www.saltspringconservancy.ca Number 67 The Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy Spring 2021 Conservation in Action Planting a pesticide-free, pollinator-safe garden: p.6 A pretty Bombylius sp. Photo: Pierre Mineau 2 THE ACORN ~ Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy A Message from the President and the Executive Director Welcome to the spring 2021 edition of The Acorn! Within SSIC that previous president John Borst began in our fall these pages we celebrate “Conservation in Action” in arti- edition of the Acorn. Sadly, conservation advocate and cles written by Board members and volunteers. Board one of the founders of the SSIC, Nancy Braithwaite, died member Dr. Tara Martin’s article on “Conservation and in January and we recognize her accomplishments in a Reconciliation” reports on a precedent-setting land acqui- memorial written by two other co-founders, Maureen sition where the land will eventually return back to local Milburn and Fiona Flook. First Nations ownership and management. Other articles profile work on combatting invasive plants, planting pes- Despite the challenges of operating under Covid-19 ticide-free gardens, and working to prevent off-trail incur- restrictions, your Conservancy has continued to embody sions into our nature reserves. There is a dose of natural “Conservation in Action,” working hard to manage our history: information on the beavers living at Blackburn nature reserves, protect and monitor species at risk, Nature Reserve and Common Nighthawks at Alvin restore our ecosystems and educate the public with a Indridson Nature Reserve. The photos, below, document series of webinars on natural history and climate change. progress on the Garry Oak Demonstration Ecosystem We have reached out to landowners, walking their land at Blackburn Lake Nature Reserve. Finally, we celebrate with them and providing stewardship advice. In March, spring by reporting on the herring spawn, once common we held a very successful art auction fundraiser thanks to in the bays on Salt Spring Island but now reduced consid- the generous donations from island artists. We couldn’t erably along the BC coast. We hope you find the articles do these things without our hard-working staff, Board informative and inspiring. members and volunteers and support from our members and donors. Many, many thanks! Last year was the 25th anniversary of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy. Ashley Hilliard, former SSIC President and —Susan Hannon, President long-time volunteer, has completed a short history of the —Penny Barnes, Executive Director Sheila Dobie planting in the Garry Oak Demonstration Ecosystem. Chris Drake preparing pots for seeding in the Native Plant Nursery. Photo: Debra Cobon Photo: Debra Cobon The new signs for the Garry Oak Demonstration Ecosystem at Blackburn Lake Nature Reserve. SPRING 2021 3 25 Years of Excitement and Success — PART 2 — Robert & Shauna Makaroff Nature Reserve Part 1 of this survey of the first 25 years of the Conservancy, With a conservation covenant, a landowner can volun- written by past-president John Borst, appeared in the Fall tarily agree to protect ecologically important parts of the 2020 edition of The Acorn. It noted highlights from the land, yet retain ownership, and also receive income tax Conservancy’s establishment as a British Columbia society benefits. It was a valuable new tool for the Conservancy in late 1994 to 2000. and other similar conservancies. By then, the Conservancy had become a registered charity, The new tool was put to use in the Texada Logging cam- as it is today, authorized to issue tax receipts for dona- paign, where the Conservancy holds a conservation cove- tions. It had also become qualified to hold “conserva- nant on the Maxwell Lake watershed lands. tion covenants” pursuant to section 219(3) of the Land Title Act. A conservation covenant is an agreement regis- tered on title restricting the use of land and designed to protect its natural features. Until the late 1990s only gov- ernment entities, such as the Islands Trust, could hold such covenants. Permitting private groups, such as the Conservancy, to hold such covenants was a major step forward in conservation. It added a new option to protect privately owned land. Government would usually intervene only if a landowner wished to develop or subdivide the land. A landowner desiring to protect ecologically special land could either give the land to a conservation organization or govern- ment – or approach them to buy it. Both of these options require the landowner to part with the land and involve obvious challenges, such as public fundraising campaigns. Howard Horel Nature Reserve 4 THE ACORN ~ Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy By 2001, the Conservancy has grown to the extent of being The 2000’s see the establishment of cherished nature able to hire its first Executive Director, Karen Hudson. It reserves, the result of generous donations by landown- also has the capacity to engage biologists to assist in its ers in combination with public fundraising and grants: work. This now includes several