Tag: Wetlands
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Mapping Our Marshes with the Wetlands Education Program — 2023
The Wetlands Education Program (WEP) runs several workshops throughout the year in order to engage and educate interested participants about wetlands. One of these programs is Map our Marshes (MoM). This is a 1.5 day workshop that focuses on entry-level technical and field skills for mapping smaller wetlands using free software, GPS, and your smartphone!…
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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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Fishing Forever Projects Make the Outdoors Accessible
Imagine the potential obstacles you might face traversing the outdoors as a person with physical disabilities. Is that curb too high? Can I cross that sand or wade through that mud? People with limited mobility and those who use wheelchairs face these obstacles engaging in ordinary outdoor activities. One in seven British Columbians live with…
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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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Ginty’s Pond Restoration Supports Community & Wildlife
After many years of planning, work is finally underway to restore Ginty’s Pond to an open-water ecosystem. An essential wetland habitat in the B.C. Interior, restoration efforts at this site will help protect several federally listed species at risk, including the yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens), western screech-owl (Megascops kennicottii), Great Basin gophersnake (Pituophis catenifer deserticola),…
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Quadra Island community comes together to install 500 native plants at new B.C. wetland
When COVID-19 hit, elementary school teacher Sheldon Etheridge shifted to outdoor learning, guiding his students to a nearby forested area for immersive education. But as the weather turned wet, he noticed that a muddy, unused section of the sports field was trying to return to its former life as a functioning wetland. He decided to…
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Wetlands, Knowledge, and Community — 2022 Wetlandkeepers Workshops on Stó:lō and Ktunaxa Territories
Throughout the spring and summer, the Wetlands Education Program partnered with the Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre, Chawathil First Nation, ʔaq’am First Nation, and members of the Ktunaxa Nation to deliver two Wetlandkeepers workshops rooted in place-based learning and cultural exchange. As with all Wetlandkeepers workshops, the sessions began with classroom instruction on wetland…
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Quadra Island Schoolyard Given New Life with Wetland Build
A schoolyard on Quadra Island is being given new life as the B.C. Wildlife Federation, Quadra Island Elementary School, and School District 72 restore a historic wetland to provide habitat for native plants and animals, while also creating an outdoor classroom for students. At first glance, the school’s large sports field surrounded by towering trees…
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Wetlands in Urban Environments — Armstrong-Spallumcheen Wetlandkeepers
In mid-June, the Wetlands Education Program (WEP) team travelled to the North Okanagan to visit Armstrong and Spallumcheen. Like many of the locations WEP visits, Armstrong and Spallumcheen are situated at the bottom of one of B.C.’s numerous river valleys. Valleys are the result of longstanding erosion of land by glaciers, rivers, or streams. It’s…
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Wetlandkeepers 2022 — The Kootenays
From June 1st to 12th, the Wetlands Education Program (WEP) team ventured to the Kootenays for the first Wetlandkeepers workshops of the summer. The focus of these workshops was to provide participants with a working knowledge of wetlands and to understand their undeniable value. Our first stop on the trip was in Slocan, B.C, where the Slocan…