LEARN YOUR LANDSCAPE DISCUSSION SERIES
A platform for local scientists and experts to present important information about the natural systems and beings that inhabit our shared environment.
OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ELBOW RIVER:
Time for Therapy
Guest Speaker: Dave Klepacki
Date: Friday, March 12
Time: 7:00-8:30 PM MST
Covid-safe zoom presentation followed by facilitated Q+A.
Zoom link emailed 30 minutes prior to the event.
Proceeds will fund Citizen Science projects pertaining to the Elbow River watershed.
ABOUT
This presentation reviews the dynamics of a healthy foothills river: its history since glaciation, forests and water and sediment movement, climate and fire and floods, and animals and their movement in riverine and riparian ecosystems and between watersheds.
We have damaged the Elbow River and our increasing dependency with the considerable pressures we put on the river and it’s ecosystem. These impacts result from rapidly increasing recreational presence, OHVs, logging, grazing, and lack of preparation for large-scale wildfires. And we are constructing and planning destructive flood mitigation projects and large housing developments along Highway 8 in Springbank. The river is already degraded in the developments near and in Calgary. Even without these new water needs, shortages are forecast in a decade for the more than 450.000 users of the Elbow River.
The therapy for a lasting relationship between people and a healthier Elbow River lies in educating ourselves about the components of a healthy river and allowing their function. The South Saskatchewan Regional Plan’s recommendations for an Elbow Valley Provincial Park from Bragg Creek to the source would provide protection the Elbow River needs to deliver it’s ecological services, wildlife habitat and population and recreational services to the many people living along the lower reaches of the river. Development in Springbank needs to respect and protect the aquifer and floodplain of the river. In Calgary infrastructure repairs are a first step to cleaner water and restoring fish and animal habitat. We need to pursue these goals with a view of our grandchildren’s grandchildren and their wildlife neighbors.
Proceeds from this event will fund Citizen Science projects pertaining to the Elbow River watershed.
ABOUT DAVE KLEPACKI
Dave Klepacki spent his childhood learning the names of plants, animals, birds and rocks in the Appalachian Mountains of New England. He finished his formal studies with a PhD in Geological Sciences from MIT working for the Geological Survey of Canada on the Kootenay Arc of British Columbia. Dave was able to travel the globe during a 35-year career as geophysicist and executive in the oil and gas industry and publish 26 papers of geological interest. In industry, he developed an interest in the global environment, resource consumption and sustainability. With Experience Journeys he hopes to inspire awe in our history with, and connection to, all life on earth. Dave is a long-time member of the American Geophysical Union; was an Elbow River Watershed Partnership director; a founding member of Stand 4 the Upper Elbow, and is a watershed expert for the Springbank Landowners Group in the SR1 NRCB hearings. He has written several recent editorials and been interviewed on television and radio regarding preserving the Elbow River Watershed as the drinking water source for both wildlife and watershed residents, including 400,000 Calgarians.
ABOUT OUR NEXT EVENT
Weighing orphaned black bear cub
RESCUE AND RETURN TO THE WILD:
Philosophy and Action with C.E.I
Guest Speakers: Clio and Ken from The Cochrane Ecological Institute
Date: Friday, March 26
Time: 7:00-8:30 PM MST
Covid-safe zoom presentation followed by facilitated Q+A.
Zoom link emailed 30 minutes prior to the event.
$15 from the sale of each ticket will be directed to the Cochrane Ecological Institute.
ABOUT
The western prairies and foothills ecosystems illustrate a classic case of how climate change and anthropogenic land usage affect wildlife. Concurrent with these cascading impacts on an increasingly industrialized, dynamic landscape, used by multiple stakeholder groups, are the expanding numbers of annually injured or orphaned wildlife, learn how rehabilitation is a viable possibility.
