Wednesday, June 28 2023 edition - Pigeons vs. chickens

Wednesday, June 28, 2023 | Today: 🌞 High 23C

Good morning!

I’m driving up north for my cousin’s wedding this weekend. It’s a pretty long trek, but I’m looking forward to it. I’ve driven those 13 hours of highway enough that they’re familiar, but not often enough for them to be boring. Also, I rarely get to make the drive in late June when I have daylight for the whole trip. It means I’ll be less likely to fall asleep driving through the rockies at the end of the trip.

At the bottom of the newsletter today, members can learn about one of my favourite tv shows (and the strangest final exam I ever wrote).

Join our newest members Robin, Josette, and Nicole and support local journalism by becoming an Insider.

WORTH KNOWING

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

⚠️ Here’s the current smoke forecast / Check the BC Wildfire Dashboard here

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

NEWS

Pet pigeons and poultry problems

A few pigeons swoop low over the trees, silhouetted against an overcast sky. Life-long pigeon trainer and breeder (or fancier) Gurbir Brar points them out as it begins to rain. They had gotten lost, and they’re late, the fancier says, but they still made it home to Brar’s farm in West Abbotsford.

He trains new birds to race every year. Both a product of their carefully tailored genetics and their training, the birds will be able to find their home from hundreds of kilometres away.

Under those long flight paths, though, hundreds of farmers live on a constant lookout for signs of illness in their chickens. After disastrous avian flu outbreaks, wild birds travelling long distances present a “grave” concern to some poultry farmers.

Brar wants Abbotsford to legalize keeping pet pigeons in residential areas to help the sport he loves thrive. But the city’s poultry farmers are strongly opposed to the idea.

• Today, Grace writes about Brar’s attempts to legalize pigeons in Abbotsford neighbourhoods, and why he says they don’t pose a danger to other birds.

Need to know

⚖️ Some lawyers say evictions from an Abbotsford homeless camp are illegal [Vancouver Sun]

🍷 A Langley winery avoided the worst of some very weird weather this year [Langley Advance Times]

🐮 Chilliwack dairy Smith & Co.w will celebrate its 13th anniversary on July 1 [Fraser Valley Today]

👉️ Overdose deaths spiked when police arrested the ‘wrong’ drug dealers, a Chilliwack safe supply advocate said [Chilliwack Progress]

🙂 Meet the harbour seal hanging out with rowers on the Sumas River [Abbotsford News]

 🥪 A Canadian grilled cheese franchise is coming to Abbotsford [Abbotsford News]

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Mission politicians discussed the need for increased mental health services and rising overdose-related calls with the minster responsible [Mission Record]

👩‍🎓 Chilliwack high school students celebrated graduation this weekend [Chilliwack Progress]

🌱 A neighbour claimed there was a cannabis grow-op in a Chilliwack house that burned down [Fraser Valley Today]

🐎 Langley’s equestrian industry took centre stage in a recent farm tour [Langley Advance Times]

The Agenda

Councillors say McKee Peak plan better than alternative; stay largely quiet on Indigenous opposition

Rejecting the McKee Peak plan wouldn’t necessarily save the area’s natural treasures, two Abbotsford councillors said Monday as they and their colleagues approved the controversial document.

The plan lays out how thousands of homes will be built on the lower reaches of Sumas Mountain in the coming years. The plan has been criticised by trail users and conservation groups, as well as the Semá:th First Nation, which said there was insufficient consultation.

Abbotsford council unanimously approved the plan Monday. Couns. Patricia Ross and Dave Loewen, the two Abbotsford councillors who most frequently cite the need to protect the environment, voted for the plan, saying that it offered better land use protections than the status quo. Both pointed to current land use rules that already permit some development—including agricultural use—on the properties.

Loewen said that if the plan was rejected landowners could choose to log their properties and use them for farming. The plan, he said, will preserve illegally built trails that currently exist on private property while protecting around half the land from future development. While some have suggested the city should buy the land, both Ross and Loewen said that was financially impossible.

Ross said landowners have thus far declined to develop in order to wait for the city’s plan. Rejecting it, she said, “would mean unco-ordinated piecemeal development.”

Mayor Ross Siemens echoed the thought, saying “Change is hard. But it’s necessary but we can either plan for it, or we can chase it and correct it after things have gone astray.”

Only one member of council mentioned the fact that the neighbouring Semá:th First Nation had opposed the plan, pointing to the need for more consultation and a “government-to-government” relationship.

Loewen said he was “satisfied that staff had worked conscientiously and deliberately” with Semá:th and that provincial officials had concluded likewise.

Correction

In Tuesday’s story on the McKeep Peak plan vote, The Current incorrectly reported that all eight councillors voted in favour of the plan. In fact, Coun. Mark Warkentin recused himself from the matter and did not vote. Sorry for the error.

Chilliwack woman places 11th in 100-mile race

Jenny Quilty, a well-known member of Chilliwack’s trail-running community, was the 11th woman across the finish line in the Western States Endurance Run last weekend.

The race is held in California’s Olympic Valley. Runners have 30 hours to complete the course, which climbs through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the heart of California gold country.

Quilty started the race with 381 other competitors at 5am on June 24. She finished, with a time of 18 hours and 49 minutes, at 11:49pm.

Ihor Verys, an endurance runner The Current wrote about last month, is also seeing a successful racing season. His debut in Abbotsford’s 50km Run for Water trail race landed him on the podium in third place, with a time of 5 hours and 44 minutes.

🤝 Now hiring

• Banquet servers at Ledgeview Golf Course in Abbotsford

• Equestrian barn assistant at Cobblestone Farms in Langley

• Assistant grower at Quik’s Farm (flowers) in Chilliwack

• Spa coordinator at Fluid Medi Spa and Wellness in Langley

• Laboratory clerk at Fraser Canyon Hospital in Hope

Hiring in the Fraser Valley? Reply back and let us know!

📸 Current Cam

Each week we showcase a different photo from across the valley and invite readers to share their best guesses about where it was taken.

Any guesses as to where this week’s Current Cam was taken? Fill out this form with your best guess—or with a picture we can use in a future edition.

Things to do

🎸 Local musicians: Andrew Christopher and Dylan Weightman, a duo of local musicians, will play at the Jolly Miller Pub in Chilliwack at 7pm tonight. Details online.

🛶 Kayaking class: The CCE Paddling Club is offering kayak instruction courses for adult and youth in both flat water and whitewater kayaking until August. No previous experience is required and all equipment is provided.

🎻 Music Festival: The Forest Echoes Music Festival in Cultus Lake starts on Friday. Tickets are still on sale, find them here.

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