What's new // Tracking Raincoast
In 2021, Raincoast welcomed a new marine operations manager and Captain, Drew Grav-Graham, to the team. Having made the jump from the ecotourism industry, Drew brings a wealth of experience and renewed enthusiasm for SV Achiever and the marine program. Diving straight into months of seabird surveys off the west coast of Vancouver Island in the winter…
Since 2016, our Salish Sea Emerging Stewards (SSES) program has been empowering young conservation leaders by connecting youth to place through immersive land and boat-based learning.
The Coastal Douglas-fir (CDF) bio-geoclimatic zone is the smallest and most endangered of 16 such zones in British Columbia. According to BC’s Conservation Data Centre, nearly every ecological community in the CDF is provincially listed as threatened or endangered. The Gulf Islands represent 33.2% of CDF forests and associated habitats, and are the Traditional Territories…
We are raising funds to purchase the biggest tenure (18,239 km2) remaining on the central/south coast, the Southern Great Bear Rainforest tenure.
Recent projects highlight a couple recent and tangible ways in which our research supports not only human-wildlife coexistence but also renewed self-determination by Indigenous governments.
The Fraser is one of the world’s greatest salmon rivers. Despite the Lower Fraser representing only 5% of the entire watershed, it supports more than half of the watershed’s Chinook and chum, 65% of its coho, 80% of its pink, and significant populations of sockeye salmon.
n 2020, a federal review panel concluded that the Terminal 2 shipping expansion project would have significant adverse and cumulative effects to populations of Fraser Chinook.
That’s where Healthy Waters fits in. A new Raincoast initiative that brings into focus our tacit participation in the water cycle, our role in shaping the quality of water in our surroundings, and opportunities to construct an innovation agenda that tackles pressing pollution issues.
As we move into 2022, our Fraser River Estuary restoration efforts move towards the next target, the North Arm jetty. In late 2021, we finished our Coastal Restoration Fund project, a five year multi-million dollar initiative to restore connectivity between the main arm of the Fraser River and the marsh on Lulu Island’s Sturgeon Bank….
2021 was the third year of collaborative efforts by the federal government, NGOs, and stakeholders to implement threat reduction measures.
As someone who has pursued a life-long journey as an environmental scientist, I find myself wondering whether today’s ‘science to policy’ paradigm is sufficient to safeguard British Columbia from the ravages of climate change and the loss of biodiversity.
These conservation efforts and our research have reached millions around the world. Tangible conservation success. 2020 was not all bad – let’s make 2021 even better…
Read Tracking Raincoast into 2022, online.