BC Nature enews September 2012

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Krista
Upcoming
Events
  • AGM 2013 – Along the Fraser – Adapting to
    Change     Abbotsford-Mission Nature Club – May 2-5, 2013 – Details Below
  • April 27 – May 1, 2013 – Tofino Camp – Details in
    Fall Magazine
  • Skagit Valley Bird Blitz – May 10-12, 2013
  • Manning Park Bird Blitz – June 14-16,
    2013
AGM – 2013 “Along the Fraser – Adapting to Change” – Your Hosts
Abbotsford-Mission Nature Club
Mark your calenders – May 2-5, 2013 in beautiful Abbotsford.
Confirmed Speakers and Topics:
Overview of Habitats and Wildlife of the
Fraser Valley – Dr. Mike Pearson
Flooding History of the Fraser – Dr.
Jonathan Hughes
Ecology of Sumas Mtn. and Sumas Mtn. Environmental Study –
Tanya Bettles
Ecologically Sustaiinable Agriculture – A new Approach – Dr.
Kent Mullinix
Current Research on some Amphibians at risk in the Fraser
Valley – Monica Pearson
Great Speakers – Scenic Field Trips Planned! Look
for Registration info in the Winter Magazine
Issue
25
Date
September 2012
BC Nature Website
Update
Check
it out – BC NATURE
WEBSITE Members only section should be completed and functional by the end
of October. We are looking for volunteers from the membership to keep some
sections of the Clubs area updated. If you can type, your skills are needed!
Training available! please contact Office
Manager.
Fraser River Delta Ramsar Site declared
The
Alaksen Ramsar site has been expanded from 586 hectares to 20,682 hectares. The
resulting Ramsar Site, now renamed “Fraser River Delta”, is formed by six
components (Burns Bog, Sturgeon Bank, South Arm Marshes, Boundary Bay,
Serpentine, and the former ‘Alaksen’ Ramsar Site) sadly but not unsurprisingly
it seems Roberts Bank has not been included which makes no sense ecologically.
But there is no map yet so lets hope.
Further port expansion by developing
Terminal 2 and all the accompanying infrastructure just must not happen because
it will threaten the habitats of this vast Fraser River Delta Ramsar site! Or is
that just too simple?
We must remain vigilant and use this. For example,
Before seeing the news release, I was going to write and say head out to the
Reifel Bird Sanctuary and see what the Sunday Walk folks saw today; massive
destruction of habitat (bramble and shrub cover) in a very large area of the
Sanctuary! This has destroyed wintering habitat all along the inner side of the
outer dyke and some other patches. This sort of clearing if it needs to be done
should be done in small patches over several years. So over quite a sizeable
area of the “Sanctuary” there is now no cover for winter roosting, sheltering
from the weather, protected canopy for feeding if we get snow, no drop-in
habitat for exhausted migrants making their first landfall on migration along
the outer dyke. People walking the outer dyke may disturb more birds in the
outer west field marsh because there is no dyke vegetation to hide from the
people. See for yourselves. If you wish to write a letter or two, send one to
the: Board of DirectorsBC Waterfowl Society 5191 Robertson Road Delta, V4K 3N2.And one to: Environment Canada – Pacific and Yukon Region Canadian
Wildlife Service Protected Areas and Stewardship 5421 Robertson Road Delta,
British Columbia V4K 3N2
On going Enbridge Information, articles,updates
From
Elizabeth May – Submission to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project Joint Review
Panel From: Defend Our Coast Action Team There comes a time
when you need to take a stand. When sending letters and signing petitions isn’t
enough. When together we must say “enough is enough—not on our watch.” For
Canada, that time is now. Click here to join a historic direct action in
Victoria this October. On October 22, British Columbians and people from across
Canada will converge on the B.C. legislature to take peaceful, direct action to
defend our coast. Enbridge and Kinder Morgan are proposing new tar sands
pipelines that would bring hundreds of supertankers to B.C.’s fragile coast.
B.C. Premier Christy Clark has said she’d support supertanker projects as long
as B.C. gets a payout to compensate for the risk of oil spills—in other words,
she’s willing to sell out the coast to big oil. Prime Minister Harper spent the
last year silencing the voices of opposition by gutting environmental
protection, cancelling more than 3,000 safety assessments of industrial
projects, and attacking people in Canada who hold and voice environmental
values. By pushing these tar sands pipeline projects, Prime Minister Harper is
pushing us further into a growing climate crisis. The time to take a stand is
now. Together, we can show the B.C. and Federal governments that the west coast
is not for sale. Join us in Victoria, share the action on Facebook and Twitter,
and encourage your family and friends to sign up as well. Sign up to be there on
October 22. It’s going to be a powerful day, and more powerful if you’re a part
of it. Sincerely,Its all about the PR (Enbridge) – written by Rafe Mair
– Link Rafe Responds to Gwyn Morgan’s Attack on
‘Environmental Zealots’ Opposing Enbridge – Link
About Town – Upcoming Events
BC
Coastal Monitoring Training Sessions – Bird Studies Canada is holding two
free workshops this fall for people interested in learning about coastal bird
monitoring programs in British Columbia. The workshops will review the
techniques for conducting Beached Bird Surveys and Coastal Waterbird Surveys.
Workshops will be held on Saturday, October 27 (9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.) at Stanley
Park Ecology Society’s office, Vancouver, and on Saturday, November 10 (9 a.m.-2
p.m.) at Cammidge House, Delta. Each workshop will include an indoor portion and
a guided outdoor walk. These sessions are suitable for new volunteers, as well
as returning participants who would like extra training. We are seeking
volunteers for several vacant survey sites in and around Vancouver, for both
programs.
Pre-registration is required since spots are limited. To sign up,
email Karen Barry at emailor
phone (604) 940-4688. Please dress for the weather, and bring a bagged lunch,
and binoculars if you have them. These workshops are sponsored by the Stanley
Park Ecology Society, Friends of Semiahmoo Bay, Nature Vancouver, Delta
Naturalists, and Cammidge House Committee.Want to get involved in
Friends of Wild Salmon? When: Saturday, October 13, beginning at 10:30 am.
Where: The Longhouse at Northwest Community College, Terrace The meeting will
include: •A presentation by speaker Andrew Nikiforuk. Andrew is an acclaimed
Canadian author whose latest book is The Energy of Slaves: Oil and the New
Servitude.
•Discussion regarding future activities of Friends of Wild
Salmon.
•Election of a new Steering ?>%20email

