Revelstoke Mountaineer Podcast

Councillor Nicole Cherlet is the chairperson of a committee looking into plans to revitalize Grizzly Plaza, Revelstoke's downtown gathering space. She reached out to revelstokemountaineer.com to speak about the project. Here's our late May, 2022 interview with Coun. Cherlet.

The Revelstoke Food bank is hosting a spring Fill the Van food drive on June 3, 2022, and also hosting a grand opening event for their new community kitchen and food bank. In this podcast, we spoke with Revelstoke Food Bank staff members Hannah Whitney, Community Food and Outreach Coordinator, and Erin MacLachlan, Co-director of Community Outreach and Development. The interview focuses on an update on the food bank since the start of the pandemic, when usage spiked. We looked at trends in the past couple of years, which include increasing systemic inequality in the community, incomes not keeping up with cost of living, and the food bank's efforts to eliminate barriers and dismantle stigma. For more, see our story published May 24 on revelstokemountaineer.com.

The B.C. government's ongoing strategic review of old growth forest practices in the province has generated considerable interest in Revelstoke, an area whose harvesting and milling sector has significant dependence on old growth forests. In November, 2021, the provincial government announced another round of temporary deferrals of old growth harvesting in B.C. It followed an announcement of regional old growth deferrals in the Incomappleaux Valley area in September, 2020. In addition, there have been several protests in the Revelstoke region, including a forest service road blockade in the Apring In April of this year, the B.C. government updated on its progress to reach agreements with First Nations governments on its old growth review plans. In late April following the announcement, we reached out to Nick Arkle, CEO of the Gorman Group, which operates Selkirk Cedar and Downie Timber Ltd. in Revelstoke. In an audio interview that spans just under 30 minutes, we sought Downie's perspectives on the B.C. po

After calls, emails, DMs, and many outreach attempts to current Kootenay-Columbia MP, Rob Morrison (Conservative), were met with silence, we reached out to the past two MPs for comment. In this interview, former Kootenay-Columbia MP, Wayne Stetski (NDP), discusses Morrison's non-responsiveness and his actions during the past weeks, which have seen a convoy to Ottawa, which Morrison supported, and a blockade at Coutts, Alberta, which Morrison, a former RCMP officer, also retweeted support for. Later, 13 were arrested and four charged with conspiracy to commit murder, which police say targeted at RCMP officers. In this Feb. 18, 2022 interview, Stetski reacts to Morrison's ongoing actions as MP, and discusses current events in Canada. This interview is one of two with former Kootenay-Columbia MPs, the other on Feb. 16 with former Kootenay-Columbia MP, David Wilks (Conservative).

After many attempts over the past weeks to reach Kootenay-Columbia MP, Rob Morrison (Conservative), for an interview on unfolding events in B.C. and Ottawa, former Kootenay-Columbia MP David Wilks (Conservative), now Mayor of the District of Sparwood, replied to a tweet at Morrison that we had tagged him in. He agreed to sit for an interview to discuss current affairs in the riding and Canada. Here is our Feb. 16, 2022 interview with Mayor Wilks, who, like Morrison, is a former RCMP officer. This interview is one of a pair of interviews with former Kootenay-Columbia MPs. The next with Wayne Stetski (NDP), who defeated Wilks in Kootenay-Columbia in 2015. Stetski then lost the riding to Morrison in 2019. The interview touches on security issues posed by the ongoing protests, including the Coutts blockade and the involvement of far-right groups in the protest movement.

Protesters opposed to pandemic-related restrictions and other issues gathered on the Trans-Canada Highway in Revelstoke on Feb. 12, 2022, a day that saw continued protests in Ottawa and blockades at blockades at border crossings in Ontario, Alberta, and B.C. To cover the story, we opted for an audio format, producing this Revelstoke Mountaineer Podcast episode and you can see further reporting on the protest on revelstokemountaineer.com. The protesters are mistrustful of the media, saying so many times in our interviews, so we told the protesters we’d be doing roughly five-minute audio interviews with each, then we'd them together into the podcast. We spoke to four protesters: Shawn Sanders, who was one of the leaders of the protest, volunteered to go first. After that, protester Renee Shaw, who was dancing energetically and waving iridescent costume wings next to the highway, was quick to volunteer next. After that interview, we addressed part of the crowd, asking for volunteers. Michael Ferrera, who w

In our latest Revelstoke Mountaineer podcast, Aaron Orlando of revelstokemountaineer.com interviews BC Greens leader Sonia Furstenau for a long-form interview covering the topics of B.C.'s COVID-19 response, old-growth logging deferrals and long-term policy, and the ongoing recovery process for mountain caribou.

