the

Acorn
The Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy Number 33, Autumn 2006

They Need More of This!

“They need MORE of this!” said one elementary teacher, love with the land. If we can get students to understand how
referring to the Stewards in Training School Programs that ecosystems work and how everything is connected to the
took all grade 4/ 5 students on all day field trips to Ford Lake health of everything else, they can’t help being awed with
and Burgoyne Bay beach. Grade 6/7 students went to a Garry the wonder of it all. Our hope is by that understanding and
oak meadow at the Andreas Vogt Nature Reserve. love they will become better stewards of the land than our
A volunteer in the program was just as excited when she generation has been because they will “get it”, in a way that
stated, “I wouldn’t have missed this experience for anything! we didn’t. Without a healthy environment we have nothing.
Thanks to the superb creativity and organizational skills it Everything starts with and depends on a planet whose
was great for both volunteers and kids.” ecosystems are intact and healthy.
”A grade 5 student exclaimed, “I have learned so much. This is a long introduction to let you know that the
Thank you for arranging these field trips.” As one particular Conservancy is proud to announce that we have received
enthusiastic grade 7 student put it, “I love Garry oaks. I never funding to continue with our Stewardship in Training
heard about them before but now I love Garry oaks”. Program this year thanks to the Gaming Commission and to
“I love Garry oaks” That is it in a nutshell. Falling in Continued on page 11
Inside:
President’s Page .............. 2
Director’s Desk ............... 3
New Planner . ................. 3
Features
Salt Spring Coffee Co. .. 7
Natural History
Bent Twigs ................... 4
Events
Calendar....................... 6
Event Notes.................. 6
Inside SSIC
Green Pilgrims Guide.... 8
Hilary Brown................ 8
Deborah Miller............. 9
Ashley Hilliard.............. 9
Ten-year Members...... 11
Garden Benches.......... 13
Staff Biologist.............. 14
Stewardship
Snake Sites.................. 10
Essential Details............ 15

http://saltspring.gulfislands.com/conservancy
President’s Page
Authenticity: The Rise
and Fall of Meaning
I usually catch things on the third bounce, so “authenticity”
probably had joined the Top 100 Buzzwords by the time
I heard a business leader use it this spring while chatting
about the place of tourism in our community.
“The best thing we can do to attract the visitors we
want,” he said, “is to be an authentic community. Just be
ourselves.”
Then I remembered seeing the term in our 1998 Official
Community Plan. One of the Plan’s goals is “To ensure that
our community continues to function as an authentic,
resident-centred community in the face of internal and
external pressures to change and grow…”
“Authentic.” It has the truth of the oboe’s “A” that brings
other players to pitch. I like it.
I was still mulling it over two months later when the
host of a CBC talk show remarked that people who are
creative with computers can live where they want to, and
that they are shopping around for authentic communities. I
was glad enough to hear my positive reaction seconded; if a
phrase is on talk radio it’s mainstream. I took a bit of issue
with the way the whole conversation developed, however.
These folks, lucky enough to be creative with the medium of
the millennium, seemed to be shopping for authenticity as
they did manicured lawns, brew pubs, views of mountains
and colourful autumn foliage. Something to buy into. My
ruminations had taken a different direction: some old-
fashioned notion like “if it is worthwhile you probably have
to earn it.”
Still feeling picky, I thought that to be authentic a thing
only has to be true to its character; genuine but not necessarily
admirable. A town could be authentically bigoted or violent.
It could even pretend to be genuine and still be authentic, if
it had the character of a con artist.
“Quirky,” I thought,” but I’d better pick up a cooler
kartoffel.”
It takes time for a community to achieve authenticity.
