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Coming up in Cowichan: Hospice tree lighting; spiders

Some of the things coming up in Cowichan
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Claudia Copley is a collection manager at the Royal BC Museum. She will be giving a talk on spiders for the Cowichan Valley Naturalists on Dec. 5, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Claudia Copley)

Cowichan Hospice and Cowichan District Hospital are collaborating in the 32nd Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony in honour of those who have died.

On Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 6 p.m., the gathering will take place at Cowichan District Hospital’s main entrance.

Participants will be invited to light a light on the trees in honour of a loved one. This event will take place outdoors, so please dress for the weather. Hot chocolate and cookies will be served outside by Cowichan Hospice volunteers.

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The Cowichan Valley Naturalists are hosting a talk by Claudia Copley titled “More Than A Checklist: What we can learn from the British Columbia spider survey” on Monday, Dec. 5.

The free presentation begins at 9:30 a.m. via Zoom, and looks at the ballooning number of different spiders identified in British Columbia since 1967, and talks a bit about how a conversation about conservation of spiders needs to be had, as many of the types of spiders may be quite rare.

“In 2006, Royal British Columbia Museum researchers began systematically documenting the diversity of British Columbia’s spider fauna,” says a press release for the event. “Annual field surveys of spiders, primarily targeting alpine and subalpine habitats, began in 2008; barcode identification of previously unidentifiable specimens commenced in 2012. Many of the additions to the checklist represent the first Canadian or Nearctic records of those taxa or are undescribed species. The number of species recorded in British Columbia has climbed from 212 in 1967 to 902 in 2021. The lack of conservation concern regarding spiders relative to other taxa is notable: particularly in light of the fact that more than 40 per cent (357) of the native species of spiders in the province are represented by five or fewer collection records. Through these efforts we have determined that British Columbia is an important area of Nearctic spider diversity.”

Copely is a collection manager at the Royal BC Museum.

Email cvns@naturecowichan.net for the Zoom link.

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Spiders of B.C. are the focus of a free talk hosted by the Cowichan Valley Naturalists on Dec. 5, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Claudia Copley)


Andrea Rondeau

About the Author: Andrea Rondeau

I returned to B.C. and found myself at the Cowichan Valley Citizen.
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