Replacing some vehicle trips with cycling, walking, and transit, while switching to more efficient vehicles will benefit our environment, air quality, and health.
Climate Concerns
• Two-thirds of our community’s greenhouse gas emissions are from transportation.
• Most vehicles are gas or diesel powered.
What the City Is Doing
• Prioritizing increased housing density in areas located near amenities, services, and jobs and along major transit routes. When we live close to our daily needs—jobs, schools, health care, food, recreation, etc.—we don’t need to drive as much.
• Improving cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, such as multi-use pathways and bike storage, to make it easier for more people to ride and walk.
• Supporting the transition to electric vehicles.
SNAPSHOTS OF THE PAST
Reasons for Hope
• Sustainable transportation options, such as walking, cycling, transit, and carpooling, also reduce traffic congestion and lessen the need for costly parking spaces.
• Technology is evolving. Electric vehicles don’t produce tailpipe emissions and plug-in hybrids can provide most daily driving needs on electric power.
WHAT CAN I DO?
z Get Active and Take Transit
• Replace some of your regular vehicle trips—walk for short errands or bike to school or work.
• Explore bikes of all types. E-bikes help you go further, faster and climb hills; cargo bikes can carry a load; and kids’ seats and trailers make a bike your family wagon.
• Look up the most convenient transit routes for your regular activities.
Prioritize Efficiency
• Carpool with a friend or combine multiple errands to make the most out of trips and your time.
• Drive efficiently to save up to 25% on fuel costs—maintain proper tire pressure, accelerate gently, maintain a steady speed, avoid high speeds, and coast to decelerate.
• Consider an electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid for your next vehicle.
Live, Work, and Play Locally
• If you’re planning to move, aim for a location on a transit route or where you can walk or bike to local amenities. You may find you are able to get rid of a vehicle (and its associated costs).
• Commute less if your workplace supports options to work from home or a flexible/ condensed work week.
• Plan a staycation or explore regional destinations you can drive, bike, bus, or take the train to.
MAKING THE CONNECTION
How do you get around town? What factors influence your transportation choices?
Kathleen Fisher
Brock Nanson
Kathleen Fisher
Local Climate Solutions
Excess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities, such as burning fossil fuels like oil, gas, and coal, are resulting in more heat being trapped in our atmosphere. Climate change impacts are being felt in every corner of the globe, and now is the time for collective action.
In our region, we are already experiencing an increased frequency of heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and flooding. Compounding these impacts, other changes are occurring more gradually, such as glaciers melting, which reduces long term freshwater supply.
At least 1°C of global heating above pre-industrial levels has already occurred. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global temperature rise must stay below 1.5°C to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of the climate crisis. This can be done by working together to drastically reduce GHG emissions and balance remaining emissions through carbon sinks (e.g. plants and soils).
WEATHER VS CLIMATE?
Weather can change from minute-to-minute and day-to-day, whereas climate describes the average pattern of weather in a particular region over a long period of time (usually decades).
Small changes in climate can have extreme impacts. For example, when much of Canada was covered in glaciers and ice sheets, the average global temperature was only 4°C lower than it is now.
THE CITY’S CLIMATE COMMITMENT
The Community Climate Action Plan (2021) contains 8 Big Moves that outline ambitious strategies to reduce fossil fuel use and enhance our resilience to the impacts of the climate crisis.
BIG MOVE 1:
Promoting compact, mixed-use development supported by sustainable transportation options.
BIG MOVE 2: Car-Light Community
Facilitating the increased uptake of walking, cycling, carpooling, and transit.
BIG MOVE 3: Zero-Emissions Transportation
Supporting zero-emission vehicle use.
BIG MOVE 4: Zero-Carbon Homes & Buildings
Ensuring all buildings maximize energy efficiency and use low-carbon energy sources.
Co-Benefits of Climate Action:
• improved air and water quality
• a more connected, active, and healthy community
• opportunities for green jobs and innovation
Economy
Enhancing waste reduction, diversion, upcycling, and reuse.
BIG MOVE 6: Renewable Energy
Supporting localized renewable energy production and use.
BIG MOVE 7: Municipal Climate Leadership
Taking the lead in shifting to zero-carbon facilities and fleets and applying a climate lens to planning and decision-making.
BIG MOVE 8: Healthy Urban Ecosystem
Preserving ecosystems and using green infrastructure to provide carbon sequestration and climate resilience.
PRIMARY SOURCES
MAKING THE CONNECTION
Climate-Ecosystem Connections
Surrounding Kamloops is a unique mosaic of grasslands; shrubs; moist and wet ecosystems; and dry, open forests. Our climate influences what can live and grow here.
