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

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BEYOND LOCAL: Freshwater basins drying up increases threat to ecosystem, communities

BEYOND LOCAL: Freshwater basins drying up increases threat to ecosystem, communities

When people use freshwater beyond a physically sustainable rate, it sets off a cascade of impacts on ecosystems, people and the planet. These impacts include groundwater wells running dry, fish populations becoming stranded before they are able to spawn and protected wetland ecosystems turning into dry landscapes. Developments in computer models and satellites have fostered a new understanding of how freshwater is being redistributed around the planet and have made clear the central role that people play in this change. This human impact is so significant that organizations like the United States Geological Survey are redrawing their water cycle diagram to include the impacts of human actions.

This Makes It Personal: How climate change is affecting life in northwestern Ontario

This Makes It Personal: How climate change is affecting life in northwestern Ontario

This spring, the CBC's Amy Hadley set out to explore climate change's effect on northwestern Ontario for the radio series This Makes It Personal. The series introduces audiences to people who are facing down the impacts of climate change in their daily lives and what they're doing about it: From how a remote First Nation is adapting to changing water and patterns, to wolverines and their changing habitats, and a support group helping people through climate anxiety. 

Wetlands can be Canada's good news story in 2022

Wetlands can be Canada's good news story in 2022

Over the past year, headlines about the environment have been bleak. Floods, droughts and fires have hit our fellow Canadians hard. But the impacts of climate change should not make us feel powerless. Wetlands are a formidable force of nature that has our back. In 2022, they can be Canada’s good news story. When you look at the ways in which people and communities are working together to conserve wetlands across the country, the good news flows like…well, water. As nations around the globe prepare to mark World Wetlands Day on February 2, Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) is celebrating some important wins here at home that are making life better for wildlife, people and communities.

Blue-green algae confirmed in Shelter Bay on Lower Shebandowan Lake

Blue-green algae confirmed in Shelter Bay on Lower Shebandowan Lake

The Thunder Bay District Health Unit is warning people to avoid the water at Shelter Bay on Lower Shebandowan Lake after tests confirmed the presence of blue-green algae. The health unit said some blue-green algae blooms produce toxins that pose health risks to people and animals, and the water at Shelter Bay should be avoided while the bloom is present, and for about two weeks after it dissipates.

‘Incredibly destructive’: Canada’s Prairies to see devastating impact of climate change

‘Incredibly destructive’: Canada’s Prairies to see devastating impact of climate change

As the climate continues to warm at an alarming rate, experts warn if dramatic steps to mitigate global warming are not taken, the effects in Canada’s Prairie region will be devastating to the country’s agriculture sector. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, the country is warming, on average, about double the global rate. Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. recently found 2020 was earth’s second-hottest year on record, with the average land and ocean surface temperature across the globe at 0.98 of a degree C above the 20th-century average. However, the agency found the northern hemisphere saw its hottest year on record, at 1.28 degrees C above the average.

Saving wetlands a resolution Canada needs to keep

Saving wetlands a resolution Canada needs to keep

Amid all the heartening and hope-filled ways Canadians have resolved to make 2021 a year of positive change, one in particular holds water: the commitment to saving our wetlands. Leading up to 2021, the Government of Canada promised to make significant investments in our environment-and in the wetlands that underpin its health. Today, this commitment must be among our greatest convictions. Our ability to address the colliding crises of biodiversity loss and climate change depend on it. So does our economic recovery.

Back to top Op/Ed: Marking 50 years of wetland conservation and loss

Back to top Op/Ed: Marking 50 years of wetland conservation and loss

Fifty years ago, nations gathered to create the world’s first global agreement to conserve a habitat. This had long been undervalued, and as a result was rapidly disappearing. Fifty years ago, there was a global call to action to save our wetlands. On February 2, 1971, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance was adopted in Ramsar, Iran. Often referred to as the Ramsar Convention, its purpose was to stop the worldwide loss of wetlands. Today, 171 countries, including Canada, are parties to the convention. The Ramsar Convention has helped many wetlands. More than 2,400 wetlands around the world have been designated as Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance. Canada has 37 Ramsar sites, including two Nature Conservancy of Canada helps protect in B.C., the Columbia Wetlands and in Creston Valley. World Wetlands Day marks the signing of the Ramsar Convention and is a day to highlight the importance of wetland conservation Despite a global agreement and a special day of recognition, we have not been kind to wetlands over the last half century. Over the past 50-years, over one-third world’s remaining wetlands have been lost. They continue to disappear at a rate faster than forests, and the loss is accelerating.

A TALE OF THREE WATERSHEDS: WHAT WE KNOW — AND DON’T KNOW — ABOUT THE HEALTH OF CANADA’S FRESHWATER

A TALE OF THREE WATERSHEDS: WHAT WE KNOW — AND DON’T KNOW — ABOUT THE HEALTH OF CANADA’S FRESHWATER

Canada is famously home to 20 percent of the world’s freshwater — but how well are we stewarding this supply? WWF-Canada recently reassessed the health of our country’s 25 watersheds to better understand how they’re responding to threats from pollution, habitat loss and climate change. Our 2020 Watershed Reports found that 26 per cent of Canadas’s 167 sub-watersheds received a score of Good or Very Good, which is good or very good news! But what’s bad, or possibly very bad, is that nearly 60 per cent of these sub-watersheds received no score at all because they remain Data Deficient. In other words, we just don’t know. This lack of data is concerning as we need a complete picture to determine which areas need dedicated efforts to protect our freshwater ecosystems.

River Talk — Movement grows to build weir/dam across Koocanusa Reservoir

River Talk — Movement grows to build weir/dam across Koocanusa Reservoir

Completed in 1973, the Army Corps of Engineers dam was designed to regulate how spring snow melt in the Kootenay River watershed (87% of which originates in Canada) enters the downstream watershed. It has done so effectively, but at a considerable price to local residents. The upper end of the reservoir in Canada bears the brunt of the storage draw down each spring, and in dry years, the reservoir’s moonscape does not always refill to a level that allows for much recreation. The control over these water levels is 100% vested in American operation of Libby dam.

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