IN THIS ISSUE
- Snow Arrives in the Park
- SWI Summer Season in Retrospect
- Research notes
Snow Arrives in the Park
The mountain tops started to receive their first dustings of snow at the end of September, only to come and go with the fluctuating temperatures. One major snowfall in later October did cover Paradise Meadows and the Wilderness Centre, now closed for the season, but only the alpine areas retained a winter garb. Now, however, serious precipitation over the weekend of November 11/12, the subalpine is likely to remain white for the duration of the winter. There is still a “walkable” snow-shoe trench around the Battleship-Helen Mackenzie loop and beyond. Battleship has a thin cover of ice, but Helen Mackenzie is still completely open, and the outflows from both lakes are running freely.
Our Summer Season in Retrospect
Summer on the Plateau came at least a month earlier this year than last year with the snow gone from the boardwalk by June 10th when the first of the subalpine flowers could be seen as the snows retreated from the Meadows.
We opened the Wilderness Centre on June 24th and on the same day held the first in person “Volunteer Appreciation Event” since 2019 up at Paradise Meadows. In the past we would invite Volunteers to an evening event in November, but decided instead to have an outdoor gathering in early summer, at which we could show our appreciation in person for all the hard work of volunteers in years past (which included volunteers from 2020-2022) as well as encourage new volunteers to find out more about our organization through meeting our “veterans”. Under glorious sunshine Judy thanked the 2022 volunteers for their dedication, with gifts and an all enjoyed refreshments with a special carrot cake dedicated to the Volunteers.
Through funding from the federal Canada Summer Jobs program, we were able to have a student Staffer at the SPWC in July and August. As a result, the SPWC was open between June 24th and October 9th a total of 78 days (by comparison with 49 in 2022). The Centre was ably staffed by student Jesse Klahm 4 day a week in July and August, with the rest of the days covered by 7 veteran Volunteers (including 2 Directors) and 4 new Volunteers, and on occasion by Mateo Jaeckel, our Programme Coordinator (a CSJ funded position). 4579 visitors were recorded at the Centre, with a daily average of 59 (compared to last year’s visitor count of 3791 with a daily average of 77 over 49 days) so it would appear that fewer people were coming into the SPWC. It remains to be seen how our figures compare with those from the Counter near the Trailhead. The Buttle Hut was open for 32 days, staffed by 8 volunteers, talked to 769 visitors (making a daily average of 24 per day, down from 30 last year).
It was gratifying to return to a full summer programme of Interpretive Walks and Hikes after the tentative start in 2022, and to now include a Workshop series as well. We scheduled 6 Interpretive Walks in Paradise Meadows in July and August, 9 Hikes from early July to the end of September, on the Plateau and in the Buttle area. On July 2nd we hosted a special presentation made by members of Save Our Forest Team (Comox Valley) on Clearcutting on the boundaries of Strathcona Park. On July 15th Birds Canada made a presentation on their plans to investigate nesting areas of the American Black Swift in the Park. 8 workshops were scheduled for our “Discovering our Biodiversity“ Series, such as the 5th Annual Subalpine Mycology Workshop, but branching beyond conventional naturalist topics to include wilderness-inspired creative writing and painting. For the most part we continued to limit registration in response to lingering concerns over Covid, and so the average number of participants for Interpretive Walks, Hikes and Workshops was around 8, but we did not restrict numbers for special presentations and the Chris Carter Memorial Hike and Tea, with attendance ranging from 30-40. Our student Mateo Jaeckel, as Program Coordinator, was in charge of the schedules and handling of registration and waivers. Leaders included 7 Guest Presenters, 8 Volunteers, plus 4 Directors and our 2 students, Mateo Jaeckel and Inza Maki as Naturalist Interpreters.
The labelled photos below will illustrate some of the events from SWI’s busy summer schedule.
INTERPRETIVE WALKS:
Medicinal Plants
Subalpine trees
GUIDED HIKES:
Meadow beyond Divers Lake
Descent from Mt Allan Brooks
PRESENTATIONS:
Birds Canada- Black Swift
Clearcutting on the Park Boundaries
Workshops
Plant Identification
Lichens of SPP
Mycology
Mycology
Mycology
Magic of Watercolour
CHRIS CARTER MEMORIAL HIKE & TEA
September 30th was the perfect day for a fall hike – bright sunshine illuminating the glorious fall colours, with a crisp slightly frosty start to the day and Albert Edward gleaming in a light frosting of early snow. And overhead came the distinctive calls of Sandhill Cranes on their annual migration south for the winter. We had 20 participants of Chris’ family and friends on the day-hike to Croteau Lake and above, led by Chris’ long-time hiking companion Tim Penney, with the assistance of Janet Beggs, veteran SWI hike-leader. Croteau was it usual photogenic self, with the brightly coloured blueberry bushes around the edges and a backdrop of snow-dusted Albert Edward, Frink and Castlecrag.
All in all, Summer 2023 was another busy season for SWI and it success was due in large part to the time and energy contributed by 35 dedicated volunteers who staffed the Centre, led walks, hikes and workshops or helped out with events up at the SPWC. A big thank-you to you all. You will receive a thank-you note from the directors, together with invitations to our winter events, and a special appreciation gathering up at the SPWC next June.
Research Notes
Summer Students Mateo Jaeckel and Inza Maki continued the work of our CSJ students in previous years, uploading observations of species from a range of trails onto the SWI DATA COLLECTION project on iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/swi-data-collection) and so adding to our ongoing documentation of the Park’s floral and faunal biodiversity. This was the 4th year in which our students have covered major trails, either through single or multi-day hikes in the Forbidden Plateau and Buttle Lake areas. The number of species stands at 2292 (as of Nov 20th). On the BC Parks Project (https://inaturalist.ca/projects/bc-parks) Strathcona Provincial Park stands well above others in terms of numbers of species (and observations) as a result of the work of our students and Research Director L. Maingon.
There is also on iNaturalist a project entitled “Lichens of Strathcona Provincial Park” (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/lichens-of-strathcona-provincial-park) which lists at present a total of 326 lichen species documented in the Park. In spite of adverse conditions in another year of climate extremes, the Strathcona Wilderness Institute was able to add two lichens to the record of new species documented in Strathcona Provincial Park. The first, Euopsis granatina is a red-listed species previously undocumented on Vancouver Island, and the other tentatively appears to be a species new to science: “Euopsis X”. These species are discussed in an article “Two New Endangered Lichen Species in Strathcona Provincial Park Raise Concerns about BC Parks Management of Conservation Areas” by Loys Maingon. This can be accessed on our Website’s Research Articles page : https://strathconapark.org/swi-research/adventure-science/ .
Also, if you are curious about what is in the ponds and streams in the Paradise Meadows area, from this year’s observations of freshwater organisms has emerged a new species of gastrotrich. To read an account of this, see L. Maingon’s “Biodiversity and A New Species of Gastrotrich in Strathcona Provincial Park?” also accessible on our Research Articles page https://strathconapark.org/swi-research/adventure-science/
We will be adding when it is released the Final Report from Dan Strickland on the 7th season of his project studying the Canada Jay populations in the Paradise Meadows area. From the Interim Report, it seems that 2023 was much more successful in terms of the numbers of juvenile birds produced than last year, when low numbers were likely the result of the very late spring. To quote that preliminary report : “Overall, the production of juveniles in 2023 was three times greater than in the exceptionally poor year of 2022 (only 11 juveniles) – but still well below the record 53 juveniles produced in 2019.”
Coming in the next issue:
Fascinating fall fungi in Strathcona Provincial Park
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