The West Kootenay’s snowpack is falling below record-low levels as the warm, dry winter weather continues, prompting a call for a watershed management system. According to the B.C. River Forecast Centre’s snow survey (Feb. 1), the West Kootenay snowpack remains very low — averaging 33 per cent below normal throughout the region — but the […]

Save the date. Nelson Pride will take place Sunday, August 25 to Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in line with our 1996 Kootenay Pride roots.  There will be more details announced as the the event nears the August date. In the meantime, we are pleased to announce two new monthly events for our LGBTQIA+ community and […]

Twenty-nine non-profit organizations in the Columbia Basin are undertaking projects to reduce their energy use, create fewer greenhouse gases and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The projects are being realized with support from Columbia Basin Trust. “Non-profit organizations hold important roles when it comes to well-being in the region, from serving vulnerable people […]

The cadet marksmanship competition was held last weekend for the Sea, Army and Air cadets in the Kootenays. A total of 41 cadets competed. On Saturday, cadets from Nelson, Trail and Castlegar were at the Trail Armory. On Sunday, cadets from Golden, Invermere, Cranbrook, Creston, Fernie and the Elk Valley were in Cranbrook Armory. The […]

Low childhood immunization rates continue to plague the Kootenay Boundary despite outbreaks in the region and major outbreaks in some parts of the world. Current immunization rates for Kootenay Boundary seven-year-old children sit at 54.8 per cent — Interior Health (IH) target is 70 per cent — while for two-year-old children it is 66.6 per […]

A Columbia Valley teacher has been arrested following alleged dealings with a student at a high school in Invermere. RCMP said in January of 2024, Columbia Valley RCMP initiated an investigation involving allegations that a teacher at Invermere’s David Thompson Secondary School located had engaged in inappropriate communication with a student. Police said that based […]

The city’s street police presence will employ a new integrated crisis response model to help improve responses to mental health calls. The new initiative — between  Interior Health (IH), rural Nelson RCMP and the Nelson Police Department (NPD) — has only been established for a few weeks, but it is expected to deliver a “high-level […]

A full environmental impact assessment of the proposed Zincton all-season resort is being called for by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Sinixt Confederacy. Currently before the Mountain Resorts Branch of the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, the back country ski development proposed for the Selkirk […]

The recovery of an important First Nation fishery in Kootenay Lake is on. With a population that was near extinction in the mid-1990s in the lower reaches of Kootenay Lake and the Kootenay River system, burbot — a species of cold water, ray-finned fish — is the subject of an egg collecting effort on now […]

Matt Neufeld said fishing on Kootenay Lake is both a pastime and a purpose. “Fishing off the neighbour’s dock for whitefish on the shores of Kootenay Lake was my first exposure to angling,” Neufeld explained. “I was around four years old. As a young adult, I spent much of my time in a tin boat […]