As environmental champions review what’s being lost and what may yet be gained from the world-wide Biodiversity Conference in Montreal this past week, some of us are looking back on the year 2022 asking: how are we doing here at home with our community conservation efforts? Can we count any successes this year? The answer is Yes !

2022 was the year Saanich earned Nature Canada designation as a Bird Friendly City, one of just nine such cities certified so far in Canada.

To earn certification, the District of Saanich worked in collaboration with Nature Canada’s partners including Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary to make our municipality a safer and better place for bird populations to thrive.

Why? Because birds play an essential role in maintaining healthy, resilient ecosystemsto say nothing of having as much intrinsic value as any other species on the planet some would claim. There are three billion fewer birds in North America today than 50 years ago. And 4.2 billion more humans. Much of the decline in bird populations is due to human activity. As urban expansion continues, says Nature Canada, we must act quickly to ensure birds and their habitat are protected.

What can we do?

To become a Bird Friendly–certified city a Bird Team was created with Phaedra Otwey Community Education Assistant at Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary leading Saanich’s team.

That Saanich has been “certified a Bird Friendly City with Nature Canada – the first one on Vancouver Island – is beyond exciting,” says Phaedra. The process to certification revealed all of the incredible action that this district has and is taking towards the conservation and protection of birds, wildlife, and our incredible ecosystems. It also demonstrated just how many dedicated people and organizations in our community are working hard to continue making Saanich as beneficial and safe to wildlife as it is to us. This has been a truly inspiring initiative to be a part of and I am so thrilled that it will connect so many more people to the wonderful world of birds! This certification is only the beginning of Saanich’s commitment to birds. I’m so excited to see what will come next!”

Eva Riccius, on the BirdTeam in her role as Saanich Senior Manager of Parks says, “This initiative fits directly with our Natural Intelligence program which encourages every resident to have a positive connection with nature locally. We’re excited about raising awareness of birds in Saanich and sharing some actions that residents can take to increase our bird friendliness.”

What’s next?  

Dec 17 Christmas Bird Count for Kids. Drop in, Beckwith Park between 1 and 3 p.m.Meet near restrooms for guided walk in the park. Last walk starts 2:30 pm. 

Dec 17 Participate in Greater Victoria’s Annual Christmas Bird Count, even from your own backyard. ChristmasBirdCount.ca to find a team or for backyard feeder form.

Coming up –

Friends of Cedar Hill Park Bird Count update.

Why Pollinators?
by contributor Sher Morgan

There are over 450 native bee species in B.C., about 200 dwell here on Southern Vancouver Island. We often think of bees when talk turns to pollination, but at QCHCA’s November 12 Mapping Pollinators workshop, led by UVic Community mapping student Matt Evans, we learned birds, bats, butterflies, moths, flies, wasps, beetles and small mammals are also important pollinators. Moths, Matt says, actually have a greater impact than butterflies but because moths are largely active at night we are less aware of their role.

We need pollinators. 75 – 95% of flowering plants require pollinators to move pollen within the plant or from bloom to bloom, fertilizing to produce seeds and fruit. Some plants are self-pollinating and others, like grasses, evolved so their pollen is carried by wind, or water. Nevertheless from the perspective of humans’ basic food needs pollinators are among our best friends. 1 in 3 bites of the food you eat comes from a plant that requires pollination.

As important as the food we eat is pollinators’ crucial and intrinsic place in healthy ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems clean the air, stabilize soils, provide shelter in severe weather, and support other wildlife. The worry is – pollinator populations are in decline with the most severe cause being habitat loss followed by pesticide use, disease, and changing climate patterns.

Pollinators need us. Pollinator Canada scientists and research partners have been studying pollinators for over three decades. The good news is that conservation techniques do work. If everyone – home owners, local governments, national governments, and private industry make the effort we can change the future for pollinators and secure our own. – Pollinator Canada https://www.pollinator.org/pollinators

Native plants vs non-native. Many of the ornamentals in your garden do attract and provide forage to pollinators yet where an ornamental might attract one specie of bee, native plants commonly attract many pollinators. According to an Audubon article large native trees are ideal larval host plants for butterflies and moths. More than 500 species lay eggs on the various oak trees native to North America. Enter the caterpillar. A nest full of chickadees needs more than 5,000 caterpillars from hatching to the time they leave the nest. By comparison fewer than 10 species of native moths for instance, lay eggs on ginkgo leaves. In our area, native perennials like goldenrod and asters support a lot of caterpillars –feed young birds a well as adult pollinators, thereby doing double duty. Native plants evolved with native pollinators and have intrinsic, interdependent value to ecosystems.

