Winter roared into our midst on November 27th, 2006 with a snowstorm that made the roads hazardous for travel to our November meeting in Trail. We decided to cancel the meeting and fortunately our speaker, Michael McMann, is willing to give his exciting presentation on hawks and eagles at a later date, in 2007.

Club News and Activities:

• We now have over 70+ members in our club. Let’s see if we can’t make it 100 by the end of next year. Don’t forget to renew your membership for 2007.
• We had some great speakers in 2006. Hope you were able to attend most of them.
• The Purple Loosestrife work at Bird Creek Marsh will continue next year with some support from the Invasive Plant Council.
• River’s Day was an enormous success. Pamella Wik and other members of the club put on a river clean up event in Trail that was attended by many people in the community. We cleaned up a stretch of Columbia River shoreline and signed up several new members as a result of the activity.
• In early November, several members initiated a petition and letter-writing campaign to stop the development of a commercial lodge at Nancy Green Lake Provincial Park. Other groups such as Friends of West Kootenay Parks participated and also wrote letters to Minister Penner. The latest news is that the petitioners who were planning the development have backed out due to the resistance from local residents. Congratulations Linda and Pat!
• Christmas Bird Counts:
  • Castlegar – December 23rd
  • Nelson – December 17th

FBCN Fall General Meeting in Coquitlam (September, 2006):

• FBCN’s name has officially been changed to BC Nature and a logo is currently being designed to reflect the change.
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• f you are interested in participating in the Provincial Wildlife Tree Project, contact Lynne Wilson (Provincial Coordinator) at kerter@shaw.ca for more information.
• On the conservation front, work continues on BC Parks for funding for interpreters and opposition to fixed-roof accommodations in 12 provincial parks. Other conservation issues that BC Nature is working on are: Species and Risk and Biodiversity (including Mountain Caribou Recovery options by SARCO), Deltaport Environmental Assessment Review (part of a planned expansion in the Fraser River estuary), coal-fired power generation, off-shore seismic activities which will damage both fish and marine mammals, and Ecological Reserves.
• The Canadian Nature Network (CNN) project is now underway. Consultations are taking place with Nature groups across the country; the major goal is to explore the potential of our pan-Canadian naturalist community through the Canadian Nature Network. Consultations are providing groups with the opportunity to reflect on their own activities and priorities. Six members of our club met with the CNN facilitator in October with this goal in mind. A questionnaire will be distributed to all the nature clubs in late winter or the spring to expand on the consultations. We will be looking for feedback from all our members.
• The FBCN field camps were a great success last year. Perhaps we should consider doing one ourselves in a year or two?
• We missed the application deadline for club grants for 2007. We should start thinking about projects for next year. The deadline is usually mid November. Perhaps the Nancy Green Park Inventory is a good one to think about.

Respectfully submitted by
Joan Snyde