Entries by TJ Watt

Lichen: the new immortalization

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The undiscovered species was found in B.C. by botanical researcher and taxonomist Trevor Goward, and has been supported by two teams of molecular researchers working in Finland and Spain. According to scientific protocol, the right to give a new species its scientific name goes to the person who describes it, but Goward has donated those rights to whoever scores highest bidder. For the TLC, that money will wind up serving a land conservation project in the Clear Water Valley, and the AFA will put it toward old-growth environmental education.

Naming rights for new species up for auction online

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Trevor Goward, curator of lichens at the University of British Columbia and author of several books, said in an interview Friday he discovered a new species of horsehair lichen in the mid-1990s in the Hazelton-Kispiox area and a new species of crottle lichen in the Clearwater Valley two years ago, both of them in old-growth B.C. forests.

Your name could go on a lichen

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A botanist from the University of B.C. has donated the naming rights to two species of lichen he’s discovered to two environmental groups. The Ancient Forest Alliance and The Land Conservancy are auctioning off the right to name the species to the highest bidders.

If you take a lichen to them, name them

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While new lichens are discovered on an almost monthly basis, most of those are in the “dime-a-dozen” category of crust lichens, said Mr. Goward. The two lichens up for auction are from the much more prestigious “macrolichens” category.

B.C. isn’t doing enough to preserve its forests

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The science on forest conservation recommends much greater amounts of forest be protected, and I have confidence that B.C. can meet the challenge. We can produce more jobs and value per cubic metre of forest cut while conserving much more of the forests themselves.

World’s Largest Douglas-fir Tree – The Red Creek Fir!

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The tree and a small surrounding stand of trees currently receive "soft" protection through an Old-Growth Management Area, but legislated "hard" protection is needed in the form of a conservancy, park, or ecological reserve that also encompasses a much larger buffer area.