Boggy, Foggy, Lulu RICHMOND NatURE PARK: When you stroll through Richmond Nature Park you CONTEXT MAP are walking on some of the youngest land in B.C. If OAK ST you visited this site 10,000 years ago you would be swimming in the Strait of Georgia! By about 6000 years ago the Fraser River had dumped enough sediment at its mouth to form mudflats and later, Nature Park mist enshrouded Lulu Island. Digging into the soil allows us to see how the island’s from west Vancouver east Vancouver from ecology has changed. Deepest layers show that sedges and other marsh plants were the first to HIGHWAY 99 grow. By about 2500 years NO 5 RD ago peat had built up and HIGHWAY 91 HIGHWAY 91 poor drainage provided RICHMOND NATURE STUDY sphagnum with an ideal home. CENTRE RICHMOND The Lulu Island bog was born. NATURE PARK WESTMINSTER HWY Arctic Affinities NO 5 RD Would you like to visit the Arctic without leaving RD 4 NO SHELL RD from Delta Richmond? When you walk in the bog you come close to doing that. Many of the plants you see here are also found in the vast muskeg of Canada’s north. They are specially adapted to the bog’s wet, acidic, peaty soils and thrive where delicate The Nature Park is open daily southern species fail. These hardy northerners are remnants of the Ice Age, when arctic conditions from dawn to dusk. existed even here. The Nature House is open daily People and the Bog 9:00am-5:00pm ould you like to stroll through a paper birch In the past, the Lulu Island bog provided a wealth Admission is by donation forest? Spring along a spongy bog? Watch W of cranberries and blueberries to visiting First waterfowl quack and quibble? You can do all this Nations people. Today, most of the bog has been For more information about on the trails of Richmond Nature Park. This guide converted to farmland, where the same berries are Richmond Nature Park and its programs will help you plan your walk and introduce you to now cultivated. the story of the land. please call 604-718-6188 As you explore the park you will discover it is Fur and Feathers or email [email protected] discover dominated by one distinct environment: the Douglas squirrel and blackcapped chickadees greet peat bog, a watery land of mosses, heaths, you year round, and spotted towhees do their Richmond Nature Park and shrubby trees. The often overlooked star trailside two-step. Spring brings hummingbirds and 11851 Westminster Highway, Richmond, B.C. Richmond... player is sphagnum moss - bog builder and migrating warblers. V6X 1B4 Tel: 604-718-6188 Fax: 604-718-6189 controller. Pine and birch trees are providing stiff competition, transforming bog into forest. What Lies Ahead? As you walk the trails, you will see a habitat in Richmond Nature Park is changing. Cultivated To learn more about Richmond’s many parks transition… a landscape evolving. blueberries are forming dense thickets and shading and facilities, please visit the Use the map inside to choose your route and out other plants. Altered land use around the Parks, Trails & Cycling web page at guide your exploration. All the trails link together, park is increasing water drainage, speeding the providing from ten minutes to an hour or more of transition from bog to forest. Future visitors will see www.richmond.ca relaxed walking. Enjoy your visit. a different landscape. Nature Park Parks Trails Cranberry: TRAILS ETIQUETTE Tart berries on this small trailing LEGEND vine are preceded by beautiful “crane’s head” flowers. Put your Wood-chip trail nose to the ground to see them. Boardwalk Wheelchair Accessible Viewing Platform Shore Pine: Picnic Area Playground This hardy conifer is dwarfed m 8k Washrooms . and contorted by the stresses of BOG 1 FOREST TRAIL FOREST bog life. Check the branches for FOREST knobby rust fungus galls. BOG FOREST BOG Sundew: Q U A rare and bizarre little plant of AK Bog or Forest? IN G m m k very wet areas. The tiny leaves T k R 6 3 AIL 1. Scrubby trees and a bed of spongy, wet moss. Is 8 have sticky hairs which trap and . 0 this a pine forest or a sphagnum bog? The soil digest insects. IL TIME TRAIL is acidic, nutrient-poor, and very wet, so only the A SELF-GUIDED R NATURE WALK T most tolerant plants will grow. When they die, E M their remains add to the depths of peat below. Between the Birches I T This is certainly a bog environment, but increased Tall, paperwhite trunks. A lush undergrowth of drainage is changing this ecology and permitting IL A .3 R 5 ferns. An evergreen tangle of salal and blackberry. T k D growth of shore pine. We now have both a bog and BOG m N forest. This is the birch forest. Clay fill was dumped here in PO the late 1950’s, providing higher ground and better Sphagnum: drainage, and allowing this fertile ecosystem to WILDLIFE The Boss Moss. It creates and develop. GARDEN maintains bog conditions by NATURE holding water like a sponge, BOG FOREST HOUSE producing acid, and retarding Western White Birch: PARKING bacteria growth. You will find it Paperlike bark with dark blotches KINSMEN as foot level hummocks of green and make this tree easy to identify PAVILION red. year-round. The leaves fall by WESTMINSTER HIGHWAY winter, after a flash of autumn Blueberry: gold. Blackberry: A Just Ducky Pond The native bog form has been Angular, trailing stems armed Visit the pond trail any time of overshadowed by large, dense, Salal: with sharp spines. These year and you will see mallards cultivated varieties. Birds feast on introduced brambles remind us tipping their tails at you. The the berries in late summer. An important plant for Coast to stay on the trail. Salish people, who ate the pond was created especially to berries both fresh and dried and attract waterfowl and a few ducks used the tough leaves to line are always dabbling for plant and Labrador Tea: food steaming pits. insects here. Hemlock: The underlying peat imparts a White pom-poms cover the tea colour and high acidity to bog when this waist-high heath Sword Fern: A tall and graceful conifer with the water, home to a specialized blooms. The evergreen leaves Look for the “hilt” of the sword soft needles and drooping community. Dragon flies may have rust-coloured woolly at the base of each leaflet. branches. It can reproduce in whiz by your head as they hunt undersides and leave a pleasant Spores are produced in the its own shade and may one day the mosquitoes that are hunting smell on your fingers if you rub brown spots on the leaf’s dominate this site. you. them gently. underside..