For 2021, our four-part Winter Webinar Series will be on the theme “From Alpine to Valley Bottom: Conserving Essential Habitats in the Kootenays” with four fascinating presentations confirmed:

On November 25, 2020, KCP, Wildsight Golden and Kootenay Connect co-hosted the Golden Conservation Action Forum virtually using the Zoom platform. During this full-day workshop, 31 participants representing diverse perspectives as scientists, resource managers, conservationists, fish and wildlife associations, keepers of Indigenous knowledge, and recreationists worked together to identify priority actions that will contribute to maintaining healthy fish and wildlife populations and ecological functions in the Golden Area over the next five years. Forum participants also had to opportunity to view nine pre-recorded “speed” presentations from scientists to inform attendees of current conservation issues and recommendations to address them. This was the 6th CAF that KCP has hosted since 2017.

Click here for the full posting. 

A new KCP Partner, Elk Root Conservation’s educational demonstration farm is located in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) in the Slocan Valley at the confluence of the Slocan River and Little Slocan River. Elk Root is teaming with consultant biologists, agrologists, engineers and landowners to conserve, protect and restore the productivity and biodiversity of ALR lands and its wildlife inhabitants, including identified species-at-risk. This documentary by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC features a demonstration of their Bee Forage Orchard and Flower Meadow and Bee Barn that are helping native bees flourish.

In this 3-part webinar series that took place in December, Columbia Basin Water Hub manager Santiago Botero explains how to use the emerging Columbia Basin Water Hub, a database with the aim of making critical water data readily available in order to facilitate informed decision making around the Columbia Basin’s fresh water supply. This informal series serves as an introduction of the Water Hub to interested water monitoring groups, providing an overview of the vision and purpose of the Water Hub as well as provide online training regarding the database features and tools.

In a new short film, the Nakoda Audio Visual Club worked on an animation project that shows the challenge of crossing Alberta's fast-flowing Highway 1 through the eyes of wildlife.

In November, the West Kootenay EcoSociety hosted two forest-related webinars with guest speaker Herb Hammond, a Registered Forest Professional and forest ecologist with 40 years of experience in research, industry, teaching and consulting. In A New Relationship with Forests: Nature-based Planning, Herb explains how nature-based planning protects forests and the myriad benefits they provide. In Privatized Public Forests and How to Change the Story, he sheds light on how privatization has occurred and offers a practical roadmap to get public forests back into public hands.

Join Rachel Holt for the second webinar in the 2021 KCP Winter Webinar Series “From Alpine to Valley Bottom: Conserving Essential Habitats in the Kootenays”. Old forest matters; not only for its inherent qualities, but also because old forest retention is the Province’s principle strategy to maintain biodiversity. In the last year, a report by Price, Holt and Daust entitled BC’s Old Growth Forests: A Last Stand for Biodiversity highlighted the very poor condition of productive old forest in BC, and recommended key actions to prevent matters from getting worse. At the same time, an independent panel (The Strategic Old Growth Panel) wrote a report for the Minister of Forests outlining the state of old forests in the province, and they also provided 14 recommendations. This talk by Rachel Holt will bring together the findings from these reports and provide an overview of what issues are relevant to the future of old forest regionally and provincially.

Real Estate Foundation of BC grants support projects that strengthen communities and protect our shared land and water. The next General Grant application cycle opens in February and closes in early March 2021 (date to be confirmed). For information on eligibility and funding priorities, visit refbc.com/grants or email grants@refbc.com to discuss your project idea.

Ecotrust Canada is creating a new executive position to enhance innovation, collaboration, and communication in the organization, with a specific focus on creating greater collective impact across its programs — Climate Innovation, Indigenous Home-Lands, Community Fisheries, Community Energy, and our emerging work in food security through the North Coast Innovation Lab. Ecotrust Canada is open to the person selected for this position being located elsewhere in British Columbia, with the understanding that frequent travel to Vancouver may be required. The deadline to apply is midnight on January 18.

As the leading Canadian expert in bird science, Birds Canada is poised to play a pivotal role in the road to recovery for bird species and populations both in Canada and more broadly in the Americas. Birds Canada is seeking a visionary leader who can provide overall strategic and operational leadership for the organization and realize expansion opportunities to make a significant impact in applied conservation for birds. The President has traditionally been located at headquarters but other locations across Canada are possible. The deadline to apply is end of day January 18.

The Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) in partnership with the Kootenay Conservation Program (KCP) are seeking qualified members for the Columbia Valley Local Conservation Fund (CVLCF) Technical Review Committee (TRC). The role of the TRC is to make recommendations on allocating annual funding for conservation projects for the area from Canal Flats to Spillimacheen. Applications will be received on an ongoing basis.

Are you a forester or geographer? A biologist or mountain guide? A historian or Indigenous storyteller? Do you have some unique knowledge, skill, or expertise you can share with students? Wild Voices for Kids is a program of the Columbia Basin Environmental Education Network. It is a unique program in the Basin as it enables local specialists to develop programs connected to the local environment and tailored to their area of expertise and passion. Each educator brings their own unique knowledge of environment or natural history, adds their passion for education, and creates classroom or field-based programs that will both captivate students and satisfy the learning objectives of teachers. Community Educator applications and program submissions are assessed for approval bi-annually by the Wild Voices Advisory Committee. The Winter/Spring intake period closes on January 15.

Maintaining wildlife movement across road networks is an important conservation strategy to sustain ecological connectivity. Direct mortality of wildlife from animal‐vehicle collisions (AVCs) can have population‐level effects on species. Alberta currently has no formal mechanisms to ensure wildlife considerations are included in transportation planning. This paper explores how transportation planning would benefit from integrating motorist safety risk and wildlife management needs to prioritize mitigation neighbourhoods along roadways.

The Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners have been hard at work curating a reference library containing the current and historical known research papers, projects and land use plans for the Columbia Wetlands, including the area to the east and to the west bordered by the Rocky and Purcell mountains ranges. It is a work in progress with currently over 1,800 citations and more being added every year. CWSP where possible, houses the entire document of a reference in the library, which can be downloaded if desired. More reports are welcome and needed to keep the database current. Please email relevant resources to Verena Shaw at verenashaw@gmail.com.

KCP has created the “Case for Conservation” tri-fold brochure, which details 9 different reasons why conserving private land is so crucial to the health of the region’s ecosystems that support a myriad of plant, fish and animal species — many of which are currently rare or endangered or at risk of becoming so. The brochure opens up into an attractive poster that can be easily posted in offices, public spaces and homes. Printed brochures are available for distribution. If you would like copies, please contact KCP Program Manager Juliet Craig at manager@kootenayconservation.ca.