the

Acorn
The Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy Number 30, Autumn 2005

Mount Erskine Saved

The Board of Directors is delighted to announce that its
campaign to purchase the spectacular 100-acre parcel
at the summit of Salt Spring’s Mount Erskine is close to
completion. Final agreements for the purchase are now
being prepared for a closing date of September 30.
We wish to thank all those who have donated so
generously and so promptly to our campaign to secure
this key parcel of land. It forms the core of a larger
area of undeveloped and protected lands on Mount
Erskine and the foundation for a substantial park in
the northern part of Salt Spring Island. This protected
area includes a park reserve owned by the Islands Trust
Fund, the Manzanita Ridge Nature Reserve owned
by the Conservancy, and adjacent lands protected by
conservation covenants. A total of almost 240 ha (600
acres) of contiguous coastal Douglas-fir and arbutus
forest habitat will be protected or left undeveloped.
Discussions are continuing with BC Parks to provide
long-term protection of the two adjacent Crown land
parcels by incorporating them into a park.
The campaign to save the top of Mount Erskine
was launched by the Salt Spring Island Conservancy in
early April. In addition to the enthusiastic support of
Salt Spring Island residents and businesses, we wish to
acknowledge the assistance we have received from our
conservation partners at the Islands Trust Fund, Habitat
Acquisition Trust, The Land Conservancy of British
Columbia, and the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
- Peter Lamb and Charles Kahn
www.mounterskine.org

Inside:
President’s Page............... 2
Stewardship .................... 4
Director’s Desk................ 5
Events
Calendar ...................... 6
Event Notes
Community Atlas...... 6
Killer Whales ............ 7
Fungus ..................... 7
Inter-Island Forum ... 9
Features
Ganges Harbour........... 3
Muddling ..................... 8
Inside SSIC
Bench Raffle ................. 2
Scholarship .................. 9
Comment
George Ehring............ 10

illustration: Briony Penn related article on page 3

http://saltspring.gulfislands.com/conservancy
President’s Page

Governing Environment
One of the real benefits of working with the Conservancy
is the satisfaction of seeing our island community respond
to what we believe are critical issues. Whether it is saving
a mountain-top, visiting homeowners to explain land
stewardship or intervening in development applications
to the Trust, islanders have generously supported the
Conservancy.
One critical issue that gives us real concern is the likely
environmental, social and economic impact that will be
caused by increasing development, tourism and population
pressures in the Trust area. At what stage should islanders
and, indeed, all residents of the Province, be alarmed that too
many visitors to our islands may diminish the community
values we cherish and destroy the very essence of what
attracts those visitors?
Rising investment levels, increased tourism, traffic
problems and growing residents’ concerns over such basic
needs as water supplies and affordable housing clearly place
Salt Spring Island and, perhaps, other Gulf Islands, at risk
unless there is appropriate intervention. We continue to work
with the Islands Trust, our CRD director and conservation
partners to promote a strong, enforceable, protective
environmental mandate for our islands.
That’s the cautionary message. In the meantime, we
celebrate our achievements as agents for environmental
protection and public awareness. Our membership has
exceeded 600, our stewardship program has identified
new species, we saw a huge public response to oppose
commercialization of the Ganges Harbour shoreline and we
were overwhelmed by the financial support for our Mount
Erskine purchase. It feels good to be here!
- Peter Lamb

Bench and Booth

The annual raffle of one of Luke Hart-
Weller’s creations is a very popular
fundraiser for SSIC. Luke, who produces
these beautiful pieces in his Copperwood
Gallery in downtown Fulford Harbour,
finds inspiration in large and small
pieces of beached wood. Fir, red and
yellow cedar, apple or maple: he will
work with them all, singly or together,
often imbedding copper discs or beach
glass.
I will always remember my slack-
jawed state of “gobsmackedness” on
seeing that first garden bench in 2000.
The image of driftwood I held was of a
silvery desiccation, a look particularly
suited to west coast garden furniture. I
was totally unprepared for the glowing
golden beauty of his meticulous hand
finishes. Illuminated by a stray shaft of
sunlight, it sat there in a self-satisfied
manner, saying “Look at me NOW!” It Charles Dorworth and Nancy Holcroft
was a work of art. Each successive bench has spoken to each
ticket buyer: “You’re mine!” Thank you, Luke, for making it a spot really early. James has come at 6:00am, 5:00am, and
so easy to sell tickets. even at 4:00am on 2 occasions I know of. He sacrifices his
Which reminds me of Saturday’s other saint, James sleep so our booth-tending volunteers can have a bit more.
Falcon. He doesn’t especially relish getting up before dawn, And thanks to those volunteers, too, whom we will
but has done so most willingly on our behalf every market- praise lavishly at the end of the season.
season Saturday. Volunteer organizations have to compete
weekly for a place, which can only be secured by marking - Ruth Tarasoff

