Comox Valley Naturalists Society

January

Sunday, November 18, 2009
7:00 p.m. at the Florence Filberg Centre
Cumberland Wetland and Wildlife Sanctuary

The regular monthly meeting of the Comox Valley Naturalists Society will be held January 18, 2009, at 7:00 pm at the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton Avenue, Courtenay. The featured speaker will be the noted Comox Valley environmentalist, Richard Drake, who will discuss the development of the Cumberland Wetland and Wildlife Sanctuary, as well as the Arcata Wetland and Wildlife Sanctuary in California.

Richard has spent the last two decades involved in numerous environmental projects, including founding the Comox Valley’s first recycling program – Comox Valley Recycling, as well as B.C.’s first public computer recycling program - CompuCycle. He also spent four years working with UBC to find innovative solutions to pollution in Baynes Sound. This project consulted Dr. B. Gearhart, the world’s foremost expert on constructed treatment wetlands, and as a result the Village of Cumberland decided to use a “natural systems” sewage treatment method.

This approach uses man-made wetlands to mimic natural systems in decomposing sewage. The result looks beautiful, is generally cheaper in the long run than conventional systems, and can become a major tourist attraction, as is the case of the pilot project in Arcata, Northern California. The Arcata project has attracted many species of birds not formerly found in that area due to the new diversity of habitat. In 2005 over 200,000 visitors visited the ten  kilometres of trails in the AWWS.

Please come and join us to become better informed, and how you can help CVNS provide education and protection for B.C.’s natural environment.

Click on a link below to view descriptions of previous guest speakers.