During Dr. Curtis Bjork’s presentation, “From Tiny Lichens to Giant Trees: An Inventory of the Robson Valley Flora”, I learned that the Robson Valley is an interior rainforest, with a very wet and cool climate; I learned about the affect geology has on flora; and I learned about a method that was new to me, the controlled intuitive wander. I was amazed to find out that locations I had visited, such as the Ancient Forest had such outstanding, globally significant lichen and bryophyte biodiversity.

I thought that Dr. Bjork expressed his passion for lichen convincingly (and flora in general throughout the entire presentation) and this helped engage an audience who may or may not share his interest in lichen. I thought the speaker did a good job introducing his topic and setting the scope for the presentation, starting with a map of Canada, narrowing down to BC, and finally to Robson Valley. Dr. Bjork also included many photos of flora that not only helped keep me engaged, but also helped me understand his interests on his intuitive wanders. Moreover, I thought that the explanation he provided, comparing the biodiversity of Robson Valley to other areas of high biodiversity world wide, was an excellent way to convey to the audience the significance of the lichen and bryophytes biodiversity in the Robson Valley. Without this comparison, the species count he recorded would have meant little to me. While I think that Dr. Bjork did an excellent job walking the audience through these comparisons verbally, I thought that the comparison table itself (depicted on his power point slide), could have been organized in a way that represented his conclusions regarding biodiversity more clearly.

The topic itself was not relevant to my Master’s research; however, I was shown that expressing your passion can do wonders in captivating an audience. I hope that when the time comes to present my Master’s research I will be able to emulate this same passion.

Dr. Bjork did a great job answering questions. It was clear that he knew his topic very well, and could speak to much more than what was covered in his presentation. Even in cases where the question was outside of his area of expertise, he answered to the best of his ability while still acknowledging, for example, that he is not a caribou expert. If I had the chance, I would ask Dr. Bjork how he expects climate change to affect biodiversity in the Robson Valley in the future.