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The Haida people struck a $5 million deal with BC’s government that will apparently protect old-growth that had been slated for cutting. Unfortunately, the CBCarticle on the subject leaves much unclear.

We’ve heard a lot about caribou recently, mostly in the fight over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But fewer people know that the Northwest is home to the last remaining caribou herd to inhabit the lower 48 states. They are considered the most endangered large mammal in the continental United States. Woodland caribou once ranged in New England, the Upper Midwest, and as far south as the Salmon...

Ok, that’s a dumb headline. But the problem itself—whether to diaper my babies with cloth or disposables—was one I spent a bit of time agonizing over. But perhaps I shouldn’t have. A new study commissioned by the British Environment Agency (reported on here and here) suggests there’s almost no difference between the two, at least in terms of environmental impacts. Which is roughly the same answer that this 1992 study,...

(This post is part of a series.) I haven’t had much new to say about Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct saga, despite the fact that there have been a bunch of significant developments of late: Late last month, Governor Gregoire signed off on a 9.5 cents per gallon gas tax increase, which would provide (among other things) $2 billion to replace the Viaduct.  But the Viaduct only gets that money if...

BC voters will have the chance to elect (note, Vancouver Sun subscription may be required for link) a new voting system next Tuesday—the "single transferable vote", or STV, which I think is a good idea.  Right now, BC uses roughly the same voting system used widely in the US:  for any legislative district, the candidate with the most votes wins.  This "first-past-the-post" system sounds fair, but it actually leads to...

Politics trumps science when it comes to permitting ecologically pernicious salmon farms in British Columbia. Read all about it in an excellent piece of investigative journalism by The Tyee. Normally those sorts of claims—that policy decisions are political rather than accurate—are hard to substantiate. But in this case the reporter was actually able to obtain proof. In one document from the province’s Fisheries Minister, an admission of salmon farms’ harm...

I missed this when it happened on April 22. Emergency contraceptives are now available without a prescription nationwide in Canada, as Medical News Todayreports. They were already available in BC.

If you could monitor only 7 species in the entire Pacific Northwest, which would you choose, in order to learn the most about the region’s ecological health? Here’s why I ask… Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you probably already know that the ivory-billed woodpecker was re-discovered, not extinct after all, in the swamps of Arkansas. But unless you happen to be a mollusk biologist you’re probably not aware...

About one-sixth of all residents of the US Northwest lack health insurance, according to the most recent data from the US Census Bureau.  And you’d think that this would be a major reason that residents of BC—where health care is universal—live about two and a half years longer than do residents of Oregon, Idaho, and Washington. Or, maybe not.  I recently ran across this article from 2002, which reports on...

Vancouver, BC’s Price Tags newsletter takes on a nifty subject in Issue 67: the role that lanes have played in the city’s past ("generally housing the messy bits of life") and how they might evolve in the future. Among other things, lanes—which Americans might think of as "alleys"–might "allow a more gradual form of densification, providing access for the granny cottages and secondary suites that accommodate growth without changing the...