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Category: Ecology

Canada’s National Lichen

Canada’s National Lichen

Vote for Canada’s National Lichen The Canadian Museum of Nature is holding a vote for a national lichen. Seven lichen candidates have been selected by a panel of lichen experts–read more on the website and vote for your favourite at http://nature.ca/lichenvote Voting closes March 20th.  Active fungi and lichen naturalist, Juliet Pendray, brought this opportunity to vote to our attention. Her favourite is Bryoria, but most important is that she wants us all to vote. Please click on the website, read about…

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A Walk in Bear Habitat

A Walk in Bear Habitat

Trip Report by Leader David Cook On Thursday, August 1st., 2019, seventeen persons participated in this joint event for Nature Vancouver and the North Shore Black Bear Society (www.northshorebears.com). Two habitats were selected for this event. One was in the coniferous forest of Lynn Canyon Park where bears had been foraging for insects in logs, and the other was in the adjacent Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve beneath Hydro lines where berry bushes and mountain ash had grown up to supply the…

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Cypress Old-Growth and Mushrooms

Cypress Old-Growth and Mushrooms

Trip Report by Leader David Cook On Sunday, 6 October, 2019, seventeen persons participated in this field trip to Cypress Bowl Provincial Park, jointly organized by Nature Vancouver and Friends of Cypress Provincial Park. Objective was to learn the characteristics of an old-growth forest and the role that fungi play in it.  We proceeded to the upper Sunset Trail where there is a little known old-growth forest. Some of the characteristic features of an old-growth forest are trees of uneven…

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Facinating Fungi

Facinating Fungi

Trip Report by Leader David Cook On 19 October, 2019, thirty persons participated in this walk in Lighthouse Park, West Vancouver. The event was jointly organized by the Lighthouse Park Preservation Society and Nature Vancouver. We walked along the Beacon Lake Trail from the parking area to the Sk’iwitsut Hut. On the way I explained the damage being done to old-growth Douglas-firs by the Honey Mushroom (Armillaria sp) which made their presence known by the tree exuding pitch in a vain attempt to…

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A Tour Through Black Bear Country – 1 August 2019

A Tour Through Black Bear Country – 1 August 2019

A joint field trip with the North Shore Black Bear Society Trip Report by Leader David Cook Seventeen members walked in a section of forest in Lynn Canyon Park where bears have been foraging for insects in rotten logs. We also looked at a den, possibly of coyotes. We left the forest and crossed Lillooet Road into the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve and walked the Richard Juren trail beneath Hydro lines where there were good crops of fruit-bearing plants and…

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Lighthouse Park – Botany Walk

Lighthouse Park – Botany Walk

A joint event with Lighthouse Park Preservation Society Trip Report by Leader, David Cook On June 25, 2019, nineteen participants strolled along the trails of Lighthouse Park, West Vancouver. In the most pristine low elevation old-growth forest on the North Shore, we had an easily accessible opportunity to view this type of forest.  While the main theme of the day was old-growth ecology and the characteristics of an old-growth forest, subthemes were plant dispersal, fire history and the valiant attempts of…

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Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats – Botany Walk

Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats – Botany Walk

A joint event with Wild Bird Trust Trip Report by Leader, David Cook on June 22, 2019, nineteen participants walked the trails of this ecologically rehabilitated industrial site. We observed the amazing diversity of both native and non-native species. These species have been planted there or grown naturally from soils brought mainly from West End development sites of the City of Vancouver.  In 1992, Vancouver Port Authority, who are the owners of the area, agreed to lease the flats to Environment…

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Old-Growth Forest Ecology along Baden Powell Trail

Old-Growth Forest Ecology along Baden Powell Trail

Trip report by David Cook On 9 June, 2019, fifteen members of Friends of Cypress Prov. Park Society and Nature Vancouver, participated in this interpretive walk along the Baden Powell Trail, east of the Cypress Provincial Park downhill ski area. The focus was to note the characteristics of an old-growth forest and talk about the plant species that make up this old-growth ecosystem. The area is particularly interesting because it is the transition zone between the western hemlock and mountain…

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Streamkeepers Walk at Lynn Creek

Streamkeepers Walk at Lynn Creek

Trip report by Anne Leathem If we were salmon returning to Lynn Creek to spawn … what would we hope for? Wouldn’t it be nice to have sheltered pools behind large stumps and trees where we can rest as we fight our way against the current, and some climbable ladders to get around new obstacles up stream to our own spawning areas, some gravel beds in quiet water where we can clear a redd in which to lay our eggs,…

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Black Bear Habitat Walk

Black Bear Habitat Walk

Trip Report by Leader David Cook Sixteen persons participated in the black bear habitat walk in Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve (LSCR) and Lynn Canyon Park, on August 12, 2018. The field trip was organized jointly by Nature Vancouver and the North Shore Black Bear Society. The route took us through two types of bear feeding habitats. First, a low scrub beneath the Hydro lines in LSCR where bears forage for berries. Second, a coniferous forest in Lynn Canyon Park where…

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