Elk Valley

The Elk River is in danger of becoming BC’s entry point for whirling disease; this could have significant impacts on our local trout and hence the $2.7 M/year fishing industry. 

Teck Resources Limited (TSX: TECK.A and TECK.B, NYSE: TECK) (“Teck”) and STARS announced today that Teck is making a $300,000 donation over three years to STARS in celebration of their 30-year partnership. This contribution will support STARS in providing care and transport to patients who need critical care in the Elk Valley and surrounding communities in southeastern British Columbia.

Event Date(s): 
Thursday, June 8, 2023
Time: 
6:30pm - 8:45pm

Join host Chris Walker for a live taping of Daybreak, the popular CBC morning show in the Okanagan and Kootenays! The show will feature live local interviews and a Q&A session with Chris. The shows are free and first come first serve. Doors at 6:30 pm, show begins at 7 pm.

Does your dog love to dig? Puppies love to dig, and some grow into dogs who remain determined diggers, but the human end of the equation doesn’t always appreciate their digging “art.”

Providing enrichment for our companion animals is about giving them as many opportunities as we can to display natural behaviours. Dogs love to dig, so we should try and find appropriate outlets for that instinctive behaviour.

After a successful pilot program offered to nearly 4000 people, the Columbia Basin Environmental Education Network (CBEEN), in partnership with forty organizations, has opened early bird registration for a new year-long learning opportunity starting this fall.

With the warm temperatures over the past few days, the potential for thunderstorms in the long term forecast, and the anticipated start of spring freshet, the RDEK has set up a number of self-fill sandbag stations and is reminding residents about the need to be cautious around all waterways.

The RDEK is encouraging residents who live in flood-prone areas to take steps to be prepared in the event the region does experience localized flooding.

Self-fill sandbag stations have been set up at:

A long-unoccupied building in Fernie collapsed recently. Gratefully nobody was hurt, and it is now moving toward orderly demolition. In my memory it was a commercial storefront. When I was a boy, it was it was a Pop Shoppe, where you excitedly took your plastic crate of empties and, after returning them, you refilled the crate with a selection of your favourites like Cream Soda and Black Cherry, flavours the thought of which today make my teeth ache in my jaw.

From buying portable water tanks and equipment trailers, to providing specialized training and gear to their wildfire-fighting crews, 12 small communities and First Nations are taking action to reduce the threat of wildfires. These projects are being done with support from Columbia Basin Trust.

We all want to get where we’re going, safely. Animal strikes are a major road safety issue, and an expensive one. No one wants to experience an elk suddenly crashing through their windshield. Yet, each year at least 200 collisions with large mammals occur on Highway 3 between Hosmer, BC and the Alberta border, costing society $2.8 million annually in injuries and property damage. Further east near Rock Creek in Alberta, 38 collisions a year are reported. More go unreported. 

Communities are reducing operating costs and gaining efficiencies while working toward their climate resiliency goals. Seventeen projects are underway to make Basin communities more sustainable, with the support of Columbia Basin Trust.