Rochelle Baker

Reporter Discovery Islands English

About Rochelle Baker

Rochelle Baker is the Quadra and Cortes Islands reporter for Canada's National Observer, thanks to a grant from the Local Journalism Initiative of the Government of Canada. Rochelle has worked as a newspaper reporter and photographer in BC's Lower Mainland for over 10 years.

Read Rochelle's stories

480 Articles

Quadra Island resident Bernie Amell, hand-watering his garden during a provincewide drought, is part of a team of local volunteers striving to develop water security for the community. Photo Rochelle Baker / Canada's National Observer

Small island community launches big effort to develop water security

Like most small rural populations in B.C., the state of Quadra Island’s groundwater resources and the effects of drought and other climate impacts on aquifers and the community’s water security are largely a mystery.

News, Island Insider | August 25th 2023

Cortes Island, a remote tourist destination in B.C., is the first community to tax short-term holiday rentals to help buffer the local housing crisis. Photo by David Stanley / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

A remote Canadian island makes history in fight for affordable housing

B.C.’s Cortes Island is making housing history as the first community in the province to tax short-term holiday rentals and have all the funds directed to affordable housing projects, said Mark Vonesch, the area’s Strathcona Regional District director.

News, Island Insider | August 23rd 2023

Crews work through the night to dampen out-of-control Quadra Island wildfire

BC Wildfire Service’s latest alert at 11 a.m. said the fire is being held. It broke out in the island’s Village Lakes area, a popular summer destination with numerous recreational properties and homes.

News, Island Insider | August 18th 2023

The Nuu-chah-nulth Youth Warriors program helped construct a traditional clam garden to improved food security for the Huu-ay-aht First Nation in July. Photo by Rochelle Baker

First Nations youth make their mark by cultivating ancient food systems in their territories

The Nuu-chah-nulth Youth Warriors spent three days in early July constructing a traditional clam garden for the Huu-ay-aht community as part of a broader project to strengthen coastal First Nations’ culture, connections, food security and climate resilience.

News, Island Insider | August 15th 2023

The Atlantic Ocean has been locked in a severe marine heat wave for more than two weeks. Newfoundland coast by Michel Rathwell / Wikipedia

Boiling point? Canada’s warming oceans enter uncharted territory

Home to the longest coastline in the world, Canada is seeing a patchwork of superheating in all three oceans as global sea surface temperatures reached unprecedented heights in July.

Oceans, Waterways & Coastlines

News, Island Insider | August 14th 2023

A humpback named Moon was documented by the BC Whales research group in northern B.C. waters last September with a severe injury to her spine likely caused by a vessel strike. Photo courtesy North Coast Cetacean Society

Research groups sound alarm after three whales reportedly struck by ships off West Coast

Three whales were reportedly struck by vessels in northern B.C. waters over a 10-day period last month, raising West Coast humpback researchers’ concerns over the risk shipping poses to the marine mammals.

News, Island Insider | August 4th 2023

First Nations leader celebrates evolution of stewardship in Great Bear Rainforest

There are new measures to better protect bear and fish habitat in the globe’s largest remaining coastal temperate rainforest, thanks to First Nations’ increasing role in stewarding the Great Bear Rainforest.

News, Island Insider | August 2nd 2023

BCEHS has made little to no progress on issues of public transparency and accountability since 2019, a recent update by the B.C. auditor general indicates. Photo by Canuckle / Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Transparency, accountability at B.C.’s ambulance service has flatlined, audit review shows

Vital signs on the performance and state of B.C.’s ambulance service remain an outstanding mystery, an update from the B.C. auditor general on Tuesday shows.

News, Food Insider | July 28th 2023

Paddlers push off on powerful voyage to reclaim Indigenous cultures across Pacific Northwest

A flotilla of Indigenous canoes a hundred strong is converging along the Pacific Northwest as scores of Nations paddle hundreds of kilometres during the annual Tribal Journey.

News, Island Insider | July 24th 2023

New online 'Forest Eye' will daylight old-growth logging in B.C.

The public online mapping system and database, employs satellite imagery, remote sensing technology, and government data to detect and alert users to logging and road-building in the most at-risk old- growth forests in the province, said project lead Angeline Robertson, a senior investigative researcher with Stand.earth.

News, Climate Solutions Reporting, Island Insider | July 20th 2023