Conservation Conversations: A speakers series in PEI
Governors Island, Prince Edward Island (Photo by NCC)
Prince Edward Island is a small province, full of heart. We have beautiful landscapes and unique ecosystems. As Program Manager for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) in PEI, I feel blessed to work in this province where co-operation is the name of the game and partnerships achieve great results in conservation.
NCC is not a new player in the history of land conservation on PEI; but, with only a small on-the-ground staff in PEI, opportunities to promote NCC’s work face-to-face can be hard to come by.
NCC does great work in Prince Edward Island and we want to create more opportunities to tell people about what we do in a comfortable, approachable atmosphere. This was how we came up with the idea for our Conservation Conversations Speakers Series. Conversations are the best way to get to know somebody, and we want Islanders to get to know us better.
Over the next couple of years , NCC plans to hold a series of speaker sessions that will cover a number of topics, like important science findings that affect PEI’s future, what it’s like to work in conservation, the people who protect PEI and more. The Nature Conservancy of Canada talks with individuals, communities, groups, businesses and foundations about the reasons why we acquire and save important land, plants and animals for future generations.
This November, we held our first segment in this series, entitled “Nature Nerds," at the Regis and Joan Duffie Research Centre, on the UPEI Campus, in Charlottetown. Fortunately the event was only slightly dampened by the province’s first winter storm. Someone outside our organization asked me where the name of our inaugural event came from. (The newspaper headline certain helped it capture people's attention: “NCC Holds Lecture for Nerds!”)
I think the name stuck because deep down, NCC staff are self professed nature nerds. The naming of the first event of the series was an endearing, fun way to show our personalities and the passion that we have for our field of work.
Please look forward to future Conservation Conversations in Prince Edward Island! As the series begins to develop into a regular event, we hope to showcase some of the upcoming work on PEI, including any new exciting scientific discoveries, the promotion of new partnerships and introducing some of the “behind-the-scenes” players who have contributed so much to NCC’s work.
And, as you get to know us better, we hope to get to know you better too! We are always looking for new ideas, so if there are readers out there who have ideas or topics that they would like to learn about, please feel free to share them with us in the comments section below. Or you can email me at julie.vasseur@natureconservancy.ca.
