Welcome to Cowichan This Week! This is your essential reading for staying connected to what’s up in the Cowichan Valley. If you want to receive this information straight to your inbox, sign up for our Cowichan Valley newsletter.

News of the week

• The Town of Lake Cowichan has banned tubing on the upper Cowichan River this summer in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, CHEK News reports. 
• Some people are still homeless after February’s floods, the Ladysmith Chemainus Chronicle reports. Cowichan Tribes has offered help to its members who have yet to apply for disaster financial assistance. The deadline is May 4. 
• The Government of Canada has promised millions in funding to support people without stable housing in Cowichan, the Cowichan Valley Citizen reports. 
• A task force of local organizations plans to shelter people experiencing homelessness in small tenting sites, The Discourse Cowichan reports. 
• B.C conservation officers are investigating after 15 elk were illegally killed across the Cowichan region in the past month, CHEK News reports. 
• The Victoria Foundation’s Rapid Relief Fund has promised $305,000 to community organizations in the Cowichan Valley who are supporting vulnerable people through the coronavirus pandemic, the Times Colonist reports. 
• Restoring passenger train service on Vancouver Island could cost at least $326 million, the Times Colonist reports. 
• The grassroots group COVID Action Cowichan is seeking donations and collaborators to supply cloth masks for everyone in Cowichan, according to a news release shared with The Discourse Cowichan. The group launched its Mask the Valley campaign on Facebook this week.

Community events.

The community events section will now include scheduled events that take place online or by telephone. If you hear about something local coming up, let me know!

• Thursdays, 7 p.m.: 🤝Join facilitator Lori Austein for a virtual council circle, a chance to gather and connect with community. Email Lori for details. 
• Friday, May 1: 🌎 Local storytellers and musicians will gather virtually for Stories to Humanity, a sharing circle organized by Collective Space. 
• Friday, May 1: 🎸 Ladysmith musician Ryan McMahon will perform your song requests live on Facebook. 
• Sundays, 10 a.m.: 🎤 The Lila Music Centre invites you to its Sunday Sing at Home gatherings. Donations in April will support Nourish Cowichan. 
• Tuesday, May 5: 🚜 Interested in collaborating with local farmers? Gather on Zoom to participate in the Collective Farms network. 
• Friday, May 8 to Saturday, May 9: 🌿 The Cowichan Estuary Nature Centre is hosting two days of virtual Youth Leadership Training.
• Most days: 🎵 Check out the calendar at the Duncan Showroom for live-streamed local music, several nights a week. All shows are streamed to YouTube.

Photo of the Week.

Local fish biologist Tim Kulchyski took this photo of a juvenile coho salmon, found in a stream on Salt Spring Island. “Springtime sees the emergence of salmonids (baby salmon) from our local streams and rivers,” says Audra Stacey, who shared the photo with me. “By this time, chinook, coho, and trout have emerged and are feeding.” Thanks, Tim and Audra! It’s a nice reminder that the recent rains are appreciated by many Cowichan critters.

In your words.

“Love your reporting – as always,” Linda Hill wrote to me this week. She said she particularly appreciated last week’s photo of the week, featuring Katia Bannister and her call for climate action. 

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That’s it for this week. This information is for you. Help us make it better by sending your feedback to [email protected]. And, please help us spread the word by sharing this story. [end]