Part of an ongoing series of articles relating to critical issues affecting the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Reserve; written by members of the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Foundation.
Throughout 2011 the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Foundation will be hosting events and activities that acknowledge the International Year of Forests and promote the sustainable use of forests and other local resources in and around the biosphere reserve. With the understanding that when you tug at anything in nature, you find it attached to everything else, the Foundation will lead us all a merry chase to investigate and act on some of the critical issues facing our communities today.
The Foundation will be collaborating with the Brant Wildlife Festival to host community events from March through April during spring migration when thousands of Brant and millions of other seabirds, marine mammals, fish, and other ocean creatures congregate in the Strait of Georgia for the life-sustaining phenomena of the Pacific Herring spawn.
The United Nations, scientists and community leaders recognize the international importance of Brant as an indicator of ecosystem health along the Pacific flyway.
Brant are a species of delight and concern for people living in biosphere reserves all along their migratory route from the Baja in Mexico in the south to Alaska and the high Arctic in the north. They are a truly international species.
The Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Foundation was delighted to co-host the Grand Opening of the Brant Wildlife Festival with an grand collaboration of community groups, local government, and committed individuals. Local celebrity of some notoriety, Briony Penn was the keynote speaker for an evening presentation of For the Love of Nature: Solutions to Restoring Biodiversity, which tells some remarkable stories of leadership in biodiversity contained in the book of the same name written by herself and Dr. Robin J. Hood.
The Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Foundation will be exploring the role of local resources in healthy communities through film, discussion and action days.
Monday Night at the Movies will facilitate after-theatre cafè discussions and brainstorming sessions to create a Resource Action Plan (RAP). The RAP sheet will outline immediate, medium and long term actions for community response to issues of the day.
The first RAP Action Day was March 12 and was a tree planting party hosted by the Young Naturalists Club, the Arrowsmith Naturalists and The Nature Trust of BC.
To reserve your spot for future MABF events call 250-586-0190 or go to our website at www.mabr.ca.
For Brant Wildlife Festival events call Robin Rivers at 1-866-288-7878 ext. 226 or go to the festival website for details at www.brantfestival.bc.ca
Donna L. Monty is a representative of the Mt. Arrowsmith Biosphere Communications Working Group