Topic: The Barnacle

Don't forget the letters section: each week the letters section from our sister publication, the Barnacle Island Journal, is uploaded to the Salt Spring Forum.

This week, we have Gilbert Walker, Resource Management Specialist for the Ministry of Environment, suggesting that large populations of feral, or wild, cats can provide needed control of bird populations. David Barclay is warning about the dangers of electromagnetic pollution, and Ingvaard Straarup is lamenting the red tape involved in farming, especially in these days of LUB 355.

Acting Editor Peggy Abrahams has given us her editorial this week, too: Why do we live here?. "We protected the rights of developers to clear-cut our trees. We protected the rights of landowners to build septic fields near our drinking water sources. We will live to regret our short-sightedness. If they're lucky, our grandchildren will be able to visit tree museums on school field trips."

You can reply to any of the letters, or even to the editorial. If you look at the bottom of any letter you read, you'll see a reply form; just fill in your name and your comment, hit post, and your comments are up for all the world (and Salt Spring) to see.

Don't forget that all of the letters from this week's print edition of the Barnacle are in the Community Forum (click on the headline of this news item or on "Letters & Discussions" in the Main Index, top right).

You can reply to any of the letters that appear in the Community Forum and you can even start a whole new dicsussion.

OK, the Letters and Editorial for this week are finally up. The whole weekly upload was late this week because of some problems with the Internet connection between the Island and the Rest of the World. But everything is finally up and ready for viewing.

We had a good crop of letters this week, including several replies to last week's Commentary on the possibility of a Guaranteed Annual Income, a letter about SIN, and one decrying the state of Central Hall. And this week's Commentary calls for more public art on Salt Spring.

Ah...The money, the money, the money

This week's Editorial warns Islanders to prepare for some fallout following the showing of Mort Ransen's film Ah... The money, the money, the money; The Battle for Salt Spring. The film, documenting the protests against Texada Land Corporation's logging methods on Salt Spring, is debuting at ArtSpring on Sunday (unless Texada gets an injunction against it), and will air nation-wide on CBC-TV Wednesday, March 28. Don't miss it!

As you enjoy the Daily Barnacle, don't forget to peruse our Letters section. Each week, on Tuesday, we post all of the letters that appear in our sister publication, the Barnacle Island Journal, as well as the Commentary and Editorial from the Opinion page.

This week, Rob Macdonald and Texada Logging are thanked for being good neighbours (!), and Andrea Collins writes in to clear up some confusion over the difference between the Save Salt Spring Society and the Save Salt Spring Campaign Fund.

In this week's editorial space, we've done something a little different: we've got excerpts from editorials printed on all three Canadian coasts.

Also keep in mind that you can reply to any of the letters or other messages that appear in the Community Forum, and you can even start new threads of your own. Details are on the site.

To go to the Letters section, click on the headline of this news item, or on "Letters & Discussions" in the menu on the left.

As you enjoy the Daily Barnacle, don't forget to peruse our Letters section. Each week, on Tuesday, we post all of the letters that appear in our sister publication, the Barnacle Island Journal, as well as the Commentary and Editorial from the Opinion page.

We have a letter this week responding to last week's editorial about romantic love, two community groups are seeking volunteers, and two of the letters are calling for donations to help save lot 57 from the loggers' chainsaws.

This week's Editorial, Selfish Destruction, takes us all to task for our high standard of living and consumer culture which is destroying us personally, as well as destroying the planet.

Also keep in mind that you reply to any of the letters or other messages that appear in the Community Forum, and you can even start new threads of your own. Details are on the site.

To go to the Letters section, click on the headline of this news item, or on "Letters & Discussions" in the menu on the left.

As you enjoy the Daily Barnacle, don't forget to peruse our Letters section. Each week, on Tuesday, we post all of the letters that appear in our sister publication, the Barnacle Island Journal, as well as the Commentary and Editorial from the Opinion page.

In the Letters section this week, we have some traffic and garbage traffic notes, and several writers are taking the Parks and Rec Commission to task (small surprise there!). Oh, and Mike Larmour of the North Salt Spring WaterWorks District replies to Dwight Jones' commentary of last week.

This week's Editorial descibes romantic love as adding colour to our world through its unpredictability; it's a "loose cannon" in our society and should be celebrated for that very reason.

Also keep in mind that you reply to any of the letters or other messages that appear in the Community Forum, and you can even start new threads of your own. Details are on the site.

To go to the Letters section, click on the headline of this news item, or on "Letters & Discussions" in the menu on the left.

As you enjoy the Daily Barnacle, don't forget to peruse our Letters section. Each week, on Tuesday, we post all of the letters that appear in our sister publication, the Barnacle Island Journal, as well as the Commentary and Editorial from the Opinion page.

We've got a very interesting set of letters this week, including several replies to Elizabeth Nickson's letter, which appeared last week, and numerous responses to Alan Webb's "Second Thoughts" column of last week.

This week's Commentary piece, by Dwight Jones, talks about the use of St Mark Lake water for the Channel Ridge development, and our Editorial discusses how Islanders can start to regain political power.

To go to the Letters section, click on the headline of this news item, or on "Letters & Discussions" in the menu on the left.

If you haven't yet, take a look outside -- we're snowbound! We here at the Daily Barnacle will monitor events through the day and let you know what's happening as the Island digs out.

In the meantime, you might want to take this time to look around the Daily Barnacle website; we've got lots for you to do to while away the time as you wait for the snowplow.

You could start with the Crosswords -- we've got three new crossword puzzles every day! And you can work on them on your screen (providing that you have a Java-enabled web browser) or you can print them out for offline work.

Then you can check out the Community Forum, where we have some discussions starting to heat up a little: Natasha's letter seemed fairly innocuous, simply asking if anyone wanted to correspond with someone thinking about moving to Salt Spring. But then Jess Darbyshire chimed in with a few comments... The Yankee Go Home letter from the Barnacle's print version has generated a sharp response, and both Kim and Jess Darbyshire feel that there are greater priorities with which to concern ourselves than the trees... which will grow back.

And don't forget the Classified Ads.You can browse the ads simply by scrolling down, or you can use the index on the right side of the screen at the top to go to a particular classification.

So you're going to get out from under the snow eventually, and you're going to want to do something to celebrate your freedom. But what? Check out the Calendar of Events to see what's going on.

As for the weather, there's more snow coming this morning, some freezing rain (it's raining right now as I write this) and high winds coming from the north. Don't sweat it -- you're not going anywhere for a while. So sit back, relax and enjoy some time off.

Each week all of the Letters to the Editor that appear in the print version of the Barnacle Island Journal are also posted to our Community Forum. But other messages are also posted there. For instance, just today, Kim posted a message about dangerous driving on Salt Spring and on Monday, Natasha, a lady in Alberta who is considering a move to Salt Spring, posted a note looking for folks here to correspond with.

And don't forget that you can respond to any of the messages in the Forum. All you have to do is register (it's on the navigation bar on the left side of the screen) and then you can climb on your own soapbox!