2 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy


Silvery Herring or Red Herring?
Shiyahwt is the original name for Ganges Harbour, a name so
old that the Hul’qumi’num meaning has been lost. Village sites
along the Harbour date back to before 4000BP. It was one of
the most important gathering sites in the region for herring,
clams, sea birds, porpoise and estuarine plants. Because of
a unique combination of quiet water, fine sediments and
nutrients from the Fraser River, Ganges Harbour is a magnet
for all life.
The secret is eelgrass, essential to silvery hordes of
herring, the species around which harbour life revolves.
Herring school in huge numbers only in quiet bays in
February and March where there are eelgrass beds. Even
Ganges Harbour circa 2005 is quiet then!
Ganges Harbour has supported one of the largest
spawning runs of Pacific herring in all the Gulf Islands. It
is quite deep but also has several estuaries where eelgrass
can grow. Some of the choicest beds were at the head of
the Harbour. Some grow there today; some that have been
lost can be replanted. Fulford Harbour used to have smaller
numbers of spawning herring, but has not in many years.
Nowhere else around Saltspring Island do herring spawn
with any intensity.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans began recording
herring numbers in 1934. After the herring reduction fishery
caused numbers to crash in the last half of the 1900s there
has been a recent resurgence of the population. Kathy
Scarfo noted that herring spawn was thick throughout the
Centennial docks area in 2004 during one of the largest
spawns in years. A dense horde of spawning herring creates
a living maelstrom, as everything from salmon to seals
and harlequins to herons feeds on the eggs or the herring
themselves.
The Red Herring
It serves some purposes to promote the notion that
Ganges Harbour is “dead.” Is this a herring of a different
hue? In truth, the Harbour is a biodiversity hotspot. Think
about what these comments mean:
“Autumn, 2002, a group of transient killer whales
attacked a minke whale in full view of a crowd of onlookers
on Saltspring Island...” Vancouver Aquarium News.
In 1977, Dr. Wayne Campbell, Research Scientist with
the BC Ministry of Environment reported, “The major areas
of winter concentrations of waterbirds, Active Pass and
Ganges Harbour, may experience aggregations of as many as
15,000 ands 19,000 waterbirds respectively.”
Dr, Rob Butler, Research Scientist, Canadian Wildlife
Service, said in 1995 that “The Strait of Georgia holds
internationally significant populations of waterbirds. In a
review of the importance of the Strait, we singled out the
sheltered waters of the Gulf Islands for conservation. Ganges
Autumn 2005
Features
Harbour is important in this regard because it attracts large
numbers of birds during the herring spawning season in
February and March...” “We counted over 22,000 waterbirds
in Ganges Harbour. Of special concern are the scoters and
the western grebes. The Gulf Islands is the world centre for
western grebes. I encourage the protection and restoration
of Ganges Harbour’s ecosystem by seeking suitable
designation.”
“In recent years,” said Rob Russell, Habitat Biologist with
DFO, in 1993, “Ganges has become a popular destination
for boaters and recreationalists. The demand for moorage
and shore-based facilities in Ganges Harbour has increased
dramatically. As a consequence, wildlife values, especially
fisheries resources, may be at risk (because of the) sometimes
subtle impacts of marinas and urban development.”
M. Nassichuk, Pollution Abatement Division,
Environment Canada, remarked in 1995 that “The future
sustainability of shellfish growing areas on Salt Spring will
depend to a large extent on development. We believe that it
is critical that development both from upland and foreshore
have strict guidelines with respect to the protection and
preservation of intertidal species and sub-tidal marine
ecosystems.”
Crossroads
We are at a critical point. We can decide to stop the
trend of declining wildlife because of the impacts from shore
facilities and marinas, or watch continued declines.
We need better and more comprehensive knowledge
of the life of the Harbour. No studies of overall cumulative
effects of human use of the Harbour have been done. A
tourism management study, already funded, is to be part of
our upcoming Official Community Plan Review. Some of
the money should be spent on knowing our environment
- which is what tourists “buy.”
The southern Gulf Islands are a candidate area for a
National Marine Conservation Area (NMCA) to complement
Gulf Islands National Park. NMCAs balance human use and
new levels of protection of seabeds, the water above them and
the wildlife living there. They may also encompass wetlands,
estuaries, islands and other coastal lands. Ecological reviews
are starting here this month. With a well planned NMCA
we could have a working Harbour but also have federal
resources to help manage and restore some of the degraded
parts of the Harbour, such as eelgrass beds.
The Upshot
Ganges Harbour is very much alive but not entirely
well. We can choose to restore its health or to kill it. The
Continued on page 9
3
Stewardship

Species Monitoring by Volunteers

Biologists identifying species at risk know that funds for rare tailed snake. Whatever species you are looking for in your
species monitoring are few and far between. Limited funding area, you will find that with limited funding available,
is available through some government agencies, like the volunteer naturalists are a key part of any long term species
Government of Canada Habitat Stewardship Program (HSP) monitoring plan.
for Species at Risk and a few private agencies, but these funds
are limited to project grants and are in high demand. As a - Karen Hudson
result, the Salt Spring Island Conservancy enlists volunteers
and trains them to assist in monitoring species at risk.
The Salt Spring Island
Conservancy’s Stewardship 2004
Project, which was partially funded
by HSP, recruited and trained
volunteer naturalists. During the
monitoring of species at risk in
2004, staff identified willing local
volunteer naturalists and paired
them with species at risk experts
on site visits to known occurrences
of species at risk. This allowed
the project to combine the work
of annual species monitoring
with training of volunteers in
identification of rare species and
habitats. The project successfully
recruited and trained eleven
volunteer naturalists: one butterfly
volunteer, four bird volunteers, one
sharp-tailed snake volunteer, two
plant volunteers, one mushroom
volunteer, and two general.
Volunteers continue to play a
key role in this year’s stewardship project, “Habitat Protection Adult and juvenile sharp-tailed snake
and Stewardship of Species at Risk on Salt Spring” which is
again funded by HSP with additional funding from the Salt Snake Alert
Spring Island Foundation and The Vancouver Foundation.
Our four bird volunteers made regular site visits through The Conservancy received funding from the Government
the spring to document any sightings of the BC red-listed of Canada Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at
western bluebird (Sialia mexicana). Our butterfly volunteer Risk, the Vancouver Foundation, and the Salt Spring
is aided in her search for the threatened dun skipper Island Foundation to continue our outreach, education
(Euphyes vestries) and other BC listed butterflies by a local and research into rare species on Salt Spring Island this
group of volunteers formed to record butterfly sightings: the year. We are supporting landowners in their stewardship
Salt Spring Butterflyers. Their primary goals are to monitor efforts by providing site visits to residents with Garry oak
butterfly species and populations on Salt Spring and to ecosystems or rare species on their land. We are focusing
encourage all islanders to protect and create the kinds of our site visits this fall on the endangered sharp-tailed snake.
environments these remarkable insects need to survive. As you likely know, this snake is between 12-35 cm uniform
You can find out more about this group at: http://www. brown in colour (juvenile with pronounced reddish stripes
ssbutterflyers.org/butterflyers/ running down the side) with a black and white barred
Salt Spring Island Ecological Reserve warden, Paul belly. If you think that you may have seen this small snake
Linton, is constantly on the lookout for rare plants, and in your garden under rocks, wood or garden debris, we
Conservancy board member Charles Dorworth is now are very interested in hearing from you at 538-0318 or
looking under snake boards for our local endangered sharp- ssiconservancy@saltspsring.com

