The field season is officially over – and our field crew has either moved into the office, back to school, or on to their winter activities. While we welcome a change of pace, it’s hard not to think back to all the cool work we did this summer! Whether it was cruising the Kootenay River looking for yellow flag iris, hiking under transmission lines doing inventories, or looking for biocontrol agents, there was always something new.
The CKISS field crew wears many hats, but for the most part, they’re responsible for surveying invasive plants, mechanically treating and disposing of invasive plants, verifying public sightings, conducting landowner outreach, restoring sites, and generally having a good time.
We carried out these responsibilities for a huge swath of funders and partners this year too. One project we spent a lot of our time on this summer was the Kootenay River Riparian Project, which meant patrolling the shores of the Kootenay River by boat. This was CKISS’ third year running the riparian project, which aims to protect and revitalize our local riparian areas. For our field crew, this project was a nice mix of grueling labor removing yellow flag iris, surveying for purple loosestrife biocontrol agents (Galerucella calamarensis), and relaxing on the boat in the sun.
Aside from all of our projects, one of the most rewarding aspects of being on the field crew was being able to collaborate with all of the other amazing organizations working in the Kootenays. There are so many passionate people striving to protect and restore our natural areas, and being able to participate in that was an awesome opportunity. Some highlights include: hunting bullfrogs in Duck Lake with the Ministry of Forests, removing yellow flag iris with the Nature Trust of BC, pulling cutleaf blackberry with BC Parks, restoring riparian sites with the Okanagan Nation Alliance, and releasing spotted knapweed biocontrol agents with the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
A big thanks to everyone on the 2023 field crew!
- Kalenna Olynyk
- Nerissa Abbott
- Molly Tilden
- Eric Waldie
- Ellen Carpenter
- Sam Boucher
- James Schafer
Thank you to our funders!
A heartfelt thank you goes out to our dedicated partners and generous funders. Your unwavering support has been instrumental in the continuous success of the CKISS Field Program. Together, we make a lasting impact on conservation efforts. Thank you for being the backbone of our achievements.
- BC Hydro
- BC Parks
- Columbia Power
- Fortis BC Inc.
- Fortis BC Energy
- Province of BC
- Nature Conservancy of Canada
- The Nature Trust of BC
- Regional District of the Central Kootenays
- Columbia Basin Trust
- Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program
- Teck
- Eco Canada
- Canada Summer Jobs Program