Come out to celebrate our beautiful creeks on the Sunshine Coast! We will have lots of fun activities! We plan on having kids activities, Information tables, beach cleanup and planting native plants!! Please bring gloves and wear solid outdoor boots! #SaveRSalmon #MotherEarth #WorldRiversDay2024
Tag: Environment
Rockwood Festival Pavilion: Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts
Aug 15 – 18th. Tickets for the 42nd annual Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts are on sale now. Get the schedule and all the details here.
Our 2024 authors include Carly Butler, Brent Butt, Charlene Carr, Kevin Chong, Sarah Cox, Gregor Craigie, Marion McKinnon Crook, Lorna Crozier, Wade Davis, Tara Sidhoo Fraser, Sam George, Jill Yonit Goldberg, Catherine Hernandez, Jess Housty, Susan Juby, Betty Keller, Deborah Kimmett, Naomi Klein, Grant Lawrence, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Simon Paradis, Waubgeshig Rice, David Roche, Kara Stanley, Iona Whishaw, Howard White and Shelley Wood—PLUS esteemed moderators Mo Amir, Megan Cole and Andreas Schroeder, and musical guest Jill Barber.
Car Free on Cowrie!
Join us on Cowrie Street in downtown Sechelt for our first-ever Car Free on Cowrie Day! Bike, walk, skate or take transit to enjoy live music by local band The Hook as well as food trucks, games, sidewalk sales at our local shops, and other fun activities.
Music for Endangered Forests Presets: Matthew Lovegrove & Andrew Bate
Performing acoustic instrumentals, ambient loops, and folk songs rooted in the natural world, Matthew Lovegrove from folk songs joined by multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bate on drums and electronics filled with melodic loops and percussion.
In support of Elphinstone Logging Focus’s (ELF) ongoing campaign to stop logging in the Elphinstone Water Protection Forest. The Concerts take place in the Oxygen Trail Forest and next to the babbling brook, Stephens Creek, that flows through Roberts Creek / xwesam to the ocean. Directions on FB page here.
By donation
Soil to Stage Production Parties: Fresh Leaf Indigo Dyeing
with The Only Animal & The Sunshine Coast Fibreshed
Meet others who are passionate about slow craft and the environment and get oriented on the Sunshine Coast Fibreshed’s fibre processing equipment, which is available for loan to members. Yes – you can make things from your yard waste and textile scraps, not to mention fleece from local sheep!
All events are FREE with materials provided.
And mark your calendars:
Soil to Stage Finale, August 18, 10 am – 5 pm @ Sunshine Coast Arts Centre. Featuring music and stories by Toni-Leah C. Yake, Meredith Bates, Martin Reisle, Lara Aysal, Brenda Leadlay + fibre skills shares and public weaving.
Soil to Stage Production Parties: Processing Raw Fleece
with The Only Animal & The Sunshine Coast Fibreshed
Meet others who are passionate about slow craft and the environment and get oriented on the Sunshine Coast Fibreshed’s fibre processing equipment, which is available for loan to members. Yes – you can make things from your yard waste and textile scraps, not to mention fleece from local sheep!
All events are FREE with materials provided.
And mark your calendars:
Soil to Stage Finale, August 18, 10 am – 5 pm @ Sunshine Coast Arts Centre. Featuring music and stories by Toni-Leah C. Yake, Meredith Bates, Martin Reisle, Lara Aysal, Brenda Leadlay + fibre skills shares and public weaving.
Art Exhibition: JEFF WILSON | North By Northwest
Illustrating narratives around the history and life cycles of the North coast of BC, Jeff Wilson’s exhibition is inspired by his time spent immersed in the landscapes of BC’s coast during his 2023 Cassiar Cannery Long Art Residence. The North coast economy has long revolved around natural resource exploitation and trade, leaving the area susceptible to changes largely out of the control of its residents, and creating a particular and unique history of boom and bust economics. Wilson’s large scale acrylic paintings illustrate how this boom and bust pattern expresses itself in a natural and built legacy unique to BC’s coasts.
Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday August 3rd, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
Art Exhibition: SUZAN MARCZAK | Watershed
Watershed explores the primal landscapes of high mountain passes and headwaters, illustrating the awe inspiring yet fragile nature of these water towers and emphasizing the need to protect and preserve them. As life giving water falls as rain or snow it slowly accumulates in mountaintops as glaciers, gathering on the passes to flow as rivers, or collecting in alpine basins to feed small tarns and rills. Through acrylic paintings and 3D models Marczak finds a beauty and poetry in these small beginnings where life giving water falls and life starts, and calls for action to protect these vital resources in the face of climate change.
Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday, August 3rd, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
Sunshine Coast Slow Food Cycle
The Sunshine Coast Slow Food Cycle is a family-friendly event that celebrates local producers and sustainable living by inviting people to go on a self-guided bicycle tour of farms, cideries, craft brewers, and artisans in the Gibsons area. The tour route involves almost 20 kilometres of easy bike riding and features fresh produce, food trucks and stalls, farm animal visits, food samples, two cideries, a distillery, and a beer farm, as well as artisanal goods, a garden maze, and a scavenger hunt. There will also be a wrap-up party at Persephone Brewing that features music from local band Brothers in Farms.
Clam Garden Restoration
Join our NEMO talk on June 6th to hear from Carl Olsen, an Indigenous knowledge holder from the W̱SÁNEĆ (wh-say-nech) nation on Vancouver Island, BC. Carl’s talk will outline the historical significance of clam gardens as a food source and how they are cultivated. He will also discuss past and present clam garden restoration projects, and where these projects are occurring.
