Call them what you like — outhouses, pit privies, vault toilets, washrooms, bathrooms or just plain old public toilets. When you spend the year touring Parks Canada's national historic sites and national parks for stories — like I just did — you'll need to use the facilities on a regular basis. And by facilities, I don't mean the "facilitrees" when you're desparate and have to go in the great outdoors, and I don't mean the cush indoor ones with flush toilets found in heated/air-conditioned visitor centers. I mean the standalone ones that aren't always as clean and fragant as you'd like and where you consider yourself lucky if there's a good supply of toilet paper and sanitizer.

It wasn’t the black bears we had to watch out for e-biking the new ʔapsčiik t̓ašii (ups-cheek ta-shee) multi-use pathway from one end of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve’s Long Beach unit to the other — it was the banana slugs.

To protect migratory seabirds, Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is launching a seasonal dog ban on Combers Beach from Apr. 14 to Oct. 1.