April 06, 2009 |
Award-winning article links northern B.C. landslides to climate change
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 6, 2009
At its annual general meeting held March 30, 2009 in Smithers, B.C., the Bulkley Valley Research Centre (BVRC) presented the 2008 Irving Fox and Jim Pojar awards for two groundbreaking research projects promoting sustainability in northern B.C.
A research group headed by Prince George’s Marten Geertsema, regional geomorphologist with the Ministry of Forests and Range, was recognized with the Jim Pojar Award for its 2006 article An overview of recent large catastrophic landslides in northern British Columbia, Canada, which links northern B.C.’s landslides to climate change. By studying large-scale landslides occurring over a 30-year period, the project notes an increase in slides at higher elevations in warmer-than-average seasons. Geertsema attributes the trend to melting permafrost in the alpine.
“I think 2002 was a special year where we had five of them,” Geertsema said about the nearly 40 slides that were studied, all more than half a million cubic metres, or “over 50,000 dump truck loads,” of material. Although temperature may not have accounted for all the slides, “it certainly played a role,” Geertsema said.
Geertsema’s team included John Clague (Simon Fraser University), Jim Schwab (B.C. Ministry of Forests and Range) and Stephen Evans (University of Waterloo). Jim Schwab accepted the award on the team’s behalf.
The Jim Pojar Award recognizes publications made in the past five years that improve scientific understanding or public appreciation of the ecological, social or human dimensions of natural resource use in northwestern B.C. Also nominated for the award was the 2004 article, Recognition of debris flow, debris flood and flood hazard through watershed morphometrics, which resulted from a project headed by Smithers-based researcher Dave Wilford.
Telkwa, B.C.-based researchers Karen Price and David Daust were recipients of the Irving Fox Award for their work in developing a monitoring framework for the Babine Watershed Monitoring Trust. This project resulted in a framework for monitoring the impacts of land-use and management practices on recreation, economics and biodiversity in the sensitive and world-renowned Babine River watershed. The Irving Fox Award recognizes an individual or group that has made an outstanding contribution to ecological, social or economic knowledge of the sustainability of natural resources in northwest B.C.
Steve Osborn was the recipient of the BVRC’s first annual Volunteer Award. Osborn couldn’t attend the AGM to accept his award, as he was busy volunteering.
With a mandate to improve knowledge of natural resource sustainability, the Bulkley Valley Research Centre is a not-for-profit organization based in Smithers, but facilitating research projects across British Columbia. For more information, please visit the Bulkley Valley Research Centre website at www.bvcentre.ca.
Please contact us with any questions. Sincerely, Amanda Follett, Communications Coordinator (250) 847-2827