British western region ( columbia )
volume 28, number 3, 2007
DUC scientists take the stage at Georgia Basin Puget Sound Research Conference
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Ducks Unlimited Canada has always been proud to use its science to advance conservation on the ground. Today not only is that science helping DUC, but it is getting attention from researchers outside DUC. This was evident in March when two of B.C.’s staff biologists went before their peers to present their research findings at the 2007 Georgia Basin Puget Sound Research Conference in Vancouver, B.C. For over four days some 900 scientists and other professionals from North America and around the world gathered to share their knowledge and ideas on how to improve the health and viability of the Georgia Basin Puget Sound transboundary ecosystem. This transborder ecosystem comprises three major basins: Puget Sound, Strait of Georgia and Strait of Juan de Fuca. It extends from just north of Whistler, B.C., south past Seattle as far as Olympia, Washington. On its western boundary, the Georgia Basin runs roughly from the Courtenay area of Vancouver Island, inland to the town of Hope. It is a part of the world that is of major importance for people and wildlife, including migrating waterfowl. But it is also one of the fastest growing urban areas on the continent, and therefore under tremendous strain.
This year’s Georgia Basin conference covered a wide range of topics from seafood safety and human health, to wildlife habitat and governance of the transboundary ecosystem. There were presentations on clean energy sources, salmon stock status, impacts of human population growth on the ecosystem, climate change, landscape restoration and environmental education. Taking a higher profile than ever before, Dan Buffett, senior regional biologist, and Kim Houghton, biologist and conservation program specialist, gave three presentations that drew considerable interest. Buffett, who is now becoming a veteran speaker on such topics, took to the podium to explain DUC research on the importance of grass fields as a food source for waterfowl of the Pacific Flyway. On another day he gave an overview of DUC’s leadership role in battling the invasive plant spartina, noting that the multi-agency effort to manage the problem has been highly effective. “This was the strongest presence we have ever had at a Georgia Basin conference,” says Buffett. “I took a lot of questions from scientists and people in the business sector, which really demonstrates the interest and the leadership DUC is taking, in both science and conservation.” Houghton gave a presentation on the feeding habits of waterfowl that forage and winter on the Fraser River Delta. This will form part of a larger study and cross-
border conservation plan with Ducks Unlimited in the U.S. “Apart from being nervous,” says Houghton, “I was very honoured to be presenting my work among so many impressive people. “Also, I was proud to be from B.C. because the conference was so well run and well organized.” The conference was co-hosted by Environment Canada and the Puget Sound Action Team in Washington state.
Putting nature on the map
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Maybe you’ve had that discomfiting experience of rounding the bend on an old familiar road, and suddenly feeling lost. That is, until the realization hits that it’s not really you that’s lost, but parts of the landscape. If you’re a longtime British Columbian you may know the feeling. In recent years the rate of growth in parts of the province has left many wondering, how much is too much, as natural landmarks such as trees and wetlands fade from view. With municipalities feeling the pressure of growth and economic demands, protecting natural resources in their communities has been a complex and difficult responsibility – and no less for the Regional District of the Okanagan-Similkameen, with some of the most intense growth in the country. Born beautiful, the Okanagan-Similkameen rarely has a bad day. It is outstandingly scenic, fertile, abundant and sunny, offering up a picture-postcard panorama that isn’t just superficial. It is one of the most biodiverse regions in North America. But the sobering fact is that it is also one of Canada’s three most endangered ecosystems, with many rare species dependent on its ever diminishing wetland and grassland habitats. Two years ago the regional district began working with Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) to help protect what remains of its natural habitat. That gave DUC the opportunity to test-run one of its latest and most important initiatives – the Green Bylaws Toolkit. At one time referred to as the “model bylaw,” the Green Bylaws Toolkit is a comprehensive system of identifying and protecting those sensitive ecosystems that are being degraded, fragmented and lost because current bylaws are not adequately conserving them. “Our communities need to start adopting conservation policies at the local level if we ever hope to secure our natural resources,” says Les Bogdan, manager of provincial operations for DUC in B.C., “but what they need are the tools to carry it out.” One component of the Toolkit is a wetlands mapping method that locates, identifies and maps wetlands and related habitat in a given area. As a test run of the system, the project focused in on some 70,000 acres in the rural Naramata region. Aerial photographs and mapping data that the Province of B.C. had collected over the years was combined with data from the Canadian Wildlife Service and new digital images. Field staff also made ground visits to habitat sites to collect samples and verify the status of each mapping area. The 12-month process was a collaborative effort between the Canadian Wildlife Service, the B.C. Ministry of Environment, the Regional District of the Okanagan-Similkameen, and DUC. The result was a Sensitive Ecosystem Inventory of some 3,700 acres of Naramata’s wetland and riparian areas. With this valuable tool in hand, the regional district was now equipped to protect the natural resources as part of Naramata’s Official Community Plan.
