Winter Webinars 2025
In partnership with the Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology (CMI), Kootenay Conservation Program (KCP) presents our Annual Winter Webinar Series on the theme of Stewarding for Biodiversity.
British Columbia is the most biodiverse province in Canada, yet almost a third of the species assessed in our province are now at risk. Biodiversity loss has been recognized locally, nationally, and internationally as a major conservation threat. In the past two years, countries have come together from around the world to agree on a new set of goals and targets to guide global action through 2030 to halt and reverse the loss of nature. Locally in the Canadian Columbia Basin, organizations are doing their part to protect species at risk, steward wetlands and grasslands, and connect habitat for wide-ranging mammals. In this webinar series, we will explore stewardship of biodiversity from multiple perspectives, emphasizing that conserving biological diversity and caring for all living things requires a variety of people, viewpoints, and practices. This series aims to demonstrate how collaborative, multi-faceted approaches across various jurisdictions and scales can lead to more enduring biodiversity conservation.
The 4 webinars took place on Thursdays in January and February at lunchtime. All of the recordings can be found by clicking the button below.
2025 — Stewarding for Biodiversity
Webinar 1: Bunchgrass and Badgers in BC
Thurs, Jan 16 at 12 pm PT / 1 pm MT
Join Hillary Page and Richard Klafki, both with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, who will share their unique journeys in grassland ecology and conservation. Grasslands are among the most critical ecosystems in British Columbia, covering less than 5% of the land but supporting over 30% of the province's species at risk. These landscapes are also essential for communities and agriculture.
Webinar 2: Key Biodiversity Areas in the Kootenay – Columbia: Sites of Unique Biodiversity
Thurs, Jan 30 at 12 pm PT / 1 pm MT
Join Ian Adams, BC Coordinator for KBAs, for a presentation on what KBAs are, what they are not, and some of their applications in conservation stewardship throughout the Kootenay - Columbia region. As of December 2024, there are 188 sites published across Canada, including 33 sites in BC. There are over 100 more in varying stages of development and review in BC alone, including sites in the Kootenay - Columbia region.
Webinar 3: Bonanza Biodiversity Corridor: Crafting a Conservation Roadmap
Thurs, Feb 13 at 12 pm PT / 1 pm MT
Join ecologist Ryan Durand to learn how the Slocan Lake Stewardship Society has developed a living conservation plan drawn from years of ecosystem research in the Bonanza Biodiversity Corridor. A strategic conservation framework has been developed based on a broad range of identified conservation values, species and habitat inventories that encompass microscopic slime moulds to wide-ranging carnivores.
Webinar 4: Code-Switch – Translating Stewardship Practice across Cultures
Thursday, February 27 at 12 pm PT / 1 pm MT
How does stewardship work when small, Indigenous-led teams take a relational approach, rather than a prescriptive one? Join ethnoecologist Jonaki Bhattacharyya, who will walk us through boots-on-the-ground examples of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA) establishment, cultural burning, and wildlife monitoring from BC’s southern interior, taking note of nuances and lessons learned.
