UPDATE: Fire near Nancy Greene Lake now "being held."
UPDATE: The BC Wildfire Service now identifies the Lamb Creek Fire as "being held" -- not likely to spread beyond its current size under current conditions. Original story: A wildfire discovered Sunday, August 6, is burning approximately one kilometre south of Highway 3 and the boundary of Nancy Greene Provincial Park, and ...
Stage 3 Outdoor Water Conservation Implemented for Beaver Valley Water Service Amid Drought Conditions
In response to the Lower Columbia Region's extreme drought level 4 – Extremely Dry, residents in the Beaver Valley Water Service are now under Stage 3 Outdoor Water Conservation measures. The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) and Village of Fruitvale have enacted these measures to promote responsible water usage...
Newsletter from MLA/Minister Katrine Conroy
As a province, we’re proud to be a place where newcomers choose to live and where diverse communities can feel welcome, but we know that this isn’t always the case. Systemic barriers persist and mean it’s not always easy for people to thrive in B.C. and we know there’s work to be done to change this. That’s why we announced...
Summer heat forcing reduction in permitted angling times
Anglers in the Kootenays are being asked to fish in the morning and early afternoon to protect fish from the effects of warm water later in the day. The ministry is reducing recreational fishing activities for several areas in the Kootenay region. From July 31 until Sept. 10, 2023, angling in these areas will be closed from...
Four Factors driving 2023’s extreme heat and climate disasters
By Michael Wysession, Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis; first published in The Conversation Between the record-breaking global heat and extreme downpours, it’s hard to ignore that something unusual is going on with the weather in 2023....
COLUMN: Luxury is killing us -- Top 1% emit more carbon than rest of upper class
Too many people are consuming more than Earth’s systems can replenish. But while population growth is an important issue, overconsumption of energy and products is the more immediate and easily resolvable problem. The wealthy, including middle-class people in rich countries, are responsible for many times the climate-altering...
Stage Two Watering Restrictions for Rossland
Starting on Thursday, July 27, 2023, Rossland begins Stage Two watering restrictions. For what that means, see the City's press release below, and please bear in mind that Rossland's water supply depends on just three small creeks -- Topping, Hanna, and the South Fork of Murphy Creek -- and that with...
Rossland Receiving 1.3 Million Grant
One million, three hundred thousand dollars – that’s 1.3 million – will help Rossland with our ongoing program of infrastructure upgrades, replacing ancient pipes that deliver water from our treatment plant and send sewage down the hill to a very different treatment plant. This particular grant will go toward the work being...
Province putting regulations in place to protect ecological reserves
What are "ecological reserves"? Ecological reserves are areas selected to preserve representative and special natural ecosystems, plant and animal species, features, and phenomena. Scientific research and educational purposes are the principal uses of ecological reserves. Ecological reserves are established for the: preservation...
Opinion: Why have we let it come to this?
On July 6, the world’s average temperature was the hottest ever recorded, at 17.23 C. That beat the previous highs on… July 3 and 4! June was the hottest month ever, but July is shaping up to be even hotter. Experts expect more records to break over the next while, as an El Niño weather pattern combines with record emissions...
