Local environmentalist Wendy Kotilla will be the guest speaker at the regular monthly meeting of the Comox Valley Naturalists Society this Sunday.

The meeting at 7 p.m. at the Florence Filberg Centre at 411 Anderton Ave. in Courtenay will consist of slides from her 1995 fisheries study of the entire length of the Clayoquot River.

Kotilla has been involved with wild Pacific salmon for over 40 years through commercial fishing, salmon enhancement, fisheries research and ecological restoration. Fisheries work has taken her to many areas of the coast including Skeena River, Queen Charlotte Islands, Tsitka River, Clayoquot River and Carnation Creek Experimental Watershed Project.

Currently, Kotilla co-ordinates the Youth and Ecological Restoration Program in the Comox Valley to educate young people about the natural world.

In 1993, over 850 people were arrested in Clayoquot Sound to stop clearcut logging. Clayoquot Biosphere Project began baseline data collection in the pristine Clayoquot River valley.

In 1995, Kotilla initiated assessment of longitudinal distribution of fish communities in the Clayoquot River, walking most of its length to conduct the field work. Her presentation highlights the fisheries research she was involved with during that time and contains 鈥渘ever before seen鈥� slides. Clayoquot River valley remains unlogged to this day.

Meetings of the Comox Valley Naturalists Society are held on the third Sunday of most months at the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton in Courtenay. Meetings are open to the public, including youth. A donation of $3 is suggested for non-members, and new memberships are always welcomed.

The CVNS February presentation is by Gordon Hutchings who will present on bees. On March 20, author Anthony Dalton, with a lecture on the northern naturalist, botanist (etc.) J. Dewey Soper.

For more information on CVNS, visit the website at www.comoxvalleynaturalist.bc.ca.

鈥� Comox Valley

Naturalists Society