Photo Credit: Carl Olsen
Seafloor garbage in the Salish Sea: Taking out the Trash
Join our final NEMO talk in the series where Susan Anthony will talk about the unseen underwater trash that fills up nearshore environments.
Human-made debris enters the water and disappears below the surface. There it stays, smothering the sediment and its organisms, leeching pollutants, and breaking into smaller and smaller pieces, but never going away. SeaChange and its partners have spent the last decade restoring and conserving nearshore habitats, which includes underwater debris removal.
Photo Credit: Susan Anthony
World Oceans Day Celebration!
Attend our in-person World Oceans Day Celebration!
We’ll have live music from DJ Sam Pulpo, lots of fun activities, a free BBQ and a raffle with the chance to win some incredible prizes. Visit booths from organisations including the SCCA, shíshálh youth Cedar Weaving, Herring Enhancement Program, DFO, Oceanwise, Sunshine Coast Streamkeepers, & Sunshine Coast Tourism
Endless gratitude to our partners, donors and sponsors: District of Sechelt, Sunshine Coast Regional District, Sunshine Coast Credit Union, Sunshine Coast Arts Festival, BC Festivals Fairs and Events, The Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition, Vancouver Aquarium, Halfmoon Sea Kayaks, Pastime Games, Sechelt Fish Market, Ocean Club Cafe, Bitter End Marine Traders, Coast Gravity Park & Marinos Independent Grocers.
Film Screening: Deep Rising
Join us on Saturday June 8th after our World Oceans Day celebration BBQ for a film screening of the documentary “Deep Rising” at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre.
Narrated and executive produced by Jason Momoa, Deep Rising takes viewers on an epic journey from the deepest depths of our ocean – the most uncharted and inaccessible place on our planet – to the future of green energy, and shows us how the two are inextricably linked.
Interwoven with awe-inspiring footage of the deep’s most dazzling creatures, Deep Rising illuminates the vital relationship between our ocean’s fragile and mysterious ecosystems, and sustaining all life on Earth.
Please consider making a donation to our “Love our Oceans” campaign at the door
Photo Credit: Deep Rising official photo
Watch Patrick and the Whale
Join us on Sunday June 2nd as we kick off our Sunshine Coast Ocean Festival with a film screening of “Patrick and the Whale” at the Sechelt Arts Centre.
Using stunning underwater footage, Patrick explores the fascinating nature of the sperm whale, attempting to shine a light on its intelligence and complexity, as well as highlighting its current and past relationship with humankind.
NEMO: Coastlines, Community, and Climate Activism: lessons from the ocean
Join us to learn from Fiona Beaty, who will provide a whirlwind tour of some of the Sunshine Coast’s charismatic coastal species, from snails to eelgrass, and inspire audience members to connect with the sea as a form of climate and conservation activism.
Fiona is a settler marine ecologist, climate and conservation activist, and community leader. She is passionate about protecting people and nature from climate change using approaches grounded in collaboration, science, and creativity. She holds a doctorate in Zoology from the University of British Columbia, works as the Science Coordinator for the Indigenous-led MPA Network initiative in the Great Bear Sea, and advises myriad non-profit marine conservation initiatives in Átl’ka7tsem/Howe Sound and the Salish Sea.
Citizen Science in Action!
Dianne Sanford from Friends of Forage Fish will be hosting a hands-on sampling session at Friendship park in Sechelt.
Come down to learn about what we do when we sample the beach for surf smelt and pacific sand lance eggs.
Dianne has been coordinating forage fish sampling on the lower Sunshine Coast for several decades. She works with volunteer citizen scientists to determine sand lance and surf smelt spawning presence at local beaches, information which was previously undocumented. This information is then submitted to a central database for public information.
We will also discuss the importance of these fishes to all of us, and their connection to eelgrass and orcas.
Wear your gumboots. Citizen science in action!
Photo Credit: Dianne Sanford
Pottery and Cooking Kid’s Camp
to July 26. For the month of July, ceramicist Clare Wilkening and chef/restaurateur Cheryl Chang are teaming up to bring something special to the Coast. We want to showcase arts and creativity in all its forms— all around the idea of sharing a meal together. What and how we eat are powerful ways that we interact with each other, our own creativity, and with the ecosystems that we are part of.
Kids camps: In one week together, we will learn to make bowls, plates and other various gardening and food ceramic vessels. We will be sharing tips and tricks on foraging, gardening, making meals, facilitating the connections around the table and exploring other art forms- like painting, weaving, fabric dyeing.
We’ll close out the week with a feast bringing together everything we’ve created and learned. Ca
Marine Impacts of Private Moorage in kalpilin (Pender Harbour)
What are the impacts of private moorage in kalpilin (Pender Harbour)?
Join our NEMO talk on June 3rd to hear from Sacha O’Regan, lead scientist on the M.C. Wright Report. Sacha is a professional biologist who has worked in the realm of freshwater and marine aquatic ecology in BC since 2010.
Docks and other overwater structures are common features along urbanized shorelines. Though these structures can provide commercial and recreational opportunities, they may also have adverse impacts on the marine environment and other coastal land uses. In March 2018, the environmental consulting firm M.C. Wright and Associates Ltd. concluded a two-phase study of dock impacts on the marine environment in Pender Harbour.
Photo Credit: Sacha O’Regan
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