The Rivershed Society of BC is a non-profit dedicated to using Watershed CPR (Connect. Protect. Restore.) to transform the Fraser into a resilient watershed, with salmon, people, and economies flourishing in rivershed communities. This summer, we are inviting you to join us to Race the River. Race the River is a COVID-friendly, totally free event that will accommodate any outdoor activity and connect you virtually with a community of people working to create a resilient Fraser River.In 1995, Rivershed Founder Fin Donnelly took on the challenge of a lifetime: a three-week swim from the headwaters of the Fraser River to…
Author: thegreengazette
Article by Chris R. Shepherd, Executive Director, Monitor Conservation Research Society – Everyone knows what an owl is, but few people actually know very much about owls. Globally, there are 234 species of owls, with 216 of these belonging to Family Strigidae and 18 to Family Tytonidae. For centuries, people have kept owls as pets, consumed them as food, and harvested their parts in traditional medicines and forms of black magic. However, anthropomorphic pressure, including commercial trade, is threatening owls on an unprecedented scale, and as a result, many species being pushed towards the brink of extinction.Recently, the demand for…
Article by Jessica Kirby – Community-funding music video project in Williams Lake asks individuals to take action against climate change. Mother Earth stands on a frozen lake holding an hourglass. Her expression is stern, but her eyes are kind. “Hey, hey you … what the hell are you doing? … Times running out … this house is burning …” The lyrics from “The Mother’s Plea” beg us to pay attention and take action for the planet in this community-funded music video project created in Williams Lake.The video features singer-songwriter Shannon Zirnhelt, several children from the Williams Lake area, and Shannon’s…
Article by Maggie Ranger – Living in the Cariboo we are surrounded by an abundance of flora and fauna. Spring and summer are the busiest time for an herbalist, gathering, foraging, and harvesting medicinal plants.There are many medicinal plants growing in our backyards in the Cariboo, and the trick is to take note of the different microclimates in our region. You may miss an opportunity to harvest in one area but can simply travel to a higher altitude to find the same plant at an earlier growing stage. For example, wild roses bloom on the west side of the Fraser…
Article by Tera Grady – All garbage and recycling programs and services for the Cariboo Regional District and its member municipalities, Williams Lake, Quesnel, District of 100 Mile House, and District of Wells, are developed, approved, and implemented through the region’s Solid Waste Management Plan (Plan). Each Plan spans ten years. The current Plan will be updated over the next two years. The BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy providing principles that regional districts are encouraged to include in Plans, some of which are: minimize waste generation;prevent organics and recyclables from disposal in landfills;support user pay systems to…
Article by Jessica Kirby – Isolation is a funny thing. As children, we fear it, sure there are monsters lurking where grown-ups are not, deeply feeling being relegated to our rooms when we’ve misbehaved, left feeling like our parents’ room is an ocean away at night, in the dark, as our dreams unfold.In adolescence and adulthood, we go a few different ways. Some of us stay in the mindset that isolation is difficult, and we fill our lives with varying degrees of intentional connection with others. We might love being alone and seek it most of the time; we might…
Article by Guy Dauncey – Loneliness. At the start of the pandemic, a survey found that more than half of Canadians felt lonely and isolated. Among young people aged 18–34 the feeling rose to 68 percent. Loneliness is often accompanied by a feeling of shame, that you ought not to be feeling this way, that you ought to feel happy and connected. We feel loneliness personally, but it is not a personal problem. For millions of years, our ancestors lived in close communities where everyone knew each other and helped each other out. It is only very recently that family…
Article by Amber Gregg – I think it is safe to say that the little white and blue house in the downtown of Williams Lake, otherwise known as the Potato House, is a familiar sight in the community. This historic site has been revitalized into an abundant garden space, the only drive-through compost location in Canada, and a home for the collection of artifacts that demonstrate decades of culture in the Cariboo-Chilcotin. If you have not toured the house as a student, you have likely participated in the drive-through compost program, stood in line to get a bag of black…
Article & Photos by Jim Cooperman – The dream of “living off the land” helped influence my decision 52 years ago to move to the Shuswap and live on a rural property above the lake at Lee Creek. It was just a few years ago that significant progress was made to realize that dream, when there was just one week between consuming the last of the still-green garden produce and when the new greens were ready to eat from the greenhouse, along with the asparagus and the parsnips that overwintered in the garden.Growing our own organic food, while challenging and…
Article by Dianne Noort It was the first time Julie had come to stay overnight at my cabin-house. Through raising teenagers at the same time, we had become best friends. Then, Julie moved away from the Cariboo and a few years later we moved, too, to a magical spot in the woods in Horsefly, BC Of course, Julie came to visit, and it was that night we made an important discovery.With a lavish August sun setting over the lake, Julie and I climbed into my hot tub, each of us with a glass of chilled chardonnay. She sighed, sinking her…
