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 will all take place on Thursdays in January and February at lunchtime. Dates and registration coming soon!
2025 — Stewarding for Biodiversity
Webinar 1: Bunchgrass and Badgers in BC
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. In this talk, Richard and Hillary will share their unique journeys in grassland ecology and conservation.
Webinar 2: Bonanza Biodiversity Corridor: Crafting a Conservation Roadmap
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
How does stewardship work when small, Indigenous-led teams take a relational approach, rather than a prescriptive one? We’ll walk 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.
