Canada is Beautiful: The Further Adventures of Steph et al.

Last weekend was the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. Everyone on site came together contributing various dishes for a big thanksgiving dinner party. Afterwards we played an entertaining game in the main house living room. It involved everyone writing the name of a famous person down, and then taking turns to guess which person had written each famous person. If you were guessed correctly you joined teams with the guesser in question. The winner was the person who ultimately amassed all the players without being guessed themselves. It resulted in great hilarity, numerous people being God, the names of every Disney/ Harry Potter character under the sun, a strange being called 'the Cat' and me being Gandalf, Jack Sparrow and the Phantom of the Opera in quick succession ( I wonder what that says about me!?).

Thanksgiving is a chance to spend good time with family and eat a lot of turkeys. But it is also a time to reflect on all that God has blessed us with. In light of this, I've decided that I wont bother to write much this week but just share some of the wonderful vistas I've had the pleasure of experiencing during my adventurous weekends.

The ferry from Galiano Island, where we went on a getting-to-know-each-other-better adventure.

A tantalising view through the fog on Bodega Ridge, Galiano Island

Sunshine and Rain

Sunset from White Rock

An evening view to the mountains from White Rock

Fish and chips! The view was free.

Sundown at White Rock

Far over the misty mountains...

The ferry to Bowen Island.

My excited-about-mountains face.

Drinking in the peace.

Adventure to the lighthouse, Bowen Island

On the edge.

Where to now?

More beautiful Bowen Island

Looking up...

Killarney Lake, Bowen Island

The thinker...

Killarney Lake.

Snow on the mountains just before sunset...

 Hope you enjoyed!

Restoration: Beach Clean-ups, Bullfrogs and Bird Walks

It's me again! Blogging and eating dinner at the same time is a little risky I know, but I might actually be sat in one place for long enough with enough energy to write something worth reading! So here goes.

I've been out in Canada for a month now and the time is flying by in a haze of fun and extreme busyness. I'm starting to feel like I'm finding my feet and that I'm a valued part of the conservation science team. Not everything we do here as conservation scientists is part of a new ground-breaking flower hunting project ( I mean research!). We also try to take on board current and relevant research and use it to actively protect, restore and conserve wildlife. After all what would be the good of gaining knowledge through research and then not doing anything with it?! A simple example is seen in marine littering and beach clean-ups:

Part of Semiahmoo Bay, BC

We've all seen the photos of cute turtles with plastic six-pack rings digging into their flippers, bedraggled sea-birds that have choked to death after attempting to eat plastic bags, or wide-eyed seal pups tangled in fishing nets or lines. You don't need to be an expert to see, even from such a small snapshot, that leaving litter on beaches can have very negative consequences for the plant and animal lives dependent upon them. In fact, ever-increasing amounts of research are concluding that marine and coastal litter is a serious environmental hazard causing damage to these ecosystems. Perhaps it is time to act upon that gained knowledge then? Fortunately many individuals and organisations are doing just that. For example the A Rocha conservation team often join forces with the Friends of Semiahmoo Bay Society for regular beach cleanups and the annual Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. It's really good fun and a great way for the local community and conservation groups to get involved with a very worthwhile, hands-on, restorative conservation project.

Happy seagull footprints on the nice clean sand!

A happy beach cleaner!

Happy litter-free plants!

Similarly a lot of research concerning invasive plant or animals species (species that have become established in areas they aren't native to) has shown that these species often have very negative effects on the ecosystems they invade. Again, acting upon this knowledge, A Rocha tries to manage, and where necessary remove, a range of invasive species in the local area.

Pulling out invasive Lamium plants

Himalayan Balsam, another naughty invasive plant!

A juvenile bullfrog, an invasive amphibian.

On top of this short-term research and often ensuing hands on restoration projects, A Rocha also takes part in long-term monitoring studies. These studies are particularly valuable for building up a deep understanding of the ongoing health of a group of monitored plant or animal species and how this health can be affected. This ultimately helps a huge amount when it comes to deciding upon the best ways to protect a species or manage a particular ecosystem:

As part of this, early every Thursday morning the conservation team loses some sleep, instead taking time to walk around one of a number of designated sites on a glorified bird-watching trip. This is an entertaining experience: it's a lovely chance for me to get to grips with the names and calls of a lot of birds I'd never encounter in the UK and a wonderful way to enjoy the Canadian autumnal weather (so long as you're wrapped up warmly enough!). But it's also a useful way to work out which bird species are present where and in what numbers and track changes in this over time.

All in all there are lots of exciting projects going on here seeking to better understand and thus better conserve and restore wildlife. So I'll leave you with a selection of photos from the early morning bird walks:

Early morning dew on the spider webs of the Campbell Valley Regional Park.

The intrepid bird-watchers caught in a web...

A black-capped chickadee: very like a coal tit!

Another crisp morning near the A Rocha centre.

Is that sunshine coming through the trees!?

Down by the estuary of the Little Campbell River

Views like this make the early morning worth it!