Field staff collect biological samples to verify the status of the ecosystem map area.
DUC also provided one year’s funding assistance to the regional district to hire a full-time environmental planner, who works specifically on protection of riparian and wetland areas in the region. But the Naramata project was only a starting point for DUC. Bogdan is soon to announce a major provincewide rollout of the Green Bylaws Toolkit which, if implemented by local governments, will be a significant leap forward to protecting natural assets in communities throughout the province. “People from all sectors have now recognized the importance of conserving our natural areas,” says Bogdan, “including planners, developers, councillors and taxpayers, who understand that we need to protect our future, by protecting our ecosystems.”
western region (british columbia)
DUC helps ranchers and farmers get eco-friendly
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Cindy Swan always knew ranching was hard work. So when she and husband Ben bought their nearly 2,000-acre ranch in B.C.’s Central Interior back in 1991, they didn’t plan to add to their burden with a lot of improvements. Turns out there was a hitch. “I noticed the run-off in the creeks was brown,” recalls Swan, “and I thought, uh-oh.” It wasn’t just that their operation was so close to a wetland that come spring run-off, there was risk of contaminating the water. Swan’s cow herd was so crammed into a small area it increased their risk of disease. To avoid this meant relocating all the cattle, the sheds and the pens as far as one-eighth of a mile away. Now that is hard work. But the payoff, says Swan, has been “huge.” “At one time about three-quarters of my herd needed medicine for one illness or another,” she says. “Knock on wood – this year not one has been sick.” Swan gives full marks to Ducks Unlimited Canada and something called the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) program for helping to improve their ranch substantially, and protecting the natural habitat. “We could not have done it on our own.” EFPs are designed so that agricultural operations have a minimal impact on natural resources such as water, fish and wildlife, and where possible improve the habitat. Practical solutions include better fencing, improved livestock watering systems and irrigation methods, manure storage and handling, run-off controls, buffers to protect streamside habitat from grazing livestock, and so on. Two years ago DUC signed an agreement with the B.C. Agriculture Council (BCAC) to help improve habitat on farms by providing technical advice with Environmental Farm Plans and additional financial support for producers adopting Beneficial Management
Practices (BMPs) that benefit waterfowl habitat. By the fall of 2006 over 120 producers had entered into agreements with DUC that was applied to over 8,550 acres throughout the province. The agreement with BCAC meant that DUC would fund up to $250,000 toward BMPs in the province. Eligible producers get as much as $6,666 of DUC top-up funding by following certain guidelines, and signing a 10-year conservation agreement with DUC to ensure the practices are maintained. The DUC funding was in addition to that provided by the BCAC and the federal government. Clarke Gourley, owner of Little Qualicum Cheeseworks dairy on Vancouver Island, says when he bought his 68-acre farm he wanted to be able to let cattle stay out on the field, and the EFP helped him to do that without harming the creek that runs through his place. He did this by installing new fencing and changing his system of watering. Gourley says that the financial funding farmers receive through the EFPs is one reason for signing up, but he said an equally compelling reason are the criminal charges one could face for accidentally contaminating a creek, for example. “That is a reality,” says Gourley King Campbell, a DUC agrologist who co-ordinates DUC’s agriculture programs and is an Environmental Farm Plan Advisor, says, “It’s not just the appeal of the funding offered through the program. It is also the ease and efficiency of having a plan in place that reduces so much worry and stress for the producer.” Says Swan: “As ranchers we have a tendency to be cautious about anything related to government just because we are always facing so many new regulations. But King (Campbell) was excellent and he really understood the concerns we have and our issues, so it was so much easier to go through the process.”
