Victoria Times Colonist – Page 3

We’ll pay for summer drought for years

20. September 2015 · Write a comment · Categories: 14 Column Inches, Vancouver Island, Victoria Times Colonist · Tags: agriculture, aquifer, British Columbia, crops, drought, forests, infestation, shellfish ban, shellfish fishery, summer, urban forest, Victoria Times Colonist, water, water restrictions

Dry forest, South–Central Interior. Photo © Jennifer C., via flickr and Creative Commons

The hottest, driest summer on record for British Columbia ends this week, three weeks after the first substantial rains in months cleared the air. We will, however, be paying for this past summer for years to come.

Wildfires cost the province more than $260 million so far this year, well over the $63 million allotted. Even though B.C. posted a budget surplus this spring, belts across government will tighten to cover the unplanned-for extra expense. We’ll pay for that when we access programs and services. More »

Ironies overlooked in the parenting-style debate

20. September 2015 · Write a comment · Categories: 14 Column Inches, Keiran's World, Victoria Times Colonist · Tags: child abduction, free-range kids movement, freedom to explore, freedom to play, helicopter parents, life-long exercise patterns set early in life, online family photos, online stalking, parental escorts, parenting, Victoria Times Colonist, walking to school

Walking to school. Photo © Elizabeth, via flickr and Creative Commons; Table4five.net

Most of the kids walking down my street to the nearby high school this past week travelled in groups of two, three or four, with occasional outliers making their way solo. Of the elementary-school kids passing by, most walked with adults or were delivered to the school door in the family minivan.

Recently, in the U.S., young kids playing or walking outdoors without attending adults have prompted calls to police and child services.

The incidents have sparked discussion around the world about parenting styles. Is granting kids a measure of trust and responsibility a form of neglect? Does coddling kids lead to maladjusted adults? More »

Literature is good for brains and communities

Photo © r. nial bradshaw, via flickr and Creative Commons; rnialbradshaw@yahoo.com

Today, the email from a commemorative-days website announces, is Read a Book Day.

Our protagonist lights mental fireworks. “Hooray! A day devoted to conspicuous reading pleasure.”

Then she notices the email’s next line. Today is also Fight Procrastination Day.

Her heart clenches. Our protagonist’s preferred avoidance of unpleasant tasks includes burying herself in a good book.

Her frontal lobe tries to reconcile the mixed messaging and replan her day. Should she read? Or should she stop procrastinating and write a newspaper column?

She sighs. Perhaps today was designed for those who usually seek to avoid reading books.

Tomorrow, the email continues, is Buy a Book Day. More »

Advertisers seek Pester Power during back-to-school season

Back-to-school shopping Photo © USAG - Humphreys

Next week, routine and structure will descend upon households with members who attend school.

Some parents may agree with a certain office-supply mega-retailer that this is the most wonderful time of the year. Applying the Christmas tune to the back-to-school season is appropriate. The National Retail Federation ranks Back to School next to Christmas for foot traffic and sales. A federation survey indicates U.S. families plan to spend $68 billion ($Cdn 89 billion) on binders, paper, clothing, school-related electronics, and college-dorm furnishings this year, compared to $600 billion ($Cdn 786 billion) spent last November–December.

Crudely recalculated for Canada’s population and declining dollar value, that’s $9.8-billion injected into Canada’s retail economy. More »

Cores tell us many stories of our past

Tree rings tell stories. Photo © Aaron Headly, via flickr and Creative Commons; aaronx.org

My grandmother died 23 years ago this week, just shy of her 100th birthday. During her life, she pioneered a homestead with her father and brothers, farmed large tracts of land with her husband, built two family homes, raised 12 kids, and fed her umpteen grandchildren countless farm-fresh meals of traditional French cuisine.

The broad brushstrokes of her life that I know are supplemented by a few stories and a handful of photographs.