One workshop participant asked Matt, how stringent are you about native plants’ value for pollinators? I grow food. The response? Hedgerows are an excellent addition to gardens providing nesting and forage for birds and insects that may actually help in consuming some of the pests you don’t want. If you grow flowers, interplant native bulbs beneath your perennials. When you have to replace a perennial, choose a native pollinator. Native plants also commonly need less water, and are often deer proof. – see: Gardening with Nature https://hat.bc.ca/gardeningwithnature

Garry Oak ecosystems, a landscape beloved by Islanders, are one of the most endangered ecosystems in Canada – less than 5% of the original habitat remains. Why does this matter? Because it’s not only about the trees! Garry Oak are the most biodiverse native ecosystem in Canada with many species occurring nowhere else in the country. Eight hundred insect and mite species are directly associated with Garry oak trees, 104 species of birds, 7 amphibians, 7 reptiles and 33 mammal species. But because so much habitat has been lost or degraded, approximately 100 species of plants, mammals, reptiles, birds, butterflies and other insects are officially listed as “at risk”. Several species have already been eliminated in B. C. including the island large marble butterfly (Euchloe ausonides insulanus), and the Georgia Depression population of the western bluebird (Sialia mexicana).

What can you do? Much of the surviving Garry oak habitat exists as small patches in private yards, gardens and rural lots, along with public lands. If you have oaks where you live, let oak leaves remain around the base of Garry Oak trees and elsewhere. The Propertius Duskywing butterfly, a species at risk, over-winters in the leaf litter. – Garry Oak Gardener’s Handbook. Garry Oak Ecosystem Recovery Team. 2011.

What are our neighbours doing? Invasives like blackberry and ivy tend to overwhelm native plants. Workshop student leader Matt Evans is one of many community heroes active in habitat restoration – pulling invasives and planting native plants. Within Quadra Cedar Hill, Friends of Cedar Hill Park is one of several volunteer groups doing the same. In 2021 FCHP neighbourhood volunteers invested 1600 hours in removing invasives along the Cedar Hill Park golf course chip trail benefiting the biodiversity, natural areas, wetlands, creeks, – and the pollinators who feed or live there – for future generations.

Participants learned a lot about pollinators at the November 12 workshop: why we need pollinators, what they need, and the benefits of creating and protecting places for pollinators to thrive. Urban threats to these precious pollinators are loss of habitat / urban development, pesticides, and GHGs/climate change. We can each help where we live by providing birds, bees, bats and all the other pollinators with:
Food and water. Plant or protect pollen and nectar producing plants that bloom sequentially throughout the entire growing season, especially native plants.
Shelter. Create nesting habitat for pollinators like bare soil, dried plants stalks and piles of woody materials. Which may mean resisting our propensity for pristine gardens!
Pesticide-free. Make your property pesticide-free, avoiding even pesticide-treated plants.

In her welcome to participants of the Mapping Pollinators workshop, QCHCA president Susan Haddon referenced SENĆOŦEN Language and Cultural revivalist Tiffany Joseph saying: Removing invasives, building pollinator corridors, returning habitat to its natural state can also be an act of decolonization.

Join us. UVic Community Mapping students (Geography 380) and QCHCA’s climate action group are partnering in a citizen science initiative to map pollinator habitat in our neighbourhoods. The Plan step 1 – to map existing pollinator habitat. The Plan step 2 – to engage residents in creating pollinator pathways for at-risk bees, birds, butterflies, bats, and insects in our region as the habitat they need to survive is encroached upon, and lost. (QCHCA News: What’s that Buzz? Mapping Pollinators in our neighbourhoods)

What is a pollinator corridor?
A Pollinator Corridor is a pesticide-free corridor or pathway of native plants that provides nutrition and habitat for pollinators and helps them to disperse into new habitats in response to urban development and climate change. Corridors can be created by linking natural areas, parks and boulevards planted with pollinator-friendly plants, backyard gardens, and transmission lines blooming with native wildflowers. Creating pollinator pathways requires coordination and planning, but the benefits are plentiful.
– Canadian Wildlife Federation

To learn more or participate in QCHCA Climate Action group’s Pollinator Corridor initiative email president@qchca.org Subject: Pollinators

What’s that Buzz?
Mapping Pollinators in our neighbourhoods

by contributor Sher Morgan

There was a friendly buzz of anticipation on a sunny Saturday morning earlier this month as neighbours gathered at Cedar Hill Rec Centre for QCHCA’s first-ever Pollinator Mapping workshop.

