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February 2010
Welcome to On the Wild Side, WCS Canada’s e-newsletter. Through this newsletter we hope to keep our colleagues and supporters informed about the great wildlife conservation work being done by WCS across Canada. The newsletter appears approximately six times a year and we welcome any comments or suggestions, which can be emailed to wcscanada@wcs.org. Information on subscribing and unsubscribing is at the bottom of the newsletter.
John Weaver honoured for conservation leadership
Dr. John Weaver, senior conservation biologist with WCS Canada, was recently awarded the Wilburforce Foundation’s 2009 Award for Conservation Leadership. The award was given to Dr. Weaver for his many years of field research and conservation efforts in several areas of the Yellowstone-to-Yukon region. Most recently, Dr. Weaver conducted pioneering field studies on grizzly bears, Dall’s sheep and woodland caribou in the remote area surrounding Nahanni National Park, a World Heritage Site in the Northwest Territories. His research and recommendations provided the scientific basis for the seven-fold expansion of the Park announced in 2009 by Parks Canada and the Dehcho First Nations. Thanks to Dr. Weaver’s leadership, Nahanni National Park now ranks as the 6th largest National Park in the world and is nearly the size of Vancouver Island. Congratulations John!
Peel River Watershed: Recommendation to protect 81% of landbase
In its Recommended Plan, the Peel Watershed Planning Commission is proposing that about 81% of the watershed’s land base be protected in Special Management Areas without road access. WCS Canada’s Don Reid has been involved in the development of this plan over the past four years. He has coordinated the Conservation Technical Advisory Group for the Planning Commission and co-authored the Conservation Priorities Assessment Report (a technical background document for the Commission) while also acting as a technical adviser at various stakeholder workshops. The planning region in question is 67,000 km2 — nearly the size of Austria. This Recommended Plan now goes to the Yukon territorial government and the four affected First Nations governments for their ratification. Stay tuned for the results of their decisions.
More info: www.peel.planyukon.ca
Canyon on the remote Hart River, one of a constellation of intact Peel watershed tributaries Photo by Juri Peepre
Wildlife trade a threat to our health
WCS International has been awarded a five-year grant for up to $75 million to help implement the Emerging Pandemic Threats – PREDICT program, an international surveillance program for emerging infectious diseases in wildlife. The data collected through this program will allow WCS to build a scientific case that the international trade in wildlife and wildlife parts represents a significant threat to human health. This information can then be used to apply pressure to enforce anti-trading legislation around the world. WCS will be playing a key role in providing epidemiological and information management support for the project. In Canada, Damien Joly will be expanding our capacity in these areas from a new office in Nanaimo, B.C.
Global Health Program Field staff sampling wildlife in Hanoi markets, Vietnam. Photo: WCS
Support rolls off the presses
WCS Canada recently received a generous donation from The Printing House through their Payroll Participation Program. Each dollar donated by TPH staff is matched dollar-for-dollar by TPH Ltd. TPH is supporting our Conservation Mapping program led by Gillian Woolmer, which allows us to provide information and analysis via maps to support our wildlife conservation projects across Canada. Thank you TPH!
WCS Staff with TPH’s Janice O’Born and Brenda Cahill (2nd and 3rd from the right)
Welcome Weston Fellows!
With generous support from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, WCS Canada has awarded four fellowships that will provide all or partial funding of graduate-level field research activities. The four Fellowships have been awarded to:
- Ben O'Reilly, University of Toronto, M.Sc. Candidate, who will conduct research into the paleoecological (the study of fossils and ecosystems) and paleohydrology (the science of hydrologic systems as they existed during previous periods of Earth’s history) of the Hudson Bay Lowland.
- Julee Boan, Lakehead University, PhD Candidate, researching the impact of post-harvest, regenerating vegetation on apparent competition and habitat partitioning between woodland caribou and moose in northwestern Ontario.
- Mark Basterfield, Trent University, M.Sc. Candidate, researching habitat selection of woodland caribou on a managed landscape.
- Krista Sittler, University of Northern British Columbia, M.Sc. Candidate. Krista’s research is focused on the influences of prescribed fire on two focal ungulate species in Northern British Columbia, as her Masters thesis in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies.
Recent Papers
Chetkiewicz, C-L B. and M.S. Boyce. 2009. Use of resource selection functions to identify conservation corridors. Journal of Applied Ecology. 46(5): 1036-1047
On the Wild Side is published six times a year for
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