Browsed by
Category: Botany

Nature Walk along Burnaby Lake and Brunette River

Nature Walk along Burnaby Lake and Brunette River

Trip Report by Bev Ramey On 16 March 2025, Kelly Sekhon led a group of nine on a lovely spring walk from Still Creek, along the North side trails of Burnaby Lake and down the Brunette River. We followed about ten kilometres of trails including the Brunette-Fraser Regional Greenway to Hume Park. We enjoyed sightings of several birds along the way and especially the close-up views of the rich assortment of birds at Piper Spit and the viewing tower where…

Read More Read More

Fall Colours in Stanley Park – 2024-10-22

Fall Colours in Stanley Park – 2024-10-22

Post by Nina Shoroplova It was fortunate that Caroline Penn and I moved the date of Nature Vancouver’s “Fall Colours in Stanley Park” tree-identification walk away from Saturday, October 19, the heaviest rainfall day of the latest atmospheric river. But perhaps not so good that we moved it to the morning of Tuesday, October 22, because it rained cats and dogs once again. Originally there were twenty of us registered for the Saturday, but weather and work intervened and just…

Read More Read More

Jericho Beach Park in front and the North Shore beyond, seen through the layering branch of a southern catalpa tree.
August 1st Tree ID Walk at Jericho Beach Park

August 1st Tree ID Walk at Jericho Beach Park

Photographs by Caroline Penn; post by Nina Shoroplova Twenty-three members of Nature Vancouver gathered in front of a leafy entrance to Jericho Beach Park. We each had a list of native and naturalized shrubs, native and ornamental trees growing in the park. Numbered from right to left: 1) a western redcedar, Thuja plicata, with seed cones; not a true cedar; 2) three Sawara false cypresses, Chamaecyparis pisifera var. squarrosa, with seed cones; a feathery form; 3) a yellow cedar, most…

Read More Read More

Walking in Memorial South Park to Learn About Its Trees – June 22, 2024

Walking in Memorial South Park to Learn About Its Trees – June 22, 2024

Submitted by Nina Shoroplova Few of us Nature Vancouver members knew Memorial South Park when we first met at its Cenotaph on Saturday, June 22, to learn more about its trees (https://covapp.vancouver.ca/parkfinder/ParkDetail.aspx?InParkId=186). Memorial South Park opened on May 22, 1926, almost a hundred years ago, before South Vancouver, Point Grey, and Vancouver amalgamated into the City of Vancouver in 1929. The park seems primarily to be a sports park, offering tennis courts, soccer fields, a baseball diamond, a field hockey…

Read More Read More

Walk in Ornamental Gardens and Forest Trails in Stanley Park – May 25, 2024

Walk in Ornamental Gardens and Forest Trails in Stanley Park – May 25, 2024

Submitted by Nina Shoroplova Twenty or so of us Nature Vancouver members gathered on the plaza above Lost Lagoon and the Nature House for this tree-identification walk through one ornamental garden and several forest trails in Stanley Park.  With people picking out which plant they wanted to see from my list of trees, shrubs, and native herbaceous plants growing along the route, we soon had the morning planned. We stopped at the black locust, Robinia pseudoacacia ‘Tortuosa’, and admired its…

Read More Read More

Galiano Island Hike – May 4, 2024

Galiano Island Hike – May 4, 2024

Submitted by Bettina Matzkuhn. Trip leader Bettina Matzkuhn met her group of seven at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal. The weather was overcast and windy, but quite warm and pleasant for walking. We tried the “Bluffs Peak” trail, which meant a quick hike up to the bluffs and backtrack down to continue on to Mt. Galiano. The Warbler Road route is better as one gets to enjoy the length of the bluffs. Return trip was approximately 15km. We saw the bright…

Read More Read More

Tree-Identification Walk in Grand Boulevard, North Vancouver

Tree-Identification Walk in Grand Boulevard, North Vancouver

Trip Report by Nina Shoroplova Five intrepid tree enthusiasts joined Nina Shoroplova on a Nature Vancouver tree-identification walk in Grand Boulevard, North Vancouver, on December 1, 2023, despite the temperature (3 degrees C) and precipitation (enough for umbrellas to be up the whole time). Grand Boulevard is one of Canada’s Historic Places, with the oldest of the planted trees—both native and imported—being no older than 117 years of age. And some are a whole lot younger. Check out the history…

Read More Read More

Mushroom Walk at Rice Lake Nov 19, 2023

Mushroom Walk at Rice Lake Nov 19, 2023

6 members and a guest joined leaders Anne Leathem and Teresa Gagné. We moseyed about 2 km in 3 hours on the South East side of Rice Lake, with everyone calling out their finds every few steps. Despite being late in the season there was a surprisingly large variety of fungi. One participant wrote: What I most appreciated was coming away with a process of thinking about mushroom identification (particularly your well-illustrated explanation of different systems of spore dispersal), about…

Read More Read More

Identifying Trees in Trout Lake Park

Identifying Trees in Trout Lake Park

Trip Report by Nina Shoroplova Nature Vancouver members and a few others—all of us interested in trees—gathered at the south end of Trout Lake Park on October 23 to identify some trees. What a glorious fall day.  We first looked at some of the trees at that south end: red maples, London plane trees, and a circle of young deciduous tree we couldn’t identify. We looked at the difference between a deodar cedar and a western redcedar growing beside each…

Read More Read More

Trout Lake Tree Walk

Trout Lake Tree Walk

Trip Report by Lona Lonergan  Trout Lake was the destination for our October 23, 2023 Nature Vancouver Walk. 20 people, 22 gorgeous trees, 9 degrees with blazing fall colours. Nina Shoroplova, Author of Legacy of Trees – Purposeful Wandering in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, led the trip. Caroline Penn organized the details. Elizabeth Barthel reflected on growing up in the Trout Lake area: the freedom of playing in the bushes. Knowing all the trees like they were friends. She recalls swimming in the lake and…

Read More Read More

Nature Vancouver