Mon, 22 Oct 2018

Spotlight on HCTF Board Chair Dr. Winifred Kessler

Dr. Winifred Kessler

Long-time Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation board member Dr. Winifred (Wini) Kessler recently returned to the role of Board Chair. Her decades of experience in the US Forest Service, academia, and the non-profit sector, have made her extremely well-suited to helming the organization and we are thankful for her expertise.

A new book co-edited by Dr. Kessler, entitled North American Wildlife Policy and Law, was recently released by the Boone & Crockett Club. Its publication prompted Dr. Kessler and HCTF Communications Officer Heather Forbes to reflect on how the field of conservation and natural resource education has evolved over Dr. Kessler’s career. Below is an abridged transcript of their correspondence.

How has natural resource education evolved over your career, and what enthuses you about its current and future direction?

I think some universities have started to do a better job of providing an integrated approach to natural resources education, which is a positive development. I am also really excited about the large numbers of women in university wildlife programs, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. There were very few when I got started. The expanding diversity in this profession is great to see!

However, I’m afraid other changes have not been for the better. The hands-on component has diminished as curricula have dropped field courses. Students are sitting at computers instead of being outside in forest and field. I’m aware that students spend much time these days running computer models, and very little time collecting real data and learning hands-on skills they will need in the workplace.

What is your advice for students starting out in the conservation field?

My best advice is to get a copy of Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac, read it carefully, and reflect on what you’ve learned.  Then read it again and again, and discuss its Land Ethic and other essential lessons with anyone who will listen.

Who do you hope reads this book, and what do you hope they take away from it?

Our target audience is 3rd & 4th year undergraduate students and graduate students in wildlife, conservation biology, environmental science, environmental law, and related fields like forestry. We also intend that this book become a staple reference in the personal libraries of professionals in wildlife and related fields. We designed it as a one-stop shop for information on history, policy, law, and management of wildlife resources in the jurisdictions that comprise North America (with lighter coverage on other regions of the world).

As my co-authors and I state in the book’s introduction, “a basic understanding of wildlife law and policy is essential knowledge for anyone who desires to work in the wildlife profession or other natural resource fields. No matter what job you may aspire to, your work will be defined, bounded, guided, or enabled by the applicable wildlife laws and policies.”

You are known as a champion for innovative and integrated approaches to natural resources education, and have been celebrated for this commitment. How has this informed the book?

Rather than have a book specific to only one country, we realized that wildlife conservation in North America requires a continent-wide perspective. We developed chapters for the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and included comparisons of their policy and legal approaches. We also incorporated environmental policy and law into the book, which will make it useful to other natural resource disciplines such as forestry and rangeland management. Focusing narrowly on wildlife would have missed these other fields that, together, enable an integrated approach to land and resources management.

The book is also unique in having integrated the Indigenous perspective into its coverage of policy, law, and management. I felt it was essential to include chapters on Indigenous peoples’ relationships to wildlife; including tribal wildlife management and the rights & roles of Canada’s First Nations. It would have been incomplete without this important content.

While you have officially retired, you remain deeply involved in the conservation community and currently serve on multiple boards, including the Ecosystem Management Research Institute, the Wildlife Society and, of course, Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation. What inspires your volunteerism, and what enthuses you about the role of non-profits like HCTF in ecological conservation?

From my first years in this field, I never viewed my employment as “just jobs.”  The positions I held enabled me to do meaningful work that would help achieve positive outcomes for the natural resources and wild places I cared about. My passion was seeing science get applied to solve actual problems and inform policy. None of that has changed after retirement, except I don’t get paid anymore! I still seek opportunities to advance wildlife conservation, solve natural resource problems, and inform environmental policy through the application of science. Organizations such as EMRI, TWS, and HCTF are in that very business, and I’m privileged to have a role in their worthy conservation missions.

What enthuses you about the current direction and future activities of HCTF?

I have been with HCTF for two decades, and for many years I described it as “BC’s best-kept secret.” For a long time, the organization chose to keep a low profile, doing its job quietly and independently. I’m glad to see that HCTF has emerged as a major force for conservation in BC, and one that is evolving to take on new issues and challenges. Very importantly, HCTF is engaging with the public and partnering with other organizations, including government, to advance shared conservation objectives. The problems out there are huge and getting more complex all the time. No single organization can move the bar; it takes partners working together to do the heavy lifting.

