Yellowknife: 19,000 Evacuated -- Structures Burning in B.C.

Saturday night update: Widespread destruction in BC:

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/08/wildfire-devastation-in-british.html

Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023 -- British Columbia, Canada wildfires -- Tragically, the agency confirms that the spread of the fire has impacted communities in the North Shuswap. The Bush Creek wildfire jumped across Highway 1 between Chase and Sorrento. The Trans Canada Highway through the Shuswap remains closed. Read more: https://www.kamloopsbcnow.com/watercooler/news/news/Wildfire/Unparalleled_crisis_Shuswap_fires_impact_communities_Hwy_1_remains_closed/#fs_128524 

Fled wildfire by boat in BC: The Lower East Adams Lake wildfire has prompted several evacuation orders in the Shuswap Lake area east of Kamloops, B.C., in what officials say is the "most devastating" day for fires in the region's history.

The Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) and First Nations in the area issued evacuation orders Friday night for the Scotch Creek, Lee Creek, Celista, Magna Bay and Little River areas on the north shore of Shuswap Lake.

The Scotch Creek and Talana Bay bridges, parts of the main access route to Highway 1, were closed, and Scotch Creek residents were told to evacuate by boat Friday night.

Those orders expanded Saturday morning to further parts of Magna Bay, while the alert in the Celista area expanded to the Scotch-Lambertson forest service road area.

On the south bank of Shuswap Lake, the fire forced 135 properties to evacuate in Turtle Valley while residents of Chase and Sorrento were placed on evacuation alert by the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/shuswap-wildfire-evacuations-august-19-1.6941630?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

Maasai Evicted from Homeland for 'Heritage Site' in Tanzania

Ngorongoro is a mixed World Heritage Site, Man and Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO Global Geopark

 

The Ngorongoro Maasai in open protests to demand the restoration of their ancestral lands and residency rights; and the restoration of the social service programs illegally diverted as part of the starve-them-out-of-Ngorongoro strategy of the Samia regime. Video: https://twitter.com/i/status/1687520849299935232

Conservation Racism in Ngorongoro: A Tragic Loss of Common Sense and Leadership

By Denis Oleshangay 

August 14, 2023

The displacement of the Maasai in Ngorongoro is primarily attributed to the desire to protect wildlife and ecology from the very people who have been its natural environmental conservators for centuries. Despite being praised by world-renowned ecologists for their contribution to preserving wildlife, the Maasai community is being forced out of a land built on solemn pledges and promises that no one would be evicted in the future. The eviction began to escalate under the sixth regime, with President Samia Hassan leading the charge and the state apparatus executing the plan. The government, conservation departments, parliamentarians and media used xenophobic narratives as a means of justifying the eviction of the Maasai from Ngorongoro.
Read article https://mwanzotv.com/2023/08/14/conservation-racism-in-ngorongoro-a-tragic-loss-of-common-sense-and-leadership/

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Group Masaï Ngorongoro area Tanzanie. Biosphoto / Alain Pons

Yellowknife Evacuation Routes

The town of Enterprise, NWT, Canada, was 90 percent destroyed by a wildfire. Photo Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. Photo courtesy Paul Flamand. Flamand, a father-of-three from Enterprise fled north to the community of Wrigley. Flamand runs a plumbing business in the community of 100 people where nearly every building was consumed by flames earlier this week. “I lost my house, a couple of shops. Everything I’ve worked for and worked on, all my projects, Global News reports.

Yellowknife Under Evacuation

By Cabin Radio

Live coverage https://cabinradio.ca/142575/news/yellowknife/live-thousands-leave-yellowknife-as-wildfire-approaches/

Evacuation Routes by Air and Land (see list below)

 https://www.gov.nt.ca/en/transportation-and-evacuating-safely

Update: Thursday 5 pm local time, August 17, 2023

A wildfire threatening Kakisa has triggered an evacuation order, plunging the NWT further into a fire-driven crisis of extraordinary scale.