4 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy


Eco-Home Tour & Sustainable Building Forum
On July 31st, the Salt Spring Island Conservancy showed
over 400 residents and visitors 12 innovative eco-homes
and home renovations by Conservancy members on the first
ever Salt Spring Eco-Home Tour. With support from the
Salt Spring Island One Tonne Challenge, the Conservancy
sponsored a Sustainable Home Building Forum with a panel
of sustainable builders and architects, and the Eco-Home
Tour, which included homes of cob, straw bale, and rammed
earth construction.
The evening before the tour, 150 people attended the
Sustainable Home Building Forum at Meadon Hall to find
out more about sustainable and green building. Paula Baker
LaPorte, architect and author of Prescriptions for A Healthy
House, kicked off the evening with a visually beautiful and
informative slideshow about healthy and sustainable home
building. Next up was Meror Krayenhoff, the visionary
behind local award-winning builders, Terra Firma Builders.
Meror showed slides of local homes built of insulated rammed
earth, which uses foam insulation sandwiched between earth
walls to provide a structural wall system that is beautiful,
non-toxic, energy efficient, fire resistant, and provides good
indoor air quality. Dick Stubbs, recently retired local building
inspector, and the evening’s moderator, directed questions to
panel members Paula, Meror, Elizabeth White, Phillip Van
Horne, and Nitya Harris.
The next day, the one-day home tour showed how
many Conservancy members who are concerned about
sustainability have put their ideas into action by building
homes that reflect their values. The homeowners, who in most
cases built their own homes, spent the day explaining the
features incorporated into their home designs on continuous
guided tours. Hearing these dedicated homeowners speak
so passionately about their creative and sustainable building
practices was definitely a highlight of touring the unique
homes and beautiful gardens.
The technologies on the tour included an energy retrofit
of a 1950s cottage with a solar hot water system, a rammed
earth cottage, straw bale homes, greywater systems, cob,
water-catchment systems; beetle-kill pine and recycled
rubber tire flooring; and ‘off the grid’ homes which are energy
self-sufficient. The homes were packed with ideas to reduce
energy and water usage, and associated operating costs. Eco-
home tour ticket purchasers received a $25 discount coupon
for a CityGreen EnerGuide for Houses Assessment, and all
participants were encouraged to adopt at least one of the
environmental practices showcased on the tour.
One popular feature on the tour was the insulation in the
island’s first legally permitted cob dwelling, which was made
from recycled blue jeans. The cob in this house was made
from a mixture of local sand, clay, water, and straw. Cob is an
inexpensive type of construction that uses environmentally
Autumn 2005
Director’s Desk
friendly materials and unskilled labour resulting in toxin free
cob walls that offer uniform room temperatures throughout
the year. One wall had small rounds of logs added to insulate
the walls, called a cordwood cob wall. Cob walls, similar
to adobe construction, can be made into round and curvy
shapes, as seen on the tour at the partially completed cob
home on Mt. Maxwell Road. The homeowner at this house
was the first to offer her home for next year’s tour, so people
can come back to see the finished cob home. This sounds
like the beginning of an annual event…KH.
Juliet Smith in front
of her cob house
Evermore Thanks
The Salt Spring Island Conservancy thanks everyone
who contributed to a very successful Eco-Home Tour and
Sustainable Building Forum including:
The Salt Spring One-Tonne Challenge, Ken & Sue
Richards, Elizabeth White, Ali Hames & Dominic, Adina
Hildebrandt & Andrew Haigh, Jaime & Drew Rokeby-
Thomas, Becky & Paul Niedziela, Brandon and Patti Bauer,
Axel Dollheiser & Juliet Smith, Gus & Eileen Wttewaall,
Marcus Gasper & Eva Kuhn, Brenda Guiled & Don Gillespie,
Mhora Hepburn & Joy Nahirnick, Kate Leslie, Islands Trust
Fund, Clare Frater, Salt Spring Books, Leslie Wallace, Paula
Baker-LaPorte, Nitya Harris, Meror Krayenhoff, Terra Firma
Builders, Philip Van Horne, Dick Stubbs, Maxine & Steve
Leichter, Chris Anderson, Robin Ferry, Chris Scott, Marion
& Manfred Pape, Katherine Atkins, Cornelia Krikke &
Ken Deaton, Jan Slakov, Susan Berlin, Anke Smeele, Jan
Mangan, Bruce Elkin, Nora Layard, Elizabeth Buchanan &
Larry Woods, Clifford & Diana Knox, Tanya Lester, George
& Nancy Slain, Joan & John Dickenson, Charles Kahn, Bob
Cooke, Elizabeth Nolan, Hannah Brown, Ruth Tarasoff,
David Borrowman, Linda Horsdal, Dick & Jill Willmott,
Chris Drake, Ruth Tarasoff, Nona Keel, Thrifty’s, Island
Star Video, The Royal Canadian Legion, CityGreen, Alan
Goldin & Manon Levesque, Morningside Organic Bakery,
The Driftwood, Island Tides, GISS, Maureen Bendick, Peter
Lamb & Jean Gelwicks, Ruth Tarasoff, Susan Marshall, Bob
Weeden, Linda Quiring & Bill Goddu, Blake Richards, and
all of the folks who carpooled.
5
Conservancy Events