UVic Community Mapping students (Geography 380) and QCHCA’s climate action group are partnering in a citizen science initiative to map pollinator habitat in QCHCA neighbourhoods. The Plan step 1 – to map existing pollinator habitat. The Plan step 2 – to engage residents in creating pollinator habitat for at-risk bees, birds, butterflies, bats, and insects in our region as the habitat they need to survive is encroached upon, and lost – largely to development.

What’s Community Mapping? Sometimes called asset mapping it involves residents in identifying the assets of their neighbourhood, looking for opportunities, and creating a picture of what it is like to live here. Community mapping encourages people to become advocates for transforming or protecting the spaces in which we live.

According to Maleea Acker who teaches UVic’s Geography 380 Community Mapping “the class is engaged in a number of community partnerships using New Open Green Maps, a perfect platform to co-create interactive and community-engaged projects that are carried on by community partners …(like QCHCA). The Community Mapping class focuses on community-engaged learning, meaning students work with one of several partners each semester, matching their mapping skills and theory with the community’s expertise on place. Projects usually stretch over several cohorts of students, allowing a community group to engage with a variety of learners and allowing students to bring various perspectives to the project.” – 2021 https://www.greenmap.org/blog/community-mapping-update-victoria-bc

At the November 12th workshop led by UVic Community mapping student Matt Evans, participants learned a lot about pollinators: why we need them, what they need, and the benefits of creating and protecting places for pollinators to thrive. (see QCHCA News: Why Pollinators?) Workshop participants were then invited to start mapping.Participants found their street on the large format maps spread out on tables, and described the plantings and green spaces in their own yards, identifying specific native and pollinator-friendly plants with the help of workshop leaders.

By early December our UVic student partners Matt and Steve Martin will transfer that information onto an interactive, digital map showing the pollinator-friendly habitats that workshop participants identified– parks, gardens, boulevards, natural areas, Garry Oak meadows. The resulting map will reveal where the gaps exist – areas that need pollinator-supportive plantings to create pollinator corridors, for bees, birds and insects to feast upon, rest, lay their eggs, dwell in, and thrive.

Just imagine pollinator planted corridors stretching from Cedar Hill Park to Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary. Imagine how that might alter our neighbourhood landscape? Your morning walk? Might there be more birdsong? More butterflies?

That digital map will be accessible – to residents, neighbouring mapping groups, the District of Saanich, etc. And, the map will be open source and interactive so people can keep adding pollinator-rich sites – in spring as the camas, fawn lily and nodding onion appear, and throughout the seasons – using their iphones!

How effective can this QCHCA initiative be? It will only get richer as more people participate. Matt Evans says Quadra Cedar Hil Community Association is following in the footsteps (or, flight path?) of a model that any community group would do well to emulate. Gorge Tillicum Community Assoc’s Natural Areas Working Group is one year in on creating its own pollinator corridor in partnership with UVic’s Maleea Acker, Ken Josephson and their Geo 380 students. One of the leads on the GTCA pollinator group Laurie Jones attended QCHCA’s workshop bringing photos of her group’s recent native pollinator planting at Wascana Street and Burnside Road.

Burnside-Wascana boulevard garden includes 20 different plants indigenous to southern Vancouver Island that will help support the area’s native pollinators. Starting in March/April and going through to October/November, there will be a succession of colourful blossoms and pollinators here – Laurie Jones.

What’s next for the QCHCA pollinator plan? Community Association president, Susan Haddon says “We’ll let everyone know when the digital map is available so people can add their gardens and natural areas to the map. It will be important to keep adding data to gain an over-arching visual sense of what already exists. In the new year we could have guided walks for neighbours to stroll their streets and nearby parks with iphones in hand to identify and actually plot the native and non-native flowers, trees, shrubs and grasses that benefit pollinators. I know many QCH residents have a wealth of knowledge to share. And sharing that knowledge may even influence more residents to include native plants in their gardens. It will be wonderful to get out walking and learning together…knowing we are creating new pollinator habitat and contributing to the balance of healthy ecosystems in increasingly healthy neighbourhoods.

If you are keen to participate in the QCHCA Climate Action group’s
Pollinator Mapping and Corridor initiative email president@qchca.org
Subject line: Pollinators

Thanks to community conservation luminaries attending QCHCA Pollinator Mapping workshop (L to R) Gorge Tillicum pollinator project’s Laurie Jones, QCHCA president Susan Haddon, SeaChange Marine Conservation Society’s Nikki Wright, RUSH biomimicry expert Ann-Marie Daniels, UVic’s Ken Josephson, UVic student mapping workshop leader Matt Evans, UVic’s Maleea Acker.

QCHCA president Susan Haddon presents workshop participant Trudee Trotter with the day’s door prize – a native kinnikinnick shrub.