B C Nature AGM Kamloops  May 13-16  2010

Article and photos provided by Pamela Jenkins 

The BC Nature AGM was held at Thompson Rivers University, (TRU), overlooking the Thompson River valleys and parts of Kamloops. On Thursday before formalities started, those of us who had signed up for it went on a tour of the Highland Copper Mines grasslands and wetlands reclamation efforts beyond Logan Lake. We were first shown the $4 million domes being constructed over some ore outlets to contain dust. Next we were driven up to snow line to see a new tailings pond, devoid of life and a murky beige colour because of the molybdenum content.

We then drove a long way to an older tailings pond constructed in the 70's when the open pit mine was established. A fresh water creek runs into this lake and birds, fishes, and vegetation are all coming back. Nature is reclaiming is own, but not to its original forested state. After the tour we could register, sign up for other trips and claim our rooms at TRU, then enjoyed an informal social.
 
I did not go on the Friday morning birding and later heard it had been around the campus grounds. On Friday morning there were several lectures about the grasslands, including one about the shrinking grasslands conservation efforts, another about managing grasslands on First Nations land. The last lecture was about hot dry forests and future grasslands and was given by Dr. Tom Dickinson, who is both president of the Kamloops Naturalists Club, but also a professor and Dean at TRU.

On Friday afternoon, I had signed up for the tour to Lac du Bois, a protected area. Frances Vyse told us of the three levels of grassland, from extremely dry lower down to the bunch grass and sagebrush levels a little higher up and finally the higher levels at Lac du Bois, next to the forested areas. We took walks in each grassland. On Friday evening we saw Chris Harris' artistic and informative grassland slides, after which we were invited to view the heavens from the TRU student observatory.
 
Early morning birding on Saturday was to the Knutsford area. We drove to a lake on Hwy 5 to look at birds, then followed another rough route West of Knutsford following a series of small ponds where we saw numerous ducks and other water birds.

The rest of Saturday involved a morning director's meeting and the afternoon AGM, followed by the evening banquet. One item out of the director's meeting was that our membership for BC Nature purposes is counted on December 31. This is just how it is, so I am going to suggest that we all try to pay our nonc membership fees by then. Insurance will increase by .17 cents per person, so I hope we can absorb this cost. It will also cover non members on our trips, provided we charge them a nominal fee for a day membership and report how many day memberships there have been for the past year each December. There is no need to report extra people on our trips until December.

At the AGM, a new executive was elected/announced. Bev Ramey becomes past president. The new volunteer president is John Neville, who could not be at the meeting because of a pre-arranged cross Canada tour to promote his bird song videos. A long time ago John was mayor of Nelson, and I once went on a birding trip with him on Kootenay Lake. It was quite amazing when he pointed to birds as if he could see. He now lives in the Gulf Islands.

Eventually we got to the Resolutions part. Some resolutions were passed quickly, but when John Stelfox's resolution came up, there were professional foresters there who wanted more clarification so John's motion was tabled.

The banquet was catered by the Cuisinaire section of TRU and mostly local foods. Coffee and tea are not produced locally!  The speaker from TRUspoke on "Grasslands in our world- a global perspective.
 
The Sunday outing I took was to the McAbee fossil beds, North of Highway 1 past Savonna and the Thompson River crossing. A steep road leads to a parking area. Most of us walked up the last very steep bit to the fossil layers. David has a license to "mine" the fossils. He provides you with rock hammers and a large plastic bag in which to put your fossils. He also shows you which rock bands are most likely to contain fossils. I collected a lot of leaves and ferns without using a hammer. The sedimentary rock just crumbles, so you need to be careful. Should you find an insect, you must give that up for research. Then we drove back to TRU and each took our own cars to drive home.