Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

native species

Feel hopeless about our planet? Here's how you can help solve a big problem right in your own backyard

Feel hopeless about our planet? Here's how you can help solve a big problem right in your own backyard

It's easy to feel hopeless about climate change, to believe most solutions are out of your hands. But you can help fix one of the biggest environmental issues of our time, since it's probably growing right in your own yard: lawn grass. Most Canadian yards are a sea of non-native, inedible turf grass. Not evolved for our climate, it requires intensive maintenance, watering and fertilizer inputs, and provides virtually no value to native species. Yet this "eco-desert" is the largest irrigated crop in North America. 

Floating island launched in Vancouver's Trout Lake meant to improve water quality

Floating island launched in Vancouver's Trout Lake meant to improve water quality

Trout Lake in East Vancouver is often among the first places in the city to be closed to swimmers each year because of poor water quality — namely E. coli. It's a scenic, small lake in John Hendry Park that's popular with locals, as well as ducks and geese. On Monday, the Vancouver Park Board launched a floating island into the lake with the goal of increasing biodiversity and helping with water quality.

These aquatic invaders pose a big risk in Alberta

These aquatic invaders pose a big risk in Alberta

Nicholas Mandrak, a professor at the University of Toronto who has spent much of his career studying invasive fish species in Canada, says impacts on water systems vary by species. Prussian carp, like goldfish and common carp, will uproot vegetation in order to find food. When that happens, the fish kill vegetation that may act as nutrient sinks in sewage lagoons or drinking water ponds.

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