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. All four webinars will run 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. PT / 11 a.m. - noon MT.

KCP is currently undergoing a program review and has engaged Tapestry Evaluation and Strategy to facilitate this. We are interested in improving our ability to measure outcomes of our programs and activities. Your organization may have effective systems and measurement tools in place to gauge your conservation impact and outcomes. We are looking for any suggestions on tools or measurement systems that would help us measure any of our strategic priority areas (serving as a network, capacity building, stewardship and securement). Please email research@tapestryevaluation.ca with the subject "Outcome Measurement" and provide some information, links, documents and/or whatever information and/or ideas you have to share. 

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The Cottonwood Lake Preservation Society (visit https://savecottonwood.com/) is a concerned group of Nelson and area citizens who want to save the land around Cottonwood Lake from unregulated clearcut logging. Their website showcases a powerful video of Shelly Boyd, a Sinixt Elder, who shares her Nation's history in the Cottonwood Lake area.

Click HERE for a KCP Faces & Places featuring Greg and HERE for Rachael to read about their work.

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.

The Arrow Lakes Caribou Society (visit https://arrowlakescaribousociety.com/) has been given the green light to proceed with its project to build a birthing pen for an endangered local caribou herd. The project will see about nine females taken from the near-extinct Nakusp herd of the Central Selkirk sub-population. They’ll be captured next spring, taken to the enclosure on a bench above the Nakusp hot springs, and kept safe there to give birth and raise their young.

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.

This introductory course provides students with an opportunity to improve their amphibian species identification and handling skills, learn about survey design and standard inventory and monitoring techniques, and get hands-on experience surveying for amphibians in a variety of settings. Offered through Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology.

This two-day Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology conference in Kimberley will address key questions in the development and application of camera trap methods. By showcasing established and emerging case studies, the conference will be a forum for sharing lessons on fundamental topics such as sampling design, data management and analysis, and multi-project collaboration.

This course will combine field-experience listening to bird calls and songs during three mornings at the height of the breeding season, with hands-on recording practice to generate sound files. Each afternoon, the class will learn to edit and review their recordings using sound visualization software on their personal laptop computers. Offered through Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology.

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.

The Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation of Canada (WPEFC) is seeking a highly motivated and experienced individual to lead their non-profit as Executive Director and/or Seed Orchard Coordinator. The successful candidate(s) will have experience working with a variety of partners, including NGOs, The ideal candidate(s) will be organized, personable, skilled at facilitating meetings and developing partnerships and have a working knowledge of whitebark and limber pine. These are part time contract position and the contractor(s) can be based in BC or Alberta so long as they have a strong internet. Deadline to apply is midnight PT on December 6.

This is a unique opportunity to build and deliver a cohesive marketing and development strategy at Canada’s foremost not-for-profit conservation organization. The Vice President (VP), Strategic Marketing & Development is responsible for engagement, fundraising and marketing activities to further the mission of the Nature Conservancy of Canada and to maximize brand awareness and revenues. This position can be based anywhere in Canada. The deadline to apply is December 10.

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.

Rachel Holt and Greg Utzig are two local ecologists who have worked on old forest issues in BC for many years. In tis webinar recording, they provide an overview of what has and is happening provincially, and locally here in the Kootenays.

On June 8, 2020, Living Lakes Canada on behalf of the Columbia Basin Water Monitoring Collaborative convened and facilitated a hydrology workshop with the purpose of developing recommendations for a phased expansion of the monitoring network for the Upper (Canadian) Columbia Basin. Greg Utzig, PAg, and Dr. Martin Carver, PEng/PGeo, PAg, provided a proposed approach to expanding the UCB monitoring network, and then the workshop participants actively engaged with the proposal, providing feedback on how it might be improved and implemented.

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.