Plenary and Banquet Speakers

  • Cara Nelson

    Plenary Speaker 9:30 – 10:10 AM Tuesday May 15

    Knowledge is Power: New Paradigms for Increasing Understanding of Restoration Outcomes
    The future of ecological restoration directly hinges on our ability to understand the efficacy of past restoration practices, as well as the non-target, unintended consequences associated with these management interventions. Too little is known, however, about the actual ecological benefits and costs of restoration for most types of ecosystems, especially given increasing public excitement, support and funding for repairing degraded ecosystems. Generation of reliable information is constrained by misunderstandings of the definitions of, and practices associated with, research and monitoring, as well as the idea that generation of scientific information is outside the sphere of management activities. In this presentation, I will challenge scientists and managers to move outside their comfort zone to contribute to new paradigms for improving adaptive management.

    Biography: Cara R. Nelson is an Assistant Professor of Restoration Ecology and the Director of the Wildlands Restoration Program in the Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences at University of Montana’s College of Forestry and Conservation. Cara’s research focuses on three primary areas: 1) effects of large-scale disturbance on understory plants and trees, 2) conceptual basis for ecological restoration, and 3) efficacy and ecological impacts of restoration practices in temperate forest ecosystems. Cara currently serves as Vice-chair of the Society for Ecological Restoration. http://www.cfc.umt.edu/nelsonrestorationlab/

    Dr. Eric Higgs

    Plenary Speaker, 10:20 – 11:00 AM Tuesday May 15


    “Novel Ecosystems: when and how do we intervene in the new ecological world order?”

    The emergence of novel ecosystems changes the rules of ecological restoration. Disappearing is the traditional anchor of historical reference, and new adaptive strategies are needed to define appropriate goals for a rapidly changing world. Novel ecosystems–relatively stable ecosystems that have no historical precedent–are shaped by four primary drivers: land conversion, rapid environmental change, species invasions, and shifting cultural views about nature. Recent estimates suggest as much as half of terrestrial  ecosystems are already novel or hybrid (historical + novel). We might lament such change, but denial is not a constructive response. In some cases, restoration remains a viable approach; in other circumstances, a new approach is needed. I will address some attributes of novel ecosystems, key concerns, and new approaches that will help define restoration in a rapidly changing world.

    http://web.uvic.ca/~ehiggs/
    http://web.uvic.ca/~ehiggs/html/publications.html

    Lisa DeBruyckere

    Plenary Speaker, 11:10 – 11:50 AM Tuesday May 15

    “’Moving the Needle’ with the Three C’s: Communication, Collaboration, and Coordination”

    Natural resource conservation occurs at a variety of scales and across multiple jurisdictions. This presentation will describe the three C’s critical to improving the health of natural resources and truly “moving the needle” in resource conservation— communication, collaboration, and coordination—and how effective implementation of the Three C’s can best help the organizations that work tirelessly to meet their statutory authorities and visionary objectives.

    Biography: Lisa DeBruyckere is President of Creative Resource Strategies, LLC, a consulting company that assists natural resource organizations with their coordination and outreach needs. Lisa has a bachelor’s degree in journalism, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in wildlife management. She worked for the Missouri Department of Conservation, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Department of Forestry, and College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University before launching her business in 2001. Lisa currently serves as the coordinator for the Oregon Invasive Species Council, West Coast Governors Alliance on Ocean Health, and Pacific Marine and Estuarine Fish Habitat Partnership.

    Belinda Claxton

    Restoration 2012 Beyond Border Banquet Speaker

    ȻENEȻINTEL [kwananita]: Helping Each Other

    Belinda Claxton and Briony Penn are friends and share the same territory of WENNANEC – the place facing Saanich—one of the oldest and most sacred village sites in the Salish Sea. Both are descended from prominent leaders of this territory in their own cultures. Through the intertwined story of each of their families’ lives and relationships to the land, from contact to now, their path of restoring the land and the divide between cultures is described. At the heart of the friendship is their love of the land, which leads to a collaboration on restoration, conservation and education projects. One of the teaching tools they have developed is the 13-moon calendar wheel—that captures the two world views in the months of the year, the seasonal happenings, the plants and animals that also live at WENNANEC, and the spiritual traditions in both languages, English and SENCOTEN—a language which like the ecosystem of WENNANEC is highly endangered.

    Prints of the wheel will be available and the monies raised will go to restoration projects and the summer camps for the Tsawout children at WENNANEC.

    Biography: My name is SELILIYE a name given to me by my late mother. I have always worked since I was a little girl. My parents taught me and my brother’s and sister’s about money management at a very early age. We would go to the United States and in the summer time and pick strawberries, grapes, cucumbers, apples, and other various fruits and vegetables whenever in season. It taught us how to appreciate life in general and of course we taught our children. It may have been a difficult life or way of caring for our family(s) it certainly made us appreciate the good times.

    My mother had no education and she regrets not going to residential school. She wanted to learn read and write and my grandmother said she had to remain home and keep the house clean and cook for my grandparents. All her brother’s attended residential school and of course their kids suffered the consequences and the hurts and pains of residential school. And, still to this day their great, great grandchildren still pay their dues.

    My mother made a point to daily tell her grandkids and great grandchildren to stay in school and work hard to receive some sort of degree and not be a slave to general laboring jobs. Of course she made us appreciate are very rich culture and values and not to forget. To appreciate the land, water, sea life animals and native plants. And, what it offers us. “It feed’s us and looks after us when we are ill and hungry”. And in return we look after the land and our surroundings.

    To this day my son Daniel and my twin grandson’s practice their traditional rights and my grandsons are learning about traditional medicines and language.

    Briony Penn

    Restoration 2012 Beyond Borders Banquet Speaker

    Biography: Briony Penn, artist, geographer, educator, columnist, TV host of Enviro/Mental, and adjunct professor/lecturer in the School of Environmental Studies and Restoration of Natural Systems Program is sure to challenge and stimulate as she shares her stories of restoration and culture of the Salish Sea with Belinda Claxton of the Twawout First Nation in the making of the Medicine Wheel series.
    Briony has worked extensively with both local groups such as the Garry Oak Meadow Preservation Society, which she co-founded in 1991, and with provincial organizations such as The Land Conservancy of BC (TLC), which she co-founded in 1997, and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation . TLC has won many awards for its pioneering work to establish models of land use that integrate cultural and ecological values and Raincoast has established an international reputation for combining research and advocacy for the temperate rainforest.

    As an activist, Briony ran as a federal Liberal candidate running in the Saanich and the Gulf Islands on a climate change platform between 2006 and 2008 and only narrowly lost to the incumbent. She has worked coordinating climate and conservation initiatives for the Land Trust Alliance of British Columbia, helping to launch Canada’s first one-stop shop, Carbon Living Investments Ltd, for developing conservation offsets to assist local communities in protecting forests as a strategy for climate change.

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