In this first week of June 2025, Peter Ward would like to draw Members attention to: 1. Tree Swallows. Having been around their nest boxes since April, the swallows are in high gear this week, and will be here up to late June/early July. The adult swallows have recently hatched families, which may number up to 6 young, and are busy catching thousands of insects per day. Both parents feed the young. They have less than 3 weeks to develop,…
Press Release from BC Community Bat Program – February 3, 2025 The BC Community Bat Programs, in collaboration with the Province of BC, are asking the public for help in the effort to detect and prevent the spread of white-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats. Residents are urged to report any bat activity observed in winter and any sick or dead bats found before May 31st. There have not been any bats with WNS found to date in BC, but PseudogymnoascusDestructans (Pd),…
Submitted by Bev Ramey The BC Parks Foundation has successfully protected a large acreage on Saturna Island. The land includes two and a half kilometres of south-facing rocky shoreline, plus small coves with a grove of Seaside Juniper on the point (the threatened/vulnerable Juniperus maritima). The protected land includes the steep hillside extending up from the shoreline, the ridgetop itself and its north-facing slopes. The crowd-sourced funding campaign by the BC Parks Foundation began late December and reached its goal within…
Report by Nigel Peck. With the arrival of 2025 and the approach of our fourth year of the New Brighton project, it seems a good time to reflect back on what we’ve achieved in the last year and look forward to the possibilities of this year. Reflecting back: Invasives: What stood out last year was massive invasive plant pulling efforts involving armload after armload of purple vetch, white-sweet clover and finally, scotch broom. The purple vetch was first and almost…
Submitted by James M. Scott People feel a longing for a connection to the natural world. Instead of enjoying nature as a way of life, we fill our daily lives with all sorts of uninspiring, attention-robbing activities—entertainment, shopping, doomscrolling, and, of course, nonstop work. Nature is over there in some far-away nature preserve or national park, and we’re over here eking out an existence in the city or suburbs. What if we could bring the natural world to our own…
With the start of Fall 2024 the New Brighton Biodiversity Enhancement project moves into a new phase – the challenge of the long haul. We’ve done the big Scotch Broom and Himalayan Blackberry removals, planted about 1800 native perennial flowers and shrubs. Now we enter the really difficult job of just ‘keeping at it’ which will determine if the project succeeds or fails. This means pulling thousands of small Scotch Broom shoots, continuing to dig blackberry roots and clip back…
Submitted by Nigel Peck In December 2021 Nature Vancouver approached the Vancouver Park Board to see if we could assist in the removal of invasive plants on the west side of New Brighton Park in Vancouver’s northeast corner just next to the Workers’ Memorial Second Narrow Bridge. The hillock on the park’s west side was a byproduct of an award-winning Marine Restoration collaboration between the Vancouver Park Board, the Port of Vancouver and the and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nation begun in…
or VANCOUVER PARK BOARD ABOLITION PRIMER by Nigel PeckMonday, February 26, 2024 The Provincial Government has been asked to approve the Vancouver ABC Party motion to abolish the Vancouver Park Board. Unless there is massive opposition presented to the Provincial Government this is what they may do. Once the Park Board is abolished parcels of park lands may be reallocated (sold) for other purposes, most likely starting with housing. The only thing that can stop this is a massive individual email campaign…
A brief historical account of the Vancouver Park Board, with SUPPORT for its continuation Submitted by Terri Clark, Park Board Communications Officer for 35 years, now retired. I arrived in Vancouver in 1973, straight out of University in Washington DC. I was 23 and a new Permanent Resident with zero knowledge about the Vancouver Park system. That was soon to change. My newly minted Communications Degree seemed a perfect fit for a job offered on the notice board at the…
Submitted by Nigel Peck I have been working more or less full time to do my part to try to save the Vancouver Park Board since December 13th, 2023. You can get more information about that effort through links at the bottom. Overall the effectiveness of those seven weeks of work feels pretty marginal. In particular, it feels challenging that talking to people who I expected to know more about the issue, constantly illustrates that people are not aware of…