British western region ( columbia )
volume 30, number 1, 2009
Biodiversity planning for B.C. farms and ranches
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On Oct. 6, 2008, the Canada-B.C. Agricultural Policy Framework Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) Working Group announced the launch of a new biodiversity planning process for B.C. farmers and ranchers. Thirty-two planning advisers from around the province completed one-day biodiversity training programs held in Prince George, Kelowna and Abbotsford. The training sessions followed the completion of the latest in the EFP suite of publications entitled Planning for Biodiversity: A Guide for B.C. Farmers and Ranchers.
“This publication is a first attempt to provide an on-farm assessment and planning tool for biodiversity in North America,” says David Trotter, agro-forestry specialist with the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. “It differs from other EFP documents in that it is not a risk assessment but rather an assessment of opportunities that producers might want to consider.” To test the guide, Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) recently made funding available to cover the costs of completing 60 on-farm plans. “Biodiversity planning has benefits for the producer, the landscape and all British Columbians and we want to be part of that process,” explains King Campbell, agrologist with DUC. “Biodiversity plans highlight waterfowl and wildlife habitats and describe opportunities to protect or enhance these areas on the farm,” Campbell says. “We feel this process will encourage continued success of Ducks’ habitat programs following our contribution of $525,000 to the Environmental Farm Plan program since 2005.” This money has been leveraged to help fund more than $5 million in environmental farm projects in B.C. “Biodiversity is one of the four Agricultural Policy Framework pillars and it has had the least amount of attention to date,” says Linda Allison, chair of the EFP Working Group. “We hope that producers will take advantage of the opportunity to explore management options for their farms and ranches.” The development of the publication and the training were made possible through funding from the EFP program, the Ministry of Environment and DUC and extensive staff support from those agencies as well as staff support from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the B.C. Agriculture Council (BCAC). Producers interested in completing a biodiversity plan are encouraged to contact Angela McKee at the BCAC office in Abbotsford at 1-866-522-3447 or angela@bcac.bc.ca.
Symposium examines restoration of the Courtenay River watershed The Heart of the Watershed: A Symposium on Restoring the Courtenay River Estuary was held in the Vancouver Island community of Courtenay in early October. Presented by the Comox Valley Project Watershed Society and sponsored in part by Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC), the event aimed “to create a community action group with a plan to preserve and restore the health of the Courtenay River Estuary Ecosystem.” The Courtenay River estuary is important to wildlife, migrating birds and the surrounding community. Dan Buffett, regional planning biologist with DUC, said, “The Courtenay estuary is one of the larger estuaries along the B.C. coast. With a combination of multiple rivers, topography and complex physical features, like spits, the watershed creates a myriad of sheltered habitat areas for wildlife.” These features contributed to the estuary’s top eight ranking in a 2007 study conducted by DUC and Environment Canada. Formal symposium proceedings included keynote speakers discussing the function, importance and ranking of estuaries, managing complex systems, perspectives from the First Nations communities, the state of the Courtenay River estuary and plans to implement sustainable systems. There were also case studies examining the protection and restoration of other Vancouver Island estuaries. These keynote speakers and case studies set the stage for a facilitated group discussion that created a vision for a healthy estuary, including action plans and commitment to action. These plans were the main reason for the symposium and will be used to build a strategy to restore and further protect the Courtenay River estuary. Following the speaker sessions, workshops and field trips were held to further assess stream protection, invasive plant removal and life in the estuary. Jeanine Bond, conservation programs specialist with DUC, led a trip to the Comox Bay Farm/Duck Slough to look at birds, farms and the flood plain. She said the goal of the field trip was to “pass on information about the conservation lands that are associated with the estuary, to give background information on Ducks and to let participants know about our conservation partnerships.” “It is important to learn how all the conservation organizations work together,” said Bond. “All of us come together and pool our money and that’s how a lot of this property in the estuary was conserved.”
The Courtenay River estuary is facing increasing pressure from urbanization, hardening of shorelines and pollution. According to Buffett, one challenge facing the estuary is the “loss of traditional soil-based agricultural crops like vegetables, grains and grasses that provide food for wildlife.” One of the projects DUC continues
The Courtenay River estuary (above) with its multiple rivers, topography and complex physical features provides valuable wintering habitat to 10 per cent of the global population of trumpeter swans (below). to support in the Courtenay-Comox area is a winter cover crop program that provides a portion of funding to help plant annual grass crops on vegetable fields after they are harvested. In recent years, the Comox Farmers’ Institute has also contributed funding to the program, providing an example of the many partnerships in the Comox Valley. Don Castleden from the Comox Valley Project Watershed Society said that the symposium was “successful beyond my expectations. It brought people from all parts of the community together. We now have a group of people wanting to take this forward and work on the issues.” The informative two-day event ended with field trip reports and photos, door prize draws, a display of artwork from the Comox Valley Young Naturalists Club and music by Blue Planet Songfest.
