Environment
Stories that reflect northerners’ interest in that which affects the air we breath, the water we drink and earth beneath our feet.
Slow
The photographic eye of Talon Gillis is always on point. As an adventurer, Gillis gravitates toward self-propelled travel and his take on “slow” reflects this tendency as well as his love and passion for the landscapes of northern BC. We pair the final photo in this segment with a poem from Paul Glover, Watching Paint Dry.
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Carrying Cultures
When we are forced to carry a heavy load at foot pace, we view the world differently. Dave Quinn makes a compelling case for the carrying cultures of the world, and for us here in the North to take advantage of our remaining road-free landscapes.
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To Break, or Not to Break…Trail
As snow falls and the holiday season approaches, do our hearts not turn to thoughts of snowshoeing? Whether you are a neophyte or a seasoned guru, opportunities abound around Smithers.
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Firelight
This year’s wildfire season was the worst on record. Photographer Michelle Yarham snapped some beautiful, haunting images near Fraser Lake late in the summer as the fires raged and the daytime skies darkened.
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Colour of the Water
Sometimes adventures take a strange turn and, when they do, they etch themselves firmly in your memories—including the colours. Paul Glover takes us on a trip down the Nass, and the proverbial memory lane.
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Colouring the Map
You know when a place is named for a colour? Blue River, Red Bluff, etc. etc. Sometimes the reason why is not as obvious as you’d think. Jo Boxwell checks out a few colourful northern BC locales.
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Onions, Little and Big
Just outside of Babine Mountains Provincial Park, "The Onion" is a "tick-the-box" kind of hike.
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Right to Clean Air
Can northwest BC’s industry town find balance? Writer Dan Mesec talks to Kitimat locals about their concerns over air quality.
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Lost or Found?
We asked six writers and one photographer (Michelle Yarham) to tackle this issue’s theme in whatever way they saw fit. What they came up with is quirky, funny, poignant, reflective, and uniquely northern.
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The Rescuers
Every year, volunteers from across the province save lives, plucking the lost from the backcountry. Contributing editor Amanda Follett Hosgood talks to search-and-rescue groups to gain some insight into the complexities and challenges facing SAR organizations in northern BC.
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Creative Space
Whatever we create, the environment we are in leaves an imprint on our work. Many artists crave isolation during the creative process, but some encourage outsiders to interrupt and even influence the direction of the pieces. Six northern BC artists discuss their creative spaces and what makes them so significant to the work they produce.
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Ptarmigan Mountain
Close to Prince Rupert, Ptarmigan Mountain provides great access to the open alpine.
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Last Word - Tiny Fish
The Nisga'a new year kicks off with the arrival of the saak eulachon.
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Revolving Doors
What happens when you come to a place temporarily and never leave? Or when you leave everything behind and venture out to northern BC for a job, but it doesn’t pan out? As our economy becomes increasingly reliant on transient workers, Dan Mesec investigates the temporary world in our half of the province.
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Passing Through
Yawning and leg stretching at the visitor centre. The city connects highways and breaks up a train route, but the distances are vast. Some travellers collect brochures and pile them in their car doors. Others invest in small mementos: a printed mug or a wooden Mr. PG. A few leave behind their stories.
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On Ancient Ice
Tatshenshini-Alsek Park is iconic Canadian wilderness. It’s rugged, remote, and truly remarkable. Perched on a confluence of borders—BC, Yukon, and Alaska—the park is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the largest protected natural area in the world.
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Edge of the World
The beginning of a thing is often not recognized as such until long after, or indeed until an ending appears on the horizon. Such was the case in the fall of 1994, when four dirtbags pooled their limited resources and headed north from Vancouver and the Kootenays to undertake a month-long sea-kayak trip in Gwaii Hanaas National Park Reserve.
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The Crawl
Patrick Williston lives in Smithers in a mountainside home with a dark and spidery crawl space. When days are longer, you will find him and his family gunkholing around the Chatham Sea in an old sailboat. This is his first piece of fiction for Northword.
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Beginnings
Check out Northword's latest publication, a collection of northern stories and amazing images.
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No Room on the Bus
"On several mornings, she says she saw five teens get off to make room for younger kids, indicating the bus was overbooked by at least as many spaces."
