Community Course: The Biosphere Region in Your Backyard
On September 26th at Milner Gardens & Woodland, staff from MABRRI (Pam, Graham, Monica, Mike, and Ryan) hosted the Biosphere Region in Your Backyard community course. The course was designed to be an introductory lesson of the history, physical/human geography and environmental issues in the...
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Meet Haley, One of MABRRI's Student Researchers
Hi! My name is Haley Robinson and I'm doing an independent research project about the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region. A bit about me: I grew up near Toronto, Ontario, and I moved to Nanaimo in 2013 to attend VIU. When I first moved to Vancouver Island, I spent a lot of time visiting different...
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Intro to the 2015 MABRRI Summer Team
The Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute (MABRRI) worked with four fantastic Vancouver Island University (VIU) student researchers over the summer. MABRRI's headquarters are located in Building 305 in Room 442 at the VIU Nanaimo Campus. We have many research projects currently...
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A Salish Sea Adventure
At 6 AM on Wednesday morning the MABRRI team (myself, Graham and Ryan) met at Schooner Cove marina for a boat tour of the Salish Sea. The main goal for the day was to collect data for the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project and to explore the many interesting islands and passages of the region....
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North Island Wildlife Recovery Center
Throughout our adventures in the MABR we’ve had few wildlife sightings; with that in mind, Sarah, Ryan, and I visited the North Island Wildlife Recovery Center in Errington. The center is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the well-being of wildlife on Vancouver Island and increasing public...
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Top Bridge Regional Trail
On Tuesday, Mike, Graham, and I explored the Top Bridge Regional Trail. We started a the Grieg Road access and made our way down to the Englishman River to check out the area where VIU geography students usually complete the hydrology component of their Geog467 field course. Here we met a lady and...
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Walking the Wild Side in the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve
On the weekend, Taylor (a recent graduate from VIU Geography) and I backpacked the Wild Side trail in the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve. We wanted to share some of the amazing places we got to see on the west coast and to encourage others to check out our friendly neighbouring biosphere! Our...
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Mount Arrowsmith by Helicopter
On Friday morning Mike and I joined Greg (Ministry of Environments), Bill (Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations), Morgan (Island Timberlands), and Wendy (Regional District of Nanaimo) on a reconnaissance trip up Mount Arrowsmith to determine a location for a weather station....
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Notch Hill
Friday afternoon, Monica, Graham, and I headed off to Nanoose to check out Notch Hill. This area contains the rare Garry Oak meadow and arbutus forest ecosystem. We climbed the hill to the lookout and had a picnic lunch in a small patch of shade under one of the oak trees. From our spot on the...
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Haapsalu, Estonia
Estonia?! What were Pam Shaw and I doing there? Well, it turns out that every two years, UNESCO's European and North American biosphere reserves get together as part of what's called the EuroMAB network. Different countries organize the conference-style event (in 2013, Frontenac Arch BR in Canada...
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