Latest Updates
Ocean Restoration Within a Generation: What’s Possible by 2050?
A scientific review of the world’s oceans published in the scientific journal Nature this past spring concluded that the world’s oceans can be restored within a generation. Through rampant overfishing, pollution and coastal destruction, humanity has inflicted severe damage on the oceans and its inhabitants for centuries. But conservation successes, while still isolated, demonstrate the remarkable resilience of the seas. The scientists say there is now the knowledge to create an ocean...
Summer 2020 Newsletter Now Available
The summer 2020 edition of our twice-yearly newsletter is out, with articles including: #INDIGENOUSLIVESMATTER: Anti-Racism Movement Confronts Generations of Colonial Violence B.C. Fails Test of Indigenous Rights Law: Pipelines Pitted Against Indigenous Title Clayoquot Salmon Roundtable Begins First Ever Marine Risk Assessment #INDIGENOUSLIVESMATTER: Tribal Parks Allies: Local Opportunity for Change. By Tsimka Martin Mining Cleanup to Cost B.C. Taxpayers $1.2 Billion plus updates on our...
2019 Winter Newsletter is here!
The winter 2019-2020 edition of our twice-yearly newsletter is out, with articles including: System Change, Not Climate Change Taking the Street for Climate Justice: Time to Follow the Leadership of the Youth End in Sight for Open Net Salmon Farms in Canada FOCS: 40 Years on the Frontlines of Ancient Rainforest Protection! Indigenous Rights Recognized in BC Law with New Legislation Tribal Parks Allies Celebrates Inaugural Year! Clayoquot Salmon Festival Rocks the Sound in 2019! Imperial Metals...
Clayoquot Salmon Festival Rocks the Sound in 2019!
The 2019 Clayoquot Salmon Festival was a huge success with over 1,000 people participating in 14 events over 9 days of the Festival from August 30th to September 7th! This year’s Festival events included some incredible partnerships: the Mackenzie Beach Clean Up with Surfrider Pacific Rim, a Salmon Monitoring Demonstration with Cedar Coast Field Station, the Centennial Creek Restoration with Central Westcoast Forest Society, a Salmon Forest Walk guided by Raincoast Education Society, a Salmon...
End In Sight for Open Net Salmon Farms in Canada
Canada’s federal election of 2019 marked a turn in the tide for protecting wild salmon. The Liberals, NDP, and Greens, all pledged to transition open net salmon farms on the B.C. coast to closed containment systems. Collectively these political parties can hold the balance of power in Canada’s new minority government. Friends of Clayoquot Sound has been sounding the alarm for decades. Open net pen salmon farming harms wild salmon and ecosystems through disease transmission, parasite...
Tribal Parks Allies Celebrates Inaugural Year!
By Tribal Parks Allies On November 21st, we celebrated the first anniversary of the Tribal Parks Allies Certification Standard. For 35 years, Clayoquot Sound has inspired the world as a case study of successful environmental stewardship and an example of what can be achieved when First Nations and non-Indigenous Allies stand together to protect the lands and waters we all depend on. Over the years, the role of Allies has shifted. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, we relied on our Allies to spread the word...
Indigenous Rights Recognized in B.C. Law with New Legislation
If proposed legislation passes, British Columbia will become the first province in Canada to enact the internationally recognized standards of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (U.N. Declaration) into provincial law. Over time as laws are modified or built, they will be aligned with the U.N. Declaration. Elements of the bill include: A requirement to develop an action plan to meet the objectives of the U.N. Declaration, in collaboration with Indigenous peoples;...
40 Years on the Frontlines of Ancient Rainforest Protection!
Friends of Clayoquot Sound was established in Tofino in 1979 in response to the logging activity on nearby Meares Island. The small group of activists set their sights on protecting Clayoquot Sound’s ancient temperate rainforest as a globally rare ecosystem. In 1984, FOCS joined the Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht First Nations in one of the first logging blockades in Canada to prevent the logging of Meares Island. MacMillan Bloedel held the rights to clear cut 90% of Meares Island at the time. As...
Massive Call for B.C. Government Action Targets Minister on Forests and Climate
Post by Forests For Climate Coalition (40 groups including Friends of Clayoquot Sound) On September 24th, as part of the global week of Climate Strike actions, over a hundred citizens picketed the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. This action received support from major unions, BCGEU and PEA, who instructed members to respect the citizens’ picket lines in solidarity with the global week of Climate Strike. The goal of this action was to expose the undeniable link between bad...
Taking the Streets for Climate Justice: Time to Follow the Leadership of the Youth
Post by Toby Theriault, Age 15, Grade 10 @ Ucluelet Secondary School. “Let me tell you something adults: look around, as youth we are inspired! But we have no voice. 7 million of us and our government is still building a pipeline, the president of the United States thinks this is a hoax, and our oceans are still littered with plastic. Do you know why? As inspired as the youth are, there are still so many things we can’t do. We should make a difference? How? We can’t vote, we don’t buy most of...
System Change, Not Climate Change
During the Government of Canada’s recent election, Justin Trudeau campaigned on a promise of more significant action to fight climate change. He even marched with the Global Climate Strike mobilization in Montreal. Yet Trudeau is still planning to invest billions of taxpayer dollars in the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline expansion without the consent of Indigenous Nations, the B.C. Government, and municipalities like Vancouver, Victoria, Burnaby, and Tofino. The proposed pipeline would...
Protecting What We Love Together: Celebrating the Frontlines of Environmental Conservation Movement Building & Actions for 40 Years!
Together we are rising in the millions to demand the world’s nations protect our Earth home and the web of life that sustains us. People around the planet are resisting corporate profiteering, governmental corruption, human rights abuses, and environmental destruction. We are experiencing this momentum building more than ever with the youth led climate justice movement’s call for immediate action in response to the climate emergency. Friends of Clayoquot Sound (FOCS) have been a grassroots...
Imperial Metals Moves into Skagit Headwaters After No Changes for Mount Polley Disaster
This summer as Justin Trudeau took a taxpayer funded luxury vacation in Tofino, the deadline for the Government of Canada to charge Imperial Metals for the 2014 Mount Polley Mine disaster passed. Inaction, despite the Government of Canada’s own Joint Task Force recommending in the spring that the Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley Mine disaster be charged for design failure negligence. Taxpayers will pay an estimated $100 million for the clean up of the 25 billion litres of toxic mining waste...
Tell Trudeau: Walk the Climate Emergency Talk
Youth all over the world are rising in the millions to demand the world’s nations protect our Earth home and the web of life that sustains us all by taking bold and immediate action to avoid catastrophic climate collapse. Because the world’s scientists are clear: we have less than 11 years to cut our emissions in half while protecting our remaining cultural and biological diversity. Otherwise, we face catastrophic impacts and the climate crisis moving beyond our control. Purchasing the...
You Deal With It: Landslides from Logging in Hesquiaht Harbour
At the northern end of Clayoquot Sound, the big rain events this past winter devastated the territory of Hesquiaht First Nations. The rain events hit Hesquiaht territory hard due to the history of industrial logging in Clayoquot Sound. Since the 1950’s Hesquiaht Harbour has been taken advantage of by numerous logging companies including Interfor, Mamook, Isaak, Western Forest Products, and MacMillan Bloedel. The mass deforestation that has occurred in Hesquiaht territory has effectively...
