Enjoy an afternoon of music to celebrate wildlife and support MARS Wildlife Rescue!
Saturday, November 15th, 2:30 p.m. Comox United Church in Comox, 250 Beach Dr. Doors open at 2 p.m.
Concert followed by wine, cheese, and refreshments. Meet a MARS ambassador bird and learn more about the work at MARS.
Most of all, enjoy stellar vocal and instrumental performances of classical, jazz, and pop music featuring:
Christine Constabel & Antonia Mahon – Flute Duo Indigo Jazz Trio – Dale Graham (vocals), Rick Husband (guitar) & John Hyde (bass) Orlando Weibe – Piano & Vocals Crown Isle Piano Duo – Michelle Stewart & Alistair Taylor Austin Diotte-Turner – Vocalist Rachel Cooper – Clarinet / Sax with guests Jeff Agopsowicz (trombone) and Dave Lymburner (trumpet) Mindy Wise – Vocalist
As a bonus, local wildlife photographer, Bruce Moffat, will share his enchanting photos of local birds.
Tickets: $35 Adults / $15 Youth 13 & under Available at Blue Heron Books, Benjamin Moore House of Color, and on the MARS website.
Title: Slime Moulds of Strathcona Provincial Park 2025 Speaker: Zeke Gilmour Date: Monday, September 29, 2025
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.
Posted inGuest Speakers, Other taxa|Comments Off on Recording for talk on slime moulds of Strathcona Park
Comox Valley Nature invites its members and the public to CVN’s October general meeting. where you can hear the following keynote presentation by our guest speaker:
Title: Bioblitzes and rare plants: Keeping current on BC plant diversity Speaker: Dr. Gerry Allen Date: Sunday, October 26, 2025 Time: 3:00 p.m. PT Location: Main hall of Comox United Church, 250 Beach Drive, Comox
Trillium hibbersonii (Photo: Ian Cruickshank, CC-BY-NC-iNaturalist-Apr-2023)
BC has the highest plant diversity in Canada due to the high diversity of ecosystems. The BC Conservation Data Centre maintains a complete and regularly revised list of all plant species in the province (whether common or rare, native or not). However, we want to know more than just the list. Where are species found? In what habitats? Are they getting more common or less? Bioblitzes (concentrated searches for species in a particular time and place) provide new information, especially for less well-known groups like mosses and lichens. Dr. Allen will describe some plant biodiversity results from recent bioblitzes on Calvert and Quadra islands. She will also discuss rare species, which typically require more targeted searches. An example is the discovery of many new populations of the currently threatened Hibberson’s trillium (Trillium hibbersonii). Continuing field observations by knowledgeable observers are an essential part of these discoveries and are critical to keeping diversity assessments current.
About the speaker
Dr. Gerry Allen is a retired professor of biology but continues working on a number of ongoing projects. Her research is broadly focused on the evolution, ecology and conservation biology of plants. Current and recent projects in her lab include the ecology of arctic-alpine plants, especially migration in response to postglacial climate change, and the reproductive ecology of rare plants. She was also the curator of the University of Victoria Herbarium for many years.
More about the meeting
This will be a hybrid meeting (in-person and videoconference). We encourage members and the public to attend the in-person meeting. Members (only) who cannot attend can participate via videoconference. The link to join the Zoom meeting will be sent to members by email before the meeting.
After the keynote presentation there will be a break with coffee/tea, goodies and socializing, followed by the business part of the meeting. This consists mainly of brief reports from our interest groups and projects, an opportunity for guests to learn more about what we do.
Comox Valley Nature hosted the following presentation at our September 2025 general meeting:
Title: 2024 – A Big Year: One birder’s attempt to see more birds on Vancouver Island in a single year than ever before Speaker: Liam Ragan (BC Nature and Rocky Point Bird Observatory) Date: Sunday, September 28, 2025
If you missed this event or would like to see it again, a recording is available here (MP4, 107 MB if downloaded).
For more information about this talk, see the announcement in our earlier post.
Title: Slime Moulds of Strathcona Provincial Park 2025 Speaker: Zeke Gilmour Date: Monday, September 29, 2025 Time: 7:00 p.m. PT
See the registration link below.
This presentation will focus on the progress made in 2025 on studying and cataloging the slime moulds in Strathcona Park, including select species of interest and diversity projections for the future.
About the speaker
This summer, Zeke Gilmour was a Research Student at Strathcona Wilderness Institute.
