Biodiversity and Wildlife

Job Opportunity: Forest Program Assistant, Inside Education

Position: 
Forest Program Assistant
Application Deadline: 
26 Mar 2010
Location: 
Calgary

Combine your love of science, the environment, travel, and working with students to advance the quality of natural resources education in Alberta!

Who We Are

Inside Education™ is a leading non-profit, natural resources and environment education society. Our award-winning work connects formal education to science, technology and environment issues. We reach over 25,000 students each year, in over 100 rural and urban communities across Alberta and beyond. We also support educators in the K-12 school system with an extensive range of curriculum-relevant programs and services related to Alberta’s forests, energy and water resources. This year we are celebrating our 25th anniversary of leadership in environmental education!

Opportunity

We have a full-time, spring seasonal position for a 2-month term to support the operation of a field education program in the Calgary/Kananaskis area. Based from our Calgary office, the successful candidate will be involved in the direct delivery of forest education programs to school children at an outdoor centre in Kananaskis. Due to the nature of our programs, regular travel and occasional overtime may be required.

Celebrate the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity with Environment Canada's Nature Matters! Contest

Deadline: 
28 Mar 2010

Environment Canada invites Canadians aged of 9 to 35 years to celebrate the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity by participating in the Nature Matters! Contest.

Biological diversity is the variety and abundance of life on Earth. To help raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity all over the world, the United Nations General Assembly declared that 2010 will be the International Year of Biodiversity. Environment Canada is celebrating this, in part, with the national Nature Matters! Contest

Edmonton Seedy Sunday

Start: 
Mar 21 2010 - 11:00am - 4:00pm

Speakers

  • 11:30 a.m. Get Growing - Ideas and Strategies for New Gardeners with Ron Berezan,
  • 12:30 p.m. Starting Seeds with Bruce Bashforth
  • 1:30 p.m. Growing the Top ten Herbs with Gwen Simpson
  • 2:30 p.m. Urban Gardening Panel with:
    • Dustin Bajer, Guerrilla Gardening;
    • Sonja, Spin Farming;
    • Kim Sanderson, Involving Children

There will be a seed swap, seed vendors, displays, a kid`s table,a gardening book and magazine exchange and a Seedy Café.

Location

Alberta Avenue Community Hall
9210 118 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB

City of Calgary Earth Day Lunch & Learn

Start: 
Apr 22 2010 - 11:30am - 1:00pm

The City of Calgary is celebrating Earth Day by inviting everyone to attend a presentation by Kevin Strange (Senior Advisor of Conservation Outreach at the Calgary Zoo) called "An Uplifting Earth Day."

Kevin will tell you that knowing a lot about conservation can make a guy a real drag at a  party if he chooses to dwell on all of the doom and gloom news we get exposed to every day.  But, Strange devotes his energy to positive conservation stories and is surrounded by people and organizations doing small, but nonetheless great things, for nature and the environment.  Celebrate Earth Day by listening to him share light-hearted and fun stories about nature, travelling, and spending a life-time working for plants and animals.

Examples of environmental initiative from The City of Calgary will be on display, as will Posters from students (grade 1-3) who participated in our Earth Hour Contest.

Admission is free but please register to attend by contacting laura [dot] st [dot] louis [at] calgary [dot] ca

Location

John Dutton Theatre, Downtown Library
616 MacLeod Trail SE
Calgary, AB

Suffield National Wildlife Area — Conservation Makes Economic Sense

12 Mar 2010

As shale gas discoveries greatly expand already abundant reserves of natural gas, the economics of EnCana’s application to drill an additional 1,275 gas wells within Suffield National Wildlife Area are becoming ever more questionable. The Suffield Coalition has long argued that it would be economically imprudent and not in the public interest to approve EnCana’s application. In June, EnCana announced it was shutting in gas wells because of low demand and prices, so the time may be just right for EnCana to abandon further drilling within Suffield National Wildlife Area.

Volunteer Opportunity: Steering Committee Members, Adopt-a-Plant Alberta

Position: 
Steering Committee Members
Application Deadline: 
5 Apr 2010

Join the Adopt-a-Plant Alberta Steering Committee!

Do you have a passion for the conservation of rare plant species in Alberta?

