MARCH The Victoria APRIL 2003 NATURALIST VOL 59.5 VICTORIA NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY na The Victoria A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS \m NATURALIST The Challenge Continues... Published six times a year by the SUBMISSIONS So Few Words VICTORIA NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, P.O. Box 5220, Station B, Victoria, B.C. V8R 6N4 Deadline for next issue: April 1,2003 ByTrisha Cull 4 Have you noticed the new signs in hotel rooms lately? Contents © 2003 as credited. Send to: Marilyn and Ross Archibald, Editors The Royal Roads Property Many hotels have started programs in which they offer ISSN 0049—612X Printed in Canada 208 Linden Avenue, Victoria, BC V8V 4E4 guests who are staying for more than one day the option of The Victoria Naturalist acknowledges the financial support of the By Harvey Williams 6 Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program Phone: 250-384-3063 (no calls after 9:00 p.m. please) not having their towels and/or sheets changed daily, as used Fax: call to arrange, e-mail: [email protected] Victoria Loves Anna! towards our mailing costs. to be the case. These hotels suggest that the reason for Publication Mail Commercial Sales Agreement Number 1273108 Guidelines for Submissions ByAnnScarfe 7 offering this option is to reduce the environmental impact of Publications Mail Registration No. 09841 Members are encouraged to submit articles, field trip reports, birding Editor: Marilyn and Ross Archibald, 384-3063 and botany notes, and book reviews with photographs or illustrations if Frogs, Frogs, Frogs their operations. But, is that the only reason? Desktop Publishing: Frances Hunter, 479-1956 possible. Photographs of natural history are appreciated along with docu• By David Stirling 8 There are clearly economic benefits from doing what Distribution: Tom Gillespie, Phyllis Henderson mentation of location, species names and a dale. Please label your sub• is right for our home in the biosphere. By not washing as Printing: Fotoprint, 382-8218 mission with your name, address, and phone number and provide a title. Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature We will accept and use copy in almost any legible form but we encour• many sheets and towels on a daily basis the hotels are saving Opinions expressed by contributors to The Victoria Naturalist age submission of typed, double-spaced copyin an IBM compatible word Sanctuary — 2002 Report money on laundry detergents, hot water, dryers, and probably are not necessarily those of the Society. processing file on diskette, or by e-mail. Having copy submitted on By Dannie Carsen 10 diskette saves a lot of time and work for the publications group and wc even on staff wages. VICTORIA NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY really appreciate the help, if you have an obscure or very old word I Wonder.. .What Do Surf Scoters Eat Progressive businesses are finding that they can save Honorary Life Members processing program, call the Editors, Marilyn and Ross Archibald, at 384¬ Miss E.K. Lemon, Mrs. L.E. Chambers, Mrs. Peggy Goodwill, 3063 (before 9:00 p.m.), or save the text in ASCII format.Photos and money by taking the high road when it comes to caring about slides, and diskettes submitted will be returned if a stamped, self-ad• Mr. Vic Goodwill, Mr. David Stirling the biosphere before the apparent bottom line. For example, dressed envelope is included with the material. Because many digital Officers: 2002-2003 image files do not reproduce well in our print format due to low resolution, a solar thermal water heating system provides St. Rose 13 PRESIDENT: Bruce Whittington, 477-8611, [email protected] we would prefer not to receive digital images at this time. Hospital in San Antonio, Texas with up to 90% of the VICE-PRESIDENT: Ann Nightingale, 652-6450, [email protected] Resul facility's hot water needs saving the hospital close to $17,000 PAST-PRESIDENT: Tom Gillespie, 361-1694, [email protected] VNHS MEMBERSHIP TREASURER: Gordon Hart, 721-1264, [email protected] per year compared to the alternative of using a steam boiler For membership information and renewal, please conlactDarren Copley, Directors and Committees 479-6622, or write to Membership Committee c/o The Victoria Natural fired by fuel oil. You can find out about more green building Claudia Copley, 479-6622, [email protected] (Programs) History Society, Box 5220, Victoria, B.C., V8R 6N4. success stories like this at the following website: http:// 17 Robert Chappell, 388-4696, [email protected] (F.B.C.N. www.sustainabIe.doe.gov/buildings/gbsstoc.htm. Representative) ADVERTISING GUIDELINES 20 Isobel Dawson, 721-0232, [email protected] (Secretary) We do