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.
Justin Thompson and Matt Kumlin walk up a hill toward a ridge in the Alberta foothills as a border collie and “cow-dog-in-training” named Newt tags along. At the top of the ridge, the snow-capped Rocky Mountains are visible to the west. Calgary’s downtown is about 40 kilometres to the east. More than six square kilometres of the property around them has been protected by the Kumlin family with a conservation easement, which restricts land uses that could damage its ecological health.
Rain is a resource society can use and should: this is what Atlantic Coastal Action Program Cape Breton hopes to convey with its graphic design contest for ACAP’s summer rain barrel giveaway. “Stormwater issues are increasing with climate change because we're having more frequent storms and heavier rainfalls,” said ACAP Cape Breton project manager Jen Cooper. Much of the infrastructure in use today wasn’t built for the world we’re living in, with its heavier rain and snowstorms and more severe extreme weather events. This is resulting in more frequent minor to moderate flooding events in Cape Breton.