New places rarely possess it. Remember the New Towns
that were the concrete expressions of Utopia after WW
II? Planned by visionaries and hired consultants, they had
every feature avant-garde engineers, architects, landscapers,
sociologists, educators and designers of infrastructure could
want. But they didn’t have authenticity, and most didn’t
last long enough to get it. And think of the thousands of
new bedroom towns fringing every older city in North
America. Most are less than half a century old. Some are
forming right now, tight-packed groups of obscenely huge
homes and condos springing out of yesterday’s dairy farm,
leaving just enough space for the formulaic mini-mall and
short-grass dog latrine. The computer gurus aren’t looking
for authenticity there.
Time and joy-packed, failure-ridden living are essential
 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
ingredients for the authentic community. Necessary, but not
sufficient. At least two more are required.
Any settlement can have authentic individuals in it, and
still miss the mark at the level of community. The move from
person to community is more than a matter of arithmetic.
It involves a shift from I to We, from the self-achieving,
idiosyncratic self to the organic community that surrounds
us, that embraces or rejects us, that makes us more or less than
we can be alone, that pre-dates and outlives us, that shapes
and is shaped by our wholehearted residence. Community
authenticity is harmonious with the character of current
members, but out of its longer history and comprehensive
memory it emerges into something more.
The other element essential for the authentic community
is rich relationship to landscape. In part this is the trial – and
– error work of adjusting community form to local nature.
Common sense eventually shapes a community to fit safely,
conveniently and efficiently within the floodplains, bluffs,
swamps and shorelines of its surroundings. Beyond that is
the never-finished work of adapting communal to natural
function. The authentic community lives with its landscape,
not on it. The land provides, the community cares. The
community asks, the land replies. The community’s
boundaries are not the obvious limits of dense habitation or
the political territories of governance but the entire area of
continually adjusting, mutually dependent human and non-
human societies.
I do think the term “authentic community” is full
of meaning and instruction. Yet, I’m afraid for its future.
I’ve seen new and hopeful phrases rise and fall before.
“Sustainable development,” for example, was offered in 1970
by an ecologist who hoped it would do more than smooth
off the rough edges of human expansion – that it would
express limits to growth, turn us from “more” to “better.”
It spread, became a cliché, cheapened, and finally became
interchangeable with “sustainable growth,” a simple-minded
bovine for sure. Today the revolutionary intent of the term
has vanished, drowned in misuse and perverted into a
marketing gimmick for yet another gated housing project.
We greenies haven’t been very careful with our own
language. My eyebrows arch every time I hear the term
“sensitive ecosystem,” for instance. I just don’t know what
it accomplishes. Every ecosystem (another fuzzy word
when it leaves the ivy tower and reaches Earth) is sensitive
to something. The biota of the remotest arctic ice pack is
being clobbered by a one or two degree rise in mean annual
temperature. Tundra plants are damaged easily by the
Continued on page 14

2nd Eco-Home Tour a Huge Success
On August 6th, the Salt Spring Island Conservancy and Salt
Spring Island Earth Festival Society showed close to 600
residents and visitors ten eco-homes and home renovations
by Conservancy members on the second annual Salt Spring
Eco-Home Tour. Sustainable home technologies on the
tour included: windmill power, rammed earth, hemp straw
bale, cob, water-catchment, masonry heating, solar, and
grey water systems. With support from the Conservancy,
the Earth Festival Society organized a Sustainable Building
Forum on the eve of the tour.
To kick off the weekend’s events, architect and keynote
speaker Helen Goodland, Executive Director of BC’s
Sustainable Building Centre in Vancouver, spoke to a crowd
of more than 200 at Meaden Hall. Goodland listed cost and a
lack of time and knowledge as common myths of integrating
sustainable practices into home construction or renovation.
She said events such as the Eco-Home Tour prove Salt
Spring Island is at the cutting edge of sustainability and do a
significant part to debunk the myths. By telling others about
their successes and failures, homeowners taking part in the
tour are the role models of a movement that is still relatively
new in other parts of the country.
