BC Nature enews Nov 2011

Posted on November 26, 2011 by web_admin
Upcoming Events
  • AGM – Hosted by Central Okanagan Naturalists – May 10 – 13, 2012. Details will be available in the Winter Magazine. Not to be missed – if Delta and Williams Lake (FGM/AGM respectively) are any indications of what to expect, Kelowna will be a “DO NOT MISS” event! The speakers will be fabulous and the outings, very informative! Mark this on your calendar and get your registration forms in early!
  • FGM – 2012 FGM is being co-hosted by Nanoose Naturalists and Arrowsmith Naturalists. Dates are September 27-30th, 2012. This event also should be circled as a no miss event. More info available in the Spring Magazine.
  • Club Deadlines
    Club Grants from the Foundation – due into office by Jan 31, 2012
    Deadline for resolutions for the AGM February 28, 2012
    BC Nature Awards – nominations accepted up until February 28, 2012 – for both AGM & FGM
    Rene Savenye Scholarship – Please apply by April 4, 2012
  • Camps & Bird Blitz’s
    Skagit Bird Blitz: May 4 through 6th – 2012
    Saltspring Camp – June 4-8, 2012
    Robson Bird Blitz – June 9 & 10, 2012
    Manning Bird Blitz – June 15 – 17th, 2012
    Lillooet Camp – Oct. 1-6th, 2012
Issue 18
Date November 2011
Hybrid Canada Goose
Are you Opposed to the Northern Pipeline and Tanker Traffic
Did you miss the deadline for being on the speakers list for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project Joint Review Panel(Oral presentations)? There is still time to have your opinion heard! Written submissions will be taken up to March 13, 2012 – the How – Where and When links are here There is still plenty of time to send in your submissions. Information pertaining to Enbridge/Pipeline/Tanker traffic and the impact on the BC landscape and waterscape will be sent in the December enews to assist you with facts for your submission.
Interesting Sites and articles
Pakistan flooding causes unlikely refugees view here for interesting photos of spiders evading the floods. 

A great site for updates on the Legal side of environmental law – there is a place to register to receive these updates via email – here

Predictable or Preventable – Western Black Rhino declared extinct

A sad day for the Western Black Rhino – it has now been declared extinct. Read all about the fate of the Western Black Rhino and 2 other subspecies (on the verge of extinction) at this link

Now Extinct – Imperial Woodpecker Found on 1956 Film
The largest woodpecker that ever lived and the closest relative of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker probably went extinct in Mexico in the late 20th century concludes a paper just published in the October 2011 issue of The Auk, the scientific journal of the American Ornithologists’ Union. It was thought that no photos or film of the 2-foot-tall, flamboyantly crested bird existed, until a biologist from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology tracked down a 16-mm film shot in 1956 by a dentist from Pennsylvania. The footage captures the last ever confirmed sighting of an Imperial Woodpecker. The film was shot by William L. Rhein, a dentist and amateur ornithologist from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who went to Mexico in 1953, 1954, and 1956 specifically to film and record the sounds of the Imperial Woodpecker. He finally succeeded in filming the bird in 1956, shooting the footage hand-held from the back of a mule, while camping in a remote location in the Sierra Madre Occidental in Durango State. No sound recordings were obtained of the species by Rhein or any other recordist. Rhein died in 1999 at age 89. For more details on this fascinating story and to view some of the footage, select this link.