Upcoming Events
September 18-19: Look for SSI Conservancy Booth at ISLANDS IN THE SALISH SEA
Fall Fair.
September 23 – 25: Inter-Island Forum at GISS. The
COMMUNITY ATLAS
Friday evening free event at 7pm is open to everyone. A
panel discussion of knowledgeable, thought provoking The Islands in the Salish Sea Community Atlas will be
and entertaining islanders on Trust governance and released October 29. This atlas is the culmination of
discuss how we best serve our mandate of “preserve and over five years of work by well over 3000 people who
protect.” live in a region we call the Salish Sea, also known as the
October 15 (Saturday): Mount Erskine Celebration. Strait of Georgia. These beautiful and innovative maps are
7:30 pm to 9:30 pm (doors open at 7:00 pm). At the extraordinary, encompassing cartography, science, history, art
Community Gospel Chapel next to Portlock Park. and community planning. Exhibited as a group earlier, their
October 21 (Friday): Mushrooms of Salt Spring – Slide publication in the Atlas completes a three-stage undertaking,
Show by Rob Countess. Rob is an expert at mushroom the Islands In The Salish Sea Community Mapping Project.
identification and has an excellent knowledge of Seventeen communities took inventories and held
Vancouver Island ecosystems. 7:00 to 9:00 pm (doors workshops to gather information which was then lovingly
open at 6:30pm). Lions Hall. By donation. imaged by local artists. Those maps, plus six regional maps
October 22 (Saturday): Mushroom Walks with Rob showing band relations within the Salish Nation, endangered
Countess. 9:00 am to noon, and 1:00pm to 4:00pm. ecosystems, economics, energy and transportation, protected
Limited space, please pre-register by calling 538-0318, sites and a marine map, comprise the collection.
or by email at ssiconservancy@saltspring.com Cost: $20. These beautiful maps will be displayed, along with
October 23 & 24 (Sunday/Monday): Mushroom stories of their creation and selected details about the
Cultivation Workshop with Rob Countess. Learn all 17 communities, at ArtSpring, Saltspring Island’s venue.
the steps to growing your own mushrooms. 10:00am Additional chapters in the Atlas are written by Sheila
to 3:00 pm. Space is limited to 12 participants. Pre- Harrington, Judi Stevenson and Kathy Dunster. Robert
register by calling 538-0318, or by email at ssiconserva Bateman has written a preface and Briony Penn a foreword.
ncy@saltspring.com. Cost is $80 for this one-of-a-kind They outline the power and nature of community mapping,
workshop. Prepayment is requested to hold your spot. eloquently describe the process by which the maps were
October 29 (Saturday): Atlas of the Salish Sea Book
Launch, 2:30 – 6pm (Doors open at 2pm) at ArtSpring. Continued on page 7
Final exhibition of all the Salish Sea maps in the Robert
Bateman gallery: October 29 - November 4. SSIC is the
local sponsor of this project.
November 4 (Friday): John Ford about WHALES, 7:30 Thank you to our business members:
to 9:30pm at ArtSpring. Tickets available at Art Spring
for $12. This is a fundraising event for the Stewards in Anchorage Cove B&B Salt Spring Centre of Yoga
Training School Programs. Baker Beach Cottages Salt Spring Centre School
November 25 (Friday): The Mosses of Salt Spring - Balmoral By The Sea B&B Salt Spring Coffee Co.
Photographic Presentation by Barb’s Buns Salt Spring Home Design
Dr. Terry McIntosh, 7- 9pm (doors open at 6:30pm), Beddis House B&B Centre
Lions Hall. Sponsored by the SSIC Bold Bluff Retreat Salt Spring Island Chamber
Bootacomputer of Commerce
Stewardship Project.
Creekhouse Realty Ltd. Salt Spring Kayaking
November 26 (Saturday): Moss Workshop by Dr. Green Acres Resort Salt Spring Way B&B
Terry McIntosh looking at general characteristics of this
Gulf Island Picture Framing Saltspring Linen & Dry
group of plants, and teaching how to identify some of
the common and rare mosses in the area. 9am - 5pm. Island Escapades Cleaning
Space is limited to 15 participants. Pre-register by Island Star Video Saltspring Soapworks
calling 538-0318, or by email at ssiconservancy@saltsp Neil Morie - Architect Spindrift at Welbury Point
ring.com. Cost is $80 for this daylong workshop, and Murakami Auto Body & Sprague Associates Ltd.
prepayment is requested to hold your spot. Repairs Terra Firma Builders Ltd.
December 2-4: Look for SSI Conservancy Booth at Salt Spring Books The Wine Cellar
Beaver Hall Christmas Craft Fair.

