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The lichens being auctioned off for namining rights are a key part of the diet of BC's mountain caribou.

Likin’ a lichen? Why not put your name on it forever?

Jul 22 2011/in News Coverage

Land conservationists hoping to preserve a critical wildlife corridor in central B.C. have come up with a unique fundraising method.

Barry Booth, a manager with The Land Conservancy of B.C., said naming rights for two newly discovered species of forest lichen will be auctioned off.

“It’s a wonderful way to raise millions of dollars for conservation as new species are discovered,” he said in a press release on Friday.

The lichens are small, stationary organisms often mistaken for plants, but are actually co-operative unions of fungi and algae.

Some lichens provide critical winter food for animals like B.C.’s mountain caribou.

Highest bidders will earn the right to name the lichens after loved ones, themselves or someone else.

The auction has already attracted bids from two prominent B.C. botanists.

National Geographic explorer Wade Davis, who lives in the Stikine Valley in northern B.C., has made a $3,000 bid.

And Andy MacKinnon, a noted author who works as a forest ecologist for the B.C. government, has offered $3,200.

“We’re lucky to have B.C.’s rock star botanists support this groundbreaking conservation fundraiser,” said Ken Wu, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

Botanical researcher Trevor Goward, who discovered the lichens, said having your name linked to a living species is “a legacy that lasts.”

“With any luck, your name will endure as long as civilization lasts. Not even Shakespeare could hope for more than that,” Goward said.

The funds will be used to purchase private lands in the Clearwater Valley adjacent to Wells Gray Provincial Park.

Conservationists say the corridor is needed to connect two separate portions of southern Wells Gray.

The bidding is being held at an online auction running at www.conservancy.bc.ca and www.ancientforestalliance.org until Oct. 2.

Naming rights for this new species of Bryoria or “Horsehair Lichen”

Like lichen? Name of species up for grabs in fundraiser

Jul 22 2011/in News Coverage

VANCOUVER— A British Columbia botanist is putting the naming rights for two newly discovered species of lichens on the auction block to raise funds for conservation.

The lichens were discovered by botanical researcher Trevor Goward.

Normally, the person who makes the discovery gets the right to name a newly discovered species but Goward decided to auction off that right to raise funds for the Ancient Forest Alliance and The Land Conservancy of British Columbia.

The lichens have already drawn bids of more than $12,000 and bidding will remain open until Oct. 2 on the Forest Alliance and Land Conservancy websites. College Nursing Grants

An online auction to name a new species of monkey in Bolivia in 2005 raised $650,000 for the protection of the monkey’s habitat.

Goward says there are new species discovered every day, and he challenged other scientists like himself to offer up the naming rights to these species to raise funds for conservation.

To bid on the AFA’s lichen please visit this page: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=233

Link to CTV article: https://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20110723/naming-lichen-fundraiser-110723/

The Week – We’ve Still Got Wood

Jul 21 2011/in News Coverage

Exciting news for eco lovers and the Ancient Forest Alliance this week: Vancouver Island is still home to Canada’s largest tree — at least for now.

To celebrate Parks Day this past week, the AFA captured a YouTube video of Canada’s largest tree, a western red cedar named the Cheewhat Giant, growing in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake, north of Port Renfrew and west of Lake Cowichan. The tree remains the country’s biggest with a trunk diametre over six metres (20 feet), a height of 56 metres (182 feet) and listing 450 cubic metres in timber volume — or 450 regular telephone poles worth of wood. The tree remains preserved within the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, which was created in 1971. Not all of B.C.’s flora has as successful a story, however. The video clip features new clear cuts and giant stumps of red cedar trees, some adjacent to the reserve that were logged as recently as this year.

“Future generations will look back at the majority of B.C.’s politicians who still sanction the elimination of our last endangered old-growth forests … and see them as lacking vision, compassion and a spine,” says TJ Watt, AFA co-founder. “We desperately need more politicians with courage and wisdom to step forward.”

See the clip “Canada’s Largest Tree — the Cheewhat Cedar” at https://youtu.be/Xw2Im8nSOdg

[Original Monday Magazinearticle no longer available]