 

Thu, 18 Oct 2018
Tags: Education

HCTF Partners with C2C to Support Environmental Education

NatureKids Otter Home Learner Club - Photographer Colin McQuillan

Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation is pleased to once again help sponsor the Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication (EECOM) conference. This popular annual gathering brings together educators from across the nation to share resources and best practices related to place-based education and environmental literacy.

“Partnering with #EECOM2018 is a great way of living out HCTF’s mission to foster environmental stewardship from a young age,” explains HCTF Board Chair Winifred Kessler. “We know classroom programs are a great way of encouraging life-long conservation, and so we are very happy to help teachers gather new tools to take back to their home communities.”

HCTF is part of the BC Classrooms to Communities Network, a group of diverse organizations working together to link education, community and conservation in B.C. This year’s conference has chosen the theme “Classrooms to Communities”, which envisions “learners and educators being deeply connected to place, community and planet, able to effectively communicate their stories of connectedness, and taking responsibility to do so.”

The 2018 conference will take place Thursday October 18 to Sunday October 21 at St. Eugene Mission Resort on Ktunaxa Nation land in BC’s Kootenay Rockies. St. Eugene Mission Resort is owned by several Ktunaxa communities: ʔakisq̓nuk First Nation, ʔaq̓am, ʔakink̓umǂasnuqǂiʔit (Tobacco Plains), yaqan nukiy (Lower Kootenay) and Kyaknuq+i?it – the Shuswap Indian Band. This former residential school site now serves as a vehicle for education and economic development, and is therefore a very fitting venue for this conference.

“We are very grateful for the support of HCTF and share the Foundation’s commitment to finding creative ways to facilitate place-based learning,” says CBEEN Executive Director Duncan Whittick, who coordinated the event. “This conference marks the culmination of work by the Classrooms to Communities (C2C) provincial collaboration which HCTF has been part of since the very beginning.”

The conference will be the launching point for annual provincial Classrooms to Communities conferences taking place across BC as part of the provincial Pro-D day on October 19, 2018. Click here for more information.

Tue, 9 Oct 2018
Tags: Stewardship

Bringing Back the Bluebird!

Fledgling Bluebird photo provided Barry Hetschko

Guest post by Genevieve Singleton, Project Manager of the Cowichan Valley Naturalists’ Society Bring Back the Bluebird Project

Imagine standing in a Garry Oak meadow in the Cowichan Valley. You hear a low chirp and look up and see a bright flash of blue fly by! You are seeing a Western Bluebird on Vancouver Island, a beautiful bird making a comeback after almost thirty years away.

In approximately 1990, long time Cowichan Naturalist and mountaineer extraordinaire Syd Watts, now deceased, saw what was likely one of the last bluebirds in the Cowichan Valley on a hike with rare species biologist Trudy Chatwin and her daughters. Syd worked hard to encourage the birds’ return by placing nest boxes on Mount Tzouhalem and Richards Mountain, but to no avail.

It was not until 2012 that Western Bluebirds returned to Vancouver Island when the Victoria based Garry Oak Ecosystem Recovery Team (GOERT) started moving Western Bluebirds, with permits, from Washington State to the Cowichan Valley.  This was done under the supervision of avian ecologist and songbird recovery expert Gary Slater of Ecostudies Institute. Many nest boxes were placed in good Garry Oak habitat in advance of the Bluebirds arrival; fortunately, these first birds stayed to breed. In his final days of life, Syd was comforted by the knowledge that the birds were making a comeback.

This past summer, under the lead of Cowichan Valley Naturalists Society (CVNS) biologist/conservation technician Hannah Hall, fifteen volunteer nest box monitors cared for their Bluebird Trails.  This involved cleaning, fixing nest boxes and carrying out regular observations of the birds using the boxes. Over seventy landowners in Quamichan and Somenos Lake areas support the project, allowing a total of about two hundred and twenty-five nest boxes on their properties.  While only a few of these boxes were occupied by Bluebirds, others provided safe cozy homes for other small songbirds including Tree Swallows, Violet Green Swallows, House Wrens, Bewicks Wrens and Chestnut Backed Chickadees. Songbirds are in a catastrophic decline in North America, so it is a wonderful side benefit that the Return of the Bluebird Project is providing habitat for other birds.

Volunteers banding Bluebirds

Volunteers banding Bluebirds. Photo by Genevieve Singleton.