Do you want to make a difference?  If your answer to these questions is ‘Yes’ we want to hear from you!

Adopt-a-Plant Alberta (APA) is seeking an energetic and self-motivated individual to join the volunteer Steering Committee. As a Steering Committee member, this individual will help provide strategic direction for the program and help to build upon the existing base of support for APA at a grassroots level. If you are an enthusiastic botanist or rare-plant enthusiast with strong ties to the volunteer botanical, academic, or professional community you may be perfectly suited to this role. We encourage students or young people to apply.

Grizzly Bear Hunt Suspended for Another Year in Alberta

12 Mar 2010

The Alberta government’s recent decision to suspend the province’s grizzly bear hunt for 2010 is good news for the bears. With a current population estimate of 691 bears in Alberta, the species requires legal protection from harm, not deliberate killing, say Alberta’s conservation organizations.

“We applaud the Minister for continuing the government’s commitment to removing one avoidable cause of grizzly bear deaths,” says Nigel Douglas, Alberta Wilderness Association conservation specialist. “It is important that that the new minister for Sustainable Resource Development has reaffirmed the commitments of his predecessor.”

Volunteer Opportunity: Board of Directors, Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton

Position: 
Directors-at-Large
Application Deadline: 
1 Apr 2010
Location: 
Edmonton

Turn your passion into action!  The Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton (WRSE) is looking for Directors at Large to serve on its Board of Directors.

WRSE is a non-profit, non-partisan, charitable organization that has been providing compassionate care for our community’s injured and orphaned wildlife and promoting understanding and respect for wildlife through education since 1989.  WRSE annually treats over 1,000 wild birds and mammals, fields over 5,000 wildlife related calls from the community and provides education pertaining to human/wildlife interaction to 5,000+ students.  The Board of Directors is responsible for the governance and management of WRSE, to ensure that its facilities are operated in a manner consistent with the objectives of the Society.

We are looking for people with a variety of personal and professional backgrounds who wish to be a part of preserving, protecting and rehabilitating wildlife in Northern Alberta.  If you believe you can be an asset to this Board and are interested in learning more, please send an email to wrse_cheryl [at] shaw [dot] ca by April 1, 2010 to request further information, or leave your contact information at 780-433-0884.

Call for Queries: Biodiversity

Initiative: 
Biodiversity Issue
Deadline: 
22 Mar 2010

Whereas many Canadians follow the international climate change negotiating process, few track parallel efforts to protect biological diversity. Not many are familiar with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) or realize that 2010 is the year when Canada and other countries that ratified the CBD were to have realized their modest target of achieving a "significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss." Even fewer know that 2010 is the International Year of Biological Diversity and that a Copenhagen-like meeting of world leaders is set for October in Nagoya, Japan.

To raise awareness about progress — or lack of it — on biodiversity, Alternatives Journal is dedicating an issue to the topic. We are looking for articles of both a political and a scientific nature. We invite you to submit proposals that deal with issues such as the following:

  • How is Canada, or other parts of the world, doing with regard to their efforts to reduce loss of biological diversity?
  • What is the state of Canada’s and/or the world’s biodiversity?
  • Is the Convention on Biological Diversity succeeding?
  • What are the latest (or suggested) tools and strategies for protecting biological diversity?
  • What role do business/government/NGOs play in protecting biological diversity?
  • Why has the CBD taken a back seat to the Kyoto Protocol?
  • What are you doing to recognize the International Year of Biological Diversity?

Film Screening: Finding Farley

Start: 
Mar 11 2010 - 7:00pm

Join the National Film Board and Mountain Equipment Co-op for a free screening of Finding Farley!

Director Leanne Allison in attendance

When Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison (Being Caribou), along with their 2-year old son, Zev, and indomitable dog Willow set out to trace the footsteps of one of Canada’s most famous writers, Farley Mowat, they mean it literally.

Their 5000-kilometre trip – trekking, sailing, portaging and paddling from the prairies to the Maritimes – to discover to people and places that inspired Farley Mowat’s most acclaimed books is captured in the compelling documentary Finding Farley.

Watch the trailer

Location

Plaza Theatre
1133 Kensington Road NW
Calgary, AB
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