Ron Long

For 36 years Ron was employed as a professional photographer at Simon Fraser University. For half of that time he worked exclusively for the Biology Department and so has a great deal of biology in his background. 

Ron first visited Pink Mountain in 1983 following a tip from a butterfly collector. He was impressed by the variety of tundra plants that occurred there. Subsequent visits confirmed the special and unique nature of the Pink Mountain summit. In 2010 he learned of plans to build a wind farm on the summit plateau that would essentially wipe out most of the rare plants. Ron determined to try to preserve at least a portion of the summit to protect this rare habitat and its plants and animals.

Ron's lectures have resulted in hundreds of letters being directed to the provincial government with little impact. However at least the government is now fully aware of the unique plant assembly on Pink Mountain.

With the current excitement about liquid natural gas literally thousands of fracking wells will be drilled in the Peace District.

The Pink Mountain Biodiversity Initiative is a privately funded research program that is designed to examine all aspects of the natural history of the summit and make a comparison to other, similar mountains in the area. It is hoped that the data collected will help to convince the government that an ecological reserve on part of the summit is needed and also to help in the planning of resource extraction.

 Funding and support have been provided by: Nature Vancouver -- http://www.naturevancouver.ca/

                                                                     Alpine Garden Club of BC

                                                                     UBC Botanical Garden

                                                                     BC nature

                                                                     Canadian Mapmakers

                                                                     Many individuals

All website photographs by Ron Long

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