In October, the Arts on the Fly Festival Society had its AGM, and we are incredibly excited to announce that Arts on the Fly Festival 2017 will be going down July 14 and 15 in beautiful Horsefly, BC. After taking a year off, our returning volunteers are feeling refreshed, and we have plenty of new recruits for 2017. The current team includes: Reina Barnes – Director, Assistant Treasurer Marla Barrett – Treasurer Oliver Berger – Director Troy Forcier – President Matt Granlund – Director Brandon Hoffman – Artistic Director Ingrid Kallman – Director Katherine Kleine – Director Brent Morton…
Author: thegreengazette
By Oliver Berger– So what’s the latest happenings in our recycling world? I feel a change around us, recently. It could be a number of things; however, I feel like there is an awareness starting to arise. I was at the transfer station in Williams Lake on October 5, and while I was chatting with the loader operator, I looked over at the info board beside the recycling area. It has a small dry erase square on it where a marker writes down how many tonnes of recycling we have diverted from our landfill through that specific recycling site. It…
By Terri Smith– Here is my biggest farmer’s confession yet: I’m not really a farmer anymore. Sure I live on a farm, but we don’t really produce anything for sale at the moment. We produced a lot of what we ate this summer, and we do have some storage crops that will get us through some of winter months but technically a farmer is someone who grows a number of products for market, and that is not me any longer. Right now I am trying to figure out just what it is that I am. For almost a decade I…
By David Suzuki– I’ve often thought politicians inhabit a parallel universe. Maybe it’s just widespread cognitive dissonance, coupled with a lack of imagination, that compels them to engage in so much contradictory behaviour. Trying to appease so many varying interests isn’t easy. Rather than focusing on short-term economic and corporate priorities, though, politicians should first consider the long-term health and well-being of the people they’re elected to represent. When it comes to climate change and fossil fuels, many aren’t living up to that. We celebrate the federal government’s decision to implement nation-wide carbon pricing, even though what’s proposed won’t,…
By Ron Young – There are times when a dog barks repeatedly and at a sufficient volume and frequency that it raises the attention of his neighbours, who take up the chorus and transmit his message across the night-yards and country paddocks of the region. What may initiate this disturbance is a matter of great curiosity and investigation of higher minds to the extent that novellas and essays have been written and songs composed. Thus, the fame of this dog; whom we shall call DOG to differentiate him from others; crosses temporal boundaries and consciousness spheres into realms it was never…
By Miriam Schilling– Our community completed a Trails and Recreation Strategy Plan in March 2015 and constructed the first multi-use trail at Deep Creek during the summer of 2015. Due to the success of our first trail initiative and very strong community support, we started the development of multi-use hiking and biking trails at Soda Creek, which is currently in its second phase. During Phase 1 we developed the “Crazy Ant” trail which connects Highway 97 with Xatśūll Heritage Village. The trail includes a number of wooden features and is designed and built to accommodate the greatest possible range of…
By Venta Rutkauskas– Imagine… On the windswept plains near Mankota, Saskatchewan, a young boy rides a pinto pony, following his mother as she checks the cattle on the vast ranch she and her family have worked for generations. The little boy senses this land is alive. Something about it, its great silence, leaves its mark on the boy. “I rode that pony over top of tipi rings,” Jacob Moondog, carver and artist, recalls. The ranch lay near the border of Montana, in the territorial area of the Plains Indians, and later the Metis, whose nomadic lifestyle was dependent on the…
Did you know there are patches of plastic garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean that are larger in area than the province of British Columbia? The marine pollution in the Pacific, which is constantly changing in size and location, has been dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Efforts are being made to determine feasible ways to clean up this marine pollution, but the only true solution is to stop it at the source. Plastic is a wonderful invention and provides many essential products for us to use, but far too often we reach for plastic products because they are cheap…
By Jessica Kirby – There is a story I tell the kids about the existence of Santa—No, I say … the guy in red doesn’t arrive in the night and leave things behind. But the story of his selfless generosity is quite real. When we think about giving to others – really giving, out of love and the joy we get from another’s happiness – therein lies the essence of the holidays. Yes, I tell the kids, the Santa story is real because the thing he symbolizes is quite real, and if we really give with the heart, we do…
