HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE 2026
IN THIS ISSUE
- GENERAL NEWS & CONDITIONS IN THE PARK
- UPCOMING EVENTS IN JUNE
- Sun. June 28 -Botany Workshop “From the Salish Sea to Paradise Meadows: exploring flora, habitats & communities”.
- Sat. July 4 – Presentation on the Canada Jay Project
- Sun. July 5 – Guided hike to Mariwood Lake
GENERAL NEWS
The Strathcona Park Wilderness Centre is now open daily as of Friday June 19, staffed by our CSJ students (Sable, Lucie and Jesse) as well as several Volunteers. Over at Buttle Lake, our wee “Hut” should be set to receive visitors on June 23 with another of our students, Brigid, in charge.
We had a lovely summer day for the annual Volunteer Appreciation Tea. Unlike the past two years, it was too hot to remain out of doors, and so we retreated to the cool of the Ruth Masters Nature Hall so that the Marmot decorating the celebration cake would not melt into the surrounding cream cheese. And we were delighted to welcome Betty Brooks one of our founding Directors, now 95 years young!
Unfortunately, we had to cancel the scheduled Workshop on Backcountry Safety through lack of interest (possibly since Sunday 21 is Father’s Day). We plan to hold the workshop again next year, and the associated AED Demonstration Session for our students and volunteer staffers at the SPWC has been re-scheduled for the morning of July 11. This will be an opportunity for those who staff the Centre up at Paradise Meadows to become familiar with the device that is being installed at the SPWC thanks to a grant from BC Parks. While we hope that it may never be required, this device might have been of assistance on a couple of occasions in the past 20 years, in which an individual suffered cardiac arrest.
CONDITIONS IN THE PARK
A quick glance at the photo of Mt Albert Edward at the top of this page will illustrate the patchiness of remaining snow. Mt Allan Brooks on the left has lost the last remaining patch on the North east side. With the snow line now well above 1350 m, the trails on the Plateau are clear. The official Trail Conditions Report on the Strathcona Provincial Park website is available here; it dates to June 5th and so is a little behind in terms of the state of the snow on the third weekend of June. Hikers have returned from Mt Albert Edward to report a relatively clear trail, with just soft snow patches from the ridge up to the summit – conditions more like late July/August.
In Paradise Meadows flora normally not seen until mid-late July are already in bloom, such as the Slender Bog Orchid Platanthera stricta) on the right below or the American Alpine Speedwell (Veronica wormskjoldii), while many of the spring blooming subalpine plants that we expect closer to the end of June have already faded. The purple Shooting Stars (Primula Jeffreyi) in behind the bog orchid are past their best.
In the Buttle area last week, at a lower elevation along the Elk River Trail, outstanding were the carpets of Queen’s Cup (Clintonia uniflora) and the elusive deep burgundy flower of the Wild Ginger (Asarum caudatum) with the distinctive 3 long tail-like threads on the ends of its petals (species name “caudatum” refers to tail).
EVENTS -LATE JUNE-EARLY JULY
Sunday June 28
Workshop in our “Discovering our Biodiversity” Series From the Salish Sea to Paradise Meadows: exploring flora, habitats, and communities.
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Place: Ruth Masters Nature Hall, SPWC, Paradise Meadows
Limit: 20. To register, email strathconawilderness@gmail.com
Registration Fee: $15 (adult); $10 (student/volunteer/senior)
Leaders: Mary Sanseverino and Loys Maingon
Join photographer Mary Sanseverino and SWI research director Loys Maingon, together with local botanists, for a day of exploring the amazing flora from VI’s east coast to the mountains of Strathcona Park. The day will also be an homage to ecologist Dr. Hans Roemer, who passed away earlier this year. We will use his method of presenting plant diversity in defined communities as a guide to developing a greater understanding of plant ecology in both Paradise Meadows and lower down in the Comox Valley. The day will be a mix of classroom instruction in the morning and fieldwork – in Paradise Meadows in the afternoon. Everyone is welcome! The only prerequisite is a curious mind; we think there will be something here for beginner and expert alike.
The morning session will consist of two slide presentations: Loys, revealing ‘All You Wanted to Know About Plants but Were Afraid to Ask,’ followed by Mary, featuring ‘Native Plants of BC’s Coastal Dry Belt,’ which she co-authored with Hans Roemer. The group will then turn to a Q&A session with the presenters to discuss the issues raised. After a lunch break, we will venture out to examine plant diversity within the subalpine meadow ecosystems of Paradise Meadows.