Polar Bears…Polar Bears….great live webcam at this site

Sidetracked: The struggle for BC’s Fossils
BC Fossils presentation by Author
Interested in Fossils? This presentation is for you: Sidetracked: The Struggle for BC’s Fossils
December 6th, 7:00 pm at the Vancouver Public Library in the Alice Mackay room.
The accidental discovery of a huge dinosaur trackway in northeastern BC reveals far more than ancient footprints. Join writer Vivien Lougheed, author of Sidetracked: The Struggle for BC’s Fossils, as she takes us on a journey into the science, political intrigue and turf wars that characterize the world of paleontology. From the Rockies to BC’s coast, north to the Yukon border and beyond, Lougheed uses several beautiful slides to uncover the landscapes, personalities, politics and creatures behind some of BC’s most important fossil finds. And in the telling she argues for cooperation, not competition, in the quest to unravel our geological past.
Comox Valley Naturalists present…..
The CVNS has developed a nature guide of their neck in the woods and it is accessible via their website We thought this may interest you. If you plan to be the Comox/Courteney/Cumberland area, consulting this guide is a start to get more out of your visit. Funding for this project was through the “New Horizons” grant which unfortunately is now closed for next years grants. Keep this link in your favourites for applications for next year! Link
Flathead Watershed Conservation Act
The Flathead Watershed Conservation Act has been given Royal Assent! Read about the background here A round of applause to the groups who have helped shape conservation for this celebrated part of British Columbia and to those who have helped to build a natural legacy that endures.
Read all about the third reading here
Register Now for IPCBC’s 2012 Forum – “Shutting Out Invaders”
The IPCBC (Invasive Plant Council of BC) is hosting its annual public forum on January 24th to 25th, 2012.
Date: January 24th & 25th, 2012
Workshop: January 26th, 2012
Theme: Prevention – Early Detection Rapid Response, and Changing Behavior
Venue: Delta Vancouver Airport Hotel, Richmond BC Call 1-888-WEEDSBC or (250) 392-1400 for more information. YOU ARE INVITED!
Government restores land reserve funding
Article – Vancouver Sun – By Randy Shore
The provincial government has restored funding to the Agricultural Land Commission and introduced new rules intended to relieve development pressure on B. C.’ s farm land. The Commission will implement a five- year moratorium on repeat applications to remove land from the Agricultural Land Reserve for development or industrial uses, Agriculture Minister Don Mcrae told a news conference. The commission fields 600 to 1,000 exclusion applications a year and sees applications to remove the same piece of land five or six times, something that he expects to slow with the new rules, he said. The belief of many real- estate developers that land can be removed from the ALR for urban development has flooded the commission with exclusion applications. “This puts a nail in that,” ALC chairman Richard Bullock said. “I hope people hear that message, and hear it loud and clear, and we can begin to build.” “We are sending a message to farmers and the population of British Columbia that we value the Agricultural Land Reserve and the ALC … and we have backed it up with action and with money,” said Mcrae. About 95 per cent of British Columbians support the ALR and its goals, he said. The province has also released a new model bylaw that municipalities can use to curb the spread of monster homes on agricultural land, a problem that Metro Vancouver had sought help with as early as 2009. After nearly 10 years of erosion, the ALC’S budget will increase by $ 600,000 for the balance of this fiscal year and $ 1 million in 2012- 13.
Humpback Whale – Listing of Special Concern”
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is seeking your input on the potential listing of the Humpback Whale (North Pacific population) as “Special Concern” under the Species at Risk Act (SARA). Automatic prohibitions would not apply if listed as “Special Concern” under SARA. The Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is currently “Threatened” under the Species at Risk Act (SARA). This species has been recently re-assessed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) as being of “Special Concern”. Current abundance estimates suggest that the population is recovering at an annual rate of increase ranging from 4.9 to 6.8 percent. Humpback Whales may be sighted throughout the year off the coast of British Columbia; however, the greatest numbers are found between May and October. Humpbacks enter temperate and polar waters to engage in feeding, foraging, resting and socializing. General threats to this species include vessel strikes, entanglement, toxic spills, prey reduction and acoustic disturbance. If you would like to know more about the Humpback Whale or would like to submit comments on its potential SARA listing as “Special Concern,” please go to: this link. We are seeking comments from November 10, 2011 to January 4, 2012. Your input is important and will be considered by the Minister of Environment, in consultation with the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, in making a listing decision. If you have any questions, please call Kendra Hagerman at (604) 666-1331 or email email Species at Risk
