Earth Talks - COMMUNITY ORIENTED ENVIRONMENTAL SPEAKERS AND CONVERSATIONS
Sharing the Bow Valley - balancing human use with the needs of wildlife
Join Josh Welsh, Justin Deoliveira, and Dr. Peter Thompson at the Canmore Public Library for their presentation Sharing the Bow Valley: Balancing Human Use with the Needs of Wildlife.
This Earth Talks event, in partnership with the Town of Canmore Public Library, will take place on Monday June 12th, 2023 in the Friends Program Room at 7:00pm. Registration is required.
About Sharing the Bow Valley:
Attendees will learn about current and upcoming efforts to...
Understand the cumulative environmental effects of human development and use in the Bow Valley
Ensure that Mountain biking takes place in a responsible manner that keeps people and wildlife safe and secure
Conduct research and generate recommendations to ensure functional wildlife corridors as well as human recreational activities
About the Presenters:
Josh Welsh, is the Senior Manager of the Communities & Conservation program at Y2Y. He is grateful to be living, playing, and working in the Bow Valley on Treaty 7 territory. He joined Y2Y after working for 20 years as a landscape architect, national park ranger, and mountain town planner to develop a body of work that seeks balance between land-based conservation and development in Canada and the United States. His primary work at Y2Y is with communities of people and exploring how they might thrive alongside wild places and intact nature.
Justin Deoliveira, President, Canmore Area Mountain Bike Association. Justin moved to the Bow Valley in 2007 and instantly fell in love with trails and mountain biking. When CAMBA was formed in 2016, Justin saw an opportunity to give back to the trails in Canmore and area that he had enjoyed for nearly a decade. Offering his skills and expertise in IT as a software developer, Justin helped build "online" infrastructure for CAMBA, such as a website, a digital membership system, and other applications the association utilizes for its day-to-day operations. To this day, Justin continues to serve as CAMBA's "IT Guy." In his role as CAMBA president, Justin works daily with land managers across the Bow Valley to further CAMBA's mission of building and maintaining trails for everyone to enjoy. When not meeting with decision-makers, Justin can often be found at the Canmore Nordic Centre, grooming the winter network for fat biking, as one of CAMBA's active "Snowdog" groomers.
Dr. Peter Thompson, Peter is a biologist currently working at University of Alberta. He is studying how grizzly bears and wolves move through the wildlife corridors surrounding Canmore, and how they react to the presence of humans recreating on the landscape. Peter hopes to use his background in data analysis and modelling to predict how these animals may adjust to changes in land use in the valley. He will be working with remote camera data as well as GPS collar data to analyze the movement patterns of these elusive animals. He also enjoys getting out in nature and birding, and loves to visit the Bow Valley when he can!
Moderator: Gareth Thomson, Executive Director, Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley.