DAWSON CREEK – The Peace Region is conducting climate change adaptation research, thanks to federal funding. The area received nearly $6 million in funding through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Agricultural Climate Solutions – Living Lab program to develop best management practices that solve climate change challenges. “I find the Peace Region is often forgotten about …
No licence, no problem
Despite a growing number of areas in BC being elevated to Level 5 drought, the province has yet to issue fish protection or curtailment orders in response to low stream flows and the risk to aquifers. This also means that compliance activities have yet to shut down unlicensed groundwater users across the province, thousands of …
Poultry gatherings banned
The province has tightened controls on poultry in the face of a growing number of outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza. With fall bird migrations in full wing, the province’s chief veterinary officer reintroduced an order on October 14 indefinitely prohibiting the comingling of flocks. The order applies to all poultry, fowl, guinea fowl, peafowl, …
Animal activists sentenced
Two activists convicted for their part in the April 2019 invasion of Excelsior Hog Farm in Abbotsford have been sentenced to 30 days in jail and a year’s probation. Amy Soranno and Nick Shafer received the sentences in Abbotsford on October 12, with the added requirement that they submit their DNA to a national databank …
Abattoir closure leaves producers scrambling
SALMON ARM – Hog producers in the Thompson-Okanagan are without a processor after Salmon Arm’s Rocana Meats suddenly closed in August. “It has been really, really hard for producers in that area. It couldn’t have come at a worse time,” says Small-Scale Meat Producers Association executive director and project manager Julia Smith. “Most people are …
Dry fall, wet winter ahead
A long, dry fall may be just what many growers caught out by the late spring wanted, but the warm, sunny weather prompted provincial authorities to raise the drought rating in many parts of the province to the highest level last week. The Lower Mainland, Sunshine Coast and Western Vancouver Island are all now at …