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From the field: British Columbia
Ian Giesbrecht
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| Shell Conservation Intern Ian Giesbrecht |
Greetings from British Columbia,
So here I am in the middle of a second summer working for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) as a Shell Conservation Intern in British Columbia and, it’s safe to say, I’m happy to be back. Right now, I’m having lunch on the shoreline rocks of the picturesque Strait of Georgia. I’m surrounded by wildflowers, stunted shorepine, and fire-scarred Douglas-fir trees, worn by heavy coastal winds and the spray of the ocean. Behind me, the landscape supports a rare type of dry coastal forest, and I’m here to check on it! Over the next few days, I’ll assess these unique plant communities – protected by NCC in 2001 – to monitor their long term health.
During my Internship this summer, I will visit a number of the biologically rich natural areas that NCC has protected along the southern coast of British Columbia. I will spend a few days monitoring each property to ensure that NCC’s conservation efforts are protecting the unique ecosystems for the long term. And I’ll be looking forward to meeting all the other Shell Conservation Interns in Calgary at the end of the summer.
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NCC's Francis Point Ecological Reserve in the Strait of Georgia |
My degree will be finished soon and I’m getting excited to see what comes next. Five more courses and I’ll graduate from the Environmental Science program at Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver. Then what? Work, travel or graduate-school? Probably all three. Whatever takes place, I’ll be benefiting from my experience as an Ecological Monitoring Technician. In the last school year, my experiences with NCC from last summer motivated some interesting course projects and gave me valuable ‘on-the-ground’ insights for thinking about conservation biology. It’s an exciting field, and the academic learning really comes alive when it’s grounded in the kinds of experiences I’m having this summer.
All the best,
Ian Giesbrecht
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