The Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Speaker Series is returning again for another season.
    The popular series where scientists from many different backgrounds deliver lectures of interesting topics, kicks off with Dr. David Eberth’s talk entitled “Fish, Mud, Mars and Time: the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Greatest Geologic Hits in 2016.”
    It was a stand-out year for geologic discoveries and advances at the Tyrrell. A study of a 63-million-year-old block from Okotoks revealed 24 garfish preserved three-dimensionally in unique, belly-up death-poses.
    Meanwhile, at Dinosaur Provincial Park and in the Drumheller valley, new advances in uranium-lead isotopic dating resulted in revised geo-chronologies for Alberta’s best-known dinosaurs. The new techniques allow dating accuracy to within 30,000 years, which is extraordinarily precise for fossils that are millions of years old.
    Lastly, interest in Dinosaur Provincial Park as a potential testing ground for a Mars-rover drilling and radiometric dating program resulted in a visit from NASA scientists in August.
    In his presentation, Dr. Eberth will talk about the new discoveries made by the Museum in 2016 and how technological advances are helping to increase our understanding of the Earth’s history, as well as the history of Mars.
    Carrie Ann Lunde, head of marketing and public relations at the Tyrrell explains the current version of Speaker Series has been running since 2005, although there have been various incarnations of lecture series throughout the years.
    “For example, it started out as the “Heaton Lecture Series” in honor of one of our first scientists who passed away in 1984, one year before the Museum opened its doors to the public,” she explains.  “The intent of that series was to bring in very high-quality speakers speaking on currently “hot” topics.  The series has always sought to provide a mixture of staff lectures (relating to current palaeontological research) and guest scientist lectures that relate in some way to palaeontology. The broader idea has been to provide opportunities for the local community to hear about current scientific activities from the source, to provide staff with a form of engagement, and to provide our scientific/technical staff with up-to-date research activities.”
    She said a broad range of patrons come out for the series. The average attendance is between 70-80, and is comprised of members of the community and beyond.
    “Most of the attendees are staff and local community members, but sometimes a speaker of note or an intriguing topic will draw a university audience from the University of Calgary, Mt. Royal University, University of Alberta, and palaeontological enthusiasts and amateurs from Calgary and surrounding area,” said Lunde.
    She adds that up to 22,000 have also viewed the series online.
    The first of the 2017 series is this Thursday, January 19 at 11 a.m.

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    Wheatland County is speaking out about its membership in the Calgary Regional Growth Management Board.
    According to the regulation discussion guide prepared by Municipal Affairs, “It is proposed that Growth Management Boards be composed of the large urban municipality (i.e. Calgary or Edmonton), all rural municipalities that are adjacent...”
    Wheatland County is not, nor has it ever been, adjacent to Calgary and yet, according to the Alberta Government, it is still being forced into the Calgary Metropolitan Region growth management board.
    “We are, first of all, against any type of forced participation,” stated Reeve Glenn Koester. “We have made our position clear with several letters and discussions with Municipal Affairs.”
    The most recent communication from Minister Larivee (Municipal Affairs), received January 12, 2017, states, “...the intended outcome of the growth management boards is to ensure that planning around the largest urban centers in Alberta occurs in an efficient and effective way...it only makes sense to also include portions of Wheatland County...”
    This is unacceptable to Wheatland County and, according to Council, there is concern they will lose their ability to determine their own growth if forced onto the board.
    “Regarding the voting structure, it is unacceptable that one municipality has the ability to control the agenda through the double majority voting model,” Koester explained. “The Board’s growth and servicing plans will be determined, based on the planned voting structure, by the City of Calgary. There are obviously going to be different perspectives and different needs between rural and urban groups but, because of population rather than merit, the concerns of the rural groups will not be addressed,” Koester continued.     
    “Even if every rural community that is part of this proposed Board votes together, the large urban centre (Calgary) has the ability to out-vote them. Add to this, the fact that we will be expected to represent and speak on behalf of all the small communities within our borders, but have only one vote. The individual communities have no vote on their own, and it is quite clear—this is a dictatorship. Calgary is the only one with enough population to have any say in the decision-making process.”
    The next meeting is planned for January 20, and the County Council will send representatives. “We plan to continue fighting this. In its current form, it is unfair to us and all other rural participants,” said Koester.