6 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy


Dr. John Ford and Killer Whales
Lecture, November 4th, 7:30 - 9:00 pm
ArtSpring
The education committee is always excited about their
speakers, but after trying for two years they are more excited
then ever to announce that John Ford is coming to Salt
Spring on November 4th to give a talk about killer whales.
Killer whales, or orcas, are the most widely distributed
large predator in the world’s oceans. Despite being able to
take whatever they choose, these animals can be remarkably
picky about what they eat. In BC and other parts of the world
different populations of killer whales may have distinct food
preferences. John will explore with us the foraging strategies
of killer whales. He will be showing video clips and playing
underwater sounds.
John Ford is the head of the Cetacean Research Program
at the Pacific Biological Station, Nanaimo. He is also an
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Zoology and the
Fisheries Centre, UBC. He has been involved in field
studies of whales in Western Canadian water since 1977.
He has written or co-written numerous scientific article and
books on killer whales, and his research has been featured
in documentaries by National Geographic, CBC and BBC,
and in many magazine articles. John’s recent research has
focused on the conservation status of cetaceans listed under
Canada’s Species-at-Risk Act. He is an expert on using sound
broadcast and reception to determine the population status
of whales and porpoises.
Mark Nov. 4th from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm on your
calendar. Cost for this event will be $12. Tickets available at
ArtSpring. For more information call SSIC at 538-0318.
Fungus Among Us
Slide Show & Talk, October 21st, 7:00pm
Lions Hall
Guided Walks, October 22nd, 9:00am & 1:00pm
Last year’s warm fall rains brought an abundance of
mushrooms to Salt Spring Island. The interest in mushrooms
was almost at a frenzy. Besides putting on a slide show
to a standing room only crowd, the SSI Conservancy ran
five mushroom identification walks and two mushroom
cultivation workshops.
We have no way of telling what this year’s crop of
mushrooms will look like but we are prepared for another
good year and have invited Rob Countess, one of the most
knowledgeable and enthusiastic mycologists in BC, back
to give another slide show, two walks and two cultivation
workshops.
Autumn 2005
Conservancy Events
Event Notes
For those of you who did not get to meet Rob last
year you will not want to miss him this year. Rob studied
mushrooms at the University of Victoria, where he earned
his Master of Science degree in Biology with a thesis on
mushrooms. He has collected, identified and preserved over
385 species of fungi, created a database of over 6,000 fungal
collections and written many articles on mushrooms.
Rob says that this year’s slide show, “will help you evolve
from a possible liver-transplant-recipient-to-be to a confident
edible wild mushroom harvester.”
The Fungus Among Us slide show and talk runs October
21st (Friday), beginning at 7:00 pm (doors open at 6:30) at
Lions Hall. You will not want to miss Rob’s fabulous slide
show. A donation of $5 each is suggested.
Both walks take place the following day, October 22nd,
with the first starting at 9:00 am and the second taking place
at 1:00 pm. The walks are limited to 20 people each and
cost $20. The focus of the walks will be on identifying edible
mushrooms.
The cultivation workshops, which are limited to 12
people, take place October 23 and 24 at a cost of $80. This
workshop will teach you everything you need to know
to grow your own gourmet mushrooms….from starting
cultures, to producing spawn, to preparing and inoculating
bulk substrate and caring for your crop. You will leave the
workshop with a mushroom culture, innoculated spawn
(Enoki) and an oyster mushroom growing kit. This is an all
day workshop and includes everything you will need.
Please register at the Conservancy office (538-0318)
for the walks and workshops as the numbers are limited. I
found a prince mushroom the other day and it was delicious.
Jealous?
- Jean Gelwicks
Continued from page 6
created, and offer a succinct narrative of the history of the
area. Treat yourself to a once-in-a-lifetime experience! See
the exhibition at ArtSpring Oct. 29 - Nov. 4 and attend the
opening celebration at ArtSpring on Oct. 29 from 2:00 to
6:00pm. Call 538 - 0112 for details.
Call for Submissions!
You are invited to submit articles to the Acorn on any
topic, including: the Conservancy’s history, natural history,
stewardship, and fundamental Conservancy interests
including selected issues beyond SSI borders. If you have
any ideas, write to us at ssiconservancy@saltspring.com or
PO Box 722, SSI, BC, V8K 2W3. Thanks!
7
Natural History
Muddling
I was late. Parked in Gasoline Alley, I tugged off my everyday
sneakers and laced up a completely disreputable pair. You
know the kind: when you take them off you wonder about a
session of aromatherapy.
Kathy was 200 meters away at the edge of the minus
tide. She waved, perhaps so I wouldn’t head mistakenly for
one of the nearby great blue herons. (Kathy actually is taller
by quite a bit.)”I’ve got a grand thing here!” she shouted
while I made sure both shoes were filled with mud from
