A couple of hikes in BC Parks and one black bear meeting

This past week I had time to hike a couple of BC Parks (http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/) which is celebrating it's 100th anniversary this year!

Check out photos of Gowlland Todd Provincial Park in Saanich, BC (http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/gowlland_tod/), a beautiful day hike only 30 mins. from Victoria, BC in this album on Picasa: https://picasaweb.google.com/112857226317189416164/GowllandTodProvincialParkVictoriaBCMay22011?feat=directlink

For the more adventurous, check out Botanical Beach at Juan de Fuca Marine Park in Port Renfrew (http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/juan_de_fuca/), a couple of hours drive from Victoria along the west coast of Vancouver Island. From the parking lot to the beach is only 30 mins. but you can follow the Juan de Fuca Marine trail for up to 47 kms and camp along the shoreline if you are up for it. This is where I met my black bear on a rocky point - just me, him and the ocean! I backed away and he wasn't aggressive, so all's well that end's well!

For a few photos of Botanical Beach and one hastily taken one of a black bear check out the album on Picasa at: https://picasaweb.google.com/112857226317189416164/BotanicalBeachMay2011?feat=directlink

You'll have to click on the link above to see the pic of my black bear experience...

Sand Dune Restoration at Pacific Rim National Park, Tofino, BC

I recently returned from a week in Tofino, BC volunteering at the restoration of the sand dunes at Wickaninnish Beach in the Pacific Rim National Park (http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/bc/pacificrim/natcul/natcul4.aspx). The dune ecosystem is one of the rarest in BC - something less than a percent of it exists on the coast.

The dunes are being effected by European sand grass (Ammophila arenaria), an invasive species that traps the sand and prevents it from reaching the dunes.

Roots of the invasive grass can spread from beach to beach which is how it got from where it was introduced in California originally to stabilize the sand there. Without the changing and shifting dunes, plants like salal (Gaultheria shallon), kinnikinnick (Arcostaphylos uva-ursi) and other shrubs can spread, and eventually the forest encroaches, destroying the dunes. Several plant species only found in dunes are at risk including Pink Sand verbena (Abronia umbellata), thought to be extirpated in BC until a single plant was found and seedlings propagated from it (Pacific Rim National Park species website).

The restoration has been going on for about 3 years. It begins with mechanical removal of the invasive beach grass with a backhoe. The roots of the beach grass are sometimes over a metre long and the grass resprouts from the fragments left over from the backhoe removal (at a rate of about 30% regrowth).

The resprouted grass is removed by digging into the sand about 30 cm to find the root fragments and hand pulling it out. This technique results in only a 10% regrowth afterwards.

The Pacific Rim National Park is planning on planting Pink Sand verbena seedlings in the treatment area in an attempt to reintroduce this species to the dune ecosystem.

Along with volunteering I met up with some great people, learned a lot about the sand dune ecosystem, visited the Shorepine Bog ecosystem (pictured below) and rain forest walk, visited the recently renovated and upgraded Wickaninnish Interpretive Center, had a free campsite for the week at Green Point, and even did my first surfing lesson!

For info on upcoming grass pull opportunities at Pacific Rim National Park, check out their volunteers website: http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/bc/pacificrim/natcul/natcul4.aspx

The Diggers at Six Mile Pub - April 3, 2011

On Sunday the Lifecycles Project (http://lifecyclesproject.ca/) Diggers group met at the Six Mile Pub in Colwood, BC, to enjoy a wonderful brunch and then to help the oldest pub in BC (ca. 1855) get on a zero-mile diet.

The owners and kitchen management staff are enthusiastic about the pub growing its own food and have built four amazing 40 foot raised beds. On this day we were here to add topsoil and sow the first Spring seeds of lettuce, radish, turnips, carrots and to plant a few seed potatoes.

The Lifecycles Project is a non-proft group dedicated to education and promoting urban agriculture in Victoria, BC. The Diggers are named after the 15th Century English movement that was started by farmers in protest of the dividing of common lands to private ownership. The Lifecycles Project Diggers are a bunch of volunteers enthusiastic about setting up gardens for other people, organizations or private businesses so they can learn to grow their own food.