The%20Vancouver%20Mycological%20Society’s%2033rd%20Annual%20MUSHROOM%20SHOW%20
When:%20October%2028,%202012%20SundayWhen:%2011am%20%E2%80%93%204pmWhere:%20Vandusen%20Botanical%20Garden,%20Floral%20Hall,%20West%2037th%20and%20Oak%20Street,%20Vancouver,%20B.C.%20CanadaWhy:%20%20Mushrooms%20are%20Everywhere!%20%20The%20show%20provides%20displays%20of%20identified%20mushrooms%20and%20other%20fungi,%20with%20their%20edible,%20poisonous%20or%20dubious%20status.%20Also%20we%20have%20displays,%20speakers,%20slide%20shows,%20books%20and%20roving%20experts%20on%20cultivation,%20preservation,%20gourmet%20cooking,%20medicinal%20use,%20hunting,%20ecology,%20and%20cultural%20use.%20%20Bring%20your%20own%20specimens%20for%20identification!Who:%,%20www.vanmyco.com%20How:%20Admission%20$3.00,%20children%20under%2012%20free.%20Wheelchair%20accessible.%20Parking%20free.

Exposing%20Nature%E2%80%99s%20Art%20November%202-4,%202012%20-%20The%20Great%20Bear%20RainforestAlumni%20Theatre,%20Thompson%20Rivers%20University%20on%20Friday,%20November%202%20-%20Time:19:00%20%E2%80%93%2021:00%20-%20Tickets%20$15,%20available%20from%20Kamloops%20Live%20Box%20Officewww.kamloopslive.caField%20Trip%20Know-how%20for%20Nature%20PhotographersSaturday,%20November%203%20-%20Time:08:00%20%E2%80%93%2017:00%20Limited%20to%2020%20participants$75%20members,%20$100%20non-members%20Enhancing%20your%20Digital%20images:%20the%20missing%20link%20Sunday,%20November%204%20-%20Time:%2009:00%20%E2%80%93%2016:00%20-%20Limited%20to%2020%20participants$75%20members,%20$100%20non-membersWorkshop%20registration%20at:%20email
Full details available at: Kamloops Photo Art Hosted by Kamloops
Naturalists – John Neville will lecture at TRU on Wed Oct 10th at 7pm on
RAPTORS. Room S203 in the Science building at TRU. No charge. Free parking.Integrated Vegetation Management Association – IVMA of BC
Bi-Annual Conference and AGM in Prince George – November 20th and 21st! for
details – IVMA Website

Celebrate BC and World Rivers Day on Sunday September 30!

There are two ways to do that: 1.Get your group or organization to
arrange an event and register it on ORC’s Rivers Day website at Click on BC Rivers Day then click on Register an Event and
select your region to register. 2.Participate in one of the events already
registered. Same website. Click on BC Rivers Day, go to Find an Event and select
your region for a list of events.
We highly recommend the Hope Mountain Centre’s annual paddle. This year
it is Paddle the Skagit.