The Cumberland Community Forest Society invites you to participate in an autumn herb walk to learn about the medicinal plants of Cumberland. Herbalist Amanda Howe will lead this fundraising event and donate all proceeds to CCFS to support their campaign to acquire and conserve the area known as Middle Earth.
Date: Sunday, September 28 Time: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cost: $30 Location: Cumberland trails (exact meeting place provided on registration) Difficulty: We will be walking for 10 minutes on a logging road at the start to reach the access to the trails. These trails are not suitable for strollers.
Middle Earth is the Cumberland Community Forest Society’s newest focus for acquisition. It is a beautiful, forested wetland corridor that offers refuge for species big and small. Amanda is excited to be leading a herb walk in this area and to introduce people to the wealth of medicinal plants growing there. The walk will take you through some of the trails that are closer to the village and and will be alive with the folklore and medicinal use of the plants and their connection with the land.
You will learn how to make simple and safe preparations with these plants to use in your everyday life. Amanda will be sharing her 40 plus years experience as a herbalist immersed in the world of medicinal plants.
About the walk leader
Amanda Howe has been a herbalist for over forty years. She’s passionate about herbs and herbal medicine and about sharing the connection with the natural world that can be found through connecting with and learning about the healing power of plants. She trained in England in the early 1980s and became a member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (UK). She went on to receive her MSc in Herbal Medicine from the University of Wales. Amanda teaches in the Pacific Rim College Herbal Practitioner program in Victoria, BC. She also teaches workshops and classes from her home and garden in Cumberland, BC. Amanda loves to teach and is happiest when she is in the garden and forest teaching people how to grow, harvest, use and listen to the magic of the plants that are thriving there.
Comox Valley Nature invites the community to participate in an invasive English ivy pull in the Dogwood Park/Rotary Trail area. The event will tentatively (depending on weather) be on September 27, from 1–4 p.m. We will meet at the 21st Street entrance to the trail, just off Piercy Avenue.
Why is English ivy considered invasive? According to the Invasive Species Council of BC, English ivy was intentionally introduced from its native range of Europe. It has since spread throughout rainforest understories, where it can grow as a dense mat that suppresses native plants or climbs up trees, reducing their lifespan and leaving them more susceptible to wind damage.
Community action Megan Ardyche had noticed ivy growing between her property on Piercy Ave. and the railroad tracks. Knowing it was invasive, she started removing it. Surprisingly, she found that pulling ivy can be very satisfying as it’s not deeply rooted..
Ms. Ardyche has been walking the Rotary Trail stretch between Cumberland Road and 26th Street for two years now. Over time, she has noticed a number of invasive plants growing along the Trail, primarily English ivy. The Rotary Trail in Courtenay is a gem worth protecting, as is the second-growth forest surrounding Dogwood Park. So, Ms. Ardyche contacted Comox Valley Nature to see what could be done about it. Karen Cummins from CV Nature, in turn, contacted the City of Courtenay as Dogwood is a City park.
The result is an inaugural “Pulling Together” event, with the aim to pull as much English ivy (and potentially other invasives) as we can in one afternoon, from 1–4 p.m., on September 27 (again, depending on weather). Join us for one hour, two hours, or all three hours with friends and neighbours in what will be a “surprisingly satisfying” afternoon.
Please pre-register by emailing . Pre-registration lets us know how many people to expect, and also allows us to notify you if the event is cancelled. Come for an hour, two hours, or all three hours.
What to bring: your own garden gloves, as well as loppers, hand pruners or garden forks, if you have them. Also bring water. Please wear appropriate sturdy footwear.
Comox Valley Nature invites its members and the general public to CVN’s September general meeting. where you can hear the following keynote presentation by our guest speaker:
Title: 2024 – A Big Year: One birder’s attempt to see more birds on Vancouver Island in a single year than ever before Speaker: Liam Ragan (BC Nature and Rocky Point Bird Observatory) Date: Sunday, September 28, 2025 Time: 3:00 p.m. PT Location: Main hall of Comox United Church, 250 Beach Drive, Comox
Photos by Liam Ragan
About the speaker
Liam Ragan was originally from Vancouver but was raised in Nairobi and went to school in Montréal (BA from McGill in Anthropology and Environmental Studies) before moving to Vancouver Island in 2020. He has studied Community-Based Conservation and currently practises that as the BC Key Biodiversity Areas Manager for BC Nature.
