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Thumbs Up!

Dec 18 2011/in News Coverage

Thumbs Up To Oystercatcher Girl – a.k.a. Victoria artist Anne Hansen – for a winning $4,000 bid that will give her the right to name a new species of lichen discovered by University of B.C. researcher Trevor Goward, with proceeds to the Ancient Forest Alliance. Hansen will name Bryoria kockiana, after Hansen’s late husband, Henry Kock, a horticulturist and author. The Oystercatcher Girl name comes from her paintings; see them at oystercatchergirl.blogspot.com.

Link to Times Colonist article: https://bit.ly/uae26Y

Scientists’ names live on in lichens

Dec 17 2011/in News Coverage

Two newly-discovered lichens will be named after a botanist, who died of brain cancer in 2005, and a biologist, who died in a car accident in January.

An auction for the right to name the lichens raised $17,900 for The Land Conservancy and $4,000 for the Ancient Forest Alliance.

Artist Anne Hansen, of Victoria, made the winning bid on the hairlike bryoria lichen, which will be known as Bryoria kockiana in memory of her husband, Henry Kock. “Henry was a tireless champion of biodiversity and inconspicuous species like toads, lichens and sedges,” Hansen said.

Kock ran programs at the University of Guelph Arboretum for 20 years.

“Naming a species after a beloved forest defender is my idea of a fabulous solstice celebration,” Hansen said. “I’m not the only one who’s noticed that the lichen looks like Henry’s beard.”

Ken Wu, of the Ancient Forest Alliance, said funds raised will be used to map old-growth forest on Vancouver Island and produce old-growth status reports. “This is about eight per cent of our entire year’s funding,” said Wu, who hopes auctioning off the names of newly-discovered species will become more common in Canada.

The second lichen, a two-toned, more leafy variety, will be named Parmelia Sulymae in honour of Randy Sulyma, a forester and biologist who was 43 when he died in a vehicle accident in Chetwynd.

The campaign to come up with the winning bid was co-ordinated by Sylvia Sulyma, Randy’s mother. “For all who knew Randy, this is such a fitting legacy,” Sulyma said. “The whole family is excited and overwhelmed today.”

The $17,900 raised will go toward creating a wildlife corridor, in Wells Gray Provincial Park, for large mammals migrating from winter to summer ranges across the Clearwater Valley.

The two lichens were discovered by Trevor Goward, curator of lichens at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of B.C., who offered them for auction. “Future auctions of this kind will garner even more support as Canadians awaken to the honour of being linked, if only in name, to other living species,” Goward said.

The horsehair lichen – which Hansen says resembles Kock's beard – will be known as Bryoria kockiana.

Santa Claus, Conservation Groups Benefit from ‘Tree Beard’ Lichen Named for Late U of G Plantsman

Dec 16 2011/in News Coverage

A newly discovered lichen resembling “tree beards” will carry the name of a late University of Guelph horticulturist, author and master gardener.

The new species of horsehair lichen will be called Bryoria kockiana for Henry Kock, former interpretive horticulturist at the U of G Arboretum and a leading authority on native woody plants. He died in 2005 of brain cancer. His wife, Anne Hansen, purchased the scientific naming rights to the lichen this week.

The new species was discovered in a British Columbia rainforest by lichenologist Trevor Goward. He organized an auction for naming rights for two of his recent finds to benefit two B.C. conservation groups.

“With Christmas coming, here’s a perfect opportunity to give something back to Canada,” he said, explaining why he created the online auction.

The auction closed Dec. 15. Proceeds from Kock’s newly named lichen will benefit the Ancient Rainforest Alliance, a Victoria-based group that helps protect old-growth forests.

Hansen said buying the naming rights was the perfect holiday gift.

“Many people go into debt in December for toys and gadgets that will soon be obsolete. Lichens have been around since ancient biological times. If we do something fast about climate change, lichens will be here far into the future,” she said.

“And I’m not the only one who’s noticed that the lichen looks like Henry’s beard,” said Hansen, who moved from Guelph to B.C. in 2007.

A combination of fungi and algae, lichen provide critical winter food for mountain caribou and black-tailed deer.

Goward said, “Without lichens, caribou and reindeer would soon disappear, and where would Santa Claus be then?”

“We couldn’t have asked for a more appropriate benefactor,” he said, adding that Kock’s “work as a conservationist really deserves to be recognized.”

Kock joined U of G in 1981. He led interpretive walks and educational programs at the Arboretum and spoke regularly to gardeners and naturalist groups. He helped organize U of G’s first Organic Agriculture Conference in 1982.

He established gene banks for rare plants and launched the province’s Elm Recovery Project. Kock received the Governor General’s Award for Forest Stewardship in 1998 and was named one of Canada’s most outstanding gardeners in 2004. His book, Growing Trees from Seed, was completed by botanist colleagues after his death.