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Biologist dedicated to recovering Species at Risk
By Nicole Trigg
Kimberley-based consulting biologist Penny Ohanjanian has fond memories of tromping around a marsh as a four year old with mini binoculars in hand, accompanying her godfather who was an amateur ornithologist. These experiences sparked a lifelong love of birds and wildlife that was further invigorated by an influential Grade 8 biology teacher.
āShe was a woman, and she was a marine biologist, which in those days, the late ā60s, was very unusual,ā Penny said. āShe was really inspiring for me.ā
But finding herself āsidetracked out of scienceā through the rest of high school, Penny opted to pursue a degree at the University of British Columbia in Ancient Greek and Latin literature and history, which led to an opportunity to earn her Masters in Litterae Humaniores at the University of Oxford in England.
āBut I couldnāt even watch a Jacques Cousteau special without getting all anxious that Iāve got to do that, Iāve got to be a biologist.ā
Penny determinedly returned to Canada to pursue a Master in Science at Simon Fraser University under the supervision of ornithologist Nico Verbeek, a life changing decision that landed her in Creston for her MSc project on red-necked grebes, and led to her settling in the Kootenays where sheās been based ever since.
āIām really grateful to have the two sides of knowledge,ā she said. ā(The Liberal Arts) taught me how to write, and the demanding work at Oxford was good prep for research.ā
For over 30 years, Penny has been specializing in rare and endangered birds and amphibians.
One contract near and dear to her heart was work on the Coeur dāAlene Salamander. When she started, the salamanders were known in four locations and red-listed in B.C.; by the time she finished four to six years later, they were down-listed to special concern (today they are yellow-listed in B.C.).
āAs a general principle,ā she said, āspecies at risk are important because we may not have recognized or identified all the pieces of the ecological puzzle of the ecosystem, so itās important to reinstitute the most complete ecosystem that we can have.ā
Since 2003, Penny has been a member of the Northern Leopard Frog Recovery Team. Endangered in British Columbia, the northern leopard frog is being reintroduced to the Columbia marshes, a multi-year project led by Penny that receives annual funding from the Columbia Valley Local Conservation Fund administered by KCP on behalf of the Regional District of East Kootenay.
āI worked with (northern leopard frogs) in 1995, when I discovered with Doug Adama that they were still persisting in the Creston Valley,ā she said. āIt was hard to find them and one night we heard them calling, so that confirmed they still existed in this one place in B.C.ā
The Recovery Team went on to successfully reintroduce leopard frogs to Bummersā Flats near Fort Steele; then the attention turned to the Columbia marshes. With a combination of wildāsourced tadpoles from Creston, and captive-bred individuals from the Calgary Zoo and Vancouver Aquarium, it is expected that, given the release of 8,000 tadpoles per year over the next five years, leopard frogs will become established again in the Columbia marshes.
āItās a hugely dedicated team. Itās going to take a while but we have reasons for optimism.ā
When asked what defines her career in species-at-risk preservation, Penny is quick to answer: āItās the feeling at the end of the day that youāre doing something of value, itās a noble calling.ā
The Kootenay Conservation Program is a broad partnership of over 80 organizations from across the Kootenays that works to conserve landscapes in order to sustain naturally functioning ecosystems. Learn more at www.kootenayconservation.ca.
Lead image: Biologist Penny Ohanjanian at work in the Brisco marshes. Submitted photo.
– Nicole Trigg is Communications Coordinator with the Kootenay Conservation Program