Yellowstone to Yukon
11-24-2010
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Dear Friend of Y2Y,
First, a special thanks to everyone who participated in our reader survey. Your responses were both supportive and insightful, and we will be working to incorporate your suggestions in upcoming communications.
Progress in our kind of work is usually incremental - but sometimes we make leaps, as with the release of a seminal climate change report this month. This issue of Connections highlights that report, and also brings news of a significant grass-roots protest against the Site C Dam project. You might also be interested in reading about the post-graduate students who have received Sarah Baker Memorial Fund grants - they're doing some very important and interesting work.
- Y2Y Climate Change Report - making room for adaptation: The Y2Y region is not escaping climate change. In fact, it is warming faster than the global average, experiencing rapidly melting glaciers, declining snowpack, and earlier bloom dates for aspen and honeysuckle. "We cannot resist global change and neither can these landscapes," says Dr. Lisa Graumlich, Dean of the College of the Environment at University of Washington and lead author of the ground-breaking climate change study just released by the Y2Y Initiative. Findings emphasize the value of large, connected landscapes in which species - and whole ecosystems - can adapt and evolve in order to survive. "We hope the report will be useful to our partners, and we believe it will help position the Y2Y Initiative as a global model for contin! ental-scale conservation," says Wendy Francis, Y2Y Director of Conservation. Read the report and get the full list of co-authors.
- Site C "Paddle to the Premier" - the power of place: It's all about power. Hydro power, bureaucratic power-and the power of people to resist a monumentally damaging idea. In September, First Nations Chiefs and environmental organizations staged a two-day paddle to Victoria to present British Columbia's Premier Gordon Campbell with proclamations against the construction of Site C Dam on the Peace River in northern BC. The documents were wrapped in scrolls of birch bark harvested from trees that would be destroyed, along with 3,000 hectares of wildlife habitat and prime agricultural land, if the dam project moves forward. When the paddlers got to Victoria, about 30 of them carried one of the 800-pound dragon boats to the steps of the legislature, where they were met by several hundred supporters. The Premier declined an invitat! ion to receive the proclamation, and has so far not responded.Read more and view news videos.
- Sarah Baker Memorial Fund - carrying the torch: Born in Calgary in 1951, Sarah Jocelyn Baker found great joy in nature. In her 55 years she also developed a genius for getting the right answer to the bottom line. Her life resonates with the aspirations and vision of Y2Y, and we are honored to carry her spirit forward through grants to post-secondary students. Since its inception in 2009, Sarah Baker grants have been awarded to three students. Byron Weckworth is working on his PhD at the University of Calgary, studying the genetics of woodland caribou. Terrence Larsen is scrutinizing the impacts of proposed mountain pine beetle forest harvesting on grizzly bear habitat in his Master's thesis at the University of Alberta. And Karine Pigeon, a PhD candidate at Université Laval in Québec, is focusing on the links between environm! ental variables and the denning behavior of grizzly bears. Read more about the fund and the three recipients.
We hope you find something useful, or even inspiring in this quarterly issue of Connections. If you'd like to keep up more regularly, we invite you to subscribe to Conservation News, a compilation of news stories collected from over 100 national, regional and local newspapers profiling the wildlife, people and places within the Y2Y region. You can alsosubscribe to Action Alerts, which are only sent when there is a call to action on a specific issue. You can make a difference!
Thank you for your interest and support in the work of Y2Y Initiative and our partners. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Rob Buffler
Executive Director
Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative
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