Mayne Island Conservancy Fall Speaker Series
*We are currently experiencing technical issues with our events tickets. If you are having an issues purchasing a ticket, please email us at info@mayneconservancy.ca and we will register you manually.*
This year, our Fall Speaker Series is aligned with the Conservancy’s 2026 theme of celebrating the coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem, the smallest and most at-risk biogeoclimatic zone in British Columbia. The speakers, all leaders in their fields, will address different aspects of this ecosystem – from climate change, to the impacts of over-abundant deer, to the health of our forests.
The speakers, who all volunteer their time to come to Mayne Island, are extraordinary individuals. Starting with Dr. Tara Martin on October 3rd, who is a leading conservation scientist with a focus on the impacts of deer, to Michael Christie on October 17th an author who utilizes the power of fiction to help us connect with forests, and then Johanna Wagstaffe on November 28th, a weather and climate expert who is regularly heard on the CBC, who will talk about what we can expect from a changing climate over the coming decades.
Please join us for an exciting three-part conversation on the complex relationship between humans and nature, as we explore the deeply intertwined connections between humans and forests, and the impacts of wildfires and climate change on our future.
Tickets and information below:
Dr. Tara Martin, October 3rd, 7pm at the Agricultural Hall
Dr. Tara Martin is a Professor with the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences 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, where to take them and when to achieve our conservation and natural resource management goals. Tara leads a team of graduate students and research fellows in the Conservation Decisions Lab, seeking to understand, predict and ultimately inform decisions about the impacts of cumulative effects on biodiversity, natural resources and human wellbeing. Tara and her team work closely with Indigenous communities supporting their research needs and centering Indigenous values, knowledge and sovereignty in collaborative research.
She is also on the Board of Directors with the Nature Trust of British Columbia, an organization that works to protect BC’s unique, vulnerable, and at-risk species by buying, restoring, and managing their habitats.
Among the most cited scientists in her field globally, Tara facilitated the first private landback in British Columbia and her research is leading to on-ground change in both conservation policy and action in Canada and globally.
Tara grew up in the Gulf Islands and then spent 25 years studying and working in Australia, before returning to her love – the Salish Sea in 2012. Tara is a mother of two, Silka and Mateo and in the spring they can be found on their boat surveying wildflowers in the islands.
In her talk, Dr. Martin will focus on the ecology of the Gulf Islands, cumulative impacts of various stressors, with a particular emphasis on the impacts of browsing by hyperabundant deer – both fallow and blacktail.
***CANCELLED*** Michael Christie, October 17th, 7pm at the Agricultural Hall ***CANCELLED***
Michael Christie’s presentation has been cancelled due to a personal matter.
Instead, we will be welcoming naturalist, environmental activist and award-winning writer Briony Penn.
Briony Penn, Friday November 20th, 7pm at the Agricultural Hall
‘The Seabird Trials’, published this month, is one of number of books she has written which focus on the environment. She lives on Salt Spring Island, BC.
In the aftermath of one of the deadliest oil spills in the Pacific, two friends were called as expert witnesses to represent opposite sides of a landmark court case. Their friendship became one of the many casualties of the spill, along with 10,000 seabirds. The final settlement set a new legal precedent for the global rights of nature, and led to the establishment of a successful twenty-five-year experiment to encourage the surviving seabirds to return to their home nesting colony. This timely book charts the historic failure of scientific and legal institutions to solve the problems they were set up to solve, as well as the success of people who love the natural world and will go to extraordinary lengths to protect it.
Johanna Wagstaffe, November 28th,7pm at the Agricultural Hall
Johanna Wagstaffe is a meteorologist and science host for CBC News who has spent over fifteen years on the front lines of our changing climate. Her work spans everything from deep-dive explainers and UN summits to award-winning podcasts like Fault Lines and 2050: Degrees of Change.
Beyond her national reporting, Johanna is an author of several science books for children, translating complex natural disasters into accessible stories for all ages. Her background is rooted in science: an honours degree in geophysics from Western University, a meteorology certificate from York University, and an early stint forecasting at the Environment Canada Severe Weather Centre.
Living in Vancouver, Johanna spends her time off exploring nature with her two young children and taking to the skies—she holds both her glider’s and power pilot’s licenses.
Johanna will walk us through the climate trends hitting southwestern British Columbia—and what we’re actually in for over the coming decades.