B.C. environmental groups, long calling for Rich Coleman's political head, said yesterday they were "very happy" he'd been shuffled out of the forestry portfolio. "We've been running a campaign asking for his resignation for the last eight months," said Maurita Prato, forest campaigner with the Dogwood Initiative, a non-profit environmental agency. [Read more...]

After taking a week-long hammering on the carbon tax, the B.C. Liberals must have welcomed the posting that went out Thursday from a coalition of environmental groups. [Read more...]

B.C. environmental groups, long calling for Rich Coleman's political head, said yesterday they were "very happy" he'd been shuffled out of the forestry portfolio. [Read more...]

When the City of Langford began preparations to construct the Spencer Road Highway Interchange in 2007, it purchased—some might say expropriated—16 private properties on Leigh Road with the explanation that the municipality might need to clear out the neighbourhood to make room for the cloverleaf on-and-off ramps. [Read more...]

Today, five pipelines are proposed from Alberta to the B.C. ports of Kitimat and Prince Rupert. But in the rush to welcome all this new development, the government seems to have forgotten what was feared back then - that in B.C.'s remote northern waters, a dead drifting tanker probably can't be saved in time to prevent an environmental catastrophe. [Read more...]

In the 1970s, the threat of devastating oil spills on British Columbia's coast became a reality when the Trans Alaska Pipeline was completed, linking the Prudhoe Bay oil fields to the shipping port of Valdez, Alaska. [Read more...]

A PROMINENT Canadian nationalist says she's going to donate a $5,000 environment award she received to the effort to stop Shell from drilling for coalbed methane natural gas in the Klappan area. [Read more...]

Local opposition is growing to plans for a major oil terminal in British Columbia that would see VLCCs operating on the Canadian west coast from Kitimat. [Read more...]

When it comes to supertankers off B.C.'s north coast, both sides of the tanker debate talk about risks and benefits. But a crucial question is who risks and who benefits. The risks are to our existing economy and way of life, to communities and first nations up and down our coast. The benefits are to Albertan oil companies and their shareholders, although some try to say otherwise. [Read more...]

The risks are to our existing economy and way of life, to communities and first nations up and down our coast. The benefits are to Albertan oil companies and their shareholders, although some try to say otherwise. [Read more...]

An environmental group has called for Forests Minister Rich Coleman to resign for permitting Western Forest Products to remove its private forest lands from a government-regulated tree farm licence. [Read more...]

An environmental group has called for Forests Minister Rich Coleman to resign for permitting Western Forest Products to remove its private forest lands from a government-regulated tree farm licence. The Victoria-based Dogwood Initiative claims Coleman's decision was a betrayal of public trust as it overrode community desires that the area remains as forestland. Western Forest Products is in the process of selling the land to a developer. [Read more...]

The B.C.-based watchdog group Dogwood Initiative has warned Shell Oil shareholders in Europe about risks associated with a proposed coalbed methane plant at the headwaters of the salmon-bearing Stikine, Skeena and Nass rivers. [Read more...]

The B.C.-based watchdog group Dogwood Initiative has warned Shell Oil shareholders in Europe about risks associated with a proposed coalbed methane plant at the headwaters of the salmon-bearing Stikine, Skeena and Nass rivers. [Read more...]

There could be as much as $500 billion worth of oil and natural gas under the waters off B.C.'s coast. But a federal moratorium of offshore oil and gas exploration, in place for more than 30 years, has prevented tests to determine if the resources are even there. [Read more...]

Shot down in the 1980s, BC Hydro tests the public waters with new dam. Construction of a third large hydroelectric dam on the Peace River in British Columbia’s north is back on BC Hydro’s to-do list, and the province’s electricity provider is making the rounds to sell the idea to residents through a series of public consultation sessions. [Read more...]

There could be as much as $500 billion worth of oil and natural gas under the waters off B.C.'s coast. But a federal moratorium of offshore oil and gas exploration, in place for more than 30 years, has prevented tests to determine if the resources are even there. [Read more...]

The B.C.-based watchdog group Dogwood Initiative will speak to Shell Oil shareholders in Europe to express concern over a proposed coalbed methane plant at the headwaters of the salmon-bearing Stikine, Skeena and Nass Rivers. [Read more...]

Political debates, community campaigns and lawsuits are continuing to swirl around the future of Vancouver Island's wild west coast. [Read more...]

Political debates, community campaigns and lawsuits are continuing to swirl around the future of Vancouver Island's wild west coast. But the next major decision on the shape of development around Jordan River, Shirley and Otter Point rests with one person [Read more...]

