Latest news with #JuanDeFuca


National Post
22-05-2025
- Politics
- National Post
FIRST READING: Non-Indigenous visitors being turned away from B.C. public parks
Article content First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post's own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here. Article content Article content TOP STORY Article content In what critics say is a template of things to come, B.C. has begun closing public parks to non-Indigenous residents citing 'cultural concerns.' Article content This week, the B.C. government announced that Botanical Beach — a popular spot along the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail — would be closed for 24 hours over the May 24 weekend 'to provide time, space and privacy for members of the Pacheedaht First Nation to harvest marine resources and reconnect with an important part of their territory.' Article content Article content This follows on a series of similar closure of Joffre Lakes Provincial Park, one of the busiest recreational spots in the province. Article content Article content From April 25 until May 16, non-Indigenous usage of the park is banned, and 'more temporary closures are anticipated' reads an April 25 bulletin by B.C.'s Ministry of the Environment and Parks. Article content The closures are to 'provide time and space for members of the Líl̓wat Nation and N͛Quatqua to reconnect with the land and carry out cultural and spiritual practices,' it reads. Article content The first, in 2023, occurred when the nearby Líl̓wat and N'Quatqua First Nations unilaterally barred public access to the park for more than five weeks. Article content 'In this time of reconciliation, Lil'wat Nation and N'Quatqua First Nation are asserting our Title and Rights to our shared unceded territory to take this time to harvest and gather our resources within our territories,' read a statement telling the B.C. public they would be barred access to the park from Aug. 23 'until National Truth and Reconciliation Day' (Sept. 30). Article content Article content When the Joffre Lakes closure was given official government sanction in 2024, B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman notably stressed that the action would not be a template for future closures of parks to non-Indigenous users. Article content Article content 'There is no universal policy,' Heyman said at the time, adding that Joffre Lakes was only being closed because of a 'distinction-based approach.' Article content In a statement to National Post, the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Parks said 'these temporary closures represent a critical step forward on the path of reconciliation and an important building block for future conversations on shared stewardship, park management and access.' Article content In addition to the Botanical Beach and Joffre Lakes shutdowns, B.C. has also seen a series of federally run recreation areas closed to public usage, with authorities also citing cultural concerns.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Underwater Pacific volcano expected to erupt. What would that mean for WA?
If you've never heard of the Axial Seamount, you'd be forgiven. But the underwater volcano has made national news recently after research suggested it is likely nearing its first eruption in 10 years. The mountain is located around 300 miles off the northern Oregon coast, where the Pacific and Juan de Fuca plates meet — 4,600 feet below the surface. 'It's on an ocean spreading center, which is on one side of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, and the other side is the side that's subducting beneath the subduction zone,' William Wilcock, a University of Washington professor researching the volcano, told McClatchy in a phone call. The volcano has erupted three times since 1998, with the most recent one in 2015. Recently, researchers have noticed that magma build-up has caused the volcano to inflate to near the levels seen in previous eruptions. 'The model that Bill Chadwick, who's at Oregon State University, and Scott Nooner at North Carolina, Wilmington, they basically observed… So there have been eruptions in 1998, 2011 and 2015. And they noted that the eruption in 2011 occurred at about the same amount of inflation,' Wilcock said. If the theory is correct, it will provide insight into how researchers can predict other volcanic eruptions, Wilcock said. 'Why this volcano is interesting is the magma chamber beneath the volcano is pretty shallow. It's less than a mile deep… I think this volcano behaves in a more simple way than other volcanoes. So I think other volcanoes, they're not as predictable like this,' Wilcock said. Another key indicator of when the volcano will erupt is seismic activity. At the time of a UW news release in late April, the volcano was seeing around 200 to 300 earthquakes a day on average, with that number reaching 1,000 some days. That's well below the 2,000 earthquake-a-day average that it was seeing in the lead-up to its last eruption, and Wilcock said there's actually been a decrease in seismic activity. 'That's actually gone down a little bit down to more like between 100 to 200 a day at the moment, but it varies from week to week,' Wilcock said. According to Wilcock, he expects the number of earthquakes a day to reach 500 before the volcano erupts. 'Over that six months, the number increased from basically 500 a day to 2,000 a day,' Wilcock said. 'And so we're not at 2000 a day at the moment, but then it was inflating at two feet a year. Now it's inflating more slowly. So we might not expect quite as many, but I think I would expect at least 500 a day.' According to Wilcock, experts expect the volcano to erupt sometime this year or next year, but that it's difficult to pinpoint exactly when 'I think, based on the seismicity, we think it might be a little further away than the other predictions… But I think everybody would say that if it's not going to go this year, it's probably next year,' Wilcock said. While a volcanic eruption and thousands of earthquakes a day off the coast of northern Oregon might sound frightening, Wilcock said the volcano is too far away from land for its effects to be noticeable. 'These earthquakes are really small,' Wilcock said. 'They're magnitude twos and threes. It's a very small effect, and so it's not going to have any impact in the subduction zone 300 miles away.' Additionally, seismic activity around the volcano isn't linked to seismic activity on land, so it isn't expected to trigger any earthquakes in Washington or Oregon. It will have an effect on the marine ecosystem, but Wilcock said that the impacted species will recover quickly. 'When it erupts, you know, many of those are many of those, the bigger organisms we kill, but they will repopulate pretty quickly,' Wilcock said. 'Then the nutrients that come out of the volcano are actually very good for the microbial community.'