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Category: Conservation

BEAR SAFETY TRAINING 2026-03-30

BEAR SAFETY TRAINING 2026-03-30

DRAFT 2026-03-31 by Denis – more coming later. A spring bear safety workshop, including bear spray practice, was offered by the North Shore Black Bear Society (NSBBS) for Nature Vancouver (NV) members on Monday, March 30, 2026. The training involved a thorough indoor presentation covering basic black bear biology and behaviour (approx. 1 hr) followed by outdoor training using ‘mock’ pepper spray canisters (approx. 1 hr). Their mascot “Ursus Reversis” is mounted on a remote-controlled motorized skateboard. See it in…

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NEW BRIGHTON: WHY THE NEXT FEW WORK PARTIES REALLY MATTER

NEW BRIGHTON: WHY THE NEXT FEW WORK PARTIES REALLY MATTER

Submitted by Nigel Peck After our last New Brighton work party posting someone asked “why the rush to clip Himalayan Blackberry right now”? There is a very concrete and time sensitive answer. The reason is because from March 12th until mid-August, removal of tree and shrub removal requires a qualified professional survey to make sure there are no active bird nests. We don’t have the resourses to do that – so our absolute last blackberry thicket removal work party has…

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FIELD NOTES FROM THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN

FIELD NOTES FROM THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN

Nature Vancouver scholarship recipient Agraj Rathi shared a piece he published on Medium about his summer field rotation in the Northwest Territories:Field Notes from the Land of the Midnight Sun It’s a candid account of working as a Migratory Bird Technician in the Arctic, including the failures, the learning curve, and what actually prepared him for remote fieldwork. At the end, Agraj includes practical pathways for people wanting to break into conservation work, and calls out Nature Vancouver as one…

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TREE SWALLOWS & BALD EAGLES NEWS

TREE SWALLOWS & BALD EAGLES NEWS

In this first week of June 2025, Peter Ward would like to draw Members attention to: 1. Tree Swallows. Having been around their nest boxes since April, the swallows are in high gear this week, and will be here up to late June/early July. The adult swallows have recently hatched families, which may number up to 6 young, and are busy catching thousands of insects per day. Both parents feed the young. They have less than 3 weeks to develop,…

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BC BATS SHOW NO SIGN OF INFECTION FROM WHITE-NOSE SYNDROME – PUBLIC ASKED TO REPORT BAT SIGHTINGS

BC BATS SHOW NO SIGN OF INFECTION FROM WHITE-NOSE SYNDROME – PUBLIC ASKED TO REPORT BAT SIGHTINGS

Press Release from BC Community Bat Program – February 3, 2025  The BC Community Bat Programs, in collaboration with the Province of BC, are asking the public for help in the effort to detect and prevent the spread of white-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats. Residents are urged to report any bat activity observed in winter and any sick or dead bats found before May 31st. There have not been any bats with WNS found to date in BC, but PseudogymnoascusDestructans (Pd),…

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BC PARKS FOUNDATION PURCHASES SATURNA ISLAND ACREAGE – JANUARY 31, 2025

BC PARKS FOUNDATION PURCHASES SATURNA ISLAND ACREAGE – JANUARY 31, 2025

Submitted by Bev Ramey The BC Parks Foundation has successfully protected a large acreage on Saturna Island. The land includes two and a half kilometres of south-facing rocky shoreline, plus small coves with a grove of Seaside Juniper on the point (the threatened/vulnerable Juniperus maritima). The protected land includes the steep hillside extending up from the shoreline, the ridgetop itself and its north-facing slopes. The crowd-sourced funding campaign by the BC Parks Foundation began late December and reached its goal within…

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NEW BRIGHTON 2024 YEAR END REFLECTION

NEW BRIGHTON 2024 YEAR END REFLECTION

Report by Nigel Peck. With the arrival of 2025 and the approach of our fourth year of the New Brighton project, it seems a good time to reflect back on what we’ve achieved in the last year and look forward to the possibilities of this year. Reflecting back: Invasives: What stood out last year was massive invasive plant pulling efforts involving armload after armload of purple vetch, white-sweet clover and finally, scotch broom. The purple vetch was first and almost…

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THE HOMEGROWN NATIONAL PARK

THE HOMEGROWN NATIONAL PARK

Submitted by James M. Scott People feel a longing for a connection to the natural world. Instead of enjoying nature as a way of life, we fill our daily lives with all sorts of uninspiring, attention-robbing activities—entertainment, shopping, doomscrolling, and, of course, nonstop work. Nature is over there in some far-away nature preserve or national park, and we’re over here eking out an existence in the city or suburbs. What if we could bring the natural world to our own…

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NEW BRIGHTON NEXT – THE CHALLENGE OF THE LONG HAUL

NEW BRIGHTON NEXT – THE CHALLENGE OF THE LONG HAUL

With the start of Fall 2024 the New Brighton Biodiversity Enhancement project moves into a new phase – the challenge of the long haul. We’ve done the big Scotch Broom and Himalayan Blackberry removals, planted about 1800 native perennial flowers and shrubs. Now we enter the really difficult job of just ‘keeping at it’ which will determine if the project succeeds or fails. This means pulling thousands of small Scotch Broom shoots, continuing to dig blackberry roots and clip back…

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NEW BRIGHTON BIODIVERSITY ENHANCEMENT

NEW BRIGHTON BIODIVERSITY ENHANCEMENT

Submitted by Nigel Peck In December 2021 Nature Vancouver approached the Vancouver Park Board to see if we could assist in the removal of invasive plants on the west side of New Brighton Park in Vancouver’s northeast corner just next to the Workers’ Memorial Second Narrow Bridge.  The hillock on the park’s west side was a byproduct of an award-winning Marine Restoration collaboration between the Vancouver Park Board, the Port of Vancouver and the and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nation begun in…

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