After hospital transfer, Valley must confront moral issues
The Comox Valley’s sparkling new North Island Hospital opens this weekend, resplendent with the latest medical technology and designed to inspire happiness and hope. It’s a joyous occasion. But with every yang, there’s also a yin. The bright new government-run secular...
Norma Morton remembers how Hollyhock Flats got its name
When Project Watershed and the K’omoks First Nation partnership finish restoring the former Field’s Sawmill site, an important piece of the K’omoks estuary will return to its natural state, a saltwater marsh. The partners have decided to name the newly preserved...
Hollyhock Flats in the Courtenay Estuary — the essay
It was this essay, written in 1966 by Sid Belsom, a member of the original Comox Strathcona Natural History Society, that gave Hollyhock Flats it's name. We urge readers to follow the article to the end. The first three and the last seven paragraphs are particularly...
Exclusive images of Field’s Sawmill after it closed
After the timber company Interfor closed Field’s Sawmill in 2004, they authorized Merville photographer Tim Penney to document what remained of the iconic Courtenay business. Penney visited the site in November 2005 and captured images with Nikon D100 and D200 cameras...
Project Watershed, K’omoks First Nations to restore sawmill site
There was a time when diners at The Old House restaurant used to gaze across the Courtenay River toward Field’s Sawmill, and consider the nonstop activity of moving and milling large logs an additional delight. As they ate, more than 160 workers operated heavy...
11 Interesting facts about the history of Field’s Sawmill
#1 — The Field family — father Clarence and sons Ron and Roy — founded the original sawmill in 1947 on the site of Arden Elementary. The original property in the Arden area was owned by William Duncan. He built a barn and the building that became the original Fields...
Press Release from Project Watershed, K’omoks First Nation
MEDIA RELEASE September 12, 2017 The Comox Valley Project Watershed Society and K'ómoks First Nation announce deal to purchase the Field’s Sawmill Site (Kus-kus-sum) (Comox Valley, BC) The Comox Valley Project Watershed Society and the K'ómoks First Nation have...
Will common sense prevail in the Comox Valley?
That the Courtenay-Comox Sewage Commission shelved its multi-million dollar sewerage project this summer comes as no surprise. For nearly two years, Comox Valley citizens have implored the commission and regional district engineers to consider less expensive and more...
Shocker for homeowners: no protection for private wells
If you get drinking water from a private well British Columbia, the provincial government provides no protection from any activities that might foul your water quality. Sylvia Burrosa, the regional hydrologist for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource...
How one former educator views new technology in schools
By Brent Reid While teaching journalism and information technology for several years in a networked computer environment with Internet and email access at every workstation, I learned a lot about how to use powerful, but potentially distracting, electronic devices to...
Here’s a novel idea: politicians working together
I'm amused and somewhat disappointed at all the hand-wringing about the imminent British Columbia minority government. Since the May 9 election that gave no single party a majority of seats in the B.C. Legislature, political pundits, former elected officials and...
Moving on to battle climate change, without Trump
The difference couldn’t be more striking. In his second inaugural address, former U.S. President Barack Obama said this: “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations … We cannot...