an algae-choked swale. “I think it is an egg case of a moon
snail.” As I slogged closer I saw a fragment of tire (“Must
have been a wheelbarrow,” my mind guessed to itself) and,
as any and all small boys will do forever and ever Amen I
swung a foot back to boost it skyward. “That’s it!” came a
shriek, so I stumbled instead of kicking.
“Well isn’t that amazing,” I said in my marvelling
naturalist’s voice. I didn’t tell her I had seen them on a few
low-tide kayak launches around the Island, as that would
let her guess how often these dull black curls of weird stuff
had practised the art of STOL. Incredible things! It was only
a few minutes later when we found a 10-centimeter moon
snail, perhaps Mom, nestled in the mud. It looked too lively
to be dead, so I tugged lightly on it. It wouldn’t budge. I saw
a foot contract. “Alive!” I said. “Leave it alone,” Kathy said.
We wandered around happily in the sun, took some GPS
readings to confirm digitally that we were virtually here, and
that the eelgrass colony, long admired by geese, wintering
ducks, marine biologists and sculpins, was here with us. A
concealed clam, aiming at my face as they all do, instead
sent an ephemeral stream (Kathy says that a lot) dribbling
down my bare leg. “I wonder,” I wondered to myself, “what
percentage of the ocean is clam piss?” As we crunched along
over the hundreds of shells littering the sandy mud, Kathy
showed me some of the common critters in the Harbour.
“This huge one is a horse clam,” she said. “You can tell it from
a big butter clam by the gap where the neck would come
out even when the two shells are clamped together.” “Here
is the common butter clam – and, Look! There’s the other
one in the same genus. With practice you can distinguish
them.” “Yeah, yeah,” I said to myself, looking at the mirror-
imaged cloned identical twins in my hands. “I’m familiar
with warblers and sandpipers, so I know a scam when I hear
one. You don’t have to be right, just convincing.”
Kathy’s thick brown hair, tousled and waved by the
sea air, didn’t hide the delighted sparkle in her eyes as she
discovered one treat after another. Deep purple inner shell
surfaces virtually shouted “varnish clam,” and cockles flaunted
their unmistakable cross-hatch of radiating and concentric
ridges. Sea stars (she sneered when I called them starfish) in
orange, purple and puce lay limply everywhere as if tossed
down by gods exhausted by all their twinkling. “Disaster,” I
8 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
think Kathy called them, but I was dodging a bomb from a
stray gull at the time, so I may have misunderstood. Worms,
always at the edge of vision, tail-twitched as they finished
with a meal. (You know what I mean, but there is no polite
word for it.) Like the good citizens of Victoria, they cast their
offerings to Neptune in complete faith that all would soon be
as good as new.
There were tunicates the colour of spar-varnished teak
at the far edge of the flats, hermit crabs in stolen homes,
sticklebacks in the puddles, and mysterious wandering
tracks that looked like a child’s first experiment with an
etcher-sketcher. The day’s prize, according to my guide, was
a cluster of pale yellow, almost translucent fingers piled in a
mound the size and consistency of a jellied salad at a church
potluck. “What in the world…?” was my contribution. “You
know what?” Kathy exclaimed. “I’ll bet those are squid egg
masses!” It was going to take a library visit for me. Meanwhile,
knowing that Raucous Glaucous the Busybody Gull watched
every move, we draped stringy green seaweed over it with
studied randomness.
Kathy wanted to check out an area along the Long
Harbour Road for eelgrass beds. The tide was slack and
turning, so we scooted around the village’s bay to a dandy
little estuary formed by a seasonal brook. A short walk among
Douglas-firs brought us to the intertidal zone. It was a festival
of fragrances: first the sun-warmed resins in the woods and
the pungence of trail dust, then the vigorous, fertile smell
of tideflats. I grew up at the edge of a different ocean, but
the odour was the same. As I followed Kathy toward the
water my mind tricked me into looking for boyhood friends,
the dark little fiddler crabs that foraged at low tide. Caught
out, they would hold bits of algae like veils across their faces
until, in terror, they side-scuttled down the nearest hole –
which often wasn’t their own.
Kathy wanted to get a minus-tide view of a shore that
had extensive clam beds and – we discovered – several
eelgrass beds. People in the neighbourhood want to build
docks here. “There are some dandy habitats here,” Kathy
mused, “that for sure have to be protected, but here’s a place
where ledges squeeze the clam beach down to a 10-metre
strip, and there is a gap in the eelgrass. One dock could be
OK here – neighbours could share.”
We took more GPS readings, which meant that you-
know-who went wading up to his you-know-what with the
Diviner of Digits and said “Jeez” when the camera aimed.
The shallow water felt wonderfully cool, the grit washing
into my sneakers hardly hurt at all.
We watched a flock of sun-dazed geese taking their ease
next to us. There were 50, possessing 63 legs among them
by actual count. The youngsters stretched their wings lazily,
Continued on page 10

