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Environment

Passion for people

The Ring

Geographer Jutta Gutberlet and psychologist Jim Tanaka have devoted their careers to helping others—especially children and families and those who live in poverty. As the 2018 recipients of the Provost's Engaged Scholar Award, their commitment to communities locally and internationally will be celebrated at a March ceremony.

Avatar Grove IMAX film project

The Ring

Kelly Richardson, a new UVic visual arts professor, is bringing the old-growth forests near Port Renfrew sharply into focus with a new project. The Ontario-born artist, who'd lived in the UK since 2003, cites proximity to the ancient stands as one of the reasons she accepted the position at UVic.

Alarming view of mountain vista

The Ring

Dec. 11 was International Mountain Day. And the media coverage was extensive for UVic's Mountain Legacy Project, which is raising the alarm about the impact of climate change on the mountain landscapes of western Canada—using repeat photography in one of the largest projects of its kind.

A virtual environment for coastal planning

The Ring

What if you could experience the beauty of Sidney Spit without leaving your home? Geography PhD student Robert Newell has applied cutting-edge technology to develop a virtual reality experience that takes visitors on a tour of the park, over land and underwater, using visualization tools.

Tiny life forms, big impact

The Ring

Biological oceanographer Diana Varela is studying the marine diatoms of Saanich Inlet, just north of campus. These unicellular lifeforms are the crux of ecosystems both aquatic and terrestrial. Part of a larger group of microscopic algae known as phytoplankton, diatoms drift across the top layer of oceans, seas and lakes.

New study on salmon hot spots

The Ring

Tracking the salmon-eating habits of grizzly and black bears for nearly two decades has revealed some surprising results for UVic geography PhD candidate and Raincoast scientist Megan Adams. She hopes the study will inform land-use managers on how the bear-salmon system goes well beyond the coastal areas into interior habitats of BC.

Co-op graduate preserves BC’s natural world

The Ring

Growing up in some of BC's most beautiful landscapes—from the snow-covered peaks in Whistler to the shores of the Salish Sea in Victoria—inspired Keegan Meyers to develop a deep appreciation for the natural world.

UVic makes green top 100 list

The Ring

UVic has joined an elite group of Canadian employers committed to advancing sustainability. UVic is included in this year's list of Canada’s 100 Greenest Employers, and is the only organization from Victoria.

First Nations clean energy survey

The Ring

A new survey on clean energy was released April 24 by the BC First Nations Clean Energy Working Group in partnership with Clean Energy BC and UVic's School of Environmental Studies.

Energy reduction leads to STARS sustainability gold—again

The Ring

The McKinnon pool heat recovery system is just one of many initiatives that have helped UVic achieve its second gold rating with the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). The 2017 score maintains UVic’s gold ranking, originally established in 2014, and makes it the second highest-rated university in Canada.

Millennia-spanning forest study awarded

The Ring

Outstanding research in ecology was announced this week by the Ecological Society of America. A team of UVic researchers and grad students were recognized for their contribution to the fields of plant ecology and biogeography with the William Skinner Cooper Award for their research study, "Intertidal resource use over millennia enhances forest productivity," published in Nature Communications last year.

A new scan-copy-print environment is on its way

The Ring

UVic is entering into an agreement with Ricoh Canada to provide new multifunction (copy / print / scan / fax) devices, printers and fleet management services to campus. Ricoh will begin site visits in January to assess how document handling—by photocopy, printing and scanning—works in different campus offices. Information from the initial phase of the project will guide equipment replacement as well as future enhancements to UVic’s print and document management infrastructure.

Knowledge: snowpack science

The Ring

A significant amount of freshwater in western Canada and the North originates as snowpack from the Rocky Mountains. Terry Prowse, a UVic geographer and a senior federal research scientist who studies hydrology, water resources and freshwater ecosystems.

Controlling invasive species on campus

The Ring

A small army of volunteers is on the march to eradicate the spread of plant species that threaten native-growing flora on the UVic campus. Their project on invasive species management is one of four projects approved and funded this year by the Campus Sustainability Fund, which provides one-time allocations to campus projects that focus on water savings, sustainability awareness and learning opportunities.

Learning the human history of the west coast

The Ring

A six-week archaeology field school brought the promise and challenges of the Pacific west coast to life for 19 enthusiastic anthropology students this summer. The group traveled to the west coast of Vancouver Island to do research at ancient First Nations settlements, and to learn archaeological field techniques and environmental and cultural history from Tseshaht and Huu-ay-aht First Nations, professional archaeologists, and marine ecologists at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre.

Knowledge: extreme thinking

The Ring

Science is closer to linking some weather-related disasters to human-caused climate change. This spring, a US National Academy of Sciences committee—on which Zwiers served—released a milestone report acknowledging that progress is being made on attributing some extreme events to climate change caused by human activity.

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