary years in Nigeria during the mid 1960s. 
The first words she used to describe taxidermy were, “It's fun.” 
To which she added, “It's a form of sculpture when you mount a bird or a mammal. It's better than a photograph, which is two dimensional. These are three dimensional.”    
“The first bird I did was a hawk which is like a Cooper's Hawk, only smaller.   I didn't know you had to skin the legs, the head, the tail, and the wings. So of course it became smelly and got thrown out. That was my first attempt. Later on I learned to skin them and pin them out and let them dry.” 

“We came back to Canada in 1967, and my grandfather showed me how to skin birds and sent me back with eyes and material and wire and a lot of the things I needed plus a book to learn from. So I learned from the same book he did from the early 1900s when he was a boy.”

“My father was killed in 1970, and in 1971 our family came back to Canada permanently.  That's when I was able to learn more from my grandfather and mounted my first deer head. I think I helped him do a rug or something like that. I learned on the job and bought books that he recommended. I  talked to other taxidermists, did a lot of study and practical application on my own.”

“When I got better at it, I was able to start a business, ‘L and M Taxidermy Service’ in Duncan in 1984. I had  graduated from university by then. I had my master's in Museum Science and Ornithology, which is bird studies, but couldn't find a job in the local area. I was tired of traveling. I wasn't going to go back east  and I had just come back from Kentucky because I had finished my Master's Degree down there. I didn't want to go anywhere. I wanted to do what my grandfather did.” 

In the podcast Laurel Bohart talks about taxidermy, her life, coming to Cortes and a few of the species she has mounted at Wild Cortes.

The Taxodermist behind Wild Cortes

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - At Wild Cortes: The Cortes Island Water Cycle

Wild Cortes came into being as a result of a series of interactions between Laurel Bohart and Lynne Jordan, former President of the Cortes Island Museum. They started in 2005, shortly after Bohart moved to Cortes Island.  

"I met Lynn Jordan on on the ferry. She had this parrot, an African Grey, and it was dead and frozen. She wanted to find a taxidermist, so I mounted her bird. That was the beginning of Wild Cortes, because we did 'Ravens Relations,' and put it up in the museum for a few years. People were absolutely enthralled. They wanted to know if we would have more animals, so we dreamed up the original Wild Cortes, the story of water," she explained.

"The story being that waterfalls on high places trickle down to lower places and eventually flow to the sea or swamps or lakes. That was so popular we had it up for three or four years and then of course the Board decided to do something else."

"So we took that down and there was a lot of upset because people were really attached to it. Lynne and I thought maybe we should recreate it. So we got a good size grant and recreated it here, and it's been growing ever since."

CC: When did ‘Wild Cortes’ open in the Linnaea Farm Education Centre?  

LB: It was 2017 when we opened.

CC: Take us on a tour of this display, from the bluffs right down to the ocean.

At Wild Cortes: The Cortes water cycle

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -Former Regional Director Jim Abram may have been confusing the proposed SRD Housing Service with a Federal grant program when he criticized it during an interview with CKTZ News. 
 Abram claimed that building permits are required under the new housing initiative, and the islands are ‘going to get nothing, most likely,  other than, you know, a little  less money in your pocketbook because it's going to go into your taxes.’ 
 He also spoke against the ‘affordable housing bandwagon’: ‘There's only so many people that you can accommodate with your existing infrastructure.’
 Mark Vonesch, Regional Director for Cortes Isand, responded, “The points that he's making that have alarmed a lot of people, in my opinion very unnecessarily, and are not based on the facts. The housing service is about developing a  way for us to requisition a small amount of tax from people. The average property on Cortes is going to pay $31.80 maximum per year.  For 2024, right now it's at zero. We have nothing planned.  It's going to be used for us to collectively pool our money to make housing happen.”
 So let's look at some of Abram's facts.  
 CC: Is there any requirement for building permits under the proposed SRD housing service?
 Mark Vonesch: “The short answer is no, the Regional District Housing Service has nothing in it that says we have to have building permits.”
 “What Jim's referring to as far as building permits, is the Housing Accelerator Fund. So this is one grant  that the Regional District has applied for. Part of the requirement of the grant is having a way to measure new housing builds and the internal measurement for that is traditionally housing permits.” 
 Regional Director Robin McWhinney of Area C mentioned the confusion between the Accelerator fund and proposed SRD housing service, in her December 12th Directors Newsletter. Even if the SRD application is approved. Cortes island, Area C and Area A will not be able to obtain Accelerator funding  because we do not use building permits.”
 (This is a grant and unrelated to the SRD housing service, which is seeking to raise startup capital through our property taxes.)  
 CC: So why don't we use building permits?
 Mark Vonesch: “My sense is Cortes does not want a building permit. We have some of the best builders around on our island, and they are building to the code, whether we have building permits or not.” 
 Robyn Mawhinney: “I haven't heard from any residents on Quadra Island who are in favour of adding another level of local government oversight and fees that  would be associated with building service and building permits and building inspections. Creating a new bylaw or service is a lot of work for staff and for me and for the community to attend community meetings and weigh in on things like that. It's not something that I'm pursuing unless I hear a reason why we should be, and I haven't heard one yet.” 
 Abram also claims that Cortes and Quadra  islands have reached their capacity in terms of population.
 Mark Vonesch: “That’s a fine statement to say. Somebody else could say we haven't reached our capacity, but what data are you actually looking at to make that statement?” 
 “One of the things that I'm moving forward on, together with the Cortes Housing Society, is looking quite seriously at 'what is our capacity?' First of all, starting with the base, what is the health of our aquifer? What is the health of our watershed?  Where can we have more development that's going to be sustainable in the long term? And how can we do development in a way that is ecologically sensitive, that recognizes our imprint on the land but also produces housing.”

Correcting misinformation about the SRD Housing Service

Cortes Currents is a news platform that asks what's current in Cortes and the Discovery Islands. Web articles & radio podcasts: Cortes Island, Quadra Island, Discovery Islands, Campbell River: news, lifestyle, local politics, affordable housing, economy, food security, health, ferries, tourism, history,  culture, environmental issues, sustainable forestry, oyster farming, the arts, First Nations, energy, climate change, overshoot

Correcting misinformation about the SRD Housing Service

Cortes Currents (https://cortescurrents.ca/)