It is thought that Western Bluebird became extirpated (locally extinct) from Vancouver Island due to a variety of factors. The main reason was likely increased farming and urbanization. Removal of trees led to a lack of tree cavities for Bluebird habitat. Increased use of pesticides and the introduction of invasive species such as House Sparrows were other stresses. Although beautiful, House Sparrows are very aggressive to Bluebirds and have been known to kill both adults and fledglings. Unfortunately, Bluebirds and House Sparrows require the same size nest box hole. Former CVNS staff member Ryan Hetschko, perfected the art of deterring Sparrows with sparrow spookers, built by Naturalist member, John Wheatley. These consist of sparkling mylar ribbons attached to a small dowel placed on the top of the box. Bluebirds like to fly up into the nest box hole, whereas Sparrows like to fly down.  Since Sparrows do not like the pieces of myler flying in their trajectory, they leave the box alone. That’s innovation!

Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation supported this project from 2013-2018. For the past two years Cowichan Valley Naturalists have been the lead of the project, taking over on the strong foundation built by GOERT. CVNS was thrilled to have one hundred per cent nest success this year. This year, fifteen adults were seen on southern Vancouver Island producing forty-two fledglings.  Over the past year, over sixty volunteers put in thousands of hours completing a wide variety of activities ranging from project management, fundraising, checking boxes, visiting land owners, providing technical expertise and education outreach, and much more.

 

How Can you Help the Bluebirds?

If you see Bluebirds on Vancouver Island over the winter, email your sightings to cowichanbluebird@gmail.com. Bluebirds typically migrate south, but recently a few have stayed around for at least part of the winter.

You can learn more about the project at www.cowichanbluebird.ca or attend the public CVNS talk at the WildWings Festival Oct. 27, 7 pm at Vancouver Island University, Duncan Campus.

A version of this article was previously published in the Cowichan Valley Voice. Photos provided by Barry Hetschko and Genevieve Singleton. Thank you to Hannah Hall for additional assistance. 

 

Mon, 24 Sep 2018
Tags: Education

Going wild with GO Grants: Over $83,000 awarded to get BC students learning outside

Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation has awarded over $83,000 in GO Grants to help create outdoor learning opportunities for elementary and high school students across BC.

“We received an unprecedented number of applications for our Fall grant intake, and we are delighted that we were able to fund so many great field trips and outdoor learning projects,” says HCTF Education Programs Manager Kerrie Mortin. “These grants will enable over 6200 students to get learning outdoors.”

Thanks to an exciting new collaboration with BC Parks, HCTF was able to approve a much higher number of proposals compared to previous Fall intakes. BC Parks provided over $30,000 in funding towards field trips and outdoor learning opportunities taking place in provincial parks. This contribution is just one component of a multi-faceted partnership between BC Parks and Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, which will also include new resources and experiential learning opportunities that will be rolled out in the months to come.

This round of grants will be directed towards field trips scheduled between September 15 and March 31. There will be another intake in the spring for field trips planned for April 1-June 30, 2019. Interested future applicants can visit the Survey Apply Portal to learn about future opportunities, and to access a wide range of resources for outdoor learning.

 

Mon, 17 Sep 2018

Now Accepting Enhancement & Restoration Grant Proposals

Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation is now accepting applications for Enhancement & Restoration grants. Applications must be submitted through HCTF’s online application system by 4:30pm on November 2nd, 2018.

Before beginning your application, please review the updated guides and resources on the Enhancement and Restoration Grant Overview webpage. New applicants can request a User ID and current grant recipients can log into the HCTF Online application portal using your existing ID. Please contact Courtney Sieben at Courtney.Sieben@hctf.ca or 250.940.9781 for support with preparing your applications.

Each year, Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation provides approximately $6 million dollars in Enhancement and Restoration grants to help fund projects that support the conservation of British Columbia’s native freshwater fish, wildlife and their habitats. Since the inception of our work in 1981, the Foundation and its predecessors have invested over $170 million in more than 2000 projects across BC.

Tue, 11 Sep 2018

Welcome New and Returning Team Members

We are happy to announce some new and returning team members here at Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation.

Alan Martin has returned to the board as one of two representatives appointed by the BC Wildlife Federation. Al has extensive knowledge of British Columbia’s resource management issues from 30 years of experience in the BC Public Service. Learn more about his background here. Al takes over the BCWF board position previously held by George Wilson. We are deeply grateful for George’s generous contributions to the board.

Heather Forbes has joined HCTF as our new Communications Officer. Heather has extensive experience in the charitable communications sector, most recently with Salmon Coast Field Station Society, an off-grid ecological research facility in the Broughton Archipelago.

Welcome Al and Heather!