The

What Works Series

The Business of a Healthy Bioregion, A partnership between The Tyee, Salmon Nation Trust, and the Magic Canoe

In December 2023, the Salmon Nation Trust and Magic Canoe partnered with The Tyee, the award-winning online, independent news magazine based in Vancouver, BC, to produce a solutions-focused series called “What Works.” It profiles dedicated, creative individuals working across our bioregion to create enterprises that are low carbon, locally-rooted and regenerative.

Tasha Nathanson with one of her fish leather boots. ‘Artisanal is wonderful because each time you make your product it’s a bit different. Commercial is the opposite — it needs to be of consistent quality, the same every time.’ Photo by Kathleen Hinkel.

Fish Leather Is Incredibly Strong and Beautiful. Can Makers ‘Scale Up’?

Meet artisans in Alaska and BC who are sustaining, and advancing, an ancient art.

By: Brendan Jones

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TayybehFood

Refugees Needed Jobs and Belonging. Tayybeh Cooked Up a Solution

The Vancouver caterer keeps growing, all the while changing lives of Syrians fleeing war.

By: Samantha Holomay

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Ragfinery- Branding

A Treasure Trove for Upcycled Clothing

Visit ‘an amazing place’ that swaps consumerism for creative joy while keeping textiles out of landfills.

By: Pippa Norman

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A forest of Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, grows in the cold eastern Pacific waters that flow along the California coast. Kelp forests support a surprising and diverse array of marine biodiversity.

Adventures in West Coast Kelp Farming

Meet hardy harvesters in Alaska and BC working to make a regenerative seaweed industry flourish.

By: Tim Lydon

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Dawson Creek’s Loop Resource diverts food waste from a network of 500 grocery stores to about 4,000 small farms across Canada to support the diets of local livestock.

A Better Way to Nourish Livestock

Loop Resource gathers what grocers are ready to toss out, providing a more ecological source of animal feed.

By: Pippa Norman

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How to Build a Local Farming Food Hub

The Comox Valley Organic Co-operative connects growers to customers small and large.

By: Larry Pynn

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Eel grass

Eelgrass Is Amazing. Here’s Who’s Saving It

Coastal livelihoods as well as our climate depend on the undersea fronds. Even a small buoy can play protector.

By: Pippa Norman

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The visitor’s centre at VanDusen Botanical Garden, completed in 2011. Globally, ‘BC is still probably the hotbed of design and knowledge’ for mass timber, says Tobias Fast of Fast + Epp, whose firm handled structural engineering for the project designed by architects Perkins&Will. StructureCraft supplied the wood elements. Photo by Nic Lehoux.

Building the Future with Wood

Meet people reinventing construction by pushing ‘mass timber’ bigger and higher. It’s good for the planet too.

By: Christopher Cheung

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The Essentials

Learn & Support

Areas of Interest

Grab a paddle. It’s time to work together.

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