Sunday, July 20, 2014 at 1:00 p.m.
Allan Yap Theatre
Included with museum admission or membership
When you think of endangered species what comes to mind? For most people it may be tigers and polar bears and pandas. But, BC has almost a thousand species of plants and animals of conservation concern! Almost a third of those are at serious risk and in need of special attention. On the South Coast (Lower Mainland) alone, over 260 species may be in trouble and 59 species are federally designated as threatened or endangered. Some species like the water-walking Pacific water shrew and wetland loving Oregon spotted frog are found only in the Lower Mainland in Canada.
What do they all have in common? Special habitat needs and often unique life-histories.
With our human population growing exactly where some of BC’s greatest concentrations of endangered plants and animals are found, it’s a challenging time to conserve this incredible wealth in natural diversity. Organizations like the South Coast Conservation Program are working to raise awareness and seek effective solutions to ensure more species do not become imperiled and those that are in trouble receive the attention they need to recover.
Join Pamela Zevit, conservation biologist and Program Coordinator for the South Coast Conservation Program to learn more about the story of some of these unique creatures and how we can all help to ensure they are part of BC’s landscape for the long-term.
Pamela is a Registered Professional Biologist in BC with a focus on biodiversity conservation, environmental literacy, and landscape ecology. She works on local and regional actions to conserve natural capital as well as improving collaboration between public and private sectors. She has mainly been involved on the South Coast of BC and broader provincial conservation issues since 1995, first as a conservation planner for the Province of BC and since 2004 as an independent advisor, researcher, and consultant. As the Program Coordinator for the South Coast Conservation Program, endangered species and rare ecosystems have been Pamela’s main focus since 2007. Reconciling the conflicts between human and non-human resource needs and improving the trust between society and science practitioners are her main aspirations.