The next day, 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. On this year’s tour, the homes included an organic
farm with solar hot water heating, a masonry heater with
built-in bake oven and plumbing for hot water, I-WOOD
construction that uses 30% less lumber and less waste, the
island’s first legally permitted cob dwelling which has walls
made from sand, clay and straw, and insulation made from
recycled blue jeans; and a hemp straw bale home. Straw
bale walls are highly insulative (up to R40) and sound
proof. Other technologies on the tour include an energy
retrofit of a 1950’s cottage with a solar hot water system, and
several water catchment systems. The homes were packed
with ideas to reduce energy and water usage, and associated
Autumn 2006
Director’s Desk
operating costs. 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 Eco-Home Tour and Sustainable Home Building
Forum was only possible with the overwhelming support
of the following homeowners, volunteers, businesses and
organizations:
Earth Festival Society, Adina Hildebrandt & Andrew
Haigh, Paul Burke & Anna Gustafson, Denis Hoddinott,
Elizabeth White, Rita & Denny Thomas, Becky & Paul
Niedziela, Axel Dollheiser & Juliet Smith, Marcus Gasper
& Eva Kuhn, Sandra Harrison, Marion Pape, Pat Parkes,
Ann Stewart, Mark Broderick, Ellen Taylor, Meror & Mike
Krayenhoff, Maxine & Steve Leichter, Chris & Carole Scott,
Manfred Pape, Helen Goodland, Peter Ronald, Katherine
Atkins, Eila & Holly Allgood, Zillah Parker, Nora Layard,
Daniel Logan, Charlotte Argue, Maria Dammel, Elizabeth
Buchanan & Larry Woods, Nancy Braithwaite, George
& Nancy Slain, Lois Sprague, Katherine Atkins, Roger
Middleton & Sylvia, Leslie Wallace, James Falcon, Ruth
Tarasoff, David Borrowman, Linda Horsfall, Dick Willmott,
Chris Drake, Ruth Tarasoff, Elehna De Sousa, Thrifty’s,
Island Star Video, The Royal Canadian Legion, Alan Goldin
& Manon Levesque @ Morningside Organic Bakery & Cafe,
Adina, Andrew, Gretta & Carrie @ Salt Spring Books, The
Driftwood, EcoNews, Ian Garthshore, Nicolette Brinkhoff,
GISS, Natureworks, Bob Weeden, Bill Goddu, Samantha
Beare, Pam Barry, Mark Starik, Margery Moore, ISEA,
Ometepe, Chamber of Commerce, Jean Gelwicks, Mark
Haughey, Lisa Lloyd, Environment Canada, CRD, Peter
Lamb, Islands Trust, Energy Savings Plan, and all of the folks
who carpooled and helped in any way to make an extremely
successful Eco-Home Tour.
– Karen Hudson

Natural History
Bent Twigs
The Open Window
Summer days were often hot. The family worked through
them, each day much like the last in its hopeful start and
listless finish, but changing as time strode between first seed
and final harvest. The young girl laboured steadily, filling
the spaces between her own chores with hours on call at
garden, kitchen, poultry run, hay wagon and milking barn.
Sometimes the quest for a straying heifer took her out among
the daisied distant fields. Mostly she worked immersed in the
smells of chaff and dust and diesel, the sounds of harness and
horse and tractor, the sights of buildings and machinery.
At night, in her room, she would open her window
wide. It seemed to her that news of a different world came to
her on the night breeze. In the barn the cows were quiet, in
the darkened farmyard the outbuildings and machines were
shadows sought by silent, wide-eyed cats. Something wild
crept across the sill, something in the space between firefly
and star, something not of the workaday world. She never
could paint that feeling in words, but its nightly presence
brought peace and yearning.
The schoolgirl liked biology. The endless variety in the
forms of life, in their ways of living and in their combination
of self-reliance and depthless dependence amazed her. High
school opened into college, college to graduate school.
