Uncategorized – Yellow Point Ecological Society

Cable Bay Lands (West Side) Public Hearing

Greetings!

This Thursday evening April 16th 2026 is very big for the lands around the much-loved Cable Bay Trail.

Nanaimo City Council is holding a Public Hearing starting at 7pm after which they will vote on a zoning bylaw to change the status of the lands WEST of the trail from Rural Resource (AR1) to Heavy Industry.

The lands EAST of the trail are not up for discussion, but it’s important that we tell council they MUST be protected, one way or another.

The lands on the west side are owned by Nanaimo Forest Products Limited (NFPL), who have proposed industrial lots as close as 50 m from the trail.

In-Person Submissions: Anyone who attends the Public Hearing can speak for up to 3 minutes. The protocol for these events is no clapping, and no calling out. Hand-held signs are allowed. And please be respectful – insults and anger will backfire, and give us all a bad name. Come prepared to be there until 11pm.

If there are still people at the mic at 11pm, the meeting will be adjourned, and continue next Wednesday, April 22nd, in the same place.

You can speak twice, after others have spoken, but you woud be wise to state that your second presentation brings new information.

Written submissions must be provided by 2pm April 16, to ensure they are received by Council:

ONLINE: Submit written comments directly through the City’s website at www.nanaimo.ca/publichearing or by email to public.hearing@nanaimo.ca

MAIL: City of Nanaimo, Planning & Development, 455 Wallace Street, Nanaimo BC, V9R 5J6, headed ‘550 Phoenix Way Rezoning”

BY DROPBOX: : Deposit in the drop box outside the Service and Resource Centre, a11 Dunsmuir Street.

What should we be saying?

There are two approaches, and most people are supporting one or the other. Diversity is important. Everyone’s thoughts are valid. There is no “right” or wrong”.

One approach is that we need to protect these ecosystems and

make the entire area a park for all to enjoy. 21,000 people have signed a Petition requesting that the area become a park, and most of the written submissions support this simple “Say NO” approach to development of any kind.

The other approach is being taken by those who accept that the land was agreed on as “industrial” in the city’s Official Community Plan, after a lot of public engagement, and that there’s a strong will within council to approve rezoning to heavy industrial (I-4), because there is a shortge of such land in the area. This group of people are arguing for a delay, however, and a subsequent improvement of the rezoning bylaw, because (among other things):

(a) the proposed zoning bylaw has been badly crafted, and has internal contradictions. For example, the environmental report says “no net water loss”, which would require pervious surfaces, while the Site Servicing report requires a single perimeter drain to catch water run-off, which would badly imact the forest alongside the Cable Bay Trail;
(b) engagement with the Snuneymux First Nation is incomplete;
(c) the proposed buffer zone next to the trail is “average 100 metres”, and only 50 metres right next to the trail. It should be a firm 100 metres or more;
(d) the plan allows for the cutting of 7,390 trees and their replacement with 9x seedlings. The Sensitive Ecosystems Development Permit Area (DPA) that covers the land only allows for the felllng of 4 trees without special consent. Once cut, the land will be taken over by invasive broom, which is almost impossible to eradicate, and becomes a fire risk;
(e) the staff report on the health and other impacts of heavy industrial air and water pollution that council voted for has not been completed;
(f) the potential to write a Climate Action Development Permit Area for the land has not even been considered. This would enable some degree of control over future activities on the land, and the development of a more envirtonmentally friendly approach to development, minimizing the felling of trees, among other things. See here and here

The Agenda for the Public Hearing is here: https://pub-nanaimo.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=0a021b08-0b06-40cb-940a-5d501abdef3e&Agenda=Agenda&lang=English

The filed paperwork for the project is here (scroll down): https://www.nanaimo.ca/whatsbuilding/Folder/RA000503

The Staff report is here: https://www.nanaimo.ca/whatsbuilding/Files/RA000503/RPT_C260323RA503_950PhoenixWay_AgendaCopy.pdf

The rezoning site plan is here: https://www.nanaimo.ca/whatsbuilding/Files/RA000503/ra503%20Plan_Site%20Survey%20REV%2024OCT24.pdf

The Aquaparian Environmental Assessment of the land is here: https://www.nanaimo.ca/whatsbuilding/Files/RA000503/ra503%20Rpt_Environmental%20Assessment%20REV%2026MAR16_Redacted.pdf

The Public Submissions received so far are here:https://www.nanaimo.ca/docs/property-development/development-applications/public-hearing-docs—ongoing/ra503-950-phoenix-way—submissions_redacted.pdf

At the time of writing, there are 194 submissions: 192 opposed, only 2 in favour. The Snuneymuxw First Nation has written a strongly worded letter opposing the rezoning because they are in the middle of an engagement process with the City to resolve significant issues regarding the lands, and this process is NOT complete.

