Special guest Jamail to talk climate crisis in Cowichan
On June 6 One Cowichan is hosting an evening with Dahr Jamail, award-winning journalist and author of the recently released book The End of Ice, at the Cowichan Community Centre as part of his North American book tour.
Dahr Jamail, who won awards for his reporting as one of the few un-embedded journalists in Iraq, has taken on the climate crisis with equal clarity and focus. As an experienced mountaineer Jamail journeyed to some of the world’s “hot spots” — locations experiencing the most dramatic impacts of climate disruption — investigating what lies ahead for the planet.
Before he reported on the war in Iraq, he was a mountain guide and rescuer in Alaska’s Denali National Park. From the heights of Denali to the windswept islands of the Bering Sea, from the Great Barrier Reef and Amazon rainforest to Florida’s flooding coastline, where he climbed, dove and trekked alongside some of the world’s leading experts, he writes and speaks about the beauty as well as devastation he found.
He recounts one moment with a scientist, who, after a breathtaking dive in the Barrier Reef, weeps. He tells of the last subsistence seal hunters as their local food web collapses and with it their entire culture. He shares the thrills of climbing Alaska’s glaciers —“the raw wildness” of ice and mountain — and the impact of rising temperatures on mountain and forest systems. And Jamail confesses: these encounters were “far more difficult to deal with than the years I spent reporting from war-torn Iraq.”
If you care about the climate crisis, come out to hear his first-hand experience on the frontlines. Ask questions, share your thoughts and feelings, and meet others who care about where the world is headed. You can also learn how you can plug in to One Cowichan’s local climate campaign and work together with others to make a difference.
Free raspberries June 7
Do you love raspberries?
Head on over to Kinpark at 5789 Alderlea St., in Duncan on Friday, June 7, from 1-4 p.m. and dig up your very own raspberry canes just in time for summer.
The Kinpark Youth Urban Farm asks people to please bring their own pots to take your new raspberry canes home. If you don’t have any to bring, there will be pots available by donation.
Shovels and gloves will be provided.
Low Tide Day coming to Cowichan Bay on June 8
Junk and trash accumulates along the shore and needs to be collected, but there is more to a beach than flotsam, jetsam, and refuse — clams in the mud, fish in the eelgrass just off shore, and strange and interesting creatures everywhere.
Low Tide Day is on Saturday, June 8 at Kil-pah-las Beach just east of Cowichan Bay Village. This is a free family friendly event combining environmental stewardship, science education, food, and music. Everyone is welcome at this opportunity to have fun while learning about, celebrating, and caring for the shore and the intertidal zone.
The day begins at 11:30 a.m. with the beach cleanup check in. Teams are assigned sections of shore and trail to clean, then at 1 p.m. they return to Kil-pah-las beach for lunch and live music. The citizen science activities begin at 2 p.m. Volunteer biologists use a seine net to collect creatures from the near offshore environment so everyone can learn about the many creatures that live there. The animals are returned to the sea and participants move on to the “critter count,” a quadrant survey of the animals living in the mud.
Once the animals are returned to their homes, everyone goes home with a new understanding of the diversity of life on, off, and under the beach and the importance of being careful about what we do to the water and near the shore. To keep in the spirit of caring for the environment, the lunch at Low Tide Day is a zero-waste event. Thank you goes to Cowichan Tribes for the use of Kil-pah-las Beach.
International Low Tide Day began in 1995 with an “Eco Fayre” in Brighton, England, celebrating “One tide on one day around the world.” In 1999 Cowichan Bay became the first Canadian community to join the world-wide event. This is the 21st Low Tide Day in Cowichan Bay.
Join in for a day of pulling out invasive species
The Greater Victoria Green Team is headed to Cowichan and they’d like you to join them on Sunday, June 9, in Chase Woods.
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Green Team will join the Nature Conservancy of Canada, which owns Chase Woods, and local volunteers to remove invasive species and plant native species in Chase Woods.
The event will allow volunteers to meet new people, make new connections in the community, learn and develop practical skills hands-on, help revitalize local habitat, protect biodiversity, gain volunteer hours and experience, learn about groups working on projects across the region, and have fun outdoors. Tools, gloves, snacks and lunch will be provided.
Those interested should meet off Khenipsen Road.
For more information and to sign up, see: https://www.meetup.com/Greater-Victoria-Green-Team/events/261077412