By Ray Grigg – We are living in a time like no other in human history. The environmental decisions we make today and in the next few years will determine our planet’s climate stability and the direction of human destiny for centuries to come. Perhaps everyone alive at any given moment in the past has thought that they were living at the centre of history. This is not quite true. History changes in irregular pulses, something we know in retrospect by analyzing the unfolding events over centuries and millennia. Today, we live in a pulse of extraordinary intensity. The rate…
By Lisa Bland, Publisher, Editor in Chief of TheGreenGazette – The past year has been a whirlwind. As I look back at the topics in my news feed, I consider how mind boggling it might have been even five years ago to walk into the complexity of topics, choices, and stimulus we process daily in our lives. Imagine if it was 50 years ago. News headlines such as how humans are driving the sixth mass extinction on the planet, how the world will run out of breathable air unless carbon is cut, that we’ve permanently passed 400 ppm carbon in…
By Guy Dauncey – When the future teenager walks down the future Main Street in future Small Town, BC, be it Williams Lake, Smithers, Houston, Creston, or Kimberley, which of these thoughts might she or he be thinking? “I can’t wait to get out of this place—it’s so, like, basic.” “This place is so cool. I wish there was work, so I could stay.” “This place is so über-cool. My friends in the city are so jealous that I get to live, work, and play here.” British Columbia has many communities that built their economies around traditional resources that are…
Original water colour painting by Cathie Allen. By Terri Smith – Konny Kadenbach and her partner, Joel, live on a beautiful piece of property just south of Quesnel. I knock on the door of their handcrafted home and hear Konny call from the basement. I enter the house and feel instantly comfortable in my surroundings. Their entire home is a work of art. Local works are displayed everywhere and evidence of grandchildren can be seen in the prominently displayed drawings that add warmth to every room. I descend a staircase so steep it is almost a ladder and am reminded…
By LeRae Haynes – Shoppers who look for sustainability, quality, and incredible fair trade diversity are in for a treat this season, with Ten Thousand Villages returning to Williams Lake. They bring fair trade crafts from over 35 countries, including housewares, food, toys, Christmas decor, musical instruments, pottery, linens, jewelry, coffees, and teas. Ten Thousand Villages has set up at Cariboo Bethel Church for over 35 years, with a few seasons off, according to local co-ordinator Meg Fehr. “They bring in a huge variety of items—it fills the basement of the church. Each of our department heads takes an area…
By LeRae Haynes – ECOtique is a fresh new business model opening soon in the Delainey Centre Mall on Oliver Street in Williams Lake. It’s a collective created by Angie Delainey, Penny Hutchinson, and Maureen LeBourdais, social entrepreneurs who make their home in the community. The store, which will be open November 12 to December 23, will carry a collection by each of the three women. Each has her own story and her own direction, but there is a shared philosophy and passion for customer service and building a downtown community destination. “There’s a social purpose at ECOtique,” explained Delainey.…
By LeRae Haynes – Who wouldn’t welcome the chance to meet and celebrate our most precious Cariboo resource—every baby born here in 2016? I certainly do. As the community co-ordinator for Success by 6, I’m extremely delighted to welcome babies and parents to our second annual Baby Fest on November 17, in connection with National Child Day. This festival is one of four excellent free family events in our community put on by members of the Early Years Development Network (ECDN) in Williams Lake. There’s Family Fest in January, Children’s Fest in May, 3-Year-Old Roundup in September, and Baby Fest…
Christmas is around the corner and many of us are thinking about gifts for friends and family. Of course, gifts that you make yourself are the best. But if you just don’t have time, or aren’t that handy, you can purchase beautiful handmade gifts at the Medieval Market and still feel good about your ecological footprint and your social conscience. And you can enjoy a mini music festival and support local youth at the same time! Gifts you buy at the Medieval Market are all handmade in British Columbia by artisans, and most are made in the Cariboo. No sweatshops.…
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By Kristin Lehar – Fermenting foods and making various jars of pickled delights out of the abundance of produce bursting out of the garden at this time of year is probably one of my favourite things to do. The satisfaction of harvesting the fruits (and veggies) of your labour, creating delightful vegetable combinations, stuffing them in jars, and saving them for a snowy winter day is well worth the work. People from all parts of the planet have been fermenting foods for hundreds of years. It is an ancient practice that has been somewhat neglected with the industrialization and modernization…