Two Summer Camps were held from Sunday, July 9 to Sunday, July 16, 2023 and Sunday, July 16 to Sunday, July 23, 2023. The “drive in” tenting/RV camps were held on the Big Bar Ranch group sites. Big Bar Ranch (https://www.bigbarranch.com/) is situated near the southern rim of the Interior Plateau, at an elevation of 1,030m, but there are nearly 2,000 vertical meters between the low and the high points to explore. To the southeast of the ranch, the Marble…
Union of BC Indian Chiefs passed a resolution calling for an immediate pause to the Roberts’ Bank Terminal 2 development. Wording from their resolution includes: UBCIC Chiefs Council calls for an immediate pause of RBT2 development which stands to have critical impacts on the title, rights, and treaty rights of First Nations in BC and the USA, including infringement on the right to access marine resources for food, social and ceremonial use. See their open letter to federal and provincial…
Report by Nina Shoroplova Fourteen walkers joined co-leaders Nina Shoroplova and Caroline Penn in Stanley Park on Friday, July 7. We met at the memorial monument to Lord Stanley, the sixth Governor General of Canada, who, in October 1989, confirmed the name of the park, saying, “To the use and enjoyment of peoples of all colours, creeds, and customs, for all time.” In the direction of the Robert Burns statue, several non-native trees held our attention: a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron…
David Lam Park West and Around the Corner Text and photos by Janet Snell On a sunny Monday, July 3rd, another iNaturalist oyster survey was carried out at David Lam Park (West) with nine volunteers. We were continuing the survey begun two weeks earlier and continued west along the rocky shoreline of the park. The beach at the innermost location is composed of large and small cobbles at a shallow slope which flattens out at the lowest inter-tidal level where…
Joint trip with Wonders of the Salish Sea & Nature Vancouver Report by Sheila Byers, Member of Nature Vancouver & Wonders of the Salish Sea What a day of intertidal exploring we had on Saturday, May 6, 2023! Spring tide low water level (LLW): 13:13 at 0.6 m elevation. The forecasted rain was just a sprinkle making our trip quite comfortable, albeit cool under an overcast sky. Fifteen participants arrived early at 12:15 to the Lumberman’s Arch area to sign…
Coopers’ Park and David Lam Park, False Creek Report by Janet Snell and Greg Leach Two teams of False Creek Oyster Survey volunteers accomplished a great deal over this past weekend (June 17th & 18th) and – by all reports – they had a lot of fun doing it. Up until now, our citizen science work has been conducted on the south shore of False Creek at Charleson Park and Habitat Island (Olympic Village). This past weekend, we switched our focus to the north…
Trip Report by Vicky Earle On June 17, I joined trip leader Kelly Sekhon for a hike up Teapot Hill near Cultus Lake in search of the rare phantom orchid. This plant is globally secure but is listed as red/endangered in British Columbia. The phantom orchid (Cephalanthera austiniae) is the only Cephalanthera species entirely dependent on symbiotic mycorrhizae for its nutrition. Being an entirely white perennial with only a small yellow gland on the lip of each blossom, this plant has no chlorophyll and is unable…
Trip report by Jan Lowcock and Janet Snell On Sunday June 11, seven members of Nature Vancouver and guest expert Melissa Hafting joined birding trip leader Janet Snell and Jan Lowcock (scope carrier) to check out birds at two locations – Lily Point and Seabright Farm – in Point Roberts, Washington. The walk began in the parking lot of the Lily Point, a 111-hectare Marine Reserve including rocky tidal areas and forested uplands. The forested section, with massive Big-leaf Maples…
Trip Report by Nina Shoroplova On a pleasantly cool day, nineteen members of Nature Vancouver joined co-leader and photographer Caroline Penn and me to identify trees in Kitsilano Beach Park and over to Vancouver Maritime Museum. It was June 9, a day bookended by much hotter weather. Our first tree was a hiba arborvitae, Thujopsis dolobrata, growing in the verge between Cornwall Avenue and a fence beside the Kitsilano Beach cycle path. It seems to be a rather nondescript coniferous evergreen…
Habitat Island, Sunday, June 4th Report by Janet Snell and Greg Leach We had a very successful Oyster event at Habitat Island this past weekend. A big thank-you to all the volunteers who helped with on our third oyster survey of the season. There were eleven people on this sunny day and Joan Lopez dropped by to say hello at the end of the day. (She will be leading Oyster Survey #4 on June 17th at Cooper’s Park on the North Shore…