70% of the world's wild species are At Risk of extirpation or extinction. Alberta is not immune to this loss, as an ever increasing number of orphaned or injured wildlife annually comes into human hands; what can be done? For our part, the Cochrane Ecological Institute, CEI, a registered Charity, has been working towards reversing this loss of wild species by rescuing rearing and returning wild orphans to the wild as well as rehabilitating and releasing injured wildlife for over 50 years. At present, there is no earmarked money set aside by federal or provincial governments to address this internationally acknowledged loss of biodiversity, so now is the time for everyone to act to help preserve our environment, its habitats, ecosystems and wildlife for future generations.
The Cochrane Ecological Institute is devoted to the preservation of biodiversity through the conservation and breeding of endangered indigenous species, environmental impact evaluation, ecosystem restoration through the reintroduction of extirpated flora and fauna, rescue and rehabilitation and release of injured and orphaned wildlife, public education and field research, and the monitoring of habitat and species through the development of non intrusive survey methods.
The Smeetons initiated the swift fox reintroduction program in Canada in 1972. The CEI has also been an integral part of the Canadian Wildlife Service’s Trumpeter swan (Cygnus bucinnator) and wood bison (B.b.athabascae) reintroduction programs. Internationally, as species and habitat vanish, the concept of ecosystem restoration through the reintroduction of indigenous flora and fauna, is gaining greater and greater prominence. The preservation of habitat without those species, which made that habitat a viable whole, is a sterile exercise.
ABOUT KEN WEAGLE
Ken Weagle was born in Nova Scotia. He attended UNB, Lakehead University and Memorial University. His first environmental work was in New Brunswick looking at the impacts of pesticides (DDT) on stream ecosystems. Ken has worked in all provinces of Canada except Quebec and PEI and in 5 countries, internationally. His employers have included Government, Private (industry and consulting), Academic and Non-Profit institutions. Ken main area of expertise is monitoring system design and data analysis with emphasis on detection and quantification of trends. In 1978, Ken was responsible for the investigation resulting in the largest fine leveled for an environmental offence in Canada to that date. He has also received a Ministerial commendation for the development of under-ice oil spill cleanup techniques, and in early 1970 he conducted two of the first environmental assessments in Canada (Come-by-Chance Oil Refinery and Stephenville Linerboard Mill in Newfoundland). Today Ken assists Clio with the day-to-day running of CEI and Special Projects at CEI.
ABOUT CLIO SMEETON
Clio Smeeton was born on the northwest frontier in India (Pakistan). Spent her youth on Salt Spring Island, BC and on her parent’s boat, Tzu Hang. Clio graduated from St.Martin’s School of Art, London, UK with a Fine Arts Degree. After graduation, she modelled in London and Paris. From modelling, she progressed to doing contract collections of animals in Africa for zoos in North America and became the Curator of Children’s Exhibit at Calgary Zoo in the 1960s after bringing a collection to Calgary. In the early 1960s, Clio and her parents bought the land on which the Cochrane Ecological Institute is now located. They received their first licence for wildlife Rehabilitation in 1967. Clio and her parents started the Wildlife Reserve of Western Canada in 1971-72. In 1993 this evolved into Cochrane Ecological Institute. In 1997 Clio & Ken were invited by Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife Branch in Montana to develop and implement a Swift Fox Reintroduction on the Blackfeet Reserve in Montana. This program which included pre-release investigations and Training of Staff in monitoring techniques took place from 1998 to 2003. Following this program, Clio and Ken were contacted by the Blood Tribe and asked to develop a Swift Fox program for the Blood Tribal lands in Alberta. This program involved extensive prerelease studies which included Blood tribe members, training of members in Monitoring Techniques, and post-release monitoring studies. In 2004 Ken was asked to train local staff in Water quality monitoring techniques and conduct a survey of dugouts on tribal lands. Clio was a member of the Swift Fox Recovery Team from 1993 to 2007, and currently a member of the IUCN Otter, and was a recipient of the Alberta Emerald Award for Individual Effort in an Environmental field. Clio has Authored a book on Wildlife Rehabilitation techniques and Ken and Clio wrote a book on Cetacean Identification.