Brenna Owen
Reporter | Vancouver
About Brenna Owen
Brenna Owen is a community-driven multimedia journalist and a guest on Coast Salish territory, where she’s completing a Master of Journalism at UBC. She’s also a member of the National Student Investigative Reporting Network. Brenna has travelled to three United Nations climate conferences as a civil society delegate and got her start in journalism at CFRC, the community radio station in Kingston, Ontario.
B.C. doesn't track groundwater usage and experts worry as drought extends
The province doesn't keep track of exact usage by most groundwater licence holders, the Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship confirmed.
Nightfall once gave wildland fire crews a break, but that’s all over now
Jason Brolund, the fire chief in West Kelowna, B.C., says he's seen thick smoke turn day to night in his years as a firefighter, but the opposite happened when a fast-moving blaze tore through his community one night last August.
B.C. wine industry to regroup after climate-related catastrophes
The heart of British Columbia's wine industry is reeling after suffering a litany of climate-related hits, resulting in two years of crop losses in the southern Interior.
B.C. approved less than half of proposed old-growth deferrals, leaked document shows
A report from the B.C. branch of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says a leaked map suggests the province has approved a pause for logging in less than half of the old-growth forests identified as being at risk of permanent biodiversity loss.
Data on forest fuels in B.C. may underplay wildfire risk: study
Wildfire fighting and forest management decisions are potentially being hampered by inaccurate government data that misrepresents forest fuel loads in British Columbia's Interior, a new study has found.
Trudeau offers B.C. $2 billion in federal financing to boost housing
The federal government is doubling the financing available for a British Columbia housing plan, which the prime minister called "transformative."
Parents take a stand on children changing names or pronouns at school
A legal challenge to Saskatchewan's new law requiring parental consent if children under 16 want to change their names or pronouns at school is back in court this week. New Brunswick enacted a similar measure last year, and other provinces are looking at doing the same.
Canada's climate adaptation would save money if it was better funded, experts say
Canada's first-ever climate adaptation strategy was little more than six weeks old when fast-moving wildfires swept through communities in British Columbia's southern Interior, forcing thousands to flee and destroying hundreds of homes.
After the fires, Christmas is different
British Columbia's 2023 wildfires were a life-changing disaster for many, and their impact has echoed into the holiday season.
Natural protections in B.C. protect against floods, build drought resilience
Norm Allard knows he may never see the full impacts of his efforts to restore wetlands and floodplains in southeastern British Columbia, but he takes a "generational view" of the work that exemplifies a key part of climate resiliency.