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.

Across the West

A short video introduces Wild About Saskatoon and outlines their projects over the past few years. [Wild About Saskatoon]

Teck’s plan to sell its Elk Valley coal mines to Glencore is of concern due to Glencore’s poor environmental reputation and questionable business practices. [The Narwhal]

For Peat’s Sake – Protecting Northern Saskatchewan’s Muskegs is calling on industry and the Saskatchewan government to leave buffer zones around sensitive muskeg areas and to establish wildlife corridors between areas known to be important habitat for woodland caribou and other wildlife. [For Peat’s Sake]

Martin Boucher, USask, writes that small nuclear reactors are scalable and implementation is flexible but come with uncertainties as they are untested on a commercial scale. [The Conversation]

A pause in B.C. heli-skiing operations during the first year of the pandemic saw some endangered caribou populations more than double their home ranges. “Without any physical changes to the landscape, just our presence can affect how wildlife use space in the natural environment.” [Canadian Geographic]

Across Canada

National conservation strategies are necessary to optimize the protection of biodiversity, unify regional actions through a common goal, identify cross-jurisdictional synergies, and streamline tracking and reporting. [McGill]

Around the World

Wales is the only country in the world with a Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. It’s a long-term approach to ensure that today’s actions do not harm people tomorrow. [Independent]

Shading crops with solar panels results in less moisture loss, cooler soils, increased humidity, less stress on plants, and potentially better yields. [Columbia Insight]

State parks are becoming more accessible for people with mobility disabilities with the addition of all-terrain chairs, cross-country sit-skis, 3-wheeled floating chairs, and accessible facilities such as grills. [Governing]

Making a Difference

New Orleans religious groups have taken it upon themselves to prepare for climate-related power outages by establishing solar-powered disaster response hubs. [Mother Jones]

Volunteers are reseeding eelgrass meadows and establishing voluntary no-anchor protection zones. Eelgrass grows in shallow coastal waters where it absorbs carbon, prevents coastal erosion, and provides a home for almost 400 species. [The Tyee]

Breaches in the jetties at the mouth of the Fraser River are helping to restore the natural movement of salmon and creating a more natural estuary. [Raincoast Conservation]

The Okanagan Nation Alliance and the Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Program have developed an action plan to protect a wildlife corridor on the east side of Okanagan Lake. The last remaining low elevation route “enables animals such as elk, mule deer, badgers and many others to move across the landscape to find food, shelter, water and mates.” [Penticton Western News]

Lichenologist Trevor Goward and the Land Conservancy of BC are working to create a permanent wildlife corridor to connect the two southern portions of BC’s Wells Gray Provincial Park. [Land Conservancy of BC]

Crossing Paths (Canadian Conservation Photographers Collective) combines images and words to highlight the threats to wildlife from transportation: roads and highways, railways, ocean transportation, air traffic, and human activity on lakes and rivers. [Canadian Geographic]

DIY

Gas-powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers can emit as much pollution in an hour as driving a car for hundreds of miles. And then there’s the noise. [Maryland Matters]

Faux leather may appear to be the ethical option, but it’s often made from fossil fuel-based plastics and there is no system in place to recycle it. [The Guardian]

Turtle Conservation Revelstoke is working with Golden’s Youth Climate Corps to create a turtle nesting habitat so that Western Painted Turtles no longer have to take the risk of crossing the highway to breed. [Wildsight]

60 letters of opposition from local residents stopped 5 buildings being torn down and replaced by parking lots in Grand Rapids, Michigan. [Strong Towns]

Nature’s Wonders

A pod of orcas at play off Galiano Island, BC. [video, CBC]

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/apmckinlay/9735972369

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EcoFriendly West informs and encourages initiatives that support Western Canada’s natural environment through its online publication and the Nature Companion website/app. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Mastodon, or subscribe by email.