Welcome to EcoWest News, a weekly round-up of news and resources that you can put to use in addressing environmental issues and protecting the wild in your community.
Introducing … Transition Salt Spring
Transition Salt Spring is a community-led response to climate change. Affiliate and working groups focus on promoting environmentally sustainable practices and methods, including: organic food production, renewable energy, green building technologies, alternative transportation, water conservation, waste avoidance, and green business practices. A March 31 webinar will look at ways of improving the Gulf Islands’ transportation system so it is more bikeable, walkable, and electrified.
Research Matters
Managing Forests Not Forestry: Law and Policy Recommendations for Ecosystem-based Management of Alberta’s Forests, Alberta Environmental Law Centre, discusses ecosystem-based management practices based on maintaining ecological integrity, science-based decision-making, and using natural ecosystem dynamics as a template for management.
Across the West
Road to Resilience: Energy Solutions, published by Climate Change Connection, outlines the energy essentials in order to achieve a fossil-fuel free, climate-resilient future for Manitoba. [Climate Change Connection]
Wild Prairie Man, a Saskatchewan-made documentary, is the winner of the Best Nature/Wildlife Film at the 2022 Cannes World Film Festival. The film focuses on wildlife photographer James R. Page and his passion for Grasslands National Park. Page is the author of Wild Prairie: A Photographer’s Personal Journey, illustrating the 4 seasons in the grasslands stretching from Saskatchewan to Texas.
Off-leash dogs pose a threat to wildlife, whether they’re in an urban park (Calgary) or on a beach within a migratory bird sanctuary (Victoria).
How much water is needed to keep a river healthy, dilute pollution, support fish and wildlife habitat, and maintain channels? SAGE urges the public and politicians to recognize that we’ve reached the natural limit of water supply in the South Saskatchewan River Basin. [Southern Alberta Group for the Environment]
The BC government has announced a $110 rebate to help drivers faced with increased gas prices. At the same time, they announced a 2.3% increase in transit fares. [Daily Hive]
Katlia Lafferty is Canada's first climate writer-in-residence at West Vancouver Memorial Library. [CBC]
Tamarack Institute has launched Community Climate Transitions to support communities in localizing the Sustainable Development Goals and contributing to a just and equitable climate transition. 19 communities across Canada are currently participating in the project, including Canmore, Edmonton, Cowichan Valley, Kelowna, Salt Spring Island, and Victoria.
Around the World
Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge by Erica Gies contrasts “slow water” that works with water’s natural tendencies to traditional “infrastructure that aims to control water and prop up unsustainable agriculture practices”, which has led to flooding and drought. [Civil Eats]
“Forests deliver climate benefits well beyond just storing carbon, helping to keep air near and far cool and moist due to the way they physically transform energy and water.” [The Guardian]
Small habitat patches have a disproportionately high value for biodiversity. Their preservation should be an important objective in conservation policy and management. [Society for Conservation Biology]
Tips on how to fight a pipeline: educate, make the building process as legally untenable as possible, and collaborate. [Yes!]
Nature’s Wonders
“Every soil organism produces its own soundtrack. Root-munching larvae emit short clicks as they break the fibres of their meal. Worms rustle as they crawl through tunnels. So do plant roots as they push past grains of soils … grubs sing to warn each other away.” [BBC]
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/apmckinlay/49928732497
EcoFriendly West informs and encourages initiatives that support Western Canada’s natural environment. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or subscribe by email.