In his free time, Liam volunteers on the Board of Rocky Point Bird Observatory and as RPBO’s First Nations Liaison. He is passionate about supporting communities stewarding nature, specifically to build relationships between naturalists and Indigenous communities.
Liam’s Big Year in 2024 was to raise funds for RPBO and raise awareness of conservation work being done on the island.
More about the meeting
This will be a hybrid meeting (in-person and videoconference). We encourage members and the general public to attend the in-person meeting. Members (only) who cannot attend can participate via videoconference. The link to join the Zoom meeting will be sent to members by email before the meeting.
After the keynote presentation there will be a break with coffee/tea, goodies and socializing, followed by the business part of the meeting. This consists mainly of brief reports from our interest groups and projects, an opportunity for guests to learn more about what we do.
Join stewardship and streamkeeping groups from across the Comox Valley on Saturday September 20 from 10 a.m. till 3 p.m. in Puntledge Park for Family Watershed Day!
This annual event celebrates the incredible work of local organizations, highlights stewardship and restoration projects, and helps build connections to the waterways of our community. From the Vancouver Island mountains and Comox Lake, through the rivers, creeks and wetlands of the Comox Valley, and down to the shores of the Salish Sea, water connects us all.
Activities will include guided walks of Puntledge Park, demonstrations and information from local groups, and kids’ activities including face painting, book readings, watercolour painting, music and a family scavenger hunt. Attendees will learn about restoration initiatives, land protection projects, research and monitoring programs, salmon enhancement, source-to-tap drinking water education, the science of watershed protection, and cool volunteer opportunities.
This year’s event also features a day-long participatory art project facilitated by Juliana Bedoya of “Plants as Teachers”, all about how we are Connected by Water.
Participating organizations include Project Watershed, Cumberland Community Forest Society, Beaufort Watershed Stewards, Comox Valley Regional District (Watershed Protection), Comox Valley Naturalists Society, Millard Piercy Watershed Stewards, Tsolum River Restoration Society, Comox Valley Land Trust and Conservation Partnership, Courtenay Youth Climate Corps BC, Morrison Creek Streamkeepers, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and Little River Enhancement Society.
Family Watershed Day aims to build connections between residents of all ages and the special community organizations who care for our watershed in so many ways. Pack a picnic and stay for the day!
On August 9, a small contingent (two leaders and one member) from the Botany Group enjoyed a mid- to late-summer field trip to Paradise Meadows. This subalpine environment (elevation 1200 m) offers many plants different from those at lower levels. At this point in the season, a good number of plants were still flowering, but attention was also given to identification using leaves, fruits, branching patterns, and general habit where flowering was finished. We also considered distinctions between some related species—for example, subalpine fir vs. amabilis fir, slender rein orchid vs. fragrant white rein orchid, and dwarf blueberry vs. bog blueberry. And we studied the characteristics of many other plants in the varied habitats of the Meadows.
Co-leader Véronique has again provided us with a photographic guide to many of the observed species. You can download the guide here (PDF, 7.4 MB).
Here’s a selection of photos from the guide [click a photo to see the whole image]:
There are 100's of toadlets migrating across the trail systems in Cumberland Forest. Please note the trail closures, and share this post.Major trail closures. Please do not use the west side of the network, see the map. Tens of thousands of toads are dispersing in all directions west and south of Alan Lake. SoBo No Michi is closed Sykes Bridge area is teaming, Perseverance Creek is also extremely busy. The south side of Alan Lake is also covered with toads. We have closed all access via Davis lake main to Perseverance Creek, the Potholes, Sobo No Michi etc. All trails that come down the west side back to Perseverance area are closed. Please do not go into that zone for the next few days. Hopefully we will be clear to roll by the weekend.Please respect all signage at the trail access points and in the CRI car park, informing you of up-to-date information of trail closures and the migration routes.Please share and reshare. Cumberland Forest Village of Cumberland ... See MoreSee Less
Dont miss these upcoming presentations, giving insight into wildlife rehabilitation, bird intelligence and the lives of coastal wolves: ... See MoreSee Less
Saturday, November 15th, 2:30 p.m.
Comox United Church in Comox, 250 Beach Dr.
Doors open at 2 p.m.
Concert followed by wine, cheese, and refreshments.
Meet a MARS ambassador bird and learn more about the work at MARS.
Christine Constabel & Antonia Mahon – Flute Duo
As a bonus, local wildlife photographer, Bruce Moffat, will share his enchanting photos of local birds.