Inspiring Landscapes
We live in the rain shadow of the Coast Mountains. Low amounts of rain and snowfall (precipitation) and high temperatures in the summer mean that soils are only moist for a short time during the growing season.
Summer droughts can be too severe for trees to become established, which is why we see an abundance of grasses along the valley bottoms and lower slopes. An exception to this is along stream banks and lakeshores, where black cottonwood forests support a variety of trees and shrubs. Taking advantage of moisture, they provide oases of shade in the desert and important wildlife habitat.
At higher elevations, temperatures get cooler and precipitation (e.g. rain and snow) increases, leading to denser vegetation, more flowering plants, and dry ponderosa pine and Douglas fir forests.
The lower, middle, and upper grasslands, representing the range of grasslands found in British Columbia, can be visited within 16 km of the Thompson River valley bottom. They can’t be found so close to each other anywhere else in western North America.
Biogeoclimatic Zones is a system of classifying ecosystems into broader areas with similar climates based on their topography, vegetation, and soils. Many species move between ecosystems. For example, mule deer spend the winter in the open forests and descend to the grasslands when young grass shoots begin to sprout in early spring.
WHAT MAKES OUR GRASSLANDS SO SPECIAL?
• While they cover less than 1% of the province, grasslands provide critical habitat to almost a third of British Columbia’s rare and endangered species.
• The extensive underground root systems of grasslands filter water, build rich soil, and store carbon.
• Healthy grasslands offer inspiring landscapes for exploring and connecting with nature.
WHAT IS AN ECOSYSTEM?
A community of living organisms, such as plants, animals, and microbes, that interact with one another and with non-living components of their environment, such as air, water, and minerals.
Interior Douglas Fir Zone: Upper Grasslands 850 to 1,130 metres
Bunchgrass Zone: Middle Grasslands 700 to 1,000 metres
Ponderosa Pine Zone 400 to 950 metres
Bunchgrass Zone: Lower Grasslands From valley bottom up to 700 metres
Cooler temperatures and more precipitation in both summer and winter results in lush grasslands with many wildflowers, such as meadow death camas and old man’s whiskers. Rough fescue is the dominant grass.
A cooler, moister climate results in a denser cover of plants, fewer sagebrush, and more flowering plants. Bluebunch wheatgrass is the dominant grass.
Open stands of trees are interspersed with grasslands and only occasional shrubs, such as big sagebrush, Saskatoon, and mariposa lily.
Hot, dry summers. Widely spaced clumps of bluebunch wheatgrass, big sagebrush, and an array of early spring blooming plants, such as blanket flower and rabbitbrush.
MAKING THE CONNECTION
What is your favourite natural place around Kamloops? What makes it special to you?
Mariposa Lily
Bluebunch Wheatgrass
Plant and Animal Adaptations
Plants and animals have evolved clever strategies to adapt to our climate, which in the Interior includes both extreme heat and cold. These adaptations have evolved over a long period of time with a relatively stable climate, which is now changing rapidly.
Bluebunch Wheatgrass
• Bluebunch wheatgrass has an extensive root system that enables it to acquire soil moisture even in dry soil conditions.
Snowshoe Hare
• The snowshoe hare’s name comes from its large hind feet, which allow it to hop and walk across the snow without sinking in.
• The hare’s fur is white in mid-winter and turns to grey-brown in the summer to blend in with the environment.
Sagebrush Buttercup
• The sagebrush buttercup flowers in early spring before the intense heat.
• They are perennials (i.e. live multiple years), but most of the above-ground plant disappears by midsummer, with their roots surviving below the soil.
Prickly Pear Cactus
• Prickly pear cactus—the world’s northernmost cactus—stores water in its stems, which have a thick, waxy skin to reduce water loss.
• It also has spines that break up airflow to reduce evaporation.
Western Terrestrial Garter Snake
• The western garter snake gains body heat from the environment, so it is only active in the warm hours of the day.
• When the sun is too hot, they seek shelter in cooler areas, such as near streams and lakes.
• In winter, they hibernate communally in dens to survive cold temperatures.
Climate Change Impacts
Climate change is occurring at a rate that is difficult for many plant and animal species to adapt to and is compounded by other humaninduced changes to our landscapes, such as habitat loss from clearing land for urban development, agriculture, and mining.
The climate crisis is affecting where species live, how they interact, and the timing of key biological events, such as mating or flowering. As the average temperature gets hotter, many plant and animal species are migrating northward and to higher elevations to seek cooler conditions if they can. Sadly, some species are not able to adapt fast enough and face increased risk of extinction.
