Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
"What we've seen now from the past month of heat is that the high-elevation snow is rapidly depleting," said Jonathan Boyd, a hydrologist with B.C.'s River Forecast Centre. "We're on pace to be the earliest snow-free that the province has recorded. "We've had just a phenomenal melt so far, and where it's a little bit scary is … we're moving into this year in a really precarious position."
Unprecedented high temperatures and wildfires have hit British Columbia's agriculture sector hard this year. Another heat wave is in the forecast this week and the crisis has become a "perfect storm," according to ranchers struggling with skyrocketing winter feed costs, depleted water sources and wildfires. "Our pastures are looking pretty brown right now and we've had about an inch of rain in the last week," said Judy Madden, a Dawson Creek cattle rancher and president of the South Peace Cattlemen's Association. "No one got the rain they needed. The fear here is that we're going to lose a pile of our breeding herd."