Nanaimo’s “what happens?” sheet on Public hearings is here: https://www.nanaimo.ca/docs/cannabis/crs-public-hearing-information-sheet.pdf

We hope to see you on Thursday!

The YES BioBlitz 2026

Welcome to the 2026 YES BioBlitz

You can sign up here YESBioBlitz2026 under the community menu.

(When you are logged-in to iNaturalist. )

Why join?

This is a valuable community science event which collects data, which supports research and policy maker to protect our environment. Check out how your data makes a difference here. It is also a great opportunity to develop a local community of people who understand and care for the environment.

Leave it to Beavers

By Pamela Walker, Take 5 Magazine, November 2025

There are many strange facts about beavers that we Canadians should know just … because. No one has probably seen a nickel lately, but the nation’s animal has graced the coin since 1937.

Beavers are known mostly for their logging expertise. They can fell a 5” diameter tree in three minutes according to Frontenac News.

Who are our Local Green Champions?

In partnership with Take 5 Magazine, we – the Yellow Point Ecological Society (YES) – are launching a quest to find our Green Champions, and give them the recognition they deserve in the April issue of Take 5.

If you know someone who deserves recognition, please nominate them. Send a 250 words description of their work to yellowpoint2020@gmail.com, along with their name, address, phone, email, and their willingness to be nominated, by Monday March 10th, 2025 (midnight)

Our boundaries are the Take 5 readership area, from Crofton in the south to Cable Bay and Jack Point in the north, from the ocean in the east to the mountains in the west. As for Duncan, Nanaimo, and Gabriola – we encourage you to organize your own Green Champions awards!

If there are published stories that reference their work, so much the better – please include the links. If you want to nominate your husband, son, or step-niece twice removed by your second marriage, best find someone else to nominate them. If two or three of you want to nominate someone together, so much the better.

Do you know a teacher, professor, or school board trustee who goes out of their way to share their love of nature with their students?

Do you know perhaps a local business owner who makes a special effort to minimize waste, avoid harmful emissions, and make a difference on the Earth?

Is there a planner, engineer, city councillor, or Regional Director who you know to be a champion for nature? Perhaps even a Mayor?

Maybe you know an Indigenous person or elder who understands the importance of our connection with nature, and goes out of their way to share their knowledge.

Maybe there’s a volunteer who loves a particular place that is threatened with harm, perhaps due to real estate development or logging, and is working to save it.

Or is there someone who works with children, getting them out into the woods, getting them familiar with the mosses, lichens, and caterpillars, the worms and bugs who live in the soil, the trees and plants, and the birds with whom we share our home?

Maybe you know a farmer who cares about nature on the farm, who goes out of their way to protect nesting birds, to set aside special areas, and grow food without spreading toxic chemicals on the land.

Maybe you know someone who protects nature silently as an investor, avoiding companies that harm nature and investing instead in ventures that restore and protect nature and the climate.

Maybe there’s an author, a children’s book writer, a singer, artist, or a magician who uses their skill to weave inspirational magic and make people fall in love with nature.

Or maybe you know a scientist who is working to help us better understand the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis, or the mysteries of plant consciousness.

And maybe there’s a fisher or a marine biologist who treasures the ocean, who goes out of their way to keep the plastic trash and fishing gear out of the sea.

The judging panel will be the Board of YES, so none of us or our immediate family can be nominated. Sorry, Uncle Jim! The award will be a feature in April issue of Take 5, and a mystery recognition yet to be revealed. Instead of April Fool’s Day, it will be Nature’s Jewels Day. If there’s a business that would like to sponsor this yet-to-be-revealed ceremony, please let us know.

The deadline for nominations is Monday March 10th.

Send them to yellowpoint2020@gmail.com. Thankyou!

The small print:

The Directors of YES are not eligible to be nominated.

Water Solutions in Yellow Point and Cedar

In December 2023 YES hosted a packed house at North Oyster Community Hall for our evening on Water Solutions for Yellow Point and Cedar.

