Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District

A black bear in an apple tree. (FILE PHOTO by Roberta Milne)

B.C. Conservation Office warns of aggressive black bear in Port Alberni

Warning comes after animal bluff charged person walking along Stamp Avenue railroad tracks

A black bear in an apple tree. (FILE PHOTO by Roberta Milne)
The Port Alberni Train Station is located outside the entrance to Harbour Quay, on Harbour Road in Port Alberni. (AV NEWS FILE PHOTO)

QUINN: What makes a building historically significant?

There’s a difference between heritage designation and a heritage register

The Port Alberni Train Station is located outside the entrance to Harbour Quay, on Harbour Road in Port Alberni. (AV NEWS FILE PHOTO)
A Glassair, left, and Citabria aircraft are parked beside the taxiway at the Alberni Valley Regional Airport on Sunday, Aug. 16, 2020. (WARWICK PATTERSON/ Special to the News)

New ‘fly-out’ series attracts general aviation pilots to Vancouver Island airport

Port Alberni event is designed to introduce recreational pilots to B.C.-based airports

A Glassair, left, and Citabria aircraft are parked beside the taxiway at the Alberni Valley Regional Airport on Sunday, Aug. 16, 2020. (WARWICK PATTERSON/ Special to the News)
(Black Press Media file photo)

Bus service between Port Alberni, East Vancouver Island considered

Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District and City of Port Alberni to discuss service

(Black Press Media file photo)
NEWS FILE PHOTO

School District 70 announces school restart plans for Island’s West Coast

Students in School District 70 will only have two options for learning come September

NEWS FILE PHOTO
A collage of photos taken at Darby Farms in the Alberni Valley. (PHOTOS COURTESY HEATHER DARBY)

Alberni Valley family celebrates 100 years of farming

The Darby family has been working the soil at their family farm near Stamp Falls Provincial Park

A collage of photos taken at Darby Farms in the Alberni Valley. (PHOTOS COURTESY HEATHER DARBY)
A CH-149 Cormorant military search and rescue helicopter flies down the runway at 19 Wing Comox in March 2020. (PHOTO COURTESY MIKE KAEHLER, RCAF HISTORIAN)

Airforce search and rescue helicopter drops in at Cameron Lake for training

Distinctive yellow CH-149 Cormorant turns heads after using Island lake for impromptu hoist

A CH-149 Cormorant military search and rescue helicopter flies down the runway at 19 Wing Comox in March 2020. (PHOTO COURTESY MIKE KAEHLER, RCAF HISTORIAN)
Cheryl Iwanowsky, a business owner from Port Alberni, is asking BC Ferries to reinstate her assured loading letter so her regular trips to the cancer centre in Vancouver for treatment aren’t so stressful. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

Sick Vancouver Island residents battle BC Ferries for access

Medically assured loading aboard ferries welcomed, but pair say issue is bigger

Cheryl Iwanowsky, a business owner from Port Alberni, is asking BC Ferries to reinstate her assured loading letter so her regular trips to the cancer centre in Vancouver for treatment aren’t so stressful. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Fred Thompson of Port Alberni was part of a crew logging near Jennis Bay when he spied a face cut into a rockface that was ‘too perfect’ to be natural. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)

QUINN’S QUIPS: Alberni man discovers a mystery in a rock face

Fred Thompson said ‘face’ revealed in rock after area was logged has to be man made

Fred Thompson of Port Alberni was part of a crew logging near Jennis Bay when he spied a face cut into a rockface that was ‘too perfect’ to be natural. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)
A map shows where Mainroad Contracting will create a temporary access to Highway 4 near Whiskey Creek Co-Op to facilitate construction on a nearby rural road. (MAP COURTESY MAINROAD CONTRACTING)

Road construction will affect Highway 4 traffic between Qualicum and Port Alberni

Temporary detour onto Highway 4 in Whiskey Creek for culvert work starts Aug. 4, 2020

A map shows where Mainroad Contracting will create a temporary access to Highway 4 near Whiskey Creek Co-Op to facilitate construction on a nearby rural road. (MAP COURTESY MAINROAD CONTRACTING)
Firefighters line Johnston Road to pay their respects to Lt. Ron Suits. Suits’ remains were returned to Port Alberni on Wednesday, July 29 by the Sproat Lake Volunteer Fire Department. Suits’ wife, Leanne, and daughter, Rebecca, were also in the truck. (ELENA RARDON / ALBERNI VALLEY NEWS)

Procession held for fallen Vancouver Island firefighter

Sproat Lake volunteer firefighter Lt. Ron Suits died at the scene of a barn fire on July 16

Firefighters line Johnston Road to pay their respects to Lt. Ron Suits. Suits’ remains were returned to Port Alberni on Wednesday, July 29 by the Sproat Lake Volunteer Fire Department. Suits’ wife, Leanne, and daughter, Rebecca, were also in the truck. (ELENA RARDON / ALBERNI VALLEY NEWS)
Lieutenant Ron Suits was a firefighter with Sproat Lake Volunteer Fire Department for four and a half years until he died while working a fire on July 16, 2020. (PHOTO COURTESY SPROAT LAKE VFD)

Vancouver Island fire departments to hold service for fallen firefighter

Sproat Lake volunteer firefighter Lt. Ron Suits died at the scene of a barn fire on July 16