Political debates, community campaigns and lawsuits are continuing to swirl around the future of Vancouver Island's wild west coast. But the next major decision on the shape of development around Jordan River, Shirley and Otter Point rests with one person. Bob Wylie, Highways Ministry provincial approving officer, has sole responsibility for deciding whether an application by Western Forest Products for 319 subdivisions will get the go-ahead. [Read more...]

CRD JORDAN RIVER LANDS BYLAWS PASS FINAL READING THE C.R.D. BOARD OF DIRECTORS HAS MADE OFFICIAL A BYLAW CHANGE THAT SLAPS A TIGHT RESTRICTION ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANDS WEST OF JORDAN RIVER. THOSE LANDS CAN NOW CONTAIN ONLY ONE HOME ON EACH 120-HECTARE PARCEL -- WHICH IS MUSIC TO THE EARS OF MAURITA PRATO OF THE DOGWOOD FOUNDATION. [Read more...]

The B.C.-based watchdog group Dogwood Initiative will speak to Shell Oil shareholders in Europe to express concern over a proposed coalbed methane plant at the headwaters of the salmon-bearing Stikine, Skeena and Nass Rivers. [Read more...]

On April 14 some 50 protesters gathered outside cabinet minister Ida Chong's community office in Victoria's Oak Bay neighbourhood. They included environmental icon Vicky Husband, the Sea-to-Sea Greenbelt Society's Ray Zimmermann and representatives of the Dogwood Initiative, who delivered Chong a giant pen [Read more...]

Most Monday readers probably spend more than just the seven days called Earth Week thinking about the issues confronting this tiny blue-green planet of ours, but one thing is sure: Victoria is host to a multitude of activists, authors, students and scholars who make it a full-time occupation. We asked some of them what they think are the most serious threats to local ecosystems . . . and hey, we even called a couple of politicians, just for good measure. [Read more...]

Robert Bateman has destroyed one of his paintings in a demonstration against the possibility of oil tankers passing through B.C.’s Douglas Channel. [Read more...]

The difference between what's planned and what actually happens when it comes to oil and gas development brought Rosemary Ahtuangaruak from the North Slope of Alaska to B.C.'s north coast shores. [Read more...]

Renowned wildlife artist Robert Bateman took a deep breath as he took a brush of black poster paint and lashed it across one of his favourite pictures. [Read more...]

Paintbrush in hand, poised over the canvas of orcas swimming in the ocean, wildlife artist Robert Bateman had a momentary feeling of uncertainty. But when the black paint touched a $2,000 print of his famous painting, Orca Procession, Bateman knew defacing one of his most beloved images was the right thing to do. [Read more...]

A Calgary-based company looking to build an oil pipeline from the Alberta Oilsands to a Kitimat Terminal said it has broad southeast Asian support for the project. At the same time, environmental groups opposing the passage of oil tankers in B.C. waters also have new supporters, with world reknowned wildlife artist Robert Bateman wading into the issue. [Read more...]

The B.C. government may be going green, but that doesn't mean it is bidding farewell to fossil fuels any time soon. [Read more...]

The government of British Columbia moved yesterday to the forefront of the battle against climate change by introducing what may be the greenest budget ever seen in North America. [Read more...]

Environmental groups want anyone with an interest in the removal of private forest lands from tree farm licences or those wanting to stop urban sprawl to head to Otter Point tonight. [Read more...]

Environmental groups expected to pack hall as proposal to rezone vast tracts of Juan de Fuca land goes to public hearing [Read more...]

Environmental groups want anyone with an interest in the removal of private forest lands from tree farm licences or those wanting to stop urban sprawl to head to Otter Point tonight. "We want people to get out there and make statements in support of rezoning the land," said Eric Swanson of the Dogwood Initiative, explaining why environmental groups raised about $3,500 from supporters for a large advertisement in the Times Colonist. [Read more...]

Forest and Range Minister Rich Coleman has said repeatedly that releasing 28,000 hectares of Western Forest Products Inc.'s private land from management under British Columbia's Tree Farm Licence system was done to help a company that was suffering financially. While Coleman's decision has received much scrutiny in the media and Auditor General John Doyle is investigating, here's one detail that has so far been largely overlooked: Coleman's older brother Stan is Western Forest Product's manager of strategic planning [Read more...]

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Demonstrators will be on the lawn of the legislature at noon today, protesting the withdrawal of private lands from tree-farm licences on northern Vancouver Island. [Read more...]

Opponents of the government decision to allow forest companies to pull private lands out of tree farm licences are linking company donations to the B.C. Liberal party and TFL deletions [Read more...]

Ender Ilkay, the international developer who has signed an agreement to purchase former Tree Farm License lands near Jordan River from Western Forest Products, was positioned well at the community meeting on Monday in Shirley [Read more...]