When I visited her in her final weeks, I marveled at the map of her life that was her face. If only there was a way to read a person’s history in crow’s feet, wrinkles, wattles and jowls.

One can do that, to a limited extent, by scanning their bones and chemically analyzing their hair, but both of these records of a person’s diet, activity, health and environment extend only a short time into the past. Hair grows at a rate of about one centimetre each month, and is cut regularly. Few people tolerate the hassle of Rapunzel-like dos these days. Bone, too, regenerates constantly, with new cells replacing old. Researchers estimate the bone in humans is gradually replaced every seven or so years. More »

Salmon risk a slow-poached future in B.C. rivers

09. August 2015 · Write a comment · Categories: 14 Column Inches, Science Scribe, Victoria Times Colonist · Tags: British Columbia, Climate change, creeping normals, creeping standards, fishing closures, poached-frog hypothesis, river levels, rivers, salmon, summer 2015, temperature, Victoria Times Colonist, water management

River levels in southern B.C. are low, and their temperatures are warmer than normal. Fish are seeking shelter in deeper, larger, cooler pools wherever they can. With fish pooled in creeks and rivers, disease spreads more readily, and predators have an easier time making their catches of the day.

Returning salmon, of course, can’t choose to spend their final months hiding out in cool pools. Their biology drives them to reach their gravel beds of origin in time to spawn. While they may rest in deeper pools en route, the imperative sends them away from shelter into whatever channels contain enough water to allow them to fight their way upstream, no matter the water’s temperature.

Warm water causes fish to use more energy and tire faster. Warm temperatures can change freshwater chemistry, affecting the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water and available to fish and other critters. More »

Explore local treasures this weekend

02. August 2015 · Write a comment · Categories: Vancouver Island, Victoria Times Colonist · Tags: Abkhazi Gardens, birdwatching, Coast Collective Arts Centre, Dallas Road, Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Esquimalt Harbour, Esquimalt Lagoon, highlight, hiking, Royal BC Museum, treasures, Victoria BC, Victoria Times Colonist

View of Olympic Range and Juan de Fuca Strait along Victoria’s Dallas Road walkway. Photo © Stewart Butterfield via flickr and Creative Commons

The Coast Collective Arts Centre opened its summer show last week. Destination Victoria: Small Local Treasures features small works by Island artists and craftspeople. Each work celebrates the region, its land- and seascapes, and uniquely local experiences.

The show perfectly reflects the centre. Coast Collective resides in historic Pendray House on the shores of Esquimalt Lagoon, and combines a taste of the region’s history with a quietly spectacular setting. It is, itself, a local treasure. More »

Protection granted for local ancient undersea ecosystems

26. July 2015 · Write a comment · Categories: Science Scribe, The World Beneath our Feet, Vancouver Island, Victoria Times Colonist · Tags: Bowen Island, British Columbia, Galiano Island, Georgia Strait, glass sponges, glass-sponge reefs, Hecate Strait, Howe Sound, marine protected area, Mayne Island, palaeozoic ecosystem, Queen Charlotte Sound, Victoria Times Colonist

More than 500 species of glass sponge exist. Only some of them have the fused-glass skeletons that lead to the creation of reefs such as those found off B.C.’s coast. Photo: NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Gulf of Mexico 2012 Expedition

In recent decades, species of sponges thought to have gone extinct 100 million years ago have been found in B.C.’s coastal waters. They not only make these waters home, but they make homes for themselves and many other creatures.

Now the federal government is moving to safeguard these rare organisms and the unique underwater ecosystems they have created. In early June, Fisheries and Oceans Canada closed B.C’s glass-sponge reefs to all fishing.

In addition, proposed, new marine protected areas will prohibit all seafloor-disturbing activities on and immediately around three glass-sponge reefs in Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound. The protection focuses on the reefs and small buffer zones, with various activities allowed beyond and in the water column above….

Read the rest of this editorial at the Victoria Times Colonist….

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