Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/118157
metamorphose from water to land dwellers. It's this dual citizenship, in both aquatic and terrestrial habitats – along with a unique vulnerability due to the moist skin through which they breathe, unprotected by scales or hard outer shell – that makes them particularly qualified as harbingers of environmental change. Which is why, in 2010, news that 41 per cent of the planet's nearly 6,000 known amphibian species faced extinction rocked the conservation world. An updated "Global Amphibian Assessment" published in 2010's December 10 edition of the weekly Science journal reported that nine amphibian species have already been listed as extinct since 1980; another 113, not seen in years, may have also disappeared forever. W ith her trainees' quadrantmapping and vegetation survey complete in pond one, Wind leads the way to a second pond on the former Garibaldi Springs golf course. This nowmuddy, water-logged expanse seems devoid of life at first glance, but Wind encourages us to look closer. "Be like a great blue heron," she prompts, lifting her long legs elegantly, "so that you're moving slowly and stealthily." Squelching softly along the shoreline, clipboard at the ready, I ponder the handiness of waterproof paper as the first raindrops splat down on us. Samson, the aforementioned mud diver and now my workshop partner, mimics Wind's highstepping gait as we search for frogs in various life stages hidden amongst the reeds. It seems an impossible task; the long-legged heron is so much more graceful than we in our gangling gear. Luckily this is egg season, and all 12 of us easily spot the amphibian egg masses floating near the surface like globs of clear jelly. Another classmate wades over, gingerly cradling a sample to view up close as Wind outlines how wetlands are "nurseries, some of the most important life support systems on earth." Comprising roughly 5.6 per cent (or 5.28 million hectares) of B.C.'s total landmass, she notes, wetlands provide critical habitat for fish, birds and other wildlife. Perhaps surprisingly, they also have a significant monetary value according to environmental economists who calculate the "goods and services" exchange of such things: in this case, $19,580 per hectare. With a total tally of 5.28 million hectares, this means B.C. wetlands are worth $100 billion-plus per year. 36 W E S T W O R L D p26-37_Summer101.indd 36 >> SUMMER 2012 4/19/12 7:17:57 AM