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Naming rights for two recently discovered species of lichen are up for grabs to the highest bidder. It's all part of a fundraiser for The Land Conservancy of B.C., a non-profit habitat protection group, and the Ancient Forest Alliance, which focuses on saving B.C.'s old-growth forests.

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.

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.