Very happy Friday! As we come to the last weekend in February, we hope that you’ll be able to spend some of the weekend outdoors, enjoying some beautiful nature wherever you are.
February has been an exciting month for KBA Canada. Work in Manitoba and Québec is speeding up as our new staff there begin picking up steam. In Ontario and B.C., more potential KBAs have been added to our interactive KBAs In-Progress dashboard, which you can see here. And in Alberta, our virtual KBA kick-off meeting this month brought together dozens of interested experts and stakeholders from across the province.
Throughout the country, excitement for KBAs is growing. As WCS Canada’s National Conservation Director, Dan Kraus, writes in Canadian Geographic, KBAs are exciting not just because they will help us answer the question of “what must we save”, but also because they help highlight the incredible nature close to our homes.
The work identifying ecosystem KBAs is heating up across the Prairies! Early March will see a series of expert workshops to help narrow down where these sites are across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. If you have expert knowledge about prairie landscapes and would like to join, contact our Ecosystems KBA Coordinator, Dr. Lucy Poley.
This month will also see the second of two national KBA workshops being run by WCS Canada and the Center for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER), specifically for Indigenous communities and experts. If you or someone you know would be interested in joining this webinar on March 7, please contact us for more details.
As mentioned above, our Alberta KBA webinar brought together dozens of interested conservationists from across the country. You can watch the full webinar here, featuring presentations from KBA Canada and the Beaver Hills Biosphere Region.
February’s monthly webinar was a KBA Information Session for IBA Caretakers and Volunteers, hosted by Birds Canada and WCS Canada. If you have questions about the IBA-to-KBA transition and what it will mean for your favorite IBA, watch the full webinar here. If you’d like to participate in the IBA to KBA process or if you have data that might help, contact Jeff Driscoll or Amanda Bichel.
The recordings for all past webinars can be found on our website.
Goldencrest (Lophiola aurea), an Atlantic Coastal Plain plant found only in Canada at a few lake shores and wetlands in Nova Scotia – 800 km away from the nearest US populations. Photo courtesy iNaturalist and Brian Finzel.
We are always looking for more stories about KBAs and the fascinating species within them. If you have a story about a KBA or a potential KBA species that you’d like to share, write to us at KBA Canada.
As always, please get in touch if you have questions or if you want to learn more.
Peter Soroye
Canada Key Biodiversity Areas Assessment and Outreach Coordinator / Coordonnateur de l’évaluation et de la sensibilisation des zones clés pour la biodiversité