Swan says her livestock have benefitted from Environmental Farm Plans.
School kids traverse urban landscape to explore Fraser Delta
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When it comes to field trips, it’s hard to compete with big mountains, nature parks, fish hatcheries, masses of bald eagles, and an outdoor education centre. That’s the kind of environment enjoyed by hundreds of school kids who live on Vancouver’s North Shore. But if anything can compete with all that, it’s Boundary Bay, and the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary situated on the Fraser Delta in Greater Vancouver. And this year, for the first time, DUC’s Project Webfoot was able to offer 250 North Shore Mountain schoolchildren a new adventure that began at their home base in the mountains and continued into the heart of the Fraser Delta that teems with life. “We weren’t sure if the North Shore classes would want to come all the way across the city landscape for a program in Delta, but they showed they are true migrants,” says Kathleen Fry, DUC’s B.C. education coordinator, alluding to the many waterfowl that migrate through the delta. As part of a long-term pledge to support schools in proximity to its plant, Dow Chemical Ltd. provided the sponsorship for the North Vancouver schools to go further afield this year with DUC’s Project Webfoot. Cove Cliff School students were able to spend the entire day there, exploring and contrasting the Sanctuary’s brackish marshes
and snow geese with Boundary Bay’s marine mud flats and brant geese. “We had the most fabulous field trip,” enthuses their teacher, Marlene Proc. “This was such a positive experience, and the school was so helpful, sending out a teacher and two ambassador students!” And the kids and their teachers proved they had the mettle for the trek. Even in mid-winter, when every other week it seemed the Lower Mainland was fighting awful windstorms that laid waste to thousands of trees in Vancouver’s Stanley Park or snowstorms that wreaked havoc through downtown Vancouver and out to the Fraser Delta, they kept coming. The students at Beach Grove School, located a short bus ride from the Sanctuary in Delta, have used Boundary Bay as an outdoor classroom for many curriculum studies, and have provided a home base for several outlying schools wanting to explore the nearby mud flats. So they were the perfect hosts to their cousins from the mountains. “This time, with these visiting classes, we discovered hundreds of marine sponges coating bits of eelgrass out there, and we lucked out on a wave of brant (geese) passing through, probably exploring those very same things,” says teacher Sue Earles. “Every time, we learn something more.” Two Project Webfoot adventurers from Cove Cliff Elementary offer up their own research findings at Boundary Bay.
British western region ( columbia )
The Flyway newsletter is published by Ducks Unlimited Canada Oak Hammock Marsh Conservation Centre P.O. Box 1160, Stonewall, Manitoba R0C 2Z0 tel (204)467-3000 fax (204)467-9028 toll-free 1(800)665-DUCK Please direct your inquiries to the following: Eastern Region Atlantic: Kelly MacDonald Quebec: Bernard Filion Ontario: Lynette Mader Marci Dube Western Region
Flyway production staff Director of Communications and Marketing: Madeleine Arbez Editor: Duncan Morrison Assistant: June Finnson Art Director: Tye Gregg Graphic Designers: Lindsay Pikta-Marie, Aquila Samson, Jeope Wolfe © Ducks Unlimited Canada, 2007 Printed in Canada on 100% recycled paper including 100% post-consumer fibres
Area Contacts Director of Regional Operations Ian Barnett, Edmonton (780) 602-3221 Manager of Provincial Operations Les Bogdan, Surrey (604) 592-5000 Manager of Conservation Programs Brad Arner, Kamloops (250) 374-8307 Fundraising Rory Brown, Victoria
(250) 652-5090
Major Gifts and Feather Society Gordon Stewart, Surrey (604) 592-5008
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