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A Terror of Tyrannosaurs
The best way to see ancient dinosaur footprints is in the dark. It’s also the best way to feel that tingly sensation on the back of your neck. Jo Boxwell takes us to Tumbler Ridge, where lantern tours of the dino trackways are a mainstay of the growing paleo-tourism industry.
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By Boat
In Haida Gwaii, the dark months of winter mean more time for things like hunting trips. Join photographer Joseph Crawford as he explores abandoned buildings and the subdued coastal landscapes while on a boat-access hunting excursion.
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Avalanches
Travelling in northern BC’s backcountry means taking risks. Why we do we do it? Tania Millen weighs in, as she explores the dark side of risk vs. reward, and nudges us in the right direction for finding balance.
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Nightbirds
Helen Keller proved irrevocably the power of the senses, especially when one operates in isolation from the rest. Spending a night on a remote island, sans headlamp, to witness the spectacle of nesting seabirds is revealing, to say the least. Join writer and biologist Dave Quinn on the North Coast with some very peculiar little birds.
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On Beaches
As the world’s oceans fill up with plastic, the beaches along BC’s coast are quietly accumulating garbage. Talon Gillis's photos offers us a glimpse into a group of individuals working to protect and restore impacted habitat.
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The Future of LNG
In wake of Petronas decision, northerners agree: It’s time to work together.
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Fishing for Future
Opening day on the Skeena came late this year. Kitsumkalum fish monitors were there working with recreational anglers to gather data. Britta Boudreau takes us to the river, and gives us a glimpse of what’s at stake if the salmon stop swimming, and who is working to protect the resource.
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The Last Salmon Stronghold
Salmon are a way of life in northern BC. This season’s closures of the sockeye and Chinook fisheries on the Skeena River are causing ripples of fear for a future with no fish in the rivers. Dan Mesec investigates the issues, and the potential cultural implications of declining stocks.
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Above/Below
Freediving is a meditative, introspective sport, and here we get a rare glimpse of what that looks like in Haida Gwaii waters. Words by Allison Smith, photos by Joseph Crawford.
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Caribou Conundrum
The Telkwa caribou herd has dwindled down to just over a dozen animals. Here, we explore different perspectives on the issue. First, Emily Bulmer takes us back to her childhood and looks at a Witsuwit'en perspective. Then, Amanda Follett Hosgood gives us a glimpse of what's being done at a government level.
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In Retrospect
JRP chair Sheila Leggett on due process, yoga and the search for common ground
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Mind (over) Mountains
"Everyone deserves to enjoy the mountains." Talon Gillis inspires with his photo essay.
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The Grizzly Business
One of BC’s iconic creatures, the grizzly bear is responsible for a significant portion of our province’s economy. The question is: should we shoot bears with guns or cameras, or both?
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Unseen Labyrinth: Northern BC’s amazing limestone karst topography
The dog slips farther into the hole and it becomes suddenly apparent that we’ve found exactly what we were expecting.
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Firewatchers: 62 days in winter
Security asks our names, then reads a statement saying we are in an active logging area and need to move back several metres.
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Great Glaciers: Experience these prehistoric beauties before they’re gone
The glaciers are melting.
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Disappearing waters: How climate change is threatening our fish streams
“There must be a small salmon run up this stream.”
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Are We Losing Our Aspens?
It’s a beautiful day in May 2012 and the air is filled with millions of tiny, fluttering moths.
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Winter Cities: Designing communities for whatever way the wind blows
Whoever built my former house did not know or understand the direction of the prevailing wind or how drifts are formed.
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Cows vs. Frogs: Fort Fraser Ranch promotes amphibian biodiversity
“Here’s something worthwhile. A rancher in the Fort Fraser area wants to monitor for us. He says that they have lots of amphibians and snakes on their ranch—at least five different species.”
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Hope for the Nechako Sturgeon
When fisheries biologist Cory Williamson tickles the water to simulate feeding, a two-metre dinosaur ghosts out of the shadows and glides across the brood-tank floor.
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The Paradox of Anyox—New hope springs from old mine site
What does it feel like to stand in the middle of a slagheap? To climb around the innards of an old-but-not-forsaken dam? Or to pick your way across a falling-down power plant whose crumbling floors could swallow you with nary a burp?
