CWB Speakers Night – How reviving human-land reciprocity can heal the Quw’utsun Watershed

We’re excited to be kicking-off our Fall Speakers Series with Dr. Tara Martin! Her talk, How reviving human-land reciprocity can heal the Quw’utsun Watershed, will explore two decades of research on the cumulative impacts of settler colonialism in Quw’utsun territory and the need for healing of human-land relationships through the hunting of deer, rematriation of camas meadows, and more! Interested in Indigenous food system revitalization? Curious about at-risk biodiversity conservation? We think you’ll enjoy Tara’s talk!

We are also excited to be joined by two of our Board members at this month’s Speakers Night! Dr. Shannon Waters, Deputy Provincial Health Officer, Planetary & Water Health, member of Stz’uminus First Nation, will be our host for the evening, and Qutxulenuhw Tim Kulchyski, Biologist and member of Cowichan Tribes, will be joining us to help introduce Dr. Martin’s talk.

Dr. Tara Martin is a Forestry Professor, Lead Scientist for the Martin Conservation Decisions Lab, and the inaugural Liber Ero Chair in Conservation at the University of British Columbia. She is a global leader in the field of Conservation Decision Science – combining predictive ecological models with decision science to inform what actions to take, and where and when to take them to achieve conservation and resource management goals. Through her work with the Conservation Decisions Lab, Dr. Martin and her team seek to understand, predict, and inform decisions about the impacts of global change on biodiversity and natural resources. To do this, they work closely with Indigenous communities, supporting their research needs and centering Indigenous values, knowledge, and sovereignty in co-developed, collaborative research.

We’re looking forward to learning more about Conservation Decision Science and Indigenous resurgence on Quw’utsun territories with Tara, Shannon, and Tim on September 21st—and we hope you’ll join us!

This Speakers Series is hosted by the Cowichan Watershed Board, with the support of VIU Cowichan and funding from the Watershed Security Fund.