There she first ventured into the wild country to the north
- “This must be where the night wind is born,” she thought
- studying birds in Algonquin Park. The short years brought
long steps west and north, marriage, a move to Alaska,
children. Always the air from far fresh places, the spacious
beauty of alpine heights, the discovery of new forms of wild
life, filled her with joy. Garden flowers bloomed for her. The
countryside’s bounty came into her house, onto her table,
into the growing bodies that sat around it.
Bless this food, and all food.
Bless this family, and all families.
Bless this life, and all life.
Pumpkinseed
All of the grown-ups the boy knew worked hard. His
father, a car mechanic for wages, maintained house and
garden. His mother created and tended the home. The boy
and his sisters had small chores. Rarely did the family relax
together, but one summer Saturday, out of the blue, the
father said to his son, “How would you like to go fishing?”
The answer was an incredulous but loud “Yes!”
With a peeled sapling, 10 feet of string, a safety pin, and
six earthworms dug from a shady corner of the garden, they
walked to where a brook had been dammed to supply water
for a cloth-dying factory. The boy knew the pond contained
fish, because once in winter, after he tumbled while skating,
he peered through clear ice into the depths. He could see
 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
sluggish insects among the bottom debris, and once in a
while dark fish swam by.
At pond’s edge the father showed the boy how to loop
the worm onto the pin and, with a lifting pole, arc the line
and worm outward into the amber trembling water. The
boy waited. He was fascinated by the reflections of leaves,
branches and bits of sky that painted themselves from his
feet out to open water.
Then his father, watching the line, whispered, “You have
a fish!” As if a trigger had tripped, the boy jerked the pole
over his back, and with it, a small fish. He dropped the pole
and rushed to pin the flapping fish to the forest floor. He and
his father bent together to marvel at its glistening colours:
greenish black on back and tail, yellow-orange on the belly,
sides speckled with green, yellow and red; where the gill
covers opened and closed, a single blue dot.
Six decades passed. The boy never forgot the revelation
that summer day of the busy lives lived secretly around him
became a never-satiated curiosity about nature. He became a
research biologist, then a teacher. He committed himself to
conservation. No matter what work kept his mind busy, he
learned to welcome nature onto the paths of his senses and
into the depths of his heart.
Spreading Corn
Since the 1920s these broad fields, reclaimed from
boreal forest, have grown the grass that feeds the cows that
make the milk for the people of this northern town. In the
farmer’s annual calendar are days marked early each April
for spreading the winter’s accumulated manure. Dark on
the gleaming white fields, the manure absorbs the sunlight
and melts the snow earlier here than anywhere else in
hundreds of wilderness miles. The early banquet of stubble
and barn sweepings entices exploring geese, cranes, ducks
and shorebirds. People drive or stroll from town to see them
tumble out of the sky, so empty all these months, and to
listen to the bird’s happy clamour.
Early one Sunday morning late in April two boys, 4 and
7, walk onto the fields with their parents. Each boy carries
a pail of corn in two hands. At every tall-booted step the
pail swings and meets a shin, but the excited boys carry the
awkward weights far out into the snow-blotched field. The
boy spread the corn, sometimes throwing it toward a skein of
fence-skimming geese as though hoping the birds will catch
it in mid-air. Father and mother tell the boys about the far-
flung rooms in the homes of these migrants, interrupting the
tale to point to a flight of pintails, a dart of golden plovers, a
harrier teetering as it scans the ground for mice.
The corn is spread, the family walks to field’s edge and
the birds in hundreds move in to feast.
The boys become men. One is a painter of houses and
canvases. From his apartment in old San Francisco he and
his partner foray into the Sierras and Great Basin. They
explore back roads, hike to high lakes, ostensibly to catch
and release diminutive golden trout but truly to be in the
peace and beauty of the mountains. He is not a joiner, but
he votes as green as he can in a nation over-impressed with
olive drab.
The other boy lives with his spouse and children in the
log house in which he grew up. He has taught pre-school
but now spends the school year parenting. In summer he
gardens, organises family expeditions to blueberry patches
and creekside picnics and guides busloads of tourists north
to the Arctic. He writes science fiction, poetry and prickly
letters to politicians who see only dollars in the northern
landscape.