public education initia- Manzanita Ridge, Mount Erskine, and North View. tives, including a guide for new Salt Spring Island resi- dents and the popular Bird Checklist of Salt Spring Island. In 2008, Linda Gilkeson takes the helm as Executive Director, succeed in 2012 by Christine Torgrimson, and In 2004, at the initiative of many volunteers, notably in 2019 by Dr. Penny Barnes. Jean Gelwicks, the Conservancy launches the Stewards in Training program. Inspired by Richard Louv’s book, Last The decade from 2010 - 2020 is marked by several more Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature sizeable reserves: the Alvin Indridson, Robert and Shauna Deficit Disorder, the program is offered free to all Salt Makaroff, Blackburn Lake (including the donation of a Spring students in grades K – 8. Every year they spend building for the Conservancy) and Howard Horel Nature a day at one of the island’s natural places, engaged in Reserves. All Conservancy reserves are accessible to the hands-on learning about local ecosystems. public, with information on them available on the website, and are a testament to the generosity of the donors. Entering this new decade, and notwithstanding the pandemic, the Conservancy strives to steward the land entrusted to it and to promote conservation on this special island, as it has throughout its now 26-year history. Thank you to all supporters, staff, and volunteers. —Ashley Hilliard Sharp-tailed snake Photo: Christian Engelstoft That same year, the Conservancy first receives support from the Government of Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Program. Continuing till this day, the program funds research and monitoring of species at risk on Salt Spring, such as the harmless and endangered Sharp-Tailed Snake. Manzanita Ridge Nature Reserve North View Nature Reserve SPRING 2021 5 Conservation and reconciliation go hand in hand Beautiful camas at sunset on SISCENEM. Photo: Tara Martin EVERY NOW AND THEN SOMETHING MAGICAL HAPPENS. As I landed have been replaced with dense stands of second and third on shore and walked up the beach into the meadow I growth firs, and their understories have been browsed knew this island was everything I had imagined and more. away by introduced sheep and hyperabundant deer pop- Months earlier I had learned that an island I had passed ulations. The wildflower meadows have been replaced by hundreds of times throughout my childhood growing up agricultural fields, stages for grand residences or if pro- in the Salish Sea, had come up for sale. I quickly sought tected, they are dominated by invasive grasses, shrubs and permission to access the island and undertake a flora and invading firs. fauna survey. This is where I spent much of the early days The vegetation of these islands co-evolved with the First of COVID lockdown – camped on the island with my Nations that lived here for millennia. Through their stew- children, meticulously documenting the flora and fauna ardship that included the use of low intensity fire, seed of this extraordinary place. and bulb propagation, weeding and hunting of herbi- Few islands remain in the Salish Sea that retain their native vores, a diverse flora developed containing hundreds of flora and fauna. Most Gulf, and San Juan, islands have lost species of flowering plants, native grasses and sedges. their extensive native wildflower meadows, and long gone These islands were their gardens producing an abun- are their rich forests with big ancient old trees and thick dance of nutritionally rich plant foods and essential med- understories of berry producing shrubs, orchids, trilliums icines. These islands were also their graveyards, where and more. Today, where forest remains, the big old trees they buried and honoured their dead. 6 THE ACORN ~ Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy This island, called SISCENEM (Pronounced – Sees- quinem) is a small 9.5 acre island that forms part of “Everyone living in WSÁNEC´ Territory is a subject the traditional territory of the WSÁNEC´ First Nations to the Douglas Treaties. WSÁNEC´ people have (https://wsanec.com/). It is part of the Coastal Douglas Fir Douglas rights and Aboriginal rights and title, and (CDF) Bioclimatic Zone, our most endangered zone in settlers have obligations to protect and honour British Columbia with <1% Old Growth remaining. The those rights. This means that reconciliation is every- majority of the CDF is privately owned and the WSÁNEC´ one’s responsibility. The return and Coast Salish Nations have been left with tiny postage of SISCENEM to WSÁNEC´ people by The Land stamps of their former territories. Conservancy—with the support of generous private donors and Dr. Tara Martin—is a meaningful step There is much talk about reconciliation in Canada. But in that direction. It shows that reconciliation doesn’t what does this really mean for us living and undertaking have to wait for government’s lead and that we can research on these unceded territories? Growing up in the all do our part to protect the environment and help Salish Sea I learned nothing about the people who had heal the WSÁNEC´ people.