Speakers \ Meetings
Meetings take place on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at Princeton & District Museum and Archives, 167 Vermilion Avenue at 7 p.m. Monthly meetings are followed by a guest speaker who makes a presentation on a topic dealing with the natural world. Refreshments are served after the presentation. The public is welcome to attend.
2025 List of Speakers
(Click on the meeting name for more information)
Presentation: Alex Thomson - The Nature Trust of BC
February 11th, 2025
Meeting starts at 7:00 PM at Princeton Museum
The Nature Trust of BC is a leading non-profit land conservation organization. Since 1971 they have conserved and protected more than 500 conservation areas spanning 73,000 hectares and counting, including hectares in the Princeton area. Alex will talk about the important work that goes into land management at NTBC, specifically what they have done in Princeton so far.
Alex Thomson has been working with NTBC for over 6 years and is currently the Okanagan Conservation Field Operations Coordinator as part of the Land Management Team.
Presentation: David Ensing - Research on Invasive Biological Plant Control at the Summerland Research and Development Centre
March 11th, 2025
Meeting starts at 7:00 PM at Princeton Museum
Dave is a Vegetation Ecologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Summerland,
BC, where together with a team of technicians and graduate and undergraduate students,
his research program focuses on the ecology and evolution of invasive plants and their
biological controls, Indigenous food systems, and non-crop vegetation in perennial
horticulture crops like wine grapes and apples. He has undergraduate (BSc. Hons, 2011)
and MSc (2013) degrees in biology from UBC Okanagan in Kelowna. He completed his
PhD in Biology at Queen’s University (2019) where he studied the evolutionary ecology of
species range limits, or why species occur where they do, and not where they don’t. When
not at work, Dave enjoys mountain biking, backcountry camping and keeping invasive
plants out of his yard with his family!
Presentation: Danny Coyne - Wonderful Wildlife Photographs
April 8th, 2025
Meeting starts at 7:00 PM at Princeton Museum
While growing up in the Princeton area Danny explored the hinterlands of where he lived.
His love of the natural beauty that surrounded him inspired him to begin photographing the
diverse wildlife he encountered. His stunning photographs capture the wonders of animals
living in their natural habitat. In this session Danny will share some of these photographs
and describe the circumstances in which they were taken.
Presentation: Charlotte Leaming & Wendy Stewart - The Natural Wonders of Newfoundland and Labrador
May 13th, 2025
Meeting starts at 7:00 AM at Princeton Museum
In June 2023, Penticton residents Charlotte Leaming and Wendy Stewart travelled to Newfoundland and Labrador for a 13-day nature tour of Canada’s most eastern province.
There was nature galore – icebergs, nesting Puffins and Gannets, Minke whales, toads, flora at every step as well as oodles of culture – lighthouses filled with history, stacks of firewood 10 feet long, roadside houses for the garbage cans, homes with no steps to the front door and people, amazing, huge-hearted, fun-loving people.
Come with Charlotte and Wendy as they travel hundreds and hundreds of miles across rocky, barren landscapes to arrive at a seaside hamlet full of joyful music, a freshly caught lobster dinner and an iceberg right over there (you can even have ice from that iceberg in your drink!)
Charlotte Leaming is a retired Okanagan horticulturist; Wendy Stewart is a retired reporter and government communicator. Both love to travel.
Presentation: Todd Redding - Water Resources of the Similkameen
June 10th, 2025
Meeting starts at 7:00 PM at Princeton Museum
June 10, 2025
Todd Redding – Water Resources of the Similkameen
The Similkameen River is a blue oasis in the dry southern interior of BC. In this presentation Todd will talk about the water sources of the Similkameen, the amount and quality of water flowing through the systems and the potential effects of climate change and other human impacts on water resources. Todd looks forward to learning from your local knowledge about the past, present and future of this beautiful watershed.
Todd is a faculty member in the Department of Geography and Earth & Environmental Science at Okanagan College in Penticton.