An auction to name a lichen found in the Clearwater River Valley has been won with a bid of $17,900.
The family of Randy Sulyma, a Fort St. James forester and biologist who was killed in an auto accident about one year ago, raised the winning bid.
The lichen will be named Parmelia sulymae in his honor.
The money will be used by The Land Conservancy of B.C. to purchase land for a wildlife corridor through Upper Clearwater.
A second lichen-naming auction, which also closed Dec. 15, raised $4,000 for the Ancient Rainforest Alliance.
The family of biologist Henry Kock, who ran programs at the University of Guelph Arboretum for 20 years, won that auction.
That lichen will be named Bryoria kockiana.
Kock died of brain cancer in 2005.
The Alliance will use the money raised to help protect B.C.’s rainforests.
Upper Clearwater naturalist Trevor Goward discovered both lichens. Normally the right to name a new species goes to the person who discovers them. In these cases, Goward donated those rights to environmental causes.
