University of Calgary
OP-10: Biodiversity

The University of Calgary's Barrier Lake Field Station is located adjacent to the Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park.

The university has carried out its own biodiversity assessment across a number of flora and fauna. The special list detailed below is current as of 2016. Additionally, the City of Calgary published a city-wide biodiversity report in 2014 (http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Parks/Documents/Planning-and-Operations/Biodiversity-report2014.pdf). This report categorized over 1,000 species of flora and fauna, of which over 150 are at least sensitive to risk. Several of these species appear on the University of Calgary campus, including the ‘At Risk’ peregrine falcon. Our Barrier Lake field station is adjacent to a province of Alberta park. The province also has a species at risk list that was updated as of June 2015 (http://aep.alberta.ca/fish-wildlife/species-at-risk/documents/SpeciesAssessedConservation-2014.pdf). The University continues its full cooperation with the City of Calgary’s and the Province of Alberta's biodiversity plans and policies alongside internal biodiversity and landscape management operations.

More than 800 trees have been inventoried on our campus and 55 different species identified (Viewable at http://ucmaps.ucalgary.ca/PublicFiles/Reports/STARS2016_Trees/PDF/Trees_STARS2016_AllTrees.pdf) including the following species: American Elm Amur Cherry Amur Maple Apricot Aspen Birch Black Ash Blue Spruce Bristlecone Pine Buckthorn Bur Oak Caragana Crab Apple Cranberry Dogwood Dolgo Crab Apple European Mountain Ash Golden Willow Green Ash Hawthorn Honeysuckle Japanese Lilac Juniper Larch Lilac Linden Lodgepole Pine Manchurian Ash Manchurian Elm Manitoba Maple Mayday Mountain Ash Mountain Pine Mugo Pine Pear Pink Spire Crab Apple Ponderosa Pine Poplar Pyramidal Cedar Rosthern Crab Apple Schubert Chokecherry Scotch Pine Sea Buckthorn Selkirk Crab Apple Siberian Larch Snowbird Hawthorn Strathmore Crab Apple Sutherland Caragana Swedish Aspen Toba Hawthorn Tower Poplar Trembling Aspen Unknown White Spruce Willow Additionally, there is an inventory of many invertebrate species on our main campus and at the Barrier Lake Field Station. This inventory can be viewed here: https://www.ucalgary.ca/sustainability/files/sustainability/filefield_paths/uofc-insect-species-lists-sustainability-report.docx

Classified as ‘At Risk’ by the Alberta provincial government, peregrine falcons have used the university campus as a nesting place since at least 1995. The university has provided nest ledges for the falcons. Fledglings have been banded and monitored for conservation purposes. Injured falcons have been taken under the care of wildlife refuge for assessment and rehabilitation in the past, but are ultimately returned to the wild. Additionally, as of Fall 2016, The City of Calgary has signed the Durban Commitment. It is the third city in Canada to join this international biodiversity program. As part of the Durban commitment, the City ensures the participation and involvement of all stakeholders, of which the university is one. This agreement considers biodiversity from a land-use, management and conservation level. As part of the partnership between the City of Calgary and the University of Calgary, faculty representatives sit on the BiodiverCity Advisory Committee.