GOERT: Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team

Invitation to local government workshops held by GOERT staff in December 2012

In December 2012, GOERT staff members Holly Clermont, Kathryn Martell, and Rebecca Mersereau held a series of workshops for municipal and regional governments. The workshops were offered to planning and park management staff who would benefit from using our resources in the course of their daily work. Over 2 days, workshop organizers met with 16 planning and mapping staff of 5 municipalities and 2 regional governments, and 2 members of a community stewardship group, to provide a detailed introduction to the services and resources that GOERT can provide to assist local and regional governments to protect and steward Garry Oak ecosystems. Rebecca joined GOERT as our Executive Director last June. “It was a rewarding first opportunity for me to represent GOERT and communicate our mandate to key conservation partners. I felt everyone was very receptive and that the workshops were a great success.” READ MORE →

Cortinarius parkeri Ammirati, Seidl & Ceska, a mushroom from the latest survey on Observatory Hill

Victoria mycologist Oldriska (Oluna) Ceska has been surveying the fungi of Observatory Hill since March 2004. Her full reports for the past four years, including photos, can be downloaded at the bottom of this page. Oluna can be contacted at aceska@telus.net.
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by Aimee Pelletier, Ecosystem Scientist, Parks Canada
Originally published in the CRD Volunteers in Parks newsletter.

Deltoid Balsamroot flower head, showing the yellow ray petals that surround a compound disk of inflorescences that mature from the outside inwards (photo by Aimee Pelletier, Parks Canada)

Parks Canada staff at Fort Rodd Hill & Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Sites have been literally “busy as bees” this spring, carrying out a cross-pollination experiment to assist in the recovery of Endangered Deltoid Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza deltoidea) at Fort Rodd Hill. Deltoid Balsamroot is showy native sunflower that once grew abundantly in Garry Oak woodlands in our region but is now restricted to eight relatively small natural populations (COSEWIC 2009). READ MORE →

By Julia Daly, Bring Back the Bluebirds Project Technician, July 17, 2012
Photos by Julia unless otherwise indicated

July 22, 2012: Banding day for the first Western Bluebirds to hatch on Vancouver Island since 1995 (photo by Bill Pennell)

When asked to write a “week in the life” article that described my experiences as a field technician working on the pilot year of a five-year Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana) re-introduction project, I thought to myself, how can I generalize all I’ve seen and done over the past six weeks into one “typical” week, when each day brings so many personal firsts? On my first day of work, for example, I got to see live Western Bluebirds for the very first time—an entire family of them! Little did I know that these same birds would later choose to remain at their release site and produce another clutch! As I write this, four newly hatched bluebird chicks are nestled inside a bluebird box in the Cowichan Valley. They are the first Western Bluebirds known to have hatched on Vancouver Island in 17 years. READ MORE →

The male Western Bluebird moments after he was released at Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve May 10, 2012 (photo by Bill Pennell)

Bluebirds cross border with permits, hopes for future

In late April 2012, two pairs of extirpated Western Bluebirds were seen crossing the US-Canada border with all their paperwork in place, pioneers in creating a restored population in Canada. Their arrival at the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve (CGOP) near Duncan is the culmination of more than six years of hard work by partners in the Bring Back the Bluebirds project. “After the birds have acclimatized in temporary aviaries, they will be released,” says Irvin Banman, site manager at CGOP. “We’ve placed nestboxes on the preserve and in nearby suitable habitat, and we hope that the birds will raise their young in them and return next year.” READ MORE →