Article by Terri Smith – One of my favourite bits of gardening advice comes from Eliot Coleman and goes something like this: If your garden is a place you want to spend time in, you will spend more time there and consequently, it will become even more beautiful, and you will want to be there even more!After market gardening for seven years, I didn’t always want to spend time in my garden. For the first few years after I moved to Quesnel from Williams Lake, I almost had to force myself to tend my new garden space that was full…
Article by Oliver Berger We had everything set up: birth pool, vapour barriered floors, hoses, heaters, towels, and music.We are pregnant and making the choice to have a home water birth. It felt right, and luckily for us we had just received Cariboo Midwives to the region, and they took us on. There is a lot to plan. Mentally, you must be prepared to use your space for something that is usually reserved for a hospital. Firstly, you order a birth pool. Which one? Next, you better make sure you have a hose with access to hot water because you…
Article by Ryan Elizabeth Cope – Coronavirus is (still) here yet we (still) persevere. This might be our new, collective mantra as we welcome a new year with many of the hallmarks of 2020. Many are hitting a fatigue wall with the ongoing pandemic, and it can be hard to remember what day or week it is. And yet, there is much more to be hopeful for this year, as opposed to last. Thankfully, many of the shifts we made in 2020, like growing our own food, supporting local businesses, and helping out our communities (locally and globally), have stuck…
Article by Amy Quarry, Owner, Long Table Grocery – Life as an entrepreneur often feels like I’m on a roller coaster between chaos and despair with only occasional moments of hope. Every day, any number of minor things go sideways—the freight doesn’t arrive, the internet is down, something breaks, or someone calls in sick. Someone always needs to be paid, and there is never enough money. We are always running out of ingredients, and the garbage needs to be taken out again. The floor is muddy, and I can never find a Sharpie. There isn’t a single day that I…
Sprout Kitchen, a member of the BC Food Hub Network, provides space and support for emerging and existing food entrepreneurs to get their ideas off the ground or to scale their business for new markets. Sprout Kitchen serves the area from Vanderhoof to 100 Mile House and offers new and established food businesses and community groups access to shared processing infrastructure, including processing, packaging, and testing equipment; cooler and freezer storage; food business advisory services; product development services; analytic services; applied research opportunities; and education and training related to food processing and food safety.Through Sprout Kitchen, food entrepreneurs can make…
Ingredients130 g white quinoa, soaked overnight120 g butter50 ml coconut oil1/3 cup almond milk5 ml vanilla2 eggs130 g coconut sugar110 g cocoa powder1 tsp baking soda1 tsp salt Method Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour a 9 x 13 glass pan.Cook soaked quinoa with 2 cups of water until a bit mushy. Cool slightly, keeping warm enough to melt butter.Combine butter, coconut oil, quinoa and almond milk in a blender and blend. Add eggs and vanilla, blend until smooth.In a large bowl, sift coconut sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Pour wet ingredients into dry…
Article by David Suzuki – In 1970, to make the world safer from humanity’s worst self-destructive impulses, most nations joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. (Only India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, and South Sudan are not signatories.)Now the world faces a threat as great as or greater than nuclear weapons: global warming. That’s led to calls for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Recently, 101 Nobel laureates—in peace, literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, and economic sciences, including the Dalai Lama—signed a letter to world leaders endorsing the proposal.“Climate change is threatening hundreds of millions of lives and livelihoods across…
Article by Stephanie J. Rousso A new scientific discipline engages the intersection of our brain with our only one Mother Ocean. Neuro-conservation is an emerging field, proposed and led by Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, the author of Bluemind. Nichols scientifically explains how water heals us and empowers our creativity, happiness, and compassion for life. Dr. Nichols also founded Grupo Tortuguero de Las Californias (GTC), a non-profit sea turtle network in Northwest Mexico.Nichols’ work inspired my current PhD research that feeds into my new business venture: Blue Turtle Sustainable. My research aims to continue the legacy Nichols started by working with…
Article by Venta Rutkauskas – Single file, ten women snake the trail above the ‘Fraser’ River. They move along the dirt track up ‘Desous’ Mountain in Esk’etemculucw in the unceded territory of the Northern Secwepemc First Nations. They are mothers, friends, they are white women of European descent, they are climbing, and they are learning. I am one of them, raised in Canadian privilege, a white body with blue eyes, granddaughter of displaced persons from World War II. I put one foot in front of the other, moving towards something intangible on the mountain. I am thinking about decolonization.I was…