IN THIS ISSUE
- Our Apologies
- General News in brief
- Our September Schedule
- Note: the Mycology Workshop now FULL
- Remember-Berry Season is Bear Season
OUR APOLOGIES
You may have tried to access our Website in the past 10 days or so without success. The issue was in part with the old Server, but fortunately that has been resolved, since our Web Host has ”migrated” our Website to a new Server. The site may still require some adjustments, which will be made once our trusty web-manager returns from vacation. We hope that you were not inconvenienced in any way. The world out there in the ether is becoming far too complicated.
GENERAL NEWS IN BRIEF
There is a slight haze from wildfire smoke in the skies over the Park as we reach the end of August, from a number of lightning strikes in the North island, including a couple in the section of the Park north of Highway 28 and one on the flanks of Mt DeVoe. The latter is now considered unlikely to spread, but the one near Tlools Creek is still out of control. We do continue to be fortunate that wildfires have not hit the Park extensively, and the smoke in the air still tends to originate in the interior of the Province or in Washington State.
The vegetation on the Plateau continues to be a good month in advance to the “old norm” for later August. The reds of the burnets have now faded and the gentians have lost their brilliant sky-blue hues. Only a few butterflies and dragonflies are now to be seen – their summer cycle too has passed.
Interestingly, one or two plants have begun a second cycle – new flowers have appeared on the pink heather alongside the old seed heads. In McKenzie Meadows last week there were fresh white and yellow blooms on the marsh-marigold and cinquefoil plants, both of which are amongst the first to appear in spring.
And the cooler and moist autumn like weather had continued to encourage a wide range of fungi species to send up their fruiting bodies (mushrooms), some of them enormous, such as the Bitter bolete (Caloboletus conifericola) with its typically blue staining pores, seen below around the margins of the cap.
Only the bright fall colours of foliage are missing – for that we need a touch of frost, but it is not yet September!
Trail update: At McKenzie Meadows CDMC, in conjunction with BC Parks, has returned that section of the Plateau Traverse to its original route skirting around the south side of the wetlands, together with boardwalk running up the northwest edge of the wetlands connecting McKenzie Lake to the old trail. Boardwalk from the original route is still visible – here shown with the newer track beside it.
For several decades the trail from Lake had crossed the sensitive wetlands, but now those spectacular lush Meadows will no longer be subjected to the harmful traffic of hiking boots weighed down by heavy packs.
SEPTEMBER SCHEDULE
Below is our Schedule of events for September, with one or two slots still to be filled.
Remember-Berry Season is Bear Season
Although some of the earliest blooming blueberry (Vacccinium) shrubs failed to produce fruit, there is now an abundance of those that bloomed after the intense heat in June. So just a reminder that our resident bears will be drawn to all those big juicy berries. Be alert and keep your distance (especially with dogs that should be on leash).