Salt Spring to Host Inter-Island Forum
Salt Spring Island will be hosting the first community
– organized, Inter-Island Forum on Trust governance.
Representatives from the 13 islands in the Trust area will be
discussing ways of strengthening, modifying or reinventing
the organization and powers of the Islands Trust. This Forum
is for islanders who support the mandate of the Islands Trust
and who would like to join other islanders to share ideas
and explore ways of working together. The Forum will be
working with the question: What can we do as citizens and
islanders to strengthen and invigorate the Islands Trust’s
ability to fulfill its “preserve and protect” mandate?
The Forum grew out of the 2004 Denman Island
conference that highlighted our many common strands
as well as the Islands Trust forum in Nanaimo earlier this
year that examined our Trust-wide issues. Organizers hope
this will be the first of many such Inter-Island Forums for
islanders. The hope is to have one a year, with different
themes and hosted by a different island every year.
Organizers are making an extraordinary effort to make
sure every island in the Trust is represented at the Forum.
They have secured funding to offer travel bursaries, Salt
Spring Islanders are billeting participants, ten spaces have
been reserved for every island and organizers are working
with coordinators on most islands to get invitations out and
Scholarship Winner at Queen’s
Hannah Munro, winner in 2005 of the W. David and Marilyn
Thadden-Dexter Conservancy Scholarship, is starting her
Honours Bachelor of Science program at Queen’s University
in Ontario this month. Hannah had a busy summer, attending
the Canadian Youth Climate Change Conference and taking
part in “Students On Ice,” two weeks of travel with 75 youth
and 30 scientists to Iceland, Greenland and Baffin Island.
While en route home, Hannah wrote to us that she
sailed across Denmark and Davies Straits in the company
of seabirds and whales, stopping in many small settlements
along the way.
Marilyn Thadden-Dexter created this Scholarship as a
memorial to her husband in 2001. The Conservancy named
the Scholarship to acknowledge Marilyn and William (David)
for their devotion to environmental causes.
From left:
Hannah Munro,
Nancy MacDonald (GISS
Principal), Jean Gelwicks
Autumn 2005
Event Note
encourage participation.
The Forum will run Friday, Sept. 23– Sunday 25 . The
Forum launch on Friday evening is open to everyone and it is
free. This special event will feature a panel of knowledgeable,
thought-provoking and entertaining islanders who will be
wrestling with hard questions such as: “How has the Island
Trust made a difference to our islands?,” and What are
the limits to growth and how do we cope with anticipated
change due to growth our islands can tolerate?
Hopefully this evening will get participants thinking
about what we need to do, and set the stage for Saturday’s
discussions. The Forum is being held at the Gulf Island
Secondary School and the Friday evening event, which starts
at 7: 00, includes the Forum opening, panel discussion, and
refreshment.
Organizers would like to thank the Real Estate
Foundation for their generous grant, Salt Spring Island Local
Trust Committee for funds to host the Friday evening public
event, the Sustainability Institute for hosting the Saturday
evening event of true Island entertainment and the Salt Spring
Island Conservancy for being a sponsor of the Forum.
If you support the aims of our Forum and are interested
in attending the forum please contact 250-537-4859 to
obtain an information package and application form.
The award, given when a worthy applicant is found in
Gulf Islands Secondary School, went to Jessica Courtier in
2001, Cory Marshall in 2003, and now to Ms. Munro.
Continued from page 3
former asks for caring, forethought and practical steps that
can be fun and rewarding. The latter follow from neglect,
myopia and pure self-centredness. One way leads to deep
satisfaction and is a step toward an enduring community. The
other brings regret and sickness to our whole community.
Can anyone hesitate over the choice?
Putting this talk together required the help of many
people who studied the Harbour in the past or who know
current conditions. I thank Jacky Booth, Chris Arnett, Donald
Gunn, Rob Butler, Ron George, Kathy Scarfo, Islands Trust
staff, and, most especially, Nina Raginski and other members
of the Waterbird Watch Collective.
- Briony Penn
(Ed. note: Briony presented these ideas and information at
a public lecture on August 17, 2005. She generously let me
tailor her work, minus almost all of her fine images, for the
ACORN. She has a full set of references for her facts and
observations, for those who want them.)
9
Guest Comment
If it Ain’t Dead, Don’t Kill It
Year after year they come back to Ganges Harbour, and there
seems to be no end to them — unless we deliberately kill
them off. I don’t think anyone really knows exactly what
makes them come here, or what makes one year busier than
another, but still they come, descending on our shores like
flies. We don’t need to invite them; they show up all by
themselves. Lots of them come here mostly to have sex, and
then they leave. Regardless of their behaviour, we have to
put up with them. Accommodate them, even. Make them
feel at home.
Coming from hundreds, even thousands of kilometres
away, they are drawn to Salt Spring like a magnet. They
arrive in swarms and flocks, and even schools. Some hitch
rides, and quite a few — you have to have the guts to admit
it — are nothing more than parasites. Others are slimy.
Bottom-feeders, even. But it’s no use complaining; they come
anyway. It’s as if they own the place.
Maybe they do. After all, they were here long before we
were.
Even on clear days, Ganges Harbour is teeming with
marine life. It’s surprising, for such a busy place. Silvery
herring, surf scoters, buffleheads, starfish, jellyfish. Old
coots and young ones. The harbour is alive with them and
countless other species. And underneath them all are the
cushy king-size eelgrass beds, spawning ground for Pacific
herring, the species that the others depend on. The eelgrass
still grows along the Ganges Harbour shoreline, and it can be
replanted in many places where it’s gone. The herring spawn
in February and March, when the island’s other visitors aren’t
so numerous. Coexistence is possible.
Essentially, that was the message Briony Penn gave to
a meeting of about 200 islanders who turned out for the
first public meeting of Save Our Shoreline (SOS), the latest
Salt Spring group formed to try to do what the Islands Trust
seems to have such a hard job doing — Preserve and Protect
our island. Briony’s message was clear: the marine life in
Ganges Harbour ain’t dead, so don’t kill it. (See her article in
this ACORN.)
Activists formed SOS in the beginning of July, after
the Trust gave first reading to a bylaw that would allow the
owners of the B&B Ganges Marina to infill 6400 square
feet of the harbour and build a 16,500 square-foot, three-
and-a-half-storey building with commercial retail space
along the (as yet unfinished) boardwalk. It would include
10 hotel rooms, five residential suites, and Salt Spring’s first
underground parking garage. As it stands, the plan flies in
the face of numerous clauses in our Official Community
Plan. It also sets a dangerous precedent for the development
of other shoreline properties that line the harbour. But the
trustees gave the complex rezoning bylaw (number 404) first
reading, and that kick-started the formation of SOS.
10 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
Many islanders have been speaking out about the
proposed marina development ever since the current
application was filed nearly three years ago. But their protests
have fallen on the trustees’ deaf ears, so the need to broaden
the base of opposition was obvious. Hence SOS.
The group’s demands are simple and realistic — and they
would allow the marina developers to improve their facility
without doing damage to the harbour. First, SOS wants as
little infill as possible, or none at all. The OCP only permits
“minor” infill and “necessary to complete the boardwalk.”
The proposed infill is requested in order to create additional
land that would then be zoned for commercial use to build
the building, and has nothing to do with completing the
boardwalk. Second, we want to avoid the commercialisation
of the boardwalk. It should be a pedestrian-friendly
walkway without retail shops. And finally, we are calling for
community participation in the development of a harbour
management plan, along with an environmental study of the
ecological health of the harbour, before new developments
are permitted along the shoreline. We know the harbour isn’t
dead, but we want to find out what needs to be done to keep
it alive.
The members of SOS have said they would support
development that conforms predominantly to the existing
zoning and community values expressed in our Official
Community Plan. We think the OCP has some pretty sensible
guidelines, and we respect the long process that went into
drafting it in the first place. If it’s not something that we’re
supposed to follow, what’s it for?
So let’s keep the eelgrass and the herring and even the
old coots coming back to Salt Spring. They liven up the
place. To do that, we have to Save Our Shoreline.
- George Ehring
Continued from page 8
one at a time, while the adults, faking sleep, watched us out
of one untucked eye. Across the water a young eagle begged;
squinting, we could see two bits of chocolate, one topped
with marshmallow, in treetops on an island. Two ducks, all
brown and flying with the frenetic determination of hooded
mergansers, aimed toward us but swerved away in search of
a less crowded place to bully sculpins.
It was a good day. Actually, it was a great day. I had
the company of someone it was fun to learn from, and
the company of all of those other little lives that share this
Island. I had the company, too, of natural form, beauty, and
creation, and of ideas and wonderments. It is hard to beat a
few hours of muddling with Kathy Reimer.
- Bob Weeden
 Essential details