A Bird in the Hand
This August Sunday of the Millennial Year the bird
banding station invites visitors. The woman in charge keeps
the nets properly strung and tended, oversees the banding
and keeps up a teacherly banter with the curious tourists
and their often silly questions. Late in the day she looks up
when four people approach - a family, she thinks, seeing
look-alikes there. She finishes weighing and measuring a
kinglet, her pliers clenching the minute band around the
toothpick leg.
“Do you want to hold this bird?” she asks, quieting it
expertly in her palm. She looks at the boy. “About 5,” she
thinks, “and confident-looking.” He stretches out his hand,
then backs away with his hands behind him, suddenly shy.
The woman turns to the slim girl, less than 3, who watches
intently. The girl steps close and lets the woman position her
hands and fingers to receive the bird.
The girl never has held a warm live thing before. She
is amazed, a little frightened. The bit of fluff hidden in her
cupped hands is trembling. “It has a heart like me!” she
thinks. She knows she could squeeze and hurt it, but she is
awash in a tender protectiveness. Then, between her thumbs,
a dark, bright eye glances up and meets her gaze. The tiny
girl and tiny bird see each other, the bird’s eye hawk-wild,
the girl’s nearly half-wild. She has known only the eyes of
home: parents, brother, cats, dog and friends. The bird’s
stare is from another world. Suddenly the trees and hills that
have been the inert setting of her life - less to her than the
carpets and furnishings of her house - become an enlivened,
enormous mystery.
The years may bury this moment in such an overburden
of other experiences and interests that it becomes a tantalising
half-memory, seen only out of a corner of her mind.
Or it may be a decisive bending of the twig, dozens of
later events enriching its emotion with knowledge and a
Autumn 2006
passion to act. The girl-child will become woman, citizen,
leader, executive, family centre, poet - infinite possibilities
for a life of value which always values other life.
These stories are as true as fond memory will allow.
I am the young fisher who held the sunfish, Judy opened
the window to feel the untamed summer breeze. Our sons’
small hands flung corn to the geese, and our granddaughter
trembled to the heartbeat of the captured bird.
Children will learn. Of all the lessons they must absorb,
love of nature is the easiest to teach, the longest to endure
and the most crucial to pass on. From infancy to puberty a
child’s best teachers are adult family. Parents. Grandparents.
You.
– Bob Weeden
OCP Review: Once a Decade
This fall we have a special chance to review and change the
Official Community Plan (OCP).Trustees have gathered
ideas from the community about sections of the Plan that
should be reviewed this round. They just announced the
committees that will be formed to address key issues: Ganges
Village and Harbour; Fulford Village; Energy; Farm Plan;
Economic Sustainability, Jobs and Tourism; Environment;
and Population, Housing and Settlement Patterns.
In case you’ve half forgotten, the OCP sharpens the
broad language of our Islands Trust Policy document and
makes it specific to our Island in terms of the goals for land
use. It provides a community vision for future land use
and defines the actions and policies that could achieve that
vision. The OCP does not define how land can or cannot be
used; that’s the job of our Land Use Bylaw.
The OCP does set out some tools for guiding land use.
For example, “density transfers” can be used to move the right
to build a house from an area of high ecological value to an
area of more ordinary attributes. These donor and receiving
areas are mapped. Developers trigger the process by asking
the LTC to consider a specific density transfer request.
The OCP also contains a planning tool of high potential
value for protecting nature, the Development Permit Area
(DPA). These are places (mapped) where people undertaking
construction of a defined type must show that their proposed
activities meet certain criteria before receivingv a permit from
the LTC. Current DPAs include shorelines, lakes, streams,
wetlands, unstable slopes and erosion hazard areas.
Please consider volunteering for one or more of these
important advisory committees. Speak your mind: you won’t
be representing SSIC, just yourself, so you are free to say
what you wish on any topic close to your heart.
