“WILDLIFE WEDNESDAY” SERIES

DENMAN ISLAND COMMUNITY HALL (BACK HALL) – 7:30 to 8:30

 Hi there Denman Islanders! We wanted to give you a heads up about an upcoming series of wildlife talks by renowned BC biologists – right here on Denman this winter.  The Purple Martin Preservation Project team (A Committee within DIRA) is planning to sponsor a series of talks on various wildlife conservation efforts ongoing in British Columbia, called “Wildlife Wednesday”. It is a pilot program, with invited speakers coming to Denman once a month from January through April. The talks will be held in the Back Hall at 7:30p. If there is sufficient interest, we will consider expanding the series moving forward. The wildlife conservation projects will cover such topics as eagle recovery through construction of man-made nest boxes, painted tortoise recovery, breeding and recovery of the wild marmots on Mount Washington and a success story about the Taylor’s Checkerspot butterfly recovery on Denman Island from 2013 to 2016.

We have partnered with a national wildlife organization called Wildlife Preservation Canada, based in Guelph Ontario to help us reach a national audience to support our efforts toward Purple martin preservation. You may recall seeing the Purple martins swooping through the air around the nest boxes at the ferry terminals on Denman West and Buckley Bay during the summers. We installed new nest boxes designed by Peter Karsten in the spring of 2024. If you’re interested in learning more about our efforts, please go to Wildlife Preservation Canada’s website; our Purple martin project was featured in their latest publication — wildlifepreservation.ca. 

January 22: Peter Karsten, Naturalist & former Executive Director of the Calgary Zoo – Establishment of a captive breeding program of the Taylor’s Checkerspot butterfly in 2012 on Denman Island; the first in Canada. A video presentation that was supported by Wildlife Preservation Canada (WPC).