EAGLE VALLEY
NEWS
Creek remains a concern, despite remediation Page 3
Campaigns in full swing in the Shuswap Page 9
Wednesday, April 17, 2013 PM40008236
Vol. 55 No. 16 Sicamous, B.C., • 1.25 (GST included) • www.eaglevalleynews.com
Storefronts targeted in budget cuts
SD#83: School board responds to $1.8 million budget shortfall. By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
Storefront schools in Sicamous, Salmon Arm and Enderby are being cut back as the North Okanagan-Shuswap School District attempts to meet a projected $1.8 million budget shortfall. “It’s always difficult when you are having to cut money,” said Laurie Myers, Armstrong trustee. Principal and vice-principal time will be reduced so they can teach more, and there will be 12 teachers lost as a result of dropping enrolment. All supply budgets will be trimmed. Storefront schools in Armstrong, Enderby, Salmon Arm and Sicamous are also being restructured. Storefront schools, You only have so which assist adult learn- much money in the ers, were targeted be- pot, and…when you cause of rising costs and don’t have a program a decline in adult student that’s being funded enrolment. The three completely you have schools combined cur- to find it from other rently serve 38 adult stu- sources. dents. Barry Chafe “Basically, our adultTrustee learning program was costing us more than the ministry funds us, so these changes cut it back to the level where we are spending the money the ministry is giving us for adult education on adult education, and we are not taking away from anywhere else,” explained SD#83 spokesperson Alice Hucul. How this translates, according to Tim Lavery, an educator with the Sicamous Learning Centre, is a 70 per cent reduction in opening hours and a 50 per cent reduction in staffing. The learning centre itself will be closed, and programming would likely be run out of Eagle River Secondary. “It will have a significant impact on the delivery of programming for adult students in small communities,” said Lavery. See Restructuring on page 2
Healing well: Willow Mist Farm owner Kagen Stephenson calms her llama Navigator, whose neck was torn and body emasculated in a March 3 attack by what the BC Conservation office suspects was a wolf. Photo by Lachlan Labere
Wolf believed responsible for animal attacks By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
A Cambie-Solsqua resident is hopeful that whatever has been attacking her animals has moved on. Willow Mist Farm owner Kagen Stephenson says the attacks began on Jan. 7, when one of two alpacas she was boarding was killed. The predator returned on Feb. 28 and killed the second alpaca. Stephenson’s guard llama was targeted, but not killed in a March 3 attack, and her male stud llama was emasculated, but survived a struggle with the predator on March 15. Initially, the attacker was believed to be a cougar. But tracks found later indicated
something else, a large canine, likely a wolf. “The conservation officer came out and then we found the tracks and he said it’s definitely canine from the laceration marks on the neck, and he figures it’s a wolf that’s split off from the rest of the pack…,” says Stephenson. “The tracks from one animal were huge. I have dogs here and everything, and that’s what I said to the conservation officer, and he said you haven’t got a dog here big enough to leave tracks like that.” Stephenson was advised to pen her animals at night and leave a motion-sensing light on, not so much to scare the predatory animal, but to alert her of its presence. So far, the
predator has yet to return. “I’ve been here 17 years and I have peacocks and chickens running around loose, and sheep, and I’ve never lost a thing in all these years,” says Stephenson. Conservation officer Brian Smith believes the predator to have been a wolf. He says they are known to be in the area, and that their numbers appear to be on the rise in the Southern Interior. “Wolves have been out in the Malakwa-Sicamous area forever,” says Smith, noting the animals will spend the winter in the valley bottoms where they may come into conflict with livestock. “We haven’t had many reports of wolves killing stock in
that area,” says Smith. “Bears and cougars are more common than wolves. But it’s not unexpected that it happens on occasion.” Smith says he’s seen wolves up to 140 pounds, with an average weight of 110. Stephenson says she was warned that if it was indeed a wolf attacking her animals, it may return next year. For the time being, she’s doing what she can to protect her furry friends. “My vet bills have been absolutely through the roof because I’ve had them out to treat these animals and get them stitched up,” she says. “It’s been an absolute nightmare – not one I’m going to want to continue happening.”