Special Online Event
“Inside and Out”
Two perspectives for protecting the natural environment of the Saanich Peninsula
A special online evening with Ian Bruce and Bob Peart
Hosted by Adam Olsen, MLA
Tuesday April 20, 2021
7:00pm
RSVP: https://tinyurl.com/rsvp-saanichenvironment
Event hosted by the Saanich North and the Islands BC Green Party Riding Association (SAN-RA).
In this instalment of the Voices of Saanich speaker series we are honoured to host local biologists Ian Bruce and Bob Peart.
Ian and Bob have been working to improve the natural environment for decades. In this session they will discuss their effort to protect the natural environment of the Saanich Peninsula. They will share their unique individual approaches and the benefits of working both inside the system and out.
Ian Bruce is a professional biologist with a diploma in ecological restoration. After growing up in Victoria he and his pregnant wife moved to Tofino in 1980. After stints in log salvaging, commercial fishing, hatchery management and chinook salmon farming he returned to Victoria in 1997 with his 4 children.
Seeking to return to his love of ecological restoration, they settled in Deep Cove on a tranquil pond-side acreage. In 2002, he co-founded the Peninsula Streams Society which he continues to lead to this day restoring local watersheds and nearshore marine environments, providing quality volunteer/citizen science opportunities to local stewards, all the while educating all ages about their local ecosystems. Ian currently lives with his wife Susan in Sidney spending too much time watching boats, birds and seals.
Ian will discuss the relative importance (or not) of political/bureaucratic processes in a setting of rapid land conversion, greed and climate change. How much talk is too much? How little action is too little? How much time do we have to correct the current imbalances or at least respond to them?
Bob Peart is trained as a biologist and has a Master’s Degree in Education. He was raised in southern Ontario, spent a few years in Southwest Saskatchewan before moving to British Columbia in 1980. He has lived here ever since. Bob has worked and volunteered at the international, national, provincial and local level in a variety of government roles and for a range of non-profit organizations. He has loved the out-of-doors since he was a kid and particularly enjoys hiking and bird watching.
Building on the Sidney Summit in 2018, Bob and a number of other local eco-advocates put together the Saanich Peninsula Environmental Coalition (SPEC) to continue the important work of that one day event to elevate the governance issues facing the natural environment on the Saanich Peninsula. Bob has served as its Volunteer Coordinator since the beginning.
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