Conservation and Community Outreach

I love animals, plants and remote 'wild' places with a deep intensity, which I suppose makes sense for someone working in conservation. But actually one of the things I love most about conservation work is the need to communicate with a whole range of people in order to achieve results. Some of this involves consulting with people who know a lot more about say mosses and lichens than I do (always an interesting and humbling experience).  But it also means that at A Rocha we organise a lot of community outreach events.

Some of the mushrooms and mosses I need help to identify.

A happy slug on the moss! He's quite irrelevant but also lovely.

 A few weeks ago we hosted the annual ‘Run for the River’. This was a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the watershed (the area in which all water that falls converges and ultimately forms the Little Campbell River) to the local community, as well as a chance for A Rocha to raise much needed funds for its conservation work and make contact with more members of the community. The atmosphere was great despite the torrential rain. Perhaps feeling quite so drenched got people feeling more at one with the river!?

Spreading the word...

A gloomy morning...

Practicing our running strategy!

The triumphant finishers!

 Last Saturday we hosted a harvest celebration event on site. It was a brilliant way of satisfying the curiosity of a lot of people who regularly drive past the centre and wonder what on earth we get up to in our weird little kind of hippy tree-hugger community. We also got the chance to share our love for wildlife and reconnect people with nature encouraging them to think more about the impact that their lives have upon the world around them and the practical steps they can take to reduce their impact. As a bonus the weather was beautiful and much hay-riding, apple-cidering fun was had by all.

Chopping apples for the cider...

Drop-dead gorgeous car parking team!

The harvested winter squash and pumpkins... that's a lot of soup!

Interns and guests sampling the soup... smiles all round!

Hay rides!

I found a wonderful seat!

On a more individual basis we spend a lot of time building up positive relationships with landowners whose land contains sections of the Little Campbell River and it's tributaries. It can be frustrating when they simply don't want to know. It can also be wonderfully rewarding, especially when land-owners simply hadn't realised how their actions could damage the health of the watershed. Many landowners are more than happy to let us help them remove invasive species, erect fences to keep their livestock out of the river, and plant native plants to restore the river ecosystem once they come to understand the reasons for these actions. I spent last Friday removing invasive blackberries, Himalayan balsam and thistles, planting native trees, and building a fence at a nearby stables. Once the landowner had overcome his suspicion he enjoyed bossing us around and learning more about A Rocha and why we were so concerned about the small creek at the edge of his land, and I even got a ride on his tractor (not a euphemism!!). We'll be returning to finish off our work within the next few weeks. I hope this newly established positive and cooperative relationship will endure for a long time.

Put simply, I love animals and I love sharing this enthusiasm with people... well isn't this just the perfect job!?

Doing battle with thistles!

Planting some native trees!

'Hey guys, aren't we missing those horizontal slats fences usually have?'

In search of flowers new...

I've noticed that so far I haven't actually managed to write about any of the conservation work I've been up to. So I'll give you an overview of one of the projects that I'm leading! The Vancouver Island Beggartick ( B. amplissima ) is a plant of the Aster or sunflower family (it even looks kind of like a mini sunflower!). It is found only in small populations around coastal BC and part of Washington State so it's recognized as a species of global importance and is catergorised as a Species of Special Concern under the federal Species at Risk Act (Pretty lofty titles for a little yellow flower huh?). A survey was taken in 2008 of some likely or historic habitats to record it's distribution and we're seeking to survey more sites in order to build up a more detailed understanding and perhaps seek to protect sites where it has been newly found. Great, sounds easy right? The trouble is it that at the end of the season, (i.e. now) when it starts to lose its petals it can look pretty identical to B. tripartita and already looks rather like B. cernua. Oh and did we mention that the leaves can be triple or single lobed, the seed head is concave (or is it convex?) and that it lives exactly where B. cernua and B. tripartita do too? Good good. 

My most serious beggartick identification face!

So we set forth boldly and searched far and wide and found some yellow flowers and some plants with no petals and got thoroughly confused.  

Is that a beggartick?

Searching far and wide...

But it turns out that traipsing around staring at plants is a great way to get closer to some of Canada's wildlife and get access to some beautiful areas. We've stumbled across signs of beaver activity, beaver footprints, and even two beaver lodges; we've spotted blue herons, heard the pacific chorus frog, and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the lake-side areas we've traversed. Plus I've started to learn the names of many Canadian plant and animal species, invasive or otherwise!

We were distracted from our search by these trees... who did this!?

Perhaps the creature that built this lodge?

Aha! We found the culprit's tracks!!

At long last after much valiant searching (and many very serious beggartick identification faces), when all hope and glory seemed lost forever, we triumphed!! We discovered the Vancouver Island Beggartick in two of our locations, one of which has never previously been documented as a location for this rare species! The season for beggarticks is now at an end and it's unlikely that we'll survey any more areas. But the work that we've done will be very helpful both for ensuring sufficient protection of the current known Vancouver Island Beggartick locations and for aiding successful surveying this time next year. Keep an eye out for my new book: The Bryant Pocket Guide to Successful Beggartick Identification...

The elusive Vancouver Island Beggartick!

Well I suppose it's quite pretty really...