Office Update
604 and counting... Items Wanted:
We are pleased to announce that we now have 604 Donations of any of the following gratefully received.
Conservancy members helping us protect and enhance Office Items Household Items Other Items
natural values on the Island. We thank you all for your Vacuum Cleaner Electric tea kettle Saws, clippers
support and hope all of our members continue to support Speaker phone Small refrigerator Compass
our work in any way they can. Laptop ComputerHand secateurs Loppers
One way members can assist us is to keep their
memberships up to date, saving us the paper, postage, and We would also appreciate donations of gifts, such as new
time necessary to send out renewal letters. One easy way books or items related to nature or conservation, to give to
to do this is to check your Acorn mailing label for your our educational speakers, who volunteer their time.
membership expiration date, and another is to renew your
membership for three years when it comes due. Thanks
again, we couldn’t do it without you. -KH Help Wanted:
• Do you like talking to friendly people?
Thank you! • Do you have 4-8 hours a week that you could volunteer
to the Conservancy?
To Bob and Judy Cooke for donating a hotplate, which will
make the lives of the slaves more tolerable; and to Maureen We need YOU to help us schedule volunteers. We have the
Bendick for her calculator, indispensable for counting new volunteers, we just need some help calling them.
members. Please call Karen 538-0318 for more information.

The Acorn is the newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy, a local non-profit society supporting and enabling
voluntary preservation and restoration of the natural environment of Salt Spring Island and surrounding waters. We welcome
your feedback and contributions, by email to ssiconservancy@saltspring.com or by regular mail. Opinions expressed here
are the authors’, not subject to Conservancy approval.
Editor: Bob Weeden
Layout: Brian Smallshaw Membership Application Volunteer Opportunities
Youth (Under 16) 1 yr @ $15 _ We have a Volunteer Application Form
Board of Directors: Senior or Low-Income: 1 yr @ $20 _ 3 yr @ $60 _ that best describes areas you wish to
Samantha Beare (Treasurer) Regular Single 1 yr @ $25 _ 3 yr @ $75 _ help in. For now, which areas interest
Maureen Bendick (Vice-President) Regular Family 1 yr @ $35 _ 3 yr @ $105 _ you? Please check off:
Nigel Denyer Group/School 1 yr @ $35 _ 3 yr @ $105 _ ❒ Office Work (typing, filing or
Charles Dorworth Business 1 yr @ $55 _ 3 yr @ $165 _ computer work)
Jean Gelwicks ❒ Information Table at Saturday
Peter Lamb (President) Name: ______________________________________ Market (May through September)
Maxine Leichter Address: ____________________________________ ❒ Education Programs
Steve Leichter ____________________________________________ ❒ Annual Fundraising Events
Linda Quiring Postal Code: _________________________________ ❒ Information Table at SSI
Brian Smallshaw Phone: ______________________________________ Community Events
Ruth Tarasoff Email: _______________________________________ ❒ Joining a SSIC Committee (Land
Doug Wilkins Restoration & Management,
Bob Weeden (Secretary) ❒ Please send me the Acorn via e-mail. Fundraising, Covenants,
(We NEVER give out member’s email addresses to anyone!) Acquisitions, Education,
The Salt Spring Island ❒ This is a renewal for an existing membership Stewardship, or Environmental
Conservancy Governance)
#201 Upper Ganges Centre, Donations ❒ Other: _______________________
338 Lower Ganges Rd. In addition to my membership fee above, I have enclosed
my donation in the amount of: The Salt Spring Island
Mail: PO Box 722,
Salt Spring Island BC $50 _ $100 _ $250 _ $500 _ $1000_ $2500 _ $5000 _ Conservancy
Ganges PO Box 722
V8K 2W3 Other ___________
Salt Spring Island BC
Office hours : Tues/Thurs Tax receipts will be provided for donations of $20 or more. V8K 2W3
Printed on 18% recycled paper

Autumn 2005 11
 the Salt Spring Island
Conservancy
Ganges P.O. Box 722
Salt Spring Island, BC
V8K 2W3
40026325