Refreshments – beverages (tea, coffee, juice, water), cookies and fruit – will be provided, but please bring your own lunch and a mug for beverages.
Mary has retired from teaching in the Computer Science Department at UVIC and now devotes her time to various activities including the Mountain Legacy Project, charting the state of Canda’s glaciers in the Rockies and BC by comparing the photographic record from the early survey expeditions in the west, as well as the records of the Alpine Club of Canada. This spring Mary gave a lively and stimulating presentation to us on that multi-year project. An active member of the ACCVI she takes every opportunity on hikes and climbs to indulge in her passion for photographing the amazing plants on Vancouver Island.
Dr Hans Roemer (April 25, 1938 – Feb 2026) was one of BC’s foremost plant ecologists, overseeing the major Ecological Reserves in BC for many years and through his leadership and example promoting research into and the protection of rare ecosystems. As a mountaineer he spent much time in the Alpine areas of Strathcona Park, producing among his many publications the guide to Alpine Flowers of Vancouver Island. And of particular note for SWI, in 2005 he put together a Plant List for Paradise Meadows and Vicinity, which was updated in 2022 for the annual Botany BC Gathering that SWI hosted at the Wilderness Centre. It now includes almost 200 species of trees, shrubs, grasses, ferns and perennials, as well as some mosses.
Loys Maingon, a life-long naturalist and avid hiker, is a Registered Professional Biologist, specializing in limnology and riparian ecology with a background in entomology, lichenology and phycology. He has been SWI Research Director for over 10 year. For some of his recent short articles on new species in the Park, see our Research Articles Page here.
Saturday July 4
Research Presentation “Family Drama”- Sociality & Social Dominance of Canada Jays
Time: 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
Place: Ruth Masters Nature Hall, SPWC, Paradise Meadows
Presenter: Andie Siemens Dan Strickland may also be present.
Pre-registration would be appreciated.
Join Andie Siemens as she gives updates to the talk she presented last year on her PhD research into Canada Jay Family Dynamics in Strathcona Provincial Park. She has been working in the Park for the past couple of years as part of Dan Strickland’s larger multi-year Canada Jay Research Project in Paradise Meadows, which he began in 2016. The presentation and question time will last for about a couple of hours, and following a break Andie will take us out into the Meadows to observe the family dynamics of Trailhead group, one of the designated territorial groups in the study, whose nests are located in the vicinity of the Centennial loop.
Since 2016/17 Dan has been recording numbers of nests within what have now expanded to 22 territorial groups in the Meadows area and beyond, and banding the nestlings/fledglings with their coloured bands that identify each bird individually. For more information about Dan’s Canada Jay Project, see the Annual reports and articles on our website page under the Research Tab- https://strathconapark.org/swi-research/
FMI and to Register, email strathconawilderness@gmail.com
Sunday July 5
Guided Hike: Mariwood Lake
Time: 8.30 am – 4:30 pm
Place: Meet at the Strathcona Park Wilderness Centre, Paradise Meadows Trailhead.
Distance: 20 km round trip, accumulated elevation gain 700m.
Limit: 10 participants, pre-registration would be appreciated.
Leader: Jocie Brooks
Join expert botanist with extensive knowledge of Strathcona Park, Jocie Brooks, on this intermediate day-hike by way of Battleship Lake and part of the Plateau Traverse trail to one of the loveliest spots on the plateau, Mariwood Lake, which lies just south of Kwai Lake. Pack a lunch, a swimsuit and plenty of water.
FMI and to Register, email strathconawilderness@gmail.com
AN ETHNOBOTANICAL NOTE
Amongst the plants in bloom this past week across the Meadows is Northern Sweetgrass (Anthoxanthum hirtum). Identification of the many members of the Grass family (Poaeceae) is simplest when one can observe the flowers. This grass has a circumpolar distribution and was formerly called Hierochloe odorata which reflected both its vanilla-like fragrance (odorata = species name) and use in ritual contexts (hiero in the genus name is the derived from the Greek “sacred”). It is well known for its important purifying role in first nations ceremonies, but it has many uses in daily life too – as an air-freshener or woven into baskets. It was also the practice in Northern European countries to place sweetgrass at the entrance of churches on Saints Days.