Lieutenant Ron Suits was a firefighter with Sproat Lake Volunteer Fire Department for four and a half years until he died while working a fire on July 16, 2020. (PHOTO COURTESY SPROAT LAKE VFD)
Search and rescue crews and RCMP help a tow-truck crew to remove a bus from the ditch of a logging road near Bamfield, B.C., on Saturday, September 14, 2019. Two University of Victoria students died and more than a dozen other people were injured after a bus on its way to a marine research centre rolled over on a narrow gravel road on Vancouver Island on Friday. The incident happened between the communities of Port Alberni and Bamfield, said the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria, which received a call for assistance at around 10 p.m. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

Bamfield, Anacla deserve safe access road, ombudsperson says

Roger Harris puts responsibility on B.C. government to upgrade road after fatal bus crash

Search and rescue crews and RCMP help a tow-truck crew to remove a bus from the ditch of a logging road near Bamfield, B.C., on Saturday, September 14, 2019. Two University of Victoria students died and more than a dozen other people were injured after a bus on its way to a marine research centre rolled over on a narrow gravel road on Vancouver Island on Friday. The incident happened between the communities of Port Alberni and Bamfield, said the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria, which received a call for assistance at around 10 p.m. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
Incident Commander Chris Wynans, a firefighter with Sproat Lake Volunteer Fire Dept., assesses the water situation on the side of McCoy Lake Road, where 35 firefighters from four departments worked overnight to extinguish a barn fire. (SONJA DRINKWATER/ Special to the AV News)

Cause of barn fire west of Port Alberni ‘undetermined’

Fire commissioner’s office investigated blaze where a firefighter also died

Incident Commander Chris Wynans, a firefighter with Sproat Lake Volunteer Fire Dept., assesses the water situation on the side of McCoy Lake Road, where 35 firefighters from four departments worked overnight to extinguish a barn fire. (SONJA DRINKWATER/ Special to the AV News)
Lieutenant Ron Suits was a firefighter with Sproat Lake Volunteer Fire Department for four and a half years until he died while working a fire on July 16, 2020. (PHOTO COURTESY SPROAT LAKE VFD)

Vancouver Island firefighters mourn one of their own

Volunteer firefighter Lt. Ron Suits remembered as one who loved to help others

Lieutenant Ron Suits was a firefighter with Sproat Lake Volunteer Fire Department for four and a half years until he died while working a fire on July 16, 2020. (PHOTO COURTESY SPROAT LAKE VFD)
A consumer prepares to cook bacon from a freshly slaughtered pig. The Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District is holding a SlaughterSafe course for farmers interested in obtaining a Class D slaughter licence. (LISA PETTERSON/Special to the AV News)

Alberni Farmers Institute offers slaughter training course

Alberni Valley residents interested in obtaining a Class D Slaughter License can take part

A consumer prepares to cook bacon from a freshly slaughtered pig. The Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District is holding a SlaughterSafe course for farmers interested in obtaining a Class D slaughter licence. (LISA PETTERSON/Special to the AV News)
Cherry Creek Volunteer Fire Department Chief Lucas Banton pours water on a barn fire on McCoy Lake Road on July 16, 2020. Crews from four fire departments in the Alberni Valley worked through the night to extinguish the fire, which caught in a hay barn at Tooth Acres, owned by retired dentist Dr. Fritz Zens. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

Vancouver Island firefighter dies at scene of barn blaze

The volunteer firefighter suffered a medical emergency after arriving to assist

Cherry Creek Volunteer Fire Department Chief Lucas Banton pours water on a barn fire on McCoy Lake Road on July 16, 2020. Crews from four fire departments in the Alberni Valley worked through the night to extinguish the fire, which caught in a hay barn at Tooth Acres, owned by retired dentist Dr. Fritz Zens. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Cherry Creek Volunteer Fire Department Chief Lucas Banton pours water on a barn fire on McCoy Lake Road on July 16, 2020. Crews from four fire departments in the Alberni Valley worked through the night to extinguish the fire, which caught in a hay barn at Tooth Acres, owned by retired dentist Dr. Fritz Zens. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

Vancouver Island firefighter dies at scene of barn fire west of Port Alberni

The volunteer firefighter suffered a medical emergency after arriving to assist

Cherry Creek Volunteer Fire Department Chief Lucas Banton pours water on a barn fire on McCoy Lake Road on July 16, 2020. Crews from four fire departments in the Alberni Valley worked through the night to extinguish the fire, which caught in a hay barn at Tooth Acres, owned by retired dentist Dr. Fritz Zens. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
A firefighter waters down a pair of silos standing next to what remains of Fritz Zens’s barn at Tooth Acres Farm, west of Port Alberni, on July 16, 2020. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

Fire destroys barn at hobby farm west of Port Alberni

Fire started while farmers at the McCoy Lake Road farm were cutting hay

A firefighter waters down a pair of silos standing next to what remains of Fritz Zens’s barn at Tooth Acres Farm, west of Port Alberni, on July 16, 2020. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Several goshawk nests were discovered in the Alberni Valley Community Forest last year. Logging operations in the vicinity have been halted to allow biologists to study the site and determine if it is an active breeding area. (AV COMMUNITY FOREST PHOTO)

COLUMN: Hawks’ nests halt logging in Alberni Valley Community Forest

Biologists will take two years to study nest site, says forest manager

Several goshawk nests were discovered in the Alberni Valley Community Forest last year. Logging operations in the vicinity have been halted to allow biologists to study the site and determine if it is an active breeding area. (AV COMMUNITY FOREST PHOTO)