Brazil of the North
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- Published on Thursday, 01 August 2019 07:12
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When scientist Dominick DellaSala wrote us nearly a year ago, he was mapping a little-known inland temperate rainforest near Prince George.“Most people don’t know about this region and the kind of logging I’ve been seeing is wasteful (old-growth cedar logged and left on site to be burnt for no reason!) and devastating ecologically," he wrote.
Would The Narwhal be interested in a deep dive into the “Brazil of the North,” DellaSala asked?
Our ears perked up right away, but it took us about a year to get reporter Sarah Cox and photographer Taylor Roades into the field.
A few weeks ago, they spent three days touring parts of the rare inland rainforest with DellaSala and forest ecologist Michelle Connolly, director of Conservation North.
The resulting story, Canada's forgotten rainforest, is one of our most read in 2019. And now we've got a special behind-the-scenes video to share with you, too.
And there's more. Even though we’re in the thick of summer, it’s *really busy* over at The Narwhal.
Since we published a story last week about the Kootenay village of Glade's fight to protect its drinking water, we've heard from people all over the province struggling with the same issue. And then, as if on cue, on Tuesday B.C.'s auditor general released a report that finds the B.C. government is failing to protect drinking water.
Meanwhile, in Alberta a federal-provincial panel has recommended the approval of a massive new oilsands mine in northern Alberta despite finding significant and irreversible impacts. Here are 10 things you need to know about the Teck Frontier oilsands mine.
Keep scrolling!
Emma Gilchrist Editor-in-chief
Canada’s forgotten rainforest
By Sarah Cox
Less than one-third of the world’s primary forests are still intact. Deep in the interior of British Columbia, a temperate rainforest that holds vast stores of carbon and is home to endangered caribou is being clear-cut as fast as the Amazon. Read more.
10 things you need to know about the massive new oilsands mine that just got a green light
By Sharon J. Riley
A review panel found the Frontier Mine would have ‘irreversible’ impacts on the environment and ‘significant’ adverse effects on Indigenous peoples, but recommended it be approved in the ‘public interest’ anyway. Read more.
Five years after Mount Polley disaster, taxpayers still on hook for cleaning up mining accidents
By Christopher Pollon
B.C. is supposed to have a polluter-pay policy, but that’s not the reality on the ground according to experts. Read more.
B.C. failing to protect drinking water: auditor general
By Sarah Cox
Climate change and industrial activities pose increased risks to B.C.’s water, but the provincial government hasn’t developed a single drinking water protection plan in the last 16 years, according to a new report. Read more.
‘We’re not against forestry’: Peachland mayor asks for pause on logging in watershed
By Ben Parfitt
Okanagan community asks for a ‘time out’ to examine the cumulative impacts of logging on water quality, but the provincial government says there’s no plan to stop. Read more.
The delicate act of creating a national park in polarized times
By Andrew Findlay
Southern B.C. is home to endangered grasslands and a lengthy list of at-risk species — but even though the proposed South Okanagan-Similkameen National Park Reserve took a major step forward last month, misinformation and mistrust linger. Read more.
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