Initially started in 2017 as a club to support the wilderness and wildlife around UFV campuses, the Wildlife Protection Club (WPC) has since expanded into enthusiasts for the Abbotsford and Chilliwack communities. This year, they teamed up with the City of Abbotsford to perform invasive species removals, and are trying to make headway for similar events in Chilliwack. The Cascade sat down with the club’s president, Gursave Dhaliwal, to understand what WPC is and the importance of what they do for the environment.
With a large interest in animals and learning about nature, it was a no-brainer for Dhaliwal to be a part of the club, and he emphasized what they strive for.
“The primary goal of this club has always been educating the public about the wilderness you find around B.C., being able to identify invasive and non-invasive species, and then knowing what to do when you find a species. What can you do as a person to help them out?”
Invasive and non-invasive species determine how much the biodiversity of our environment is affected.
“[We] want to have a good ratio of non-invasive species because, the more invasive species [we] have, the lower the population gets of the species you want here. If you look around the campus, we have a lot of Himalayan blackberries, and that’s introduced a bunch of other invasives that [we] don’t want, and pests such as the rabbits … There’s a lot of rabbits here … they don’t belong here, they’ve come from [Europe].”
Dhaliwal was quite impressed with both the turnout and volunteer tenacity at their most recent invasive species removal event.
“…After our last event with the City of Abbotsford I would say we did a great job because we had students come [out] from all different faculties … It was raining that day. It was muddy, it was terrible … and they sat there for eight hours in the woods ripping up invasive plants. It was very impressive to see. We walked away with cuts all over us, spines in our hands, [but] everybody was smiling at the end of it.”
He expressed that the club is returning to their roots, working with UFV SLOW Club to host events — a favourite being their salmon and steelhead spawning walks in Chilliwack.
“…A lot of students enjoyed [observing], and even at the end of that event we were getting so many other people — people not involved with the biology of it. They were saying that [it] was the most amazing thing they’ve ever seen. They were very happy that they got to experience it.”
Dhaliwal is confident that the club is on the road to success, and their biggest achievement thus far has been the increase in student interest — even if it was an initial struggle to revive the club after the leave of the previous president.
“We [noticed] that a lot of students were just not caring… we ended up going back to the movie nights and having pizzas [to] try and get people to come in. That’s when we started spreading our message again — ‘there’s something [that] needs to be done here’ … Then we started seeing more and more students come around like ‘you know what? I want to be a part of this.’”
According to Dhaliwal, the recent construction on campus has been unfavourable, as it negatively affects the club’s ability to do their job of protecting and maintaining our natural spaces.
“I want [UFV] to understand that we’re here to help the campus … Especially with all the construction, we weren’t told what was going to be removed and what [wasn’t]. We have rare trees here and we’ve lost those trees, we’ve lost that sector of the wilderness that we used to protect, and we’re losing that biodiversity.”
“[W]e’re known as the protection club [but] we’re doing a terrible job with [the] campus. The first thing teachers ask us is ‘well, we’ve lost this and we’ve lost that … What are [you] doing here?”
In thinking about the future of the club, Dhaliwal’s perspective was positive, and he wants people to continue to join, particularly those who share the willingness and passion to learn about how to protect UFV’s campus.
You can find the club on Facebook and Instagram at ufvwildlifeprotectionclub.
Veronica is a Staff Writer at The Cascade. She loves to travel and explore new places, no matter how big or small. She is in her second year at UFV, pursuing the study of Creative
Writing.