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larry pynn 88 days ago
We all know how difficult it can be to get a staffer's attention in a bar. At times it can even seem a game of hide and seek. This week I surveyed six downtown pubs and bars to see if they were complying with a requirement of the province's Liquor Control and Licensing Branch to provide customers with a list of drink prices, serving sizes, and applicable taxes upon request. None were in full compliance. But when informed of the problem, most did the smart thing and suggested they would be changing their menus in future to meet the provincial requirement. That's not how it went down at the Marriott Show Case Restaurant & Bar on West Hastings, where they provided the price and size for draft beer (16 ounces) but not cocktails or wine. The manager, identified only as Jason, approached my table when he spotted me taking notes. Informed of what I was doing, he spoke briefly then asked to be excused -- for what I ...
larry pynn 118 days ago
My adventure in the Flathead wilderness of southeastern B.C. was supposed to begin at a trailhead about 100 kms down a gravel logging road from Fernie. Instead, it started at precisely the 16.9-km mark. This Harvey Locke photo shows Tombstone Mountain. It is visible from Harvey Pass to anyone driving the logging roads into the Flathead Valley. Driving my pickup truck in waning light one evening, I rounded a corner and spotted the body of what appeared to be a medium-sized predator near the side of the road. Wolf, I figured. As I drove closer, the animal quickly jumped into the thick brush before I could get a complete look. But just one part was enough. The long slender tail curved up was all the evidence needed to determine I had just caught a fleeting glimpse of a cougar. It was my first such experience after decades of roaming around the B.C. backcountry. My timing in this case could not have been better. The gravel road was rife with snowshoe hares, apparently near ...Wendy Nordvik-Carr 125 days ago
Larry Pynn writes: There have been a lot of stories generated in newsrooms across North America about B.C.'s Flathead Valley. The beauty of the place, the ecological importance, the threats posed by development. But not a lot of hands-on reporting in the field. I plan to change that starting Tuesday, when I take part in a multi-day hike through the remote Flathead wilderness of southeastern B.C. (photo credit: Harvey Locke) I'll be travelling with a group that includes Harvey Locke, a Calgary lawyer turned conservationist who now is vice-president of the Wild Foundation in Colorado, and Pat Morrow, the B.C. photographer- adventurer who earned headlines in 1986 when he became the first person to hike the tallest summits on seven continents. The Flathead Valley has been a contentious place for years now. Environmental groups want the B.C. government to halt plans for coal mining and in the region, and have enlisted support from U.S. politicians in the process. ...larry pynn 387 days ago
Anyone who believes in catch and release, and the sanctity of even a single fish's life, had best avoid a commercial trawl vessel. I spent two days aboard a federal research trawler, the W.E. Ricker, off the west coast of Vancouver Island for The Vancouver Sun's Shifting Seas series and saw a lot of fish and invertebrate marine life scooped up by the bottom trawl net -- and a lot that went back into the ocean dead. A report by Fisheries and Oceans Canada shows that the B.C. trawl fleet tosses millions of kilograms of perfectly good fish overboard every year because it was easier than seeing the particular species to market. The marketable fish are counted against the industry's quotas, so in that sense some might argue they are sustainable. But that kind of wastage is surely unacceptable, and evidence the trawl industry still has a ways to go. For a closer look at what goes overboard -- dead or alive -- read the federal report for yourself. It will make you think twice ...
larry pynn 395 days ago
Wait a minute. Who is that slipping through the locked gate to the Grouse Grind past the 4:30 pm closing time? None other than Environment Minister Barry Penner, looking for some fresh air after attending a wind turbine conference in downtown Vancouver. There is a spring in his step, too. He got married over the Thanksgiving weekend to fellow Chilliwack resident Daris LaPointe in sunshine atop a snowy patch of alpine on Dry Ridge in Manning Provincial Park. For the record, after one hour slogging it up the grind, I beat him to the top by a few steps, just like Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
