News & Stories

String, rope, twine, cordage – what’s the big deal? String is one of the most important, yet under-acknowledged, of all of human technology – and for the vast majority of our history, it was made from plant and animal fibres.

The rain held off long enough for us to enjoy a fascinating native plant walk around campus. We discovered that many native plants can be found in our own backyard as we shared our morning learning about taxonomy, ecology and the traditional uses of a number of local species

I am spending a good part of my sabbatical year in Brisbane, Australia – capital of Queensland. One thing that I am doing here is fleshing out the outline of a book on notable rivers of North America (a kinda’ mix of biology, geography, and societal aspects of our relationships with rivers)

The Beaty Biodiversity Museum and the Children’s Writers and Illustrators of BC Society joined forces to create an amazing exhibit of kid’s books on nature.

In an age when the environmental news is often grim (e.g., Mount Polley mine tailings spill) we need to celebrate positive developments – the removal of two dams on the Elwha River in Washington

The 5th Annual Wilf Schofield Bryophyte and Lichen Foray was held Sept 11 to 14, 2014 near Creston, BC. The Foray undertook an inventory of selected areas of the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Darkwoods Preserve, a 55,000-hectare property in the central Kootenays.

British Columbians recently gained yet another reason to be deeply proud of our magnificent and biodiversity-rich province: it is now home to the second United Nations-designated Global Geopark in North America!

We recently came across a blog post by Bree Galbraith (@breegalbraith) on Peaks and Harbours, her “not just for moms” blog that showcases everything our city has to offer the younger crowd. The post talks about her experience visiting the Museum with her two young sons and features beautiful photos that her son took. Bree kindly adapted the post to be shown here.

On Saturday, September 20th we set off on a birding walk around campus, this was the first in a new series of Campus Walks. It was a perfect fall day, the weather was sunny and the red, orange and yellow of the turning leaves were stunning against a brilliant blue sky. Our quest to find and identify local birds took us to some interesting corners of campus.

The BBM was especially fortunate to have two of Dr. David Brownstein’s Research in History Geography Class archiving students haunt the halls of the Beaty Biodiversity curatorial wing during the 2014 winter term. Recently, their projects were uploaded to UBC cIRcle.