Listen

Description

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -The Cortes Island School Wetland Project is transforming part of the school field into a living classroom that blends ecology, culture, and community effort. In today's interview, we speak to Miranda Cross from Rewilding Water and Earth, the wetland restoration specialist, and biologist on the project

Miranda Cross: “The Cortes Island School Wetland Project is a wetland restoration project funded through the ministry of Environment and Climate Readiness through the union of BC municipalities and a fund called Disaster Risk Reduction -Climate Adaptation Funding. This is a partnership project between the Strathcona Regional District, school district 72 and the Cortes Island School.”

“My role is to design, build, and manage the project through all the phases. We built two wetlands in the back of the school field in July, and we've been working with the Friends of Cortes Island Society (FOCI), Klahoose First Nation, True Foundation's contract team (which is Laurier Mathieu heavy equipment operation) and the Strathcona Regional District have been involved in all phases of the project, as has obviously the school.”

“What we're looking towards now is planting the wetlands with native plants and working with Klahoose First Nation.”