Larry Pynn, founder and publisher of sixmountains.ca, has won a silver award for current affairs reporting in a national writing competition on agriculture.

Pynn received the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation award for the article, When Forests Fall to Grow Wine Grapes, which appeared in The Tyee on Aug. 9, 2023. https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/08/09/When-Forests-Fall-For-Wine-Grapes/

The article documented logging of a private coastal Douglas-fir (CDF) forest to create a vineyard in North Cowichan. The CDF is the smallest and rarest forest type in the province, found on southeastern Vancouver Island, including North Cowichan’s Municipal Forest Reserve, as well as the Gulf Islands and pockets of the south coast mainland.

The Narwhal took top prize in the current affairs category for the article: Lake Erie is full of algae again. Southwestern Ontario’s exploding greenhouse sector won’t help.

sixmountains.ca first reported on logging of the CDF forest by members of a California wine family on July 10, 2023. https://www.sixmountains.ca/article/ff696775-2b37-4fc7-9140-36f544260a0b

A follow-up article — Loss of ‘imperilled’ forest to vineyard sparks debate on farming and biodiversity — was published on Dec. 11, 2023: https://www.sixmountains.ca/article/62e174c5-4075-4b77-b9b7-7a9e043218a5

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— Nov. 5, 2024