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Up the Clore: Shifting landscapes on a projected pipeline route
“Let’s go up the Clore,” one of the boys suggested one evening at yacht club—an informal weekly gathering at Terrace’s Back Eddy Pub.
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Northern landscapes on the big screen: Local filmmakers raise awareness through imagery
In a place where our day-to-day lives are lived between a vast network of grand landscapes, it’s easy to appreciate the North’s natural environment.
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Bug Bonanza: Is climate change impacting northern spiders and insects?
A slight movement on my sleeve catches my attention: A spider—the size of a nickel. Yeow!
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The certainties of LNG development (Commentary/Op Ed)
While it is true that wrapping our minds around the implications of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is anything but straightforward...there are some certainties worth considering.
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Northern recycling: How new programs are leveling the field
Like many who move to the North, I wanted to live closer to the land.
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Energy alternatives: How three innovative communities are re-thinking energy
With much recent talk about oil, gas, pipelines and dams in northern BC, it’s possible to completely miss the North’s unique energy potentials.
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Untangling the pipeline debate:What does LNG mean for BC?
Proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects would run pipelines clear across the North.
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Holding Our Breath: Airshed Management Society works on the particulate problem
Feb. 6, 4 p.m. Smithers: -16 C, clear, with the slightest breath of wind at 0.5 metre/second from the northwest. PM2.5 is 34 micrograms per cubic metre.
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Warmth under snow— Why rising temperatures could mean harsher climate for some species
Broad, deep tracks in the fresh snow followed the logging road ahead of us. “First snow of winter,” my grandfather would say, “and the grizzly bears head for their dens in the mountains.”
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The Northwest Transmission Line (Comment/Op-Ed)
The graceful steel spires stand at regular distances along the highway. It’s as if a giant millipede has threaded its way over the steep roadside ridges, swept out a swath of forest with its belly, and lost a long, straight leg with every step.
READ MORE➦Another kind of dream (Comment/Op-ed)
I live beside a gravel road. You cross a small bridge into the heart of Driftwood Canyon and, for a couple of kilometres, the hydro poles have been rerouted out of sight.
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Spectacular Spatsizi—Vast wilderness with a rich history and uncertain future
Our horses walked slowly into a biting winter wind, making fresh tracks across the sparkling snow.
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Mean Manure & Killer Compost: Grazon after-effects in the Bulkley Valley
Cheryl and Les Harmati had been successfully gardening on their property outside Smithers for 25 years. But last year something strange was happening: plants in the garden and greenhouse were curling and wilting.
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Modelling community-based forest stewardship
It’s early morning at the mouth of the Carood, a small river that drains the eastern end of the Philippine island of Bohol.
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The Salmon Cycle: Keeping Salmon sustainable and close to home
It’s unknown exactly how long the Lake Babine people have relied upon salmon. For countless generations, ocean-run sockeye made its way from the Pacific, up the Skeena River, to the Babine River and its spawning grounds at Babine Lake, sustaining the nation while also providing a resource to trade with other nations.
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The Accidental Activist: how a back-woods crew of local yokels mobilized the North.
When faced with environmental threats, community advocates became environmental activists. They've won the battle for the Sacred Headwaters, but their biggest fight may be yet to come.
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Don’t Mess with the Estuary: Skeena mouth threatened by development near and far
Over the past few years, protection of the Skeena River has received a lot of attention.
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Silence on the Sacred Headwaters: What happens next?
As the clock winds down on the province’s moratorium on coalbed methane drilling, the Ministry of Energy and Mines remains tight-lipped about its plans for northern BC’s Sacred Headwaters.
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Sustainable Mining in BC: Does it really exist?
Sustainable is a word used everywhere these days, thrown around like a corporate-world Frisbee: sustainable agriculture, sustainable forestry, sustainable communities. But sustainable mining?
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Green Mining: There is a better way
Green Mining sounds like a contradiction in terms—an oxymoron, like “government intelligence.”
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Dirty Dirt: The legacy of contaminated sites
Have you ever driven by a vacant site in town and wondered why it was empty? Maybe the buildings have been torn down but nothing’s going on.
READ MORE➦Winter 2018-19: Slow
Slow repairs, slow pace, slow recovery, and much more.
