local news: BC suffers in the summer

on the road, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

the start of our slow food cycle ride through Pemberton Meadows two years ago

BC (that's British Columbia aka the west-est bit of Canada to those of you with a hazy grasp of global geography) is currently reeling from its summer dealing of wildfires. The forests round here are so tinder dry that they are literally going up in flames. Some of this is due to lightening strikes but unfortunately the majority are due to human carelessness (and in some cases, deliberate acts). Communities are under evacuation order or choking in smoke. Even Lower Mainland (that's the bit at the bottom left next to the pacific and the US) is under a hazy blanket of smoke/smog. Rain today has been a welcome relief and I hope it's bucketing down in the areas suffering from forest fires.

If it's not burning, it's sliding. A massive landslide occurred to the north of Pemberton early on Friday morning, obliterating a forestry road and blocking a creek outflow. Caused by the melting Capricorn Glacier, this event (the second largest slide in Canadian history) initiated an evacuation order for the Pemberton Valley 65km away due to fears of catastrophic flooding if the artificial dam breached suddenly. The evacuation order has now been removed and residents can return to this beautiful area.


a slideshow of our cycle through Pemberton Meadows during the slow food cycle two years ago