A Botantical Dream!
Desert in bloom: colors explode in Chile’s Atacama By Antoine Lassagne (AFP) – Nov 9, 2011 Check out this site for Photographs
VALLENAR, Chile — The world’s driest desert is covered in flowers after the wettest winter in decades. Some 200 species of flowers are bursting from the sand after five times the annual rainfall in just one month. At the Llanos de Challes National Park, in the Atacama desert some 600 kilometers (370 miles) north of Santiago, flowers seem to be everywhere, emerging from the sand, around cacti, even seeming to sprouting out of rocks. The average rainfall in the Atacama is normally 1 millimeter (0.04 inches) per year, and rain has never been recorded in parts of the desert. The sparse plant life in the coastal desert ecosystem normally gets just enough water to survive in the humidity from the thick ocean fog that rolls into the region. However the El Nino weather phenomenon, which alters rain patterns along the Pacific coast of South America every six or seven years, has brought enough rainfall for the bulbs and rhizomes that lay dormant under the desert surface for decades to germinate. “This year has been exceptional, there has been more than 50 millimeters (two inches) of rain,” Llanos de Challes park director Carla Louit told AFP. “Flowers begin to grow with 15 millimeters of rain per year, and this year all the species have grown,” said Louit. Rainfall is key for a desert bloom, but there are other factors: the rain must fall at regular intervals, not too heavily or too infrequently. Plus, there cannot be a freeze during the southern hemisphere’s winter that would destroy the plants. If all these conditions are met, a desert bloom can last from September to December. “The last time there were so many flowers was in 1989,” marveled Padre Lucio, an amateur botanist and priest in the nearby town. “There have been desert blooms since then, but never like this one.” Some 45,000 hectares (some 110,000 acres) of desert was set aside for a national park in 1994 to protect the area from mining, the main industry in northern Chile. A park security guard named Yohan said there are more than 200 species of native flowers “that grow nowhere else in the world” at Llanos de Challes, “and 14 are at risk of extinction.” Yohan is especially angered by visitors who uproot flowers to take home “because they believe that they will grow there, but evidently they never grow.” Threatened flora include the Lion’s Claw (Leontochir ovallei), a spectacular red flower with a large and luscious petals. The flower is especially rare because their bulbs are buried deep below the surface, and a heavy rainfall is needed for them to emerge. Louit says that she has only five guards to protect the whole park, so she focuses on educating visitors. She also said there were few scientific studies on the blooming desert phenomenon that would help shape a conservation program. “There are no government resources to study such a sporadic phenomenon,” she said. The blooming desert is also largely unknown by the general public. This year only 1,200 Chileans and 64 foreigners registered to visit the park, Louit said. Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
Cosmetic Use of Pesticides
Read all about the Cosmetice use of Pesticides and how you can assist in making this legislation happen. You are invited to participate in the consultation by completing an on-line questionnaire or by sending a written submission to the Committee. Following the consultation, the Committee will issue a report to the Legislative Assembly recommending possible changes to provincial laws concerning the use and sale of cosmetic pesticides. The deadline for submissions is Friday, December 16, 2011. Please review and submit your recommondations to this site
“Site C” – Funding Opportunies extended
The Site C hydro project will be assessed by a Joint Review Panel which has not yet been established. The public originally had 30 days to comment on the draft agreement between the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and the BC Environmental Assessment Office for the harmonized environmental assessment. That period ended on November 7, 2011, and it has not been extended. All comments received during the comment period will be considered. However: $140,000 Available for Public Participation – Deadline Extended The CEA Agency is making available $140,000 under its participant funding program to assist individuals and groups to participate in the environmental assessment process for this project. The deadline to submit a funding application has been extended and is now December 7, 2011. Funding applications received by the CEA Agency by this date will be considered.
To submit an application or to obtain additional information on the program, contact:
Participant Funding Program -Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA)
Maurenia Lynds
160 Elgin Street, 22nd Floor
Ottawa ON K1A 0H3
Telephone: 1-866-582-1884 or 613-948-1761
Fax: 613-948-9172
Information on the Participant Funding Program, including a guide and the application form, is available at this site
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