western region (british columbia)
DUC partners for wetland BMPs
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Developing Best Management Practices (BMPs) and management guidelines has become an important way to support government and industry in making planning and management decisions that support healthy landscapes. BMPs and guidelines are scientifically defensible non-regulatory tools that, if followed by land managers and decision-makers, minimize impacts on sensitive areas and specific species. These tools help build stakeholder awareness and capacity by providing practical examples of approaches and measures that can be taken to meet and, where appropriate, exceed regulatory and legislative obligations. While there is already a comprehensive suite of BMPs and guidelines in the province such as Develop with Care: Guidelines for Urban and Rural Land Development in British Columbia, these documents do not adequately address wetland considerations and the Wetland Stewardship Partnership (WSP) partners saw value in developing a series of wetland-specific guidelines. This value is augmented by the provincial government’s recent commitment in Living Water Smart – B.C.’s Water Strategy to enhance the protection of wetlands through regulatory and non-regulatory measures. To support this aim, it is critical to make more tools available to assist stakeholders in choosing wetland and sensitive ecosystem-friendly practices. To initiate the development of the wetland BMPs, Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC), through support from B.C. Ministry of Environment, hired consultants to put together draft guidelines, entitled Wetland Ways: Management Guidelines for Wetland Protection and Conservation in British Columbia. The document is divided up into sections that provide general information on the
value of wetlands, general overarching management guidelines, as well as sector-specific guidelines for industries such as oil and gas, forestry and agriculture. To engage stakeholder groups in the development of the document, DUC and WSP partners hosted two well attended fullday public workshops in Vancouver and Kamloops. At both of these events, stakeholders from a variety of industry sectors and representatives from various levels of government and government ministries gathered to review and discuss the content of the first draft and comment on the material. Stakeholder participation was exceptional and provided the WSP Wetland BMP project steering committee with excellent suggestions about sample guidelines, important considerations and ways to maximize the utility of the document. This stakeholder engagement process also provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the role and value of this document and BMPs with a broad cross-section of government and industry representatives. Comments and feedback on the first draft were due by the end of October 2008. After the comments are collected, they will be considered and incorporated into the second edition of the document. After another critical stakeholder review and field testing of the guidelines, Wetland Ways will be finalized and made available for use as a printed document as well as a web tool. For more information on this process or to get a copy of the document for review, please contact Andrea Barnett at 604-592-5011 or a_barnett@ducks.ca.
Bert Hadley: DUC volunteer and Life Sponsor Without volunteers and their tireless efforts, Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) would have difficulty achieving our conservation vision. That is why it is important to show our appreciation and to profile some of the most dedicated individuals. One such individual is Bert Hadley, who like millions of ducks and geese, recently migrated from Alberta to B.C. and sought out the Nanaimo chapter to continue as a DUC volunteer. Bert Hadley has a long history as a volunteer in Alberta, having jumped on the bandwagon in the mid-1980s. Since then he rose through the ranks to become a district chair and active member of the Alberta Provincial Council until his relocation to Vancouver Island to take advantage of its numerous outdoor activities and temperate climate. At a recent Nanaimo fundraising event, Hadley was honoured with his Life Sponsor decoy and pin for his $10,000 contribution towards wetland conservation. This provided a great chance A recent B.C. migrant and dedicated DUC volunteer, Bert Hadley of the to profile one of Ducks’ Nanaimo chapter receives his Life Sponsor decoy and pin. (l-r) Rory most steadfast volunteers Brown, DUC fundraising team leader in B.C.; Bob Jepson, Nanaimo and provide him with an chapter chair; Hadley; and Don Hubbard, B.C. provincial chair. opportunity to share his volunteer experiences. How long have you volunteered with Ducks? I started as a founding member of the Vegreville, Alta., chapter around 1984 or 1985 and was committee treasurer and recorder for four years. I joined the St. Albert committee soon after moving there in 1989 and have been an active volunteer ever since. What led you to volunteer? I agreed to become a member because I was interested in the outdoors and hunting. During my trips to the outdoors, I had begun to notice the changes in duck population as a result of the droughts in central Alberta. What chapters have you been a part of? I have been on Vegreville, St. Albert, Alberta Volunteer Appreciation Event, and Edmonton SBA, Golf and Casino committees. I restarted the Morinville chapter and also started the Wabumun chapter.
What roles have you held? I have experience as chapter chairman and chapter treasurer, as well as organizing events. I’ve also been a zone chairman, Alberta provincial secretary and district chair. What have you enjoyed most about volunteering? Working with fellow volunteers and helping them become successful in their chapters. Favourite memory? Swap trips in whitetail hunts (Vegreville) and goose hunts (St. Albert). Our chapter hosted successful bidders from Campbell River, Duncan, Victoria, Wilmington and Charlotte, North Carolina and the DU Inc. International Convention. Now that you are a member of the Nanaimo chapter, what are you looking forward to? I would like to become a volunteer and learn how events are done in B.C.
The Nanaimo chapter will be lucky to have Bert, given his obvious enthusiasm for and dedication to wetland conservation. From all of the B.C. DUC family, Bert, welcome to our great province!
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 Western Region Prairie-Western Boreal: Marci Dube Pacific: Wendy Fister Flyway production staff Director of Communications and Marketing: Madeleine Arbez Editor: Duncan Morrison Assistant: Deb Menard Art Director: Tye Gregg Graphic Designers: Lindsay Pikta-Marie, Aquila Samson, Jeope Wolfe © Ducks Unlimited Canada, 2009 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 and Development Manager Les Bogdan, Surrey (604) 592-5000 Manager of Conservation Programs Brad Arner, Kamloops (250) 374-8307 Marketing and Communications Wendy Fister, Surrey (604) 592-5004 Fundraising Rory Brown, Victoria
(250) 652-5090
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