Goats and winter recreation

Goats and winter recreation

March 21, 2023
So you’re skiing up the skin track, head down. You finally break out past the trees into the alpine and realize you’re not…

Wildsight News : Water

Wildsight responds to the Ktunaxa Nation Council’s media statement on released documents regarding Kootenay Watershed pollution

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K̓ukamaʔnam/Kimberley – Wildsight strongly supports the Ktunaxa Nation’s decades long call to have the International Joint Commission (ICJ) address the deterioration of water quality in the Elk-Kootenay River System. The IJC, with independent representatives from Canada and the United States, makes recommendations based upon consideration of science and Indigenous knowledge. Wildsight is concerned with both … Continued

Teaching the Columbia

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It was the last evening of our four-day, three-night adventure. Peaceful calm was in camp as chores were wrapping up, bellies full from dinner. Comfortable chatter from people that started as strangers, but were leaving as friends, could be heard around the rocky campsite along the shores of the Columbia River. Seventeen sets of eyes … Continued

What if teenagers renegotiate the Columbia River Treaty?

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Applications close May 22 for this year’s Columbia River Field School: learn more. —– You may have heard about the Columbia River Treaty in the news once, or perhaps many times, over the last decade. The Columbia River Treaty is an agreement between Canada and the United States about our shared watershed. It was originally … Continued

Why the International Joint Commission is crucial to solving the Elk Valley’s selenium problem

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Why is the involvement of the International Joint Commission (IJC) needed in the Elk Valley? Coal mining has occurred in the Elk Valley for over 100 years. Recently, coal production has drastically increased while water quality has decreased throughout Kootenay/Kootenai Watershed. Selenium concentrations continue to reach record highs, threatening the environment and communities that call … Continued

Columbia River Field School: Applications now open!

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The Columbia River Field School is an immersive learning experience for students ages 15-18. Over 15 days, students travel the Columbia River by canoe while exploring important aspects of the river’s story through lessons in geography, ecology, hydrology, technology, economics, politics, history and culture. On top of this, the Field School is an opportunity for … Continued

Safer communities through saved forests

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Landslides. Floods. Wildfires. They come with a vengeance, sweeping away or burning up communities. When they’re happening, they seem inevitable. But what if these events weren’t inevitable? What if the solution was closer than we think? To get to the root of these problems, we need to look to the trees. The provincial government released … Continued

Life and learning on the Columbia River

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In 2018, I was a student in the inaugural year of Wildsight’s Columbia River Field School. Going into the trip, I had little to no knowledge about the Columbia watershed or the Columbia River Treaty. I had also never been canoeing and camping for so long before, and I knew none of the students or … Continued

A win for watershed protection

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Gumption. If you’ve got it, you’re halfway there. The other half? A mixture of luck, well-positioned friends, and a whole lot of work. Tracy Flynn has gumption, no doubt about it. Tracy is a Columbia Valley resident who lives in a small rural community bordering the western shoreline of Columbia Lake. This grandiose lake, the … Continued

How can one lake have two different water pollution limits?

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Montana sets selenium pollution limit for Koocanusa, while BC stalls   Late last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved a new, lower limit for selenium pollution limit in Lake Koocanusa in Montana based on six years of study from a group of scientists on both sides of the border. The evidence is in: to … Continued