Examples of climate impacts on local ecosystems include:
• warmer winter temperatures leading to devastating pine beetle outbreaks, which were previously held in check by periods of extreme cold
• changes to stream flows and both marine and freshwater temperatures, affecting salmon population numbers and health
WAYS TO INCREASE RESILIENCE OF SPECIES AND ECOSYSTEMS:
• habitat restoration in both urban and rural environments
• expanding protected areas and establishing connected networks so that wildlife can safely migrate between areas to meet their needs
• assisted migration of species to more suitable habitats or conditions where they have a higher likelihood of survival
Great Gray Owl
The great gray owl can locate and track prey under the snow using only their hearing, then pounce to grab it without even seeing it!
Their facial disk directs sounds into their ear holes, which are asymmetrical (i.e. one is higher than the other), helping them to pinpoint sounds better.
MAKING THE CONNECTION
What changes have you noticed in your natural environment that could be due to climate change? For example, plants flowering earlier than they did in the past.
These local, at-risk species may be further impacted by climate change:
• western rattlesnake
• burrowing owl
• badger
• western bumblebee
• hairy water-clover
Kamloops Naturalist Club
Burrowing Owls
Western Bumblebee
Badger
Secwépemc Seasonal Rounds
The Secwépemc calendar revolves around seasonal resources, and activities are influenced by the local climate. Month names reflect major activities being carried out or typical weather for that time of year.
EARLY FALL:
• hunting up in the mountains and the last of the season’s gathering
• drying racks are filled with salmon and meat is dried in the heat of small, specially built huts or above the sweat lodge fires
Pelltqwelq̓wél̓t
Everything ripens ~July
• berries collected in large numbers to be preserved
• many bulbs gathered and dried for winter use
• trout and salmon
SUMMER:
• trips continue
• groups follow the ripening berry patches at mid-elevations
• berries are dried on mats surrounding encampments
• trout are fished and salmon runs arrive at different times throughout the territory
MAKING THE CONNECTION
What activities do you do on a seasonal basis? How could you live and eat more in tune with the seasons?
EXAMPLES OF SEASONAL FOODS DURING THE LUNAR MONTHS
WINTER:
• garments are sewn for the year ahead and small game with soft, thick winter fur is trapped for its warmth
• as stored food supplies become diminished, families with extra share with those in need
SPRING:
• canoes are built, storage bags sewn or repaired, and mats are made for summer dwellings
• family groups move into camps in traditional gathering places
• major trips are undertaken throughout the territory to visit, attend gatherings, and trade
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS TRAIL
Josephine Howitt
Sk’elép Juggles His Eyes
A Secwépemc Stsptékwll
(Story)
Storytelling plays an important role in Secwépemc culture, imparting life lessons, knowledge and teachings to all who listen. Ancestral stories were traditionally passed down orally. This stsptékwll (story) is an example of ethnobiological knowledge. The awareness of which trees grow in certain elevations and locations helped Sk’elép (coyote) to find his way home. Sk’elép is known as both a trickster and a helper. Stories tell of Sk’elép’s abilities to transform into anything or even die and come back to life. Sk’elép is used in stories to help people realize the consequences of their actions by setting an example of how to behave properly and live with intention.
M-nes ne secplúl̓k̓w re senxwéxwlecw.
Coyote went to a gathering.
M-séysus.
He gambled.
Xwexwéyt te stem re t̓ecwentéses re qelmúcw.
And he beat the people at everything.
T̓cwum xwexwéyt.
He won everything.
M-k̓úcsentem yerí7 te qelmúcw.
The people envied him.
M-tsúnctem es neq̓cítem te spipyúy7e, es kwéctem te ckwt̓ústens.
The [bird] people wanted to steal them and take them from him.
Yerí7 re setsé7.
And there was Raven.
M-tsuns-ekwe es kwéctems te ckwt̓ústens re setsé7,
Raven wanted to take his eyes away from him.
M-tsuns-ekwe, “Xelxlíp, xelxléq̓!”
He told the Coyote, “Throw them up high and stick them back in.”
Tseqwtseqwélqw
(Red Osier Dogwood/Red Willow)
• branches used for making fish traps, poles, and salmon stretchers
• used to make sweat lodge frames
Elkéllp (Kinnikinnick)
• leaves are made into a tea
• berries used in soups and teas
• spiritual uses
7ek telrí7,
He went along the way from there, mesmúsens stéui es pepéns es k̓úlems te ckwetkwt̓ústens.
and he felt for something he could find to use as eyes.
