continuing studies in SCIENCE
What’s up on the Bluffs? The unique ecology of
Eagleridge Bluffs and Larsen Creek wetlands.
7:00 PM Thursday May 25, 2006
Simon Fraser University Vancouver, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver
Room 1700, Labatt Hall
A panel of scientists and naturalists will describe the unique characteristics of the dry arbutus ecosystem
of Eagleridge Bluffs and the adjacent Larsen Creek wetland ecosystem. A discussion will follow.
Panelists include:
Leah Bendell-Young, Professor, Biosciences Department, Simon Fraser University
Elspeth Bradbury, Author and retired Landscape Architect
Jim Cuthbert, National Field Office Director, Western Canada Wilderness Committee
Elizabeth Elle, Assistant Professor, BioSciences Department, Simon Fraser University
Bruce McArthur, Naturalist, West Vancouver
Arne Mooers, Assistant Professor, Biosciences Department, Simon Fraser University
Diane Srivastava, Assistant Professor, Zoology Department, University of British Columbia
Katharine Steig, Naturalist and former Conservation Section Chair, Vancouver Natural History Society
Admission to all lectures is free but seating is
limited. To reserve a seat, please call 291-5100
or e-mail penikett@sfu.ca
Sponsored by the Faculty of Science
www.sfu.ca/cstudies/science/science.htm
If you wish to receive electronic announcements of upcoming lectures please email your contact information to penikett@sfu.ca
Panelist Biographies
Leah Bendell-Young is a Professor with Biological
Sciences at Simon Fraser University. She is a member
of the Center for Coastal Studies (SFU) and coinvestigator of the Oceans Management Research
Network (2002-2005). She has served as chair of
the undergraduate Environmental Science Steering
Committee, (1998-2000) and has developed and taught
courses related to Conservation and Applied Ecology for
13 years. Dr. Bendell-Young has written over 80 articles
focused on determining the impact of anthropogenic
activities on ecosystem structure and function. She
is a co-editor of the book “Waters in Peril” Kluwer
Academic publishing, which highlights the current state
of our oceans. She is currently principle investigator of
a five-year Natural Science and Engineering Research
Council Strategic Grant entitled “Towards a sustainable
shellfish industry” whose focus is on the development
of practices that will allow the development of an
environmentally benign sustainable shellfish industry.
In collaboration with DFO and MAFF, she has also
received funding from Environment Canada and the
Provincial government to determine sources of cadmium
to oysters along the west coast of B.C., Canada.
Elspeth Bradbury is a retired architect and landscape
architect who has worked in the Shetland Islands, New
Brunswick and British Columbia. She is the author of
two non-fiction works about gardens and gardening
and has just completed a manuscript entitled “West
Vancouver, a View Through the Trees” as well a book of
poetry. In addition to writing Elspeth is also a very active
member of the Lighthouse Park Preservation Society.
Jim Cuthbert is the National Field Office Director
for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee,
Canada’s largest membership-based environmental
organization, where he’s responsible for overseeing
wilderness preservation, research and education
activities in Alberta, Manitoba and some Ontario and
BC initiatives. Jim is a registered professional biologist
and consultant who has served as North Van Councillor
for 7 years and many more as an engaged community
volunteer. He has a passion for the natural world and a
strong conservation ethic.
Elizabeth Elle is a plant ecologist and Assistant Professor
in the Deptartment of Biological Sciences at SFU. Her
main area of expertise is wildflower pollination, including
how habitat fragmentation affects plant and pollinator
diversity, especially in the endangered Garry Oak
ecosystem.
Bruce McArthur is a home-grown naturalist and resident
of the western part of West Vancouver where he has
resided for his entire life. He is a member of Wetland
Partners, associated with Streamkeepers and co-chair of
the Western Residents Association. He also sits at the
table of the Liason Committee dealing with the Sea to
Sky Highway Improvement Project.
Arne Mooers has been an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser
University since 2001. Before that he was at the
Zoological Museum of Amsterdam in the Netherlands,
after training at Montreal, Oxford and UBC. Arne is
an evolutionary biologist with specific interests in how
species form, how they are related one to another in the
tree of life, the role of very unique species, and what
predicts evolutionary proliferation vs. extinction.
Diane Srivastava is an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia.
She is a community ecologist, and specializes in
two questions connected with biodiversity: (1) What
determines the number of species in an area? (2)
What effect do species extinctions have on the way
ecosystems function? To answer these questions
she studies insect, mite and plant communities in
temperate, tropical and arctic regions.
Katharine Steig is a naturalist and has been observing
wild flowers in the West Vancouver area for nearly forty
years. Formerly, Katharine was the Conservation Section
Chair with the Vancouver Natural History Society.