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Peace Valley fights the Site C dam
The controversial Site C dam project in northeast British Columbia has been in the works for decades, and will likely cost over $10 billion to complete. Residents of the Peace River Valley (including First Nations members) have had their lives turned upside-down by the project and are leading a fight to halt the dam. A case in British Columbia’s Supreme Court seeking to stop construction should finish final arguments tomorrow — with the future of the massive hydro project hanging in the balance.
Now online at Cascadia Magazine, you can read Alison Bate’s fantastic reporting from the Peace Valley about this grassroots campaign led by local residents and First Nations. You’ll meet Yvonne Tupper from Saulteau First Nations, farmers Arlene and Ken Boon, and horse breeder Esther Pedersen. Alison also spoke with West Moberly chief Roland Willson, dropped in on the court case to hear B.C. Hydro’s arguments and finally, visited the dam site itself.
Cascadia Magazine is proud to publish another solidly-reported feature on an issue of critical importance to the Pacific Northwest. If you appreciate receiving Cascadia Daily and reading longform journalism like this at Cascadia Magazine, please consider becoming a supporting reader. It only takes a moment, and you can chose whatever pledge amount you’re comfortable with. Make a contribution here. And to our loyal supporting readers, we offer our heartfelt thanks.
Cascadia Magazine original: Elegy for Tahlequah’s Calf
Paul Nelson’s eloquent poem speaks to the sadness and anger many of us felt seeing an orca mother grieving for her stillborn calf in the Salish Sea. If you haven’t yet read Paul’s poem, take a moment to experience it online at Cascadia Magazine. To learn more about what you can do to help protect endangered orcas, visit the Whale Museum’s Adopt and Orca fundraising project.
Canada takes steps to protect orcas, WA state slow to move
Writing for the Seattle Times, Lynda Mapes reports that the Canadian government has taken action to protect the endangered southern resident pod of orca whales, including limits on fishing for chinook salmon, new habitat protections, and a $167 million budget to study and protect killer whales. Meanwhile, Washington state has been slow to move, waiting for a report from governor Jay Inslee’s task force. Meanwhile, environmental groups filed a lawsuit to compel the Canadian government to do more for orcas. Researchers treated a sick orca by firing a dart filled with antibiotics at it, and protesters seeking to ban fish farms were arrested after boarding a ship in Victoria owned by Marine Harvest.
Will court ruling change Portland’s homeless policy?
According to OPB Portland city officials don’t think a recent court ruling will change their policy of banning people from sleeping on city streets, but activists disagree, saying the ruling could invalidate rules criminalizing homelessness. Boise Weekly has more on the ruling, which asserted the Boise’s law amounted to cruel and unusual punishment if homeless people have no other place to go. For more on the people in Seattle reduced to sleeping in vehicles, read Will Sweger’s feature “When Home is a Parking Spot” at Cascadia Magazine.
No one fights fires in no-man’s land
The Yakima Herald has a fascinating report on what happens when wildfires spread to places under no firefighting jursdiction (in a word, nothing.) Meanwhile CBC reports on bears left hungry by recent wildfires in British Columbia.
Restoring Idaho’s Clark Fork River
The Spokesman-Review reports on a recent deal in which the Bonneville Power Administration with pay the state of Idaho $24 million to help restore wildlife and fish habitat in the Clark Fork River caused by dams.
Seattle bookseller Barbara Bailey dies
Capitol Hill Blog reports the sad news that Seattle bookstore owner Barbara Bailey, who co-founded Bailey-Coy Books, an iconic bookshop (now closed) and center for LGBTQ activism, has died. In other bookstore news, Seattle Review of Books gets fall reading recommendations from a book buyer at University Bookstore, Powell’s profiles a bookseller who’s been with the store for 12 years, and the magnificent Munro’s Books in Victoria is celebrating its 55th anniversary.
“Hot Pulse,” an essay by J. Jill Robinson
Over at Vancouver-based Geist magazine, you can read a lush, revealing essay by J. Jill Robinson about her family’s cabin on Galiano Island, BC. It’s not only about pulling out weeds, but estranged friendships, prickly relationships between children and parents, and stumbling upon young couples on the beach: “I remembered the gorgeous feel of sun-hot skin against sun-hot skin and the hot pulse of sated desire.”
That’s all the news and culture in the Pacific Northwest that’s fit to print (or at least fits in this newsletter). Today’s newsletter was produced on the road to lovely Cumberland, BC on Vancouver Island where I’ll be attending a Cascadia poetics retreat. More later. –Andrew Engelson
Photo credits: Peace Valley farmers Arlene & Ken Boone by Alison Bate / Jennifer O’Keefe