CV Collective Spring
The Beaufort Range sits temptingly in our backyard. If you’re a backcountry skier, then you’ve probably gazed at its snowy bowls and ridgelines while driving from Courtenay to Cumberland, when you should have been focused on the road. I first skied in the range with a friend 15 or so years ago. We had found […]
Words & Featured Photo by Andrew FindlayGallery photo by Chris Istace
CV Collective Winter
There are two basic ways to look at a forest you manage—as a tree farm or an ecosystem. To see the difference, stand on the edge of Al Hopwood’s woodlot on the lower slopes of Forbidden Plateau. On his side of the line is a multi-aged stand of century-old Douglas fir, with younger western red […]
Words by Andrew FindlayOpening photo by Jarrett Lindal
CV Collective Winter
There are two basic ways to look at a forest you manage—as a tree farm or an ecosystem. To see the difference, stand on the edge of Al Hopwood’s woodlot on the lower slopes of Forbidden Plateau. On his side of the line is a multi-aged stand of century-old Douglas fir, with younger western red […]
Words by Andrew FindlayOpening photo by Jarrett Lindal
CV Collective Summer
Land is on my mind a lot these days, as a dad and freelance journalist. I recently interviewed an old Findlay family friend, Trevor Goward. He’s a botanist who studies lichen, and he’s nearing the end of his career—during which time he has witnessed the wholesale destruction of the habitat he has dedicated his life […]
Words by Andrew FindlayPhotos by Luke Phillips
CV Collective Spring
If you stand on Saratoga Beach and look out at the water on a calm day, the Salish Sea appears silent, steady, and as timeless as the earth’s orbit. However, the oceans are changing, albeit at a rate that is imperceptible from year to year. A recent report from the University of Waterloo studying the […]
Words by Andrew FindlayPhoto by Luke Phillips
CV Collective
On a sunny summer evening, Janeth Recinos served up delicious pupusas filled with shredded pork and fresh salsa from her mobile kitchen next to the Courtenay Slough. “This is real El Salvadoran food,” she said, while her husband Mario connected a full propane tank to the grill. Business is brisk at the Pupuseria Las Gemelas, […]
Words by Andrew FindlayPhoto collage courtesy of Sue Rambow
CV Collective Summer
Imagine three siblings—Cumberland, Courtenay, and Comox—who tolerate each other, but aren’t exactly brimming with mutual affection. Add in a cousin—the Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD)—who has come to live in the house for an indeterminate amount of time, stuck amid this squabbling trio. You get the picture. Historically, regional cooperation has never been the Comox […]
Words by Andrew FindlayPhotos by Sara Kempner
CV Collective Winter
Devin Burton grew up in the Comox Valley but only recently discovered the Bevan trails, a network of paths winding through lush forest next to the Puntledge River and near the old Bevan townsite. If a forest has the ability to nourish the soul, then this is her sanctuary—a favoured place to walk her dogs […]
Words by Andrew FindlayPhoto by Jenn Dykstra
CV Collective Fall
Running a tourism business, especially in an area as remote as Kyuquot Sound, is challenging at the best of times. When Dave Pinel bought the kayak company West Coast Expeditions in 2005, it reaffirmed his connection to the Indigenous people, rich culture, and biodiversity of this rugged stretch of northwestern Vancouver Island that began in […]
Words by Andrew FindlayPhoto by Kat Craats
CV Collective Spring
When my kids were younger, I logged long hours at the Rotary Skypark, going half-dizzy as they performed endless laps on the merry-go-round and other playground apparatus. Cessnas, Pipers, and all manner of small aircraft taking off and landing just over the fence nearby were an added entertainment bonus that I took for granted, or […]
Words by Andrew FindlayPhotos by Jenn Dykstra
CV Collective Winter
The stopwatch on the computer screen read four minutes and counting until the Great British Columbia ShakeOut. When the counter hit zero, I—and more than a million other BC residents—crawled under a piece of furniture in a self-preserving response to a simulated earthquake emergency. “Drop, Cover and Hold On” is the simple but important takeaway […]
Words by Andrew FindlayPhoto by Ron Pogue
CV Collective Summer
In 1927, it was a day like any other for Peter Bardesonno as he clocked in alongside his father Jossepi for another long shift down in the Cumberland coal mines. But the ending of the day was far from normal. As they worked a drift, the elder Bardesonno heard an ominous crack and creak overhead. […]
Words by Andrew FindlayPhotos provided by Cumberland Museum & Archives
CV Collective Winter
When people in the community fear getting sued for speaking freely about a controversial land development proposal, we’ve got a problem. So, in the interests of protecting the innocent, let’s embark on a thought experiment. Imagine a place they call a valley, but takes a stretch of the imagination to actually view as a valley. […]
Words by Andrew FindlayPhoto by Dave Ingram
CV Collective Fall
If there was ever a time to exercise your democratic right to vote, it’s now. Across the globe, research has shown that many millennial voters are turning away from liberal democracy and supporting extreme-right leaders, such as Austria’s new chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Careful what you ask for. South of the border, “The Donald,” that paragon […]
Words by Andrew FindlayIllustration by Ian Adams
CV Collective Summer
If you could divide people into two categories, there would be those who spend their lives taking from the planet, and others who spend it giving back. Ruth Masters, who passed away last November at age 97, fell into the latter category. Born in 1920 and raised in the Comox Valley, Ruth was a World […]
Words by Andrew FindlayPhotos by Friends of Ruth Masters
CV Collective Spring
A herd of Roosevelt Elk browses willows in a bog near the Mount Cain turnoff. Nearby, a pack of wolves lie hunched over a knoll, as still as the air on a windless winter day. They wait patiently for the opportunity of one of these ungulates becoming separated from the herd. Wolves wait, caribou eat. […]
Words by Andrew FindlayPhotos by April Bencze
CV Collective Fall
The map of British Columbia is festooned with splotches of green, and we’ve got the granddaddy of them all—2500sq km Strathcona Provincial Park—in our backyard. This wild piece of mountain topography symbolizes on one hand, the richness of our parks system, but on the other the commercial-minded interests that gave birth to Canada’s conservation movement […]
Words by Andrew FindlayPhotos by Lisa Bettany