We checked in with Queen Victoria Hospital physician Dr. Vikki Haines about what staff are experiencing at Revelstoke's local hospital during the Omicron wave.

The Omicron wave arose in Revelstoke sometime in the first half of December, 2021, and now is experiencing the highest COVID-19 case rates out of any Local Health Area in B.C. since the pandemic started. We spoke with Interior Health Medical Health Officer, Dr. Karin Goodison, about the situation here in Revelstoke and Interior Health's response to Omicron since testing demand started to spike on Dec. 15, 2021.

Revelstoke Mayor Gary Sulz appears on the Revelstoke Mountaineer podcast to talk about Revelstoke's long-delayed by election following a councillor resignation in January. Revelstokemountaineer.com has critically questioned the delay in three stories and updates starting on Sept. 23. For background on this story, see our reporting here: https://www.revelstokemountaineer.com/elections-bc-contradicts-city-of-revelstoke-explanation-for-by-election-delay/

Schools are set to reopen in Revelstoke and B.C. in September amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, creating numerous big challenges for those responsible for overseeing and organizing the reopening plans. Like with many things COVID-19, the situation is fluid and information is updated on a daily basis, adding more complexity to the situation. The B.C. government has published its Back to School Plan, and there have been supplemental updates, such as this August 17 update on mask protocols. For an update on the process in Revelstoke, we spoke with Mike Hooker, the Superintendent of School District No. 19. In this audio interview, Hooker outlined some of the plans so far, and also provides information on how students and parents can keep up to date on the developing plan.

In this podcast for revelstokemountaineer.com, Doug Donaldson, the B.C. Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, and Rural Development, joins host Aaron Orlando to discuss plans for a small heli-access lodge on Mount Begbie, the ongoing mountain caribou recovery herd planning process, and calls for land use planning in the Revelstoke area. Recorded July 30, 2020.

The City of Revelstoke recently completed its Official Community Plan (OCP) vision statement update process. We spoke with Marianne Wade, Director of Development Services for the City of Revelstoke, for an update on the OCP. We explored what's happened so far and what comes next, with a focus on community participation in the process.

A recent spike in COVID-19 cases in July in Interior Health has brought the virus transmission prevention part of the overall pandemic story to the fore once again. We reached out to Dr. Sue Pollock, the Interim Chief Medical Health Officer for Interior Health, to talk about what's been happening in the region and what that means for Revelstoke.

FortisBC spokesperson Sean Beardow gives an update on propane service restoration in Revelstoke as of Friday. On Tuesday, Oct. 22, an excavator struck an underground gas line, knocking out service to 900 individual metres in Revelstoke. As of Friday morning, about 90 are still without power

Revelstoke Mayor Gary Sulz discusses staff departures, including the announced resignation of the city's chief administrative officer and director of engineering last week.

In this long-format interview, caribou researcher Dr. Rob Serrouya discusses the results of a large-scale study of woodland caribou, including in the Revelstoke area, that looked at 'adaptive management' as a tool for aiding recovery. He was the lead researcher on a paper that was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)entitled, Saving endangered species using adaptive management. His study was closely intertwined with ongoing government caribou recovery efforts and provides insight into ongoing caribou recovery actions on the ground, as well as potential future options. For more on this subject, see our story on revelstokemountaineer.com or in the June 2019 issue of Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine.

North Columbia Environmental Society director Sarah Newton on the Revelstoke environmental organization's 2018 request to the federal environment minister for an emergency stop to logging in old growth in the Revelstoke area designed to aid endangered mountain caribou.

Revelstoke-based Downie Timber plant manager Angus Woodman discusses the federal/provincial caribou recovery plan in advance of the April 15, 2019 consultation session in Revelstoke.

Revelstoke mayor Gary Sulz discusses the April 15, 2019 B.C. government caribou recovery plan consultation session in Revelstoke. He spoke of a need for community groups to put a face to their group's concerns, and the community's need to have a seat at the table during future caribou management discussions.