Farewell Mr. Curlew
Celebrated
and beloved Canadian birder, naturalist, journalist, and author Charles
Frederick (“Fred”) Bodsworth passed away on September 15 at the age of 93. His
contributions to natural history in Ontario were numerous; the national and
international impacts of his writing, immense and immeasurable. Fred was a
long-time supporter of Long Point Bird Observatory and Bird Studies Canada, and
one of our Honorary Directors since 1970. We always looked forward to his visits
to our headquarters, whenever he passed through the area on his way to the
family cottage at Port Burwell.
Fred’s book Last of the Curlews, a
fictionalized account of the last pair of Eskimo Curlews, has been widely cited
as one of the finest natural history-based novels ever written. Since its 1955
publication, the book has never been out of print, and more than three million
copies have been sold.
Fred will be greatly missed by all who knew him,
either personally or through his work. Family and friends will gather at the
Bracebridge Sewage Lagoons (Kerr Park) at 9 a.m. on October 7 for a hike in
Fred’s memory. Details of a Memorial Service to be held in November are
forthcoming.
Interesting Sites and articles
Interesting
Member Blog Good Vibrations — Researchers are
learning how species from across the animal kingdom use seismic signals to mate,
hunt, solve territorial disputes, and much more. By Cristina Luiggi | September
1, 2012 website – and the beat goes on!Who’s
looking out for Canada’s Environment – Interesting views website One Fifth of Invertebrate Species
at Risk of Extinction website

Now for something uplifting –
check out this site

Feed the little birds, show them you care
Scotts
Miracle-Gro, the world’s largest marketer of residential-use pesticides,
wassentenced Friday to pay the largest penalty ever issued for criminal
violations of U.S. pesticide law. The company will pay more than $12 million in
criminal and civil fines for illegally treating wild bird products with deadly
pesticides, falsifying EPA pesticide registration documents, marketing and
distributing unregistered pesticides and pesticides with misleading and
unapproved labels, distributing and selling unregistered, canceled or misbranded
pesticides, submitting false registration documents to EPA and state regulatory
agencies, and selling pesticides with false labels. Please check your birdseed;
if it is made by Scotts, dispose of it safely so that birds and other critters
cannot get to it. “The Scotts’ settlement is unprecedented in terms of the scope
of corporate-wide noncompliance addressed, the number of pesticide products
involved, and the far-reaching nationwide noncompliance of Scotts’ products,”
states the EPA. “This settlement holds Scotts accountable for its corporate-wide
product noncompliance and results in a significant number of potentially harmful
pesticides removed from commerce.” A list of the products involved can be found
here. Scotts wild bird seed products, including Country Pride, Morning Song,
Scotts Songbird Selectionsand Scotts Wild Bird Food, were poisoned with Storcide
II (chlorpyrifos-methyl) and Actellic 5E (pirimiphos-methyl). Neither pesticide
is approved by EPA for use on bird feed, and both are known to be highly toxic
to birds, fish and other wildlife. Chlorpyrifos-methyl is also implicated in the
world-wide disaster of Colony Collapse Disorder that has wiped out global
populations of bees and other pollinators. Miracle-Gro or Miracle-Kill? Monsanto
and Scotts team up to poison our water and food — and that of every other
living critter. For at least four years, from 2005 to 2008, Scotts sold more
than 73 million packages of the tainted birdseed, of which only two million were
successfully recalled. As recently as 2010, these products could be found in
retail stores, suggesting a possible cause of mass bird die-offs worldwide in
recent years. Separately, a class action lawsuit against Scotts Miracle-Gro
seeks damages for the company’s willful distribution and sale of poisoned
birdseed products nationwide. Scotts CEO Jim Hagedorn summed up the company’s
response in a press release following the sentencing: “As we reach closure on
these issues, it’s important for all of our stakeholders to know that we have
learned a lot from these events and that new people and processes have been put
in place to prevent them from happening again. Our consumers are at the heart of
our business, and I hope they’ll see our openness, cooperation, and acceptance
of responsibility are all a part of our commitment to provide products they can
trust and rely upon.” Scotts Miracle-Gro, it should be noted, is also the
exclusive distributor of Monsanto’s Roundup in the U.S. and much of Europe,
profitably sharing Monsanto’s long, sordid history of fraudulent practices in
testing and marketing its products. Monsanto’s safety tests for glyphosate, the
active ingredient in Roundup, were conducted by the notorious Industrial
Bio-Test Laboratories (IBT), master formulators of fraudulent “magic pencil
studies” supporting manufacturers’ pesticide registrations. Amazingly, IBT found
no effects in the uteri of glyphosate-exposed test rabbits — which all turned
out to be males.
Survey Request – All members
an
invitation to participate in the Qualified Persons Survey to your members and/or
associates. Below is the invitation script for the “email blast”. I would also
like to invite you to participate in this survey as part of a project to explore
how the use of qualified persons (QP) can improve the effectiveness and
efficiency of the administration of natural resource authorizations. The survey
is focused on the functionality of competency and accountability provisions for
15 QP types, and what, if any improvements in these provisions may be warranted.
You may complete the survey online at: this
website For additional information about the research, please visit: Government site If you have any questions about the research,
please contact: Sarah Mathewson Research Analyst, R.A. Malatest & Associates
Ltd. email Ph. 250.384.2770 x 424|Fax:
250.384.2774
Calling all clubs – ECO ACTION FUNDING AVAILABLE – Until November
1, 2012
Environment
Canada’s EcoAction Community Funding Program is currently accepting applications
for funding until the November 1, 2012 deadline. This year’s funding priority
will focus on larger projects, including multi-year projects that clearly
demonstrate environmental results. For more information, visit or
contact your Regional Office.
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