Nature Canada

IBA Caretakers: People Protecting Birds Across Canada – British Columbia

Across Canada, Canadians are engaging their communities to protect birds and their habitats by becoming Important Bird Area Caretakers.

As a Caretaker, they are part of the Important Bird Areas Caretaker Network, a nationwide initiative involving volunteers who watch over and protect natural spaces that are vitally important for breeding, migrating, staging and wintering birds.

Ted Cheskey, Nature Canada’s manager of bird conservation, recently met with Caretakers from British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

In this blog series, we follow Ted as he makes his way back east and discovers the many ways Important Bird Area Caretakers are making a difference on the ground to protect our birds.

Picking up where the last post left off, Ted pays a visit to the southern Okanagan Valley of British Columbia where he speaks with Doreen Olsen, an Important Bird Area Caretaker for White Lake IBA.

People join the IBA Caretaker Network for a wide range of reasons. For many, a love of birds and wild spaces in their communities drew them to the network and inspired them to become Caretakers. In this video, Doug Brown, a bird bander at Vaseux Lake Bird Observatory in south Okanagan Valley, briefly explains why he was motivated to become a Caretaker for Osoyoos Oxbows IBA.

Conservation of Important Bird Areas is a cornerstone of effective bird conservation in Canada and around the world. Caretakers – the eyes, ears and feet on the ground – make this important work possible. As a Caretaker, they channel their passion for nature and protecting birds by monitoring  birds, assessing habitats, and conducting conservation activities at Important Bird Areas. To date, there are Caretakers in every province in Canada.

Do you want to protect your local birds and habitat? Consider becoming an Important Bird Area Caretaker!

You can find out more about becoming a Caretaker and explore Important Bird Areas in Canada at ibacanada.ca

Next week, we’ll hear two Caretakers in Alberta talk about what makes the Important Bird Areas that they care for so special. Stay tuned!

Are you new to this blog series? Read the latest news on IBA Caretakers and watch more one-on-one interviews with Caretakers.

 

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