Category: Field Insights
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Wetlands — A Stop-over in the Great Migratory Journey
Take a moment and picture yourself amongst the wildlife of your local wetland. Look for colourful blooms, hear the croak of the frogs, and maybe, listen for the call of a bird. Wetlands are biodiversity hotspots and invaluable ecosystems across Canada. They are the home or place of refuge to a multitude of species including…
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Maggie’s Journey — A ‘Nuisance’ Beaver Gets a Second Chance
When the door of her enclosure swung open, Maggie the beaver wasted no time getting acquainted with her new home. After months of rehabilitation at the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society, she finally returned to the wild. Maggie’s solitary rehabilitation journey was unusual because beavers typically live in pairs or in established colonies. “Normally, we would…
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Collaborations Yield a Healthier Landscape
Living off the land is fundamental to rural and First Nations communities. Caring for the land is essential to the traditions and practices that encompass hunting, fishing, and foraging. The B.C. Wildlife Federation and Indigenous communities have made considerable progress toward a shared vision of maintaining healthy fish and wildlife populations. By weaving Indigenous values…
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Volunteer-run rehab centre returns beavers to the wild
The B.C. Wildlife Federation is dedicating significant energy and attention to learning about the services beavers offer to wetlands, and how to leverage those behaviors to our mutual advantage. We visited the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (IWRS) in Summerland in July to view the society’s new Beaver Hotel, a facility dedicated to rehabilitating beavers and…
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Ephemeral Wetlands
It’s July and you are thinking of building a cabin somewhere far away from civilization. You come across this beautiful, relatively flat area full of sedges and grasses. The best part is the large pond just a few meters away. You take several photos of the area and plan all the logistics for building the…
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A Mini Documentary — Wetlands Conservation through Private Land Stewardship in the Kootenays
Last summer, the WEP team travelled to the Kootenay Region to visit and interview several of the private landowners who had worked with the B.C. Wildlife Federation in the past to create and restore wetlands on their property. We met and interviewed the people behind four incredible wetlands conservation projects on private land to share…
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Wetlands as a Tool for Flood Control and Prevention
If you live in British Columbia or have loved ones living in B.C., you will have heard about the devastating floods occurring across southern parts of the province. The Province of B.C. declared a state of emergency on November 17, 2021, following massive flooding and landslides caused by record-breaking rainfall throughout mid-November. Many communities in B.C. have been devastated by massive floods, including Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Merritt, Princeton, Lillooet, the Cowichan…
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A wetlands fire in New Zealand, and how it relates to us in B.C.
This week, a large fire destroyed more than 400 hectares of the internationally recognized Waituna Wetlands Scientific Reserve, located in the Southland Region of New Zealand. The massive fire lasted for nearly 24 hours, and destroyed mature manuka trees (Leptospermum scoparium) and a variety of important wetland plants. Birds and skinks were lost in the…