Tiare Nu’u, a graduate of Isfeld Secondary School, is the 2023 recipient of the CVN Bursary. She will study Biological Sciences at Queen’s University. Her program will include environmental science in order to pursue her passion for nature and environmental stewardship.
Tia grew up on a small farm in Royston. Her daily experiences and responsibilities taught her the value of healthy ecosystems while fostering her love of the natural world.
Congratulations, Tia!
From an email by Jocie to the Botany/Mycology Group on June 21. Click a photo to enlarge it.
On Monday we enjoyed a leisurely ramble along the ridge above the Trent River, accessing the trail from the end of Hatton Rd. off of Briardale Crescent.
Hard questions were asked, like “why do spittlebugs spit.” The bugs apparently excrete the spit-like substance that we see on plant stalks, which protects them from predators.
Kathryn pointed out that the flower-bearing stalks of the vanilla-leaf are free-floating, and not attached to the leaves at all…who knew!
Here are a few highlights, and I’ll be sending a second instalment with more of Veronique’s photos.
Photos: Jocie, Veronique and Isabella (people pics). Thanks for sending!
Notes and photos by Alison M. distributed by email to the Botany Group on June 18. Click a photo to enlarge it.
The main Boardwalk loop in Paradise Meadows is now clear of snow.
The abnormally hot weather in May caused the rapid melt of the subalpine snowpack which was shallower than that of 2022. Over the past two weeks the early spring flowers are emerging in Paradise Meadows 4-6 weeks earlier than last year.
The white marsh-marigolds (Caltha leptosepala) which always appear as the snow receded now lie in runnels devoid of snow (photo #2).
By June 10 the pinks of western bog-laurel (Kalmia macrophylla) and the shooting stars (Primula jeffreyi, formerly Dodecatheon jeffreyi) were to be seen in that warm corner on the north side of the Boardwalk below Nordic Drive.
Lots of yellow stream violets (Viola glabella) are to be seen, and even a few of the pale purple marsh violets (Viola palustris).
And the patch of fern-leafed goldthread (Coptis asplenifolia) has numerous blooms. Appearing as it does just after the snow melts, its short-lived blooms are often missed (location: along the boardwalk, keeping right at the junction, about half way between there and the trail to Lake Helen Mackenzie, on the left-hand side). It was already in bloom at lower elevations on the Elk River Trail at the end of April.
This summer the Strathcona Wilderness Institute (SWI) is planning workshops and hikes that will be of interest to CVN members and others.
The first workshop is an Introduction to iNaturalist by Loys Maingon on June 25 (pre-registration required).
For details of this event and others to come, see the SWI website.
While the CVN Tree of the Year event focuses on the benefits and the stories of all the trees nominated, the votes have been tallied and the winner determined by public vote for 2023. [Click a photo to enlarge it.]
In first place: #9, a western redcedar in Seal Bay Park, which was nominated by Ted Grainger.
Second place was taken by #6 (Douglas-fir wildlife tree) off Smith Rd., nominated by Jamie Dobbs.
In third place was #7, a silk mimosa, on Bolt Ave. in Comox, nominated by Kathy Tae.
Fourth place went to #23, a bigleaf maple, in Hurford Hill park, nominated by Shane Tillapaugh.
All four of these trees were quite close in their number of votes, so we are featuring all four trees in our press releases which you should see out within the next week or two at the most.
Thank you to everyone who nominated trees and to our volunteers who checked trees, created posters, put up or took down signs, created cycle routes, wrote or edited press releases and summarized nominations.
Have a wonderful summer, and if you haven’t toured all the nominated trees yet, you can still check out the 27 tree descriptions and the cycle tour maps for a community tree adventure.
To learn more about the CVN Tree of the Year contest and its history, visit this page.
CVN member Tony de Castro has shared his review of the book The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources by Michael T. Klare. As a longer-form article the review has its own page on the site. You can read the review here.
From an email by Jocie to the Botany/Mycology Group on May 17. Click a photo to enlarge it.
Last week we took a walk along Cumberland Marsh from Jumbo’s cabin to the coal hills above the old Japanese townsite. Many blooming shrubs and other lovely plants. If anyone has the answer to the “mystery plant” (#11 and #12) let me know.
Thanks to Véronique for the photos!
A few highlights:
From an email by Jocie to the Botany/Mycology Group on April 19. Click a photo to enlarge it.
We had a wet and cold walk in Roy Morrison Nature Park on Monday April 17 (should I have canceled?) Nonetheless, 7 intrepid botanists showed up. All the plants looked wonderfully fresh in the rain. The “cabbage patch” was magnificent, and it seems to be a good year for trilliums.
Here are a few highlights. Thanks to Véronique for being our “designated photographer.” No one else wanted to take out their camera in the downpour!
Comox Valley Nature members recently attended the following webinar presented by the Canadian Society of Environmental Biologists:
Title: Canada’s Approach to Achieving Marine Protected Area Targets
Speaker: Isabelle Jubinville (Oceana Canada)
Date: Tuesday, April 11, 2023
If you missed this event or would like to see it again, CSEB has made the recording available here. To access it you will need to provide your name and email address.
For more information about this talk, see the announcement in our earlier post.
Notes and photos by Alison M. distributed to the Botany/Mycology Group on April 13. Click a photo to enlarge it.
Spring is a little slow again this year! A few of our early flowers are reluctantly appearing…
On Tuesday at that tiny little park at Ships Point, which is nicely sheltered from the arctic winds and south-facing, we did find a couple of Erythronium oregonum (photo 1) in bloom, as well as some Berberis aquifolium (photo 2) with part of the flower head open.
The Fritillaria affinis – chocolate lily – was still in bud form, but should be out soon. And in the conservation area along the dike, a few Rubus spectabilis (photo 3) were highly visible in the bright sunlight.
On our stretch of the Tsolum floodplain the Erythronia are still in bud, but the Petasites frigidus – sweet coltsfoot (photo 4) – has just pushed its way through the silt and opened. Some years I have found it in January!
And on the Sunday walk in Cumberland we passed by the area behind the Japanese townsite where there is a substantial spread of Petasites japonicus – Japanese butter-burr (photo 5), which goes back to the time when the Japanese planted it as one of their early spring greens (fuki). In both species the flower heads appear first, and the leaves develop later, so at this point the leaves are still very small.