– Maxine Leichter

Conservancy Events

Upcoming Events Event Notes

and more Islanders are needed to contribute sightings and
October 13th (Friday): Endangered Sharp-tailed Snake. data to the scientific work Engelstoft has been conducting
Christian Engelstoft will speak at 7pm at the Lion’s Hall. on the Island. This colourful, illustrated, presentation will
October 20th (Friday): Otter Limits: All About Otters. teach about sharp-tailed snakes and our three local species
Joe Gaydos will talk about sea and river otters. Slide of garter snakes, all of which are highly beneficial, especially
show and talk at 7pm at the Lion’s Hall. to gardeners. This presentation is part of the Conservancy’s
November 3rd (Friday): Are Our Deer Dear? Slide Species at Risk Stewardship Project.
show and talk on local black-tailed deer by biologists Otters River Otters and Sea Otters are the topic of the
Christian Englestoft and Todd Golumbia (Parks Canada). Conservancy’s presentation on October 20 at 7:00 pm at
7pm at the Lion’s Hall. the Lions Hall. The illustrated talk is presented by wildlife
January 19th (Friday): Predator Prowl: About Cougars veterinarian, Joe Gaydos, a resident of Orcas Island. Joe has
and Bears. Slide show and talk by Bob Hansen and been involved in otter studies and otter conservation efforts
Danielle Thompson. 7pm at the Lions Hall. for the last five years. River otters are common inhabitants
Feb. TBA: Batty about Bats of Salt Spring Island. Slide along Salt Spring’s shores, but their secretive habits make
show and talk by Dave Nagorsen. them animals of much mystery and intrigue. Join this event
Suggested donation: $5.00 to help cover our costs. This to learn all about our local river otters and about the sea
includes coffee/tea/cookies. otters whose populations and territories have been expanding
along the West Coast.
Deer Just how dear are our deer? This question
Mammals Rank High On Conservancy will be the focus for an illustrated presentation by Todd
Presentation Schedule Golumbia, Wildlife Ecologist for the Gulf Islands National
Deer, otters, cougars, and bats! This season’s fall/winter Park Reserve, and Christian Engelstoft, Wildlife Biologist
lineup of speaker presentations from the Conservancy with Alula Consulting. These scientists will report their
Education Committee has a definite furry focus. findings from several years of studying deer on the Queen
Snakes The reign of mammals really gets kicked off in Charlotte Islands and in parks of the Capital Regional
late October, but before that is a chance to slither into the District. The talk will cover deer feeding and their effects on
mammal realm with a special presentation on an unusual forest communities, and will include a brief look at another
reptile. On October 13, Christian Engelstoft speaks at the potentially problematic browser, the cottontail rabbit. The
Lions Hall at 7:00 pm. on the endangered sharp-tailed snake. event will take place on November 3, at 7:00 pm at the Lions
Salt Spring is a key location for the study of this elusive species Hall. Love ’em or hate ’em – deer are here. This presentation
will help you better understand our deer and their roles in
the ecosystem.
Thank you to our business members: Cougars and Bears Populations of wolves, cougars, and
bears seem to be thriving on Vancouver Island. Amazingly
Anchorage Cove B&B Salt Spring Centre of Yoga over the years, a few of these large mammal predators
Baker Beach Cottages Salt Spring Centre School (cougars and bears, at least) have managed to make it to
Balmoral By The Sea B&B Salt Spring Coffee Co. Salt Spring Island. Bob Hansen and Danielle Thompson
Barb’s Buns Salt Spring Home Design from Parks Canada will provide an illustrated look into the
Beddis House B&B Centre lives of these predators, their lifestyles, habits, and human
Bold Bluff Retreat Salt Spring Island Chamber encounters’. The main focus of the evening will be on
Bootacomputer of Commerce cougars and their interactions with humans. As Parks Canada
Creekhouse Realty Ltd. Salt Spring Kayaking Wardens in Pacific Rim Park, Hansen and Thompson have
Green Acres Resort Salt Spring Way B&B been involved in detailed research on predator behaviours
Gulf Island Picture Framing Saltspring Linen & Dry and conservation for the last few years. This talk, Predator
Island Escapades Cleaning Prowl, is scheduled for January 19 at 7:00 pm at the Lions
Island Star Video Saltspring Soapworks Hall.