our best to ensure your ad is produced accurately. Should we What got us thinking about the cost saving of green Darren Copley, 479-6622, [email protected] (Membership) make an error, please contact us and a correction can be printed in the Lei 21 practices arose out of our noticing a little graph of energy Rick Schortinghuis, 652-3326, [email protected] next issue. Acharge is levied for typesetting. Minor alterations to exist• On usage on our hydro bill. It showed that we had saved (Events, Trips and Programs) ing ads cost $10.00. Add $15 per photo for PMT. Advertising fees are Marie O'Shaughnessy, 598-9680, [email protected] (Publicity) due and payable when copy is submitted. Please submit a cheque pay• Lsk 21 ourselves about $35.00 over our previous year's expenditures Ross Archibald, 384-3063, [email protected] (Publications) able to The Victoria Naturalist. in one billing period that coincided with the time that our Th< Tom Gillespie, 361-1694, [email protected] Ad Size Price Dimensions (in inches) electric clothes dryer has been out of service due to a (Scholarships, Awards) Back page $120 7.5" width x 8" height Bv breakdown. Now we are continuing to dry our clothes by John Defayette, 595-5455, [email protected] Full page, inside $100 7.5 width x 9.5" height 1/2 page, horizontal S80 7.5" width x 4.75" height hanging them in the basement when the weather is not Other Functions 1/2 page, vertical $80 3.5" width x 9.5" height Birder's Night: Bryan Gates, 598-7789 1/3 page horizontal $50 7.5" width x 3.25" height suitable for drying outside on the clothesline. You can find Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary: Dannie Carsen, 595-2773 1/3 page, vertical $50 3.5" width x 6.5" height out how much money your appliances cost by checking 1/4 page, horizontal $40 7.5" width x 2.25" height Annual Dues, Victoria Natural History Society 1/4 page, vertical $40 3.5" width x 4.75" height out the BC Hydro Appliance Calculator at: https:// Includes The Victoria Naturalist and B.C. Naturalist 1/8 page, horizontal $25 3.5" width x 2.25" height ewa.bchydro.bc.ca/hep/appcalc/calc0619/pgl.asp?ID=0. Regular $30.00 Golden Age $25.00 Rates as of February, 1994. May be subject to change. Tannis Warburton has made some suggestions about Family $35.00 Junior Subscriber $20.00 Submit advertising to: what each one of us can do to reduce our ecological (Any donation in excess of the above fees is income tax deductible) The Victoria Naturalist, P.O. Box 5220, footprint, one step at a time. What actions are you taking Annual Subscription Rate, Victoria Naturalist $20.00 Victoria, B.C. Canada, V8R 6N4 or phone Marilyn or Ross Archibald at 250-384-3063 to meet the nature challenge? Drop us a note. RARE BIRD ALERT: 592-3381 VNHS EVENTS TAPE: 479-2054 Thank you for your patronage. VNHS Website: www.VicNHS.bc.ca David Prei Marilyn and Ross 2 The Victoria Naturalist Vol. 59.5 (2003) The Victoria Naturalist Vol. 59.5 (2003) 3 So Few Words By Trisha Cull our tenuous relationship to the natural world. We must ask assignments, but succeed at writing a short piece about some ourselves in the most prophetic sense: aspect of campus using one-syllable words only. I write about ducks, and get an "A". The Beginning of which will be clearcuts (478.1 hectares = about 1000 Why ami here? Sometime around my third year of study they shorten the football fields), as well as 31.7 km of new logging roads. formal title of my program of study to Writing, omitting the ...10,000 years ago... Some of the clearcuts will be as large as 60 continuous Creative. I cannot hear the ice scraping across the belly of the football fields (30 hectares). Over 5 years, the total amount Why? In the proceeding years my student loan catapults to province, no scuttle of rock, or primal groan within, miles of of timber to be removed will be 323, 195 metres3. forty thousand dollars. I eat over-packaged varieties of "Nature never wears a mean appearance. ice deep. I cannot see its beginning or end, but it is one solid East Creek is one of the six remaining pristine water• processed food and drink coffee from Styrofoam cups to Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, mass, a voiceless white blanket moving quite deliberately, sheds on Vancouver Island, and the nesting place of the alleviate the costs. The tuition freeze ends, but my bus pass and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection " despite itself, toward the Pacific Ocean. endangered Marbled Murrelet. American logging giant, cost is absorbed in the hikes. What communes so deep, between it and what it expands Weyerhaeuser, holds logging rights of the lower part of the (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, Emerson: Essays & Poems.