David Bradbeer is leaving his position as biologist for the Delta Wildlife and Farmland Trust with fond memories of what has been accomplished in these parts.
Bradbeer, who wraps up his duties at the end of this month, started working for the trust in 2007 and took over as the program coordinator a couple of years later.
He will take on a new job, as the Vancouver International Airport's wildlife specialist, that will be similar in some ways. His duties will include keeping birds away from planes to maintain aviation safety.
Saying working with the trust was rewarding, he told the Optimist the organization is an example how farming and wildlife can co-exist in what is usually an adversarial relationship.
"There's still situations that arise in Delta where wildlife causes a negative impact to farming. The biggest one would be waterfowl grazing on hay fields, especially for dairy farmers in East Delta. They can cause an impact, yet at the same time there's different things that the farmers can do that are beneficial for their soil and can have a really positive impact for wildlife," Bradbeer said.
"I think our set-aside program is quite exemplary in that regard in that it can fit into a cash crop rotation, so potato farmers can use it to improve the quality of their soil and build up the soil structure again, and that same action creates habitat for a slew of grassland birds."
Bradbeer said there are no groups that operate in the same manner as the trust, which provides cost-sharing programs and works directly with farmers.
"There's groups that cooperate with farmers and there's farmers that do stewardship on their farms all over the province, but we've got a unique model whereby we can share the cost executing these stewardship programs. It's really the farmers doing the work. It's their tractors, it's their time and labour to create the habitat on their farm fields," he said.
Bradbeer said funding comes from various sources, including Delta and government grants. The majority still comes from an endowment through the Vancouver Foundation, as well as funding from the Delta Agricultural Society, Ducks Unlimited, B.C.
Waterfowl Society and the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation.
Bradbeer said this year's Ramsar designation for parts of Delta highlights the importance of the lower Fraser River delta.
As far as the idea of marketing "wildlife friendly" crops in stores, that idea was explored a couple of years ago by a group of UBC students, whom Bradbeer assisted.
He said despite being a good idea, it's difficult to package and market for the consumer all the good work farmers do for the environment.
"You have things like certified organic that tells consumers how things are produced, but there's not a lot of room in the supermarkets to show how well you're doing things on your farm. Farmers' markets allow a better interaction between the farmer and the consumer, but you're not moving huge volumes through the farmers' market, not like the supermarket," he said.
Bradbeer said the trust does an exceptional job with a small staff.
"With the support of the farming community, we're able to make thousands of acres of a difference in terms of habitat, and work with farmers as well to help them maintain the long-term viability of their soils.
It's a lot of different activities we're undertaking and a lot of different missions we're achieving," he said.
"I hope people are aware
how valuable the farmland here is and how quickly it can change from being valuable for wildlife and food production to not valuable at all."
Christine Terpsma, who comes from a dairy farming family in East Delta, will assume the role as the trust's biologist.