Neil Morie - Architect Spindrift at Welbury Point
Bats As the winter drags into February, many Salt
Murakami Auto Body & Sprague Associates Ltd.
Springers begin to go batty, and our presentation for this
Repairs Terra Firma Builders Ltd.
month is designed to help you along in this direction – at
Salt Spring Books The Wine Cellar
least in a natural history sort of way. In late February (TBA),
Continued on page 14

 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy


Member: Salt Spring Coffee Company
Walk into the Salt Spring Coffee Co.’s Ganges café at
almost any time of day, and you’re sure to find a bustling
environment. There’s often a lengthy, although fast moving,
lineup at the till, and a smaller one of folks waiting for
specialty drinks at the bar. The tables and comfy couch are
put to good use by all sorts of customers, from families to
hiking clubs to tourists.
There’s a good reason for the café’s popularity – The
coffee is excellent. Most of us are also aware that
Salt Spring Coffee Co.’s ethical business practices
make it a great place to support. What you may
not know, is that the Company is a pioneer in
offering certified organic, fair trade, and shade
grown coffees, and has helped open up a market
for green and ethical coffee consumption in
North America.
Founder and president, Mickey McLeod
says, “the Salt Spring Coffee Co. grew out of
a passion for a great cup of coffee.” Formerly
called the SS Roasting Co. (as it is still referred
to by many locals), the business idea sprung in
part from the fact that McLeod and his partner,
Robbyn Scott, were constantly trying to source
organic coffee for themselves. They were also
aware of the growing market for specialty
coffees in America. Looking at the demographic
of Salt Spring, with its strong component of
people wanting to support organic growing, sustainable
development, and ethical business, McLeod foresaw an
excellent opportunity.
“I did quite a bit of research and realized yes, it would
be a viable business,” McLeod says. “I also realized coffee is
an amazing product and involves so many aspects of life: like
farming, which I have an interest in, environmental issues,
social issues, being able to travel, which we like to do – all
those things were wrapped up in there. And then also so
many people drink coffee it was a great tool to let them know
about organic and fair trade values.”
When they first started roasting beans here in the spring
of 1996, organic coffee was available from just two sources,
Mexico and Nicaragua, and it was “before fair trade was even
on the radar”. The company kept asking their California-
based importer to find more organic sources, and eventually
they got one in Sumatra. Nowadays, all of their coffee is
certified organic and there are “many, many” coffees available,
but as McLeod notes, they were the real pioneers, and had to
wait for the industry and the marketplace to catch up with
them. It was a similar type of thing when it came to Fair
Trade. McLeod says that SS Coffee Co. has done a lot to build
awareness of Fair Trade issues and to build good relationships
with coffee farmers and cooperatives. When the Fair Trade
Autumn 2006
Features
organization Trans Fair became available to Canadians in
1998, they were one of the first five or six to register; now
there are a couple hundred licensed businesses.
As most of our readers probably know, with Fair Trade
practices more money goes to farmer because the middleman
is taken out. Oxfam estimates that the farmer who grows the
beans often gets less than 10% of what the consumer pays
for coffee. According to the SS Coffee Co.’s web site:
SS Coffee Biodiesel-powered truck
Before the organization of Coffee Cooperatives, coffee
farmers were at the mercy of intermediary traders called
Coyotes. Coyotes make up an integral part of the local villages.
They act as bankers, provide local transportation system, and
often own the general store. This virtual monopoly allows
them to control nