Annual Fundraising Dinner 2017

Date/Time
Date(s) - 18/11/2017
5:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Location
Owen Sound Quality Inn

Categories No Categories

Please join us for a wonderful evening celebrating bird migration and some of the intriguing science that is being done.

 

The Evening’s Speaker: Dr. Grant Gilchrist is a Research Scientist at the National Wildlife Research Centre in Ottawa (Environment and Climate Change Canada) and an adjunct professor at Carleton University.  Gilchrist leads a multidisciplinary research program focused on foraging behaviour, reproduction, migration, and the wintering distribution of arctic seabirds, and how these processes are affected by changing climate, emerging diseases, and increased industry presence in the north.  Gilchrist also leads several projects that focus on the harvest of some marine bird species by Aboriginal Peoples in order to both ensure sustainable levels of harvest, as well as incorporating Aboriginal needs into conservation and management strategies of northern Canada and Greenland.  To date, Gilchrist has published over 200 peer reviewed scientific articles which have been cited over 4000 times in other scientific publications.  In addition to being a highly respected and accomplished researcher, Gilchrist is also a talented photographer who’s pictures were recently featured at a Canadian Museum of Nature photography exhibit on climate change in the north.  This past summer, Gilchrist was an invited guest for part of the Canada C3 expedition, a 150 day boating journey from Toronto to Victoria via the Northwest Passage, an excursion designed to celebrate our environment, sharing stories of coastal communities, and connecting Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

 

The Evening’s Talk: Exploring the art of delivering science in Canada’s north:  conservation biology of seabirds in a changing Arctic

We often view the Arctic as a pristine wilderness largely free of environmental threats.  Times are changing.  Gilchrist will review the effects of two factors currently affecting seabird populations in Arctic Canada: emerging diseases and climate change effects on polar bear distributions. In the first example, infectious disease can have strong effects on wildlife populations.  Avian cholera is a highly virulent disease of birds that has circulated among common eider duck populations in Europe and North America for several decades. The disease has recently appeared in the Canadian Arctic where high mortality, coupled with near total reproductive failure on affected colonies has raised fears over local extirpation and severe population decline.  In the second example, polar bears are a top predator in the circumpolar Arctic and are adapted to use sea ice as a platform to hunt seals. Advancement in the timing of spring sea ice break-up due to climate change has recently reduced the access of seals to bears, and has been associated with increased bear predation of seabird eggs in summer, raising concerns about bear mediated population declines in seabirds.  Throughout his talk, Gilchrist will also describe how his team lives and conducts research in remote field locations in the Arctic and will introduce the diversity of partners that have contributed to their research efforts.

When:  November 18, 2017

Where:  Quality Inn, Owen Sound (formerly Days Inn)

950 6th St. E. (near Owen Sound Courthouse)

Time: door opens 5:00  for viewing and bidding of silent auction items

Welcome and dinner begin at 6

Tickets : $80.00

Please note that because tax receipts are involved it is imperative that we have the full name and address of ticket purchasers.

Reserved tables for 8 available or to buy tickets using cheque- Contact bpboinfo@gmail.com

or call  519-534-5923

 

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