Today we had a great brunch to start the day and then had an awesome time putting the vision of the Six Mile Pub into reality. And it didn't rain!

Ancient Forest Alliance Hike to Avatar Grove, March 27, 2011

Last Sunday I joined a hike to Avatar Grove to see some of the last old-growth trees on Southern Vancouver Island. The 2 hectare stand of old-growth was found by T.J. Watt and a friend and is located in an active logging area. The stand is quite accessible from a logging road just 20 mins. from Port Renfrew. Juan de Fuca Provincial Marine Park is located at the other end of town. (For an awesome HD video of the Avatar Grove with T.J. check out: http://vimeo.com/20910822)

The hike was attended by over 30 people and hosted by T.J., who is part of the Ancient Forest Alliance, www.ancientforestalliance.orga non-profit set up to lobby government to protect the last remaining old-growth stands, and to promote sustainable forestry.

The hike itself is "off-trail" as AFA doesn't have permission to build trails in an active logging area, but the landscape is spectacular. We were lucky that the sun appeared for most of the time.

The old-growth trees are mostly cedars, which were left by previous logging operations as it was not a commercially viable species to cut down last time the forest was clearcut.

There are a few old-growth Douglas Fir left amongst the Western Hemlock that has grown up since logging took place. (We live in Coastal Western Hemlock and Coastal Douglas Fir Biogeoclimatic Zones).

However, as soon as Western Hemlock and Cedar become commercially profitable to harvest, there is a good possibility that these magnificent trees will be gone for good.

Help to save these trees by signing the petition on the Ancient Forest Alliance website!

Restoration at South Winchelsea Island, March 11-13, 2011

On the weekend of March 11-13, 2011 I joined a group of volunteers and a couple of The Land Conservancy of BC (TLC) (http://www.conservancy.bc.ca/) staff to help remove invasive species from South Winchelsea Island (SWI). SWI was the first property acquired by TLC in the late 1990's and is a 25 acre island located off of Nanoose Bay, just north of Nanaimo, BC. After a short 15 mins boat ride, we arrived at the dock to SWI.

To the right of the dock is North Winchelsea Island, a Department of National Defense owned property and home to a Stellar Sea Lion pride.

There is a cabin on the island that was built by previous owners, and is available for rental. The cabin has three bedrooms and runs on solar power and propane.

The island's landscape is truly West coast - rugged rocky outcrops with Garry Oaks, lichens, moss and other rare native plants abound.

Our group had lunch on Friday and then headed across the island to tackle our first job.

We started with a patch of broom and then found a dense thicket of H. Blackberry underneath a large Eagle's nest. The eagle's weren't home but one did fly over just to check us out.

After a couple of hours we returned to the cabin and enjoyed a home cooked meal and shared our stories around the wood stove. We had a couple of volunteers from Japan who were eager to practice their English.

On Saturday we were lucky to find that the weather had cleared and so we set off to the far end of the island to attack a rather nasty patch of H. Blackberry. After lunch we were treated to beautiful sun and we swept the coastline looking for broom and more blackberry. We finished the day by pulling dozens of juvenile broom along where a road once had been built when the cabin was constructed.

For dinner we enjoyed our burgers grilled on the BBQ and swapped stories of the biggest H. Blackberry stalk that was cut or broom that was pulled. We were tired but quite pleased with the amount of work we had done.

A fresh boatload of firewood was delivered to the island and one of our Japanese guests was fascinated by the TLC staff chopping it up. He convinced the staff to let him give a try!

Saturday night we could hear the wind blowing, brining with it clouds and by Sunday morning, quite a downpour was in progress. Rather than risk being stranded, we radioed the boat captain to come and get us before noon, although a little sooner than expected, we felt we had accomplished much over two days.

TLC puts on Conservation Holidays for people to visit the island and help with the removal of invasive species. SWI is such a beautiful place and it's an amazing experience to be able to help stop it from being overtaken by invasives.