Here are the speakers’ slides:

Sylvia Barosso – YES to Water Solutions: Understanding and Protecting Groundwater. Click HERE

Jack Anderson – Improving Sustainable Water Options. Click HERE

Quentin Goodbody –

The YES BioBlitz 2023

Friday April 28th to Monday May 1st

Welcome to the 2023 YES BioBlitz!

A BioBlitz is when ordinary folks wander out into the local woods and wetlands, looking for as many different species of plant, animal, bird and fungus as we can, and take a photo, using the iNaturalist app. When lots of us to it over a short period, it gives us a snap-shot of how Nature is doing.

Please encourage people to participate! There’s a poster here that you can print, and put up in your local area. Keep on reading, below!

Friday April 28^th – Monday May 1^st – take pictures of wild fungi, plants and animals

Tuesday May 2^nd – Sunday May 7^th – upload and identify the species in iNaturalist

Results will be announced by May 14^th and prizes chosen by the end of May.

To participate in the BioBlitz, you need:

A free I-Naturalist account or app;
A smart phone or camera to capture images or sounds;
A smart phone or computer to upload images or sounds

4. Go to YES BioBlitz 2023 (it does not work using Safari). Create an account, or log in if you have one.

5. Top right, click “Join”

6. If you still have questions, message us in iNaturalist or email us at yesbioblitz@gmail.com. If you want to chat, leave your number and we will call back.

The area for the Bioblitz includes Ladysmith, South Nanaimo, Cassidy, and our coastal waters to the east as shown on the map below. We are looking at adding more area south of this and will update the site if successful. Note there are many public parks where you can explore and there are reserves and private lands, where you need permission.

All photos and recordings taken during the designated dates and times (6 AM on April 28^th to 8 PM on May 1^st) in our geographical location will count towards our YES BioBlitz. Of course everything entered in I-Naturalist outside this time-frame is also valuable!

This year’s prizes will be sets of 10 nature cards by the Salt Spring naturalist and artist Briony Penn.

There are great resources on iNaturalist on how to participate as a school group, how to take photos which can be identified, and how to use iNaturalist.

Other projects in our area

Invasive Species and Native Plants

During 2021 and 2022, YES volunteers cleared a large patch of invasive ivy that was taking over the heart of Hemer Park, and restored it with native plants.

A Green Burial Cemetery

There is a lot of local interest in finding land where we could establish a natural/green burial site in the Yellow Point and Cedar area.

This would satisfy a spiritual need for people who wanted their remains to to rest in the arms of a forest, and an ecological need by protecting an area of forest that might otherwise have been cut down.

To learn more, we invited Cathy Valentine from the Salt Spring Island Natural Cemetery to make an evening presentation, and help us to learn how we could remember a loved-one in a forest that would over time become a towering old-growth forest.

If you are interested, and if you know land that might be suitable, please contact Pamela Walker, 250-245-9155

YES Videos

Green Burial – Learning from Salt Spring

Conservation Communities: Can They Help Save Our Local Forests?

The Nanaimo Watershed – How Can We Protect and Restore It?

Invasive Plants on Vancouver Island – What Can We Do?

The Joy of Wild Salmon, with Alexandra Morton

The Mushrooms of British Columbia

Save the Cable Bay Trail Area – What’s Happening?

What’s Happening at Fairy Creek?

The Case for a Multi-Purpose Yellow Point Trail

Welcome to the Koksilah Watershed, with Heather Pritchard

Wild About Gardening: Creating a Landscape that Welcomes Wildlife, with Claudia Copley

Why Landscape Context Matters in Wetland Conservation, with Elke Cole

Cultivating a Relationship with Nature, with Jain Alcock White

Briony Penn, Author, Artist and Naturalist

How Can We Protect The Forest on Private Land?

2023 Events

Saturday April 22, 5pm YES AGM

Wednesday April 12 , 7pm Sharp-tailed Snakes and other Reptiles of Vancouver Island & Gulf Islands

Join us as the Yellow Point Ecological Society and the Nanaimo & Area Land Trust host biologists Carrina Maslovat and Laura Matthias for a presentation on Sharp-tailed Snake conservation efforts in our region.

Sharp-tailed snakes are a Species at Risk threatened primarily due to habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. Previously thought to be found only in the Gulf Islands, the southern tip of Vancouver Island and one small area of the mainland in Pemberton, sharp-tailed snakes were recently found in the Cedar area.

Find out more about this interesting species, the conservation efforts to protect them, and what you can do to help. They will also talk about other reptiles with whom we share our local habitat.