Bio-Blitz Species Count
Aqua-Blitz and Mapping Day
Volunteers at the Bioblitz Project's "Aqua-blitz" at Gonzales Bay on April 12th enjoyed a hot, bright afternoon in the sun. We set up a "base camp" at a picnic table and fanned out over the rocks at low tide, recording all the sea birds and tide pool life we saw. Among the sea weeds and barnacles people found a tiny six-armed star fish, some lively sculpins, a sick polychaete (worm) and a mysterious frilly white thing attached to a rock that turned out to be the egg mass of a nudibranch, the "Sea Lemon."
A big fat river otter obligingly ran across the sand so as to be included in our final list, but our experts concluded that overall the biodiversity in the intertidal zone wasn't what it should be: over-nutrification is causing some algae overgrowth, smothering other species, while crab and clam species are under-represented -- probably due to the overly-dense building around the bay and fertilizer and other run-off. The top of the bay where sand should blend gently into terrestrial landscape has been ringed by concrete walls, which cause waves at high tide to bounce back. That the wave action isn't being absorbed naturally adversely affects this habitat and the types of marine life that can survive in it.
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We thank all the citizen-naturalists and experts who helped at the Aquablitz:
Dr. John Volpe and Chris Motherwell from UVIC, Denis Coupland from Saanich Inlet Shorekeepers, birdwatchers Mary Robichaud and Donna Ross, Maeve Lydon from Oak Bay Mapping Project, and plant and marine experts Lynn Milne and Peggy Frank.
For a chapbook of Roland's poems set against our local landscape and seascape,
contact: rgerasmussen@yahoo.com.
We'll be taking a break from our cafes and cabarets over the summer, and look forward to bringing together more writers, musicians and artists next fall and winter.
For more info, please call Barbara Julian at 592-9340. sbarbarajulian@hotmail.com
Café Fairfield Arborblitz
Tree lovers were in their element at the Bioblitz Project’s Tree Cabaret held in the Garry Oak Room on January 27th. We surrounded ourselves with paintings and photos of trees, including some painted and hand-crafted by the FCA’s Out of School groups. Our “Bio-Poet Laureate” Elizabeth Woods started off a series of poetry readings, and music was provided by The Green Onions as well as by John Taylor, who composed new songs, “Hummingbird” (Under My Tulip Tree), and “Cedar Tree”, especially for the occasion.
Poems from the Tree Cabaret (doc)