As Yellowknife’s 20,000 people evacuated over a separate fire, Kakisa’s 36 residents – far to the south but on the same highway system – were ordered to head west to Fort Simpson, away from most of the column of Yellowknifers heading south to Alberta.

Kakisa would ordinarily evacuate to Hay River, but Hay River is itself fully evacuated with an oncoming fire blocking highway access. Fort Smith, Enterprise and the Kátł’odeeche First Nation are also under evacuation orders.

YELLOWKNIFE, NWT, Canada -- The Northwest Territories’ capital is emptying out after government officials said they had until Friday to get out before wildfires could overrun the area.

While the forecast isn’t certain, the territory’s wildfire agency said that if rain does not materialize on Thursday, a wildfire 16 kilometres west of Yellowknife could reach its outskirts by the weekend – and another fire could reach homes along the Ingraham Trail, northeast of the city, by Friday.

Ingraham Trail residents, residents of Dettah to the east of Yellowknife, and people living on Yellowknife’s western edge were told to get out now – on Wednesday night if they could – in an announcement that came early on Wednesday evening.

It's not a UFO: Tucson tourism/spy balloon company plans Navajo Hopi tourism and views from stratosphere

Arizona-based company World View Enterprises aims to start lofting paying customers on stratospheric balloon rides in 2024, as depicted in this artist's illustration. (Image credit: World View Enterprises)


Photo courtesy World View

Tucson company plans $50,000 rides into stratosphere below elite hot air balloon, including tourism packages on Navajo Hopi lands. In partnership with an international defense contractor, it has already launched intelligence flights over Grand Canyon.

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 16, 2023

The hot air balloon over the Grand Canyon today belongs to World View in Tucson, which plans to sell $50,000 rides into the stratosphere next year. The elite tourism packages include trips to Navajo and Hopi lands, World View said.

It's a mix of tourism rides over the Grand Canyon and other top tourist spots in the world, offered by the company, World View, which has partnered with an international defense contractor, Sierra Nevada Corp.

Sierra Nevada said it is already using the balloons for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. It has launched balloons out of Page fulfilling a contract for the U.K. Defense Ministry, the company said.

Forest Protectors Arrested at Fairy Creek

Forest defenders were arrested on Tuesday at Fairy Creek Watershed on Vancouver Island, Canada, northwest of Seattle. They are protecting the old-growth forest from logging by Teal Cedar Products. Still from Twitter video https://twitter.com/i/status/1691545661777539074

Forest Protectors Arrested at Fairy Creek

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 16, 2023

VANCOUVER ISLAND, Canada -- Three forest protectors were arrested on Tuesday protecting the old-growth forests west of Victoria, as Canada continues to target Native people with police operatives protecting the interest of destructive industries. The police ops are British Columbia's C-IRG, the Community Industry Response Group.

Mourning the invasion of the militarized police squad who arrested the forest defenders, who were his guests, Pacheedaht First Nation Elder Bill Jones said, "We are at the end times of our great forests."

Democracy Now: Native Hawaiian Noelani Ahia on Loss and Re-Seeding on Maui

More information at Mauna Medic Healers https://www.facebook.com/MaunaMedicHealersHui

Na'Aikane o Maui Cultural Center devastating loss of culture and history

Native Hawaiian Noelani Ahni describes the struggle to bring healing and restoration after the wildfire resulted in widespread loss

Watch Democracy Now! https://www.democracynow.org/2023/8/11/noelani_ahia_maui_wildfires

In Lahaina, the area in west Maui that is of historical importance to Indigenous people, entire neighborhoods were wiped out by this week’s historic wildfires, including the Na 'Aikane o Maui Cultural Center, which had a massive archive that was lost to the flames. We are joined by Noelani Ahia, a Kanaka Maoli activist, who describes the community's reaction to the destruction of Indigenous cultural documents, art and artifacts. “In the blink of an eye, it was burned to the ground, and all of those things were lost,” says Ahia. She also describes mutual aid efforts now underway and notes, “T​he people on the ground know what the community needs.”