(Mount Prevost/Swuq'us)
Investigative reporting by sixmountains.ca led the way in 2025
Municipal election in October 2026 will be pivotal for forest protection
It’s been quite a year for sixmountains.ca, which emerged as a leader in investigative news reporting not just in the Cowichan Valley but across the province.
On October 25, sixmountains.ca broke the story of a Cowichan Tribes member receiving a pollution prevention order for an ‘unauthorized’ waste dump site on reserve land on Indian Road.
(Submitted drone video of Indian Road 'unauthorized' landfill)
Since then, sixmountains.ca has consistently advanced the story with one exclusive after another.
sixmountains.ca pushed for the release of consultants' reports detailing the nature of the pollutants in the landfill — and the province responded. The series also relied on court files, Duncan business licence information, provincial land-title and land-transfer searches, BC Assessment data, and provincial corporate records of directors, as well as old newspaper files.
Other news outlets eventually followed the story, including Global News, CHEK News, The Times Colonist (whose coverage also appeared in The Vancouver Sun/Province), CTV, and The Cowichan Valley Citizen.
But that wasn’t the only big story involving dumping on Tribes land.
On November 21, sixmountains.ca led the way again, reporting that Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) had issued a Corrective Measures Order for the restoration of fish habitat impacted by “unauthorized partial infilling of Tzouhalem Creek” along Tzouhalem Road near Cowichan Bay.
(Tzouhalem Road infill site)
sixmountains.ca first reported in 2023 that DFO was investigating complaints related to the dumping of fill material at the Tzouhalem Road site. No other news outlet picked up on the story.
But sixmountains.ca persisted, checking in time and again with DFO for more than two years for an update on the fill site, which eventually led to confirmation of the Corrective Measures Order.
Once again, other news outlets then followed the story.
sixmountains.ca also had another province-wide exclusive: the first to report December 2 that Domtar planned to permanently close the Crofton pulp mill, throwing 350 employees out of work.
(Crofton pulp mill)
Over the past year, sixmountains.ca has also reported on North Cowichan councillors who received campaign donations from developers whose projects are before council.
And during a chance meeting outside North Cowichan municipal hall, sixmountains.ca took on Michael Ruge for not paying his $150,000 fine to the BC Securities Commission for defrauding investors.
Of course, sixmountains.ca provided the most detailed coverage of the Municipal Forest Reserve, including a vote by four councillors — Bruce Findlay, Tek Manhas, Mike Caljouw and Becky Hogg — to make resumption of logging a strategic priority in 2026.
Hundreds of people wrote to council on the issue, and Halalt Chief James Thomas spoke against it. Council eventually agreed not to pursue logging pending the results of ongoing talks with Quw’utsun Nation over a forest co-management agreement.
(Chief James Thomas addresses council)
2026 stands to be a pivotal year for the future of the Six Mountains — the coastal Douglas-fir forest, the most endangered forest type in BC.
Continued in-depth journalism is critical in the lead-up to the next municipal election on October 17.
Note that sixmountains.ca has no subscription fee, no paywall, no advertising. And, unlike other journalists, no subsidy from the Canadian government.
If you support continued independent investigative reporting, please consider a donation to sixmountains.ca. More than 110,000 unique visitors — and growing.
All the best in the New Year.
— Larry Pynn, Dec. 29, 2025.