Kokanee salmon population explodes in Okanagan Lake with biggest spawn in quarter century

OKANAGAN - It’s a record year for Kokanee salmon spawning on Okanagan Lake. Jason Webster, a Vernon-based fisheries biologist, says more than 300,000 shore spawners were counted during this year’s annual survey — the most in more than 25 years. “It’s turning into a cyclical thing where every four years there’s a great big run,...

Thousands of Thompson-Okanagan renters mired in affordable housing crisis, new index says

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - About a quarter of all renters in the Thompson-Okanagan are facing an affordable housing crisis, according to a new study. The new Canadian Rental Housing Index is an interactive map which offers a snapshot of rental housing conditions across the country. You can search by city or electoral area riding, and find the...

Study approved to decide locations for smelly composting facilities

PENTICTON - A curbside program to collect kitchen and other organic waste for recycling into compost is moving forward with a study to figure out the best locations for processing facilities. The Regional District Okanagan Similkameen approved the siting study after receiving a Green Municipal Fund Grant for up to half the total budget required...

Self harm among Okanagan youth higher than rest of province

OKANAGAN – The results of a province-wide survey on the health of B.C. adolescents shows that young people in the Okanagan are more likely to participate in activities that risk their health than teens in the rest of the province. The study was conducted by the McCreary Centre Society and looked at survey responses from...

Cherryville residents feeling ‘bullied’ by B.C. Timber Sales over controversial logging operation

CHERRYVILLE - A North Okanagan Regional District director says his community feels its interests in further studying impacts of a contentious logging operation is being ignored by the provincial government. Equipment crews rolled into Cherryville Monday to start building a road in the Cherry Ridge area, where B.C. Timber Sales intends to log 190 hectares...

Winfield man’s last four months were out of this world

EARTH - A Lake Country man has been to Mars — the simulated version anyway. Ross Lockwood, a PhD candidate in condensed matter physics at the University of Alberta, hails from Winfield but has spent the last four months in a NASA built simulation centre on the slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii....

Kelowna isn’t as fat as the rest of the country

KELOWNA – Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s the abundance of recreational opportunities, but a report released by Statistics Canada Wednesday names Kelowna as the least obese city in the country. Participants in the study, conducted between 2003 and 2012, were asked their height and weight and the numbers were adjusted to factor in misrepresentation...