Some great events are taking place in the next few month or so. Come check us out and learn more about what we do at one of the following events:
East Kootenay Regional Science Fair – February 22-23, 2012
Green Building Showcase – March 3, 2012
Wings Over The Rockies – May 7-13, 2012
Keefer Ecological Services is happy to announce that Krystal Kerckhoff successfully defended her MSc. thesis at Lakehead University. Her thesis was titled “Adaptability in moose (Alces alces L.): habitat selection in two landscapes in Newfoundland, Canada”, Her MSc. allowed her to calculate resource selection functions and learn how to interpret large animal location data sets. Krystal has worked in the East Kootenay region since 2004 and brings a wealth of wildlife knowledge and expertise to our staff. For more information about …
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Keefer Ecological Services is happy to announce the opening of a new office building extension - a timber-frame, straw bale structure. Construction is wrapping up and we are settling into the beautiful new space.
We are proud to formally announce the establishment of the new consulting company Tipi
Mountain Eco-Cultural Services (TMECS) in the field of archaeology, allowing work to
be completed under the BC Heritage Conservation Act (HCA). This business will be led
by Robert Williams with assistance from Ian Tamasi, experienced archaeology field
technicians and the greater team. Tipi Mountain Eco-Cultural Services also has a
network of experienced senior archaeologists to draw on for highly complex and largescale
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College of the Rockies, Cranbrook BC
Keynote Address the evening of February 22nd, delivered by ethnobotanist Dr. Nancy Turner, of the University of Victoria. The Forum will be held February 23rd, 2011.
Huckleberries are a key component of local ecosystems, cultures and economies for communities throughout northwestern North America. A highly productive and nutritious berry, huckleberries and especially the black huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum), are an important local food source. Restoring and maintaining productive huckleberry patches are important …
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Please note that registration costs include lunch and refreshment breaks during the Forum.
If College of the Rockies students or faculty wish to purchase lunch they may do so when they register through Continuing Education for a cost of $15.00, otherwise they are asked to provide their own lunch.
Early Bird Registration (before January 31st, 2011)
Regular $95 + HST
SER-BC members $90 + HST
Late Registration (after January 31st, 2010)
…
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Keep your eyes open for a Huckleberry Workshop to be held at the Cranbrook campus of the College of the Rockies in February 2011, co-hosted by KES, the College and the BC Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration. We are privileged to have Dr. Nancy Turner as our key note speaker! Registration information to be announced shortly. Please contact KES for more information.
As the weather turns grey and is less inviting outside, it becomes time for the KES staff to move indoors and focus on data analysis and technical report writing. We are in the midst of deadlines and reports, which is how the rest of the winter will go, but the upside is that we have another year of field data under our belts. Each year of research strengthens trends and results observed in our studies, and we all enjoy seeing how …
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Members of the KES team were out in the Arrow Lakes Reservoir in September monitoring sedge and cottonwood plantings. Sedges and cottonwood were planted in order to revegetate the drawdown zone of the reservoir. The team got soaked their first day of monitoring, but after that it was gorgeous and sunny, and the impressive size and power of the reservoir was not lost on the team. Generally plant survival was very good, except in cases where ATV mis-use destroyed them.
…KES staff were out in the field this summer conducting research on an endangered plant species (BC CDC red listed), Spaldings campion (Silene spaldingii). Researchers have learned that this plant has quite an unusual life cycle; it can remain dormant for years, and then appear as either a vegetative rosette or a reproductive body. KES staff were in the field this summer studying known populations of Spaldings campion, as well as discovering new occurrences. We look forward to data analysis this …
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Members of the KES staff were out in the field this summer conducting research on limber pine (Pinus flexilis) for restoration purposes. Our team studied known locations of limber pine, but also made the great discovery of new occurrences that were not previously known! Limber pine is the rarest tree in BC (BC CDC blue listed), and these new limber pine sites are a wonderful step in the preservation process.
This was the third year of field research for KES in nearby mines. 2010 was an excellent field season for this study, as team members were able to access multiple new sites, and collected a wealth of interesting data. We almost blew off a mountain during a storm one night while camping high up, but otherwise enjoyed stunning mountain views and gorgeous weather.
KES was contracted by the City of Cranbrook to conduct some biophysical assessment work. The KES team was pleasantly surprised by visits with a Lewis’s Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) and a flashy Bullock’s Oriole (Icterus bullockii). Mike was able to get some beautiful shots of the birds with his Nikon D90 equipped with a telephoto lens. The bitterbrush (Purshia tridentate) was flowering beautifully at this time of year, and the crew also came across a gorgeous penstemon (Penstemon gormanii).
A member of our staff was very busy for a couple of weeks in May reviewing and summarizing twenty years of research for Teck Coal Ltd. It was very interesting to read about the wide range of research conducted at various mines during that period, and summaries of this knowledge will benefit future research in this area.
This May we were able to re-visit some of our plantings from last year, and conducted monitoring assessments. Our crew took clippings of sedges and grasses from fertilizer trials seeded last year at the Lower Arrow Lakes Reservoir. The crew managed to weather the massive storm that went through, and had fun using sheep shears to take their grass clippings.
The crew at KES is greatly enjoying the summer-like weather, and field work is progressing nicely. Planting in our reservoir revegetation projects will be completed soon!
The fiscal year end was a busy time for KES, as reports were due for the various projects we work on, and we were gearing up for another big field season. But this year end was made especially busy because of our very early spring - we were actually out in the field this year planting at Arrow Lakes reservoir in early March.
KES would like to welcome our newest staff member, Alison Burton, M.Sc, A.Ag. Check out our staff page to learn about our crew!
Keefer Ecological Services Ltd. is closely affiliated with Tipi Mountain Native Plants Ltd.:
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Keefer Ecological Services Ltd.
3816 Highland Rd.
Cranbrook, BC
V1C 6X7
phone 250 489 4140
fax 250 489 4142
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Copyright © 2010 Keefer Ecological Services Ltd.