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BCnature Winter 20227Continued page 8Conservation report continued from page 6conservation mandate. The Coalition lobbies governments to pass legislation and provide funding for wildlife, fish and their habitats and could lobby for the broader issues of biodiversity and species at risk. Accordingly, BC Nature has now joined and become a partner in that Coalition.Regardless of whether BC Nature is successful in linking to another ENGO to push for species-at-risk and biodiversity protection legislation, there may be great value in having individual naturalist clubs doing their own local nudging of elected officials, be they federal, provincial or even municipal. Ben is now working with the BC Climate Alliance on organizing a webinar that will provide each of our member clubs with “how-to” information through a slightly modified form of their excellent webinar “Becoming your Organization's Coach on Lobbying Politicians”. The idea is to develop a respectful and long-term relationship with local elected officials so that issues of concern to BC Nature can be explained to provide information (and contacts) for those officials. This could benefit many of BC Nature initiatives, including climate change as well as species at risk. The exploration continues . . . Greg provides some references to explore management plans for species at risk and commentaries on endangerment. Management plans or recovery strategies in the works or finalized:• Proud Globelet (Patera pennsylvanica) in Canada • Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus), Western population, in Canada • Blue Felt Lichen (Degelia plumbea) in Canada • Barn Owl (Tyto alba), Western Population, in Canada These recovery planning documents can be found at: https://bit.ly/3Tg2BEG Recent links regarding species at risk and deforestation include:• A rare rainforest under threat - CBC YouTube video link: https://bit.ly/3tlS9RD • World’s first recovery effort sees spotted owls released into the wild for the first time - BC Government news - link https://bit.ly/3toaRrB• B.C. opens up old-growth spotted owl habitat to logging - again. The Narwhal - link https://bit.ly/3A9IkKk• Reuters - https://reut.rs/3Tv5u4I• Business Green - https://bit.ly/3ULUZL6 - covers the trillions of dollars of risk financial institutions face if they do not solve the crisis of nature's decline. Roberts Bank Terminal 2 by Roger Emsley - Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)’s response to the two submissions by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) arrived without fanfare on October 26. Were they perhaps hoping nobody would notice? At least ECCC has gone on record, and the Ottawa bureaucrats gave permission for the report to be released. The ECCC response (https://bit.ly/3gokcgi) is somewhat encouraging in that it continues to voice significant concerns and doubts about the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project, albeit not as forthrightly as might have been expected since nothing has really changed from the time of the public hearings and panel report (all reported upon in past issues of this magazine) except for the proposal to construct the man-made island in phases. Many of the significant areas of concern or uncertainty that the Panel expressed have still not been addressed. Is this the final piece that will now lead to a decision from the environment minister or the governor in council? Is it sufficient to result in a denial to approve? By the time that you read this, we may know the results of the review process. Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA) by Liam Ragan. The word of the day for the IBA program this quarter has been partnership as we welcome collaborators, returning and new. As part of BC Nature’s partnership on the evolving Key Biodiversity Areas initiative we have entered into a formal partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada, with whom we’ve signed an agreement in order to facilitate expanded First Nations outreach on KBAs throughout the province. We also welcome back Anne Murray to the IBA Technical Photo: E. AceHorned Grebe