Pelmíns re elk, re elkéllp te speqpéq,
He found some kinnikinnick, some kinnikinnick berries. m-kwénses, xelxílqenses ne ckwt̓ústens.
And he took them and stuck them in his eyes.
M-wíkmes, k̓émell petéw̓s put k sle7s k swíkems.
He could see, but he couldn’t see too well.
M-sesúxwenstes t̓e m-t̓7ek,
And he went down along the way, m-séwenses re tsreprép, and he asked the trees,
“Stem̓i ye7éne tek tsrep?”
“What kind of tree is this?”
Emétctmes te skwest.s re tsrep: “Seléwllp.”
The tree told him its name: “White Pine”
T̓7ek t̓ri7 re senxwéxwlecw, Coyote went along the way again, T̓ri7 m-séwenses nerí7 nek̓ú7 te tsrep,
Melénllp (Subalpine Fir)
• important medicine plant
• pitch chewed to clean teeth
• bark used for large baskets stitched together with spruce roots
• boughs used for bedding and flooring in sweat lodges
Tsut re senxwéxwlecw, “yerí7, yerí7 ren sesúsxwenst!”
Coyote said, “That’s it, am going down!”
M-séwens cúy̓tsem,
He asked someone again, “Stém̓i ye7éne te tsrep-k?”
“What kind of tree are you?”
“Melénllp”
“Subalpine Fir”
‘7ek t̓e m-sesúxwenst, m-séwenses re tsreprep,
He went on down, and he asked [another] tree,
“Stém̓i tek tsrep-k?”
“What kind of tree are you?”
“Mulc”
“Cottonwood”
“Yerí7, yerí7 ren sme7é7ey,” tsut-ekwe re senxwéxwlecw.
“That’s it, I’m getting close!” said Coyote.
Yerí7 re m-st̓7ek, séwens nek̓ú7 le tsrep.
Here he came, and he asked another tree.
M-sesúxwenst, “q̓wlséllp”
He was told, “Willow” (Red Osier Dogwood)”
M-sesúxwenst, cúy̓tsem,
“Yerí7 ren sme7é7ey!”
“There, I’m close!”
Qwetséts telrí7 re sk̓elép, telrí7 re senxwéxwlecw, Coyote, the one they call the “ground runner”, left again, T̓ri7 m-sulltímcwes, and he asked around again,
“Stém̓i ri7 tek tsrep?”
“What kind of trees are there?”
M-lexéy̓ectem, tsúntmes, “speqpqéllp.”
And he was told, they told him, “saskatoon bushes”
“Yerí7 ren skiktsc:”
“I have arrived” [he said].
Le-kítscwes, re spipyúy7e m-tsúnses, “Xelxlíp xelxléq.”
When he had arrived, the birds told him, “Throw them up high and stick them back in!”
Must.s-ekwe.
Four times, they said, he did that. Yerí7 re spelq̓ílcs re ckwetkwt̓ústens.
And his eyes came back.
M-wíkmes cúy̓tsem.
And he could see again.
Kwéctem te ckwetkwt̓ústens.
[Coyote] had his eyes taken from him.
Kllékstmentmes es pelq̓ílcs.
They let him go to return home.
M-plépes re senxwéxwlecw.
And Coyote was lost.
T̓sellp (Spruce)
• sap used as a topical remedy for skin abrasions
• boughs used as teas and body wash
SECWÉPEMC CULTURAL USES OF PLANTS
The trees and shrubs mentioned within the Coyote Juggles His Eyes stsptékwll have cultural uses, such as for food, medicines, tools, and spiritual purposes.
Seléwllp (White Pine)
• nuts are a food source
• bark used to make canoes
He asked this other tree,
“Stém̓i tek tsrep-k?”
“What kind of tree are you?”
“T̓sellp ren s7emetentsútst.”
“Spruce is what I call myself”
Meltèllp (Trembling Aspen)
• branches of saplings and small trees used for making tent poles and drying racks
He went down again, m-sulltímcwes, “stém̓i le tsrep?” and asked around, “What kind of trees [are there]?”
“Meltéllp:”
“Trembling aspen”
• fluff used for pillows
• trunk commonly used for dugout canoes
• young buds
M-yews ri7 re sle7s re senxwéxwlecw.
And Coyote was all right again. M-w7écwes telri7.
And he carried on from there.
•
Mulc (Black Cottonwood)
Speqpeq7úw̓I (Saskatoon)
Retold by Ida William (Símpcwemc, 1912–2000)
Kamloops Naturalist Club
Translation support from: Marianne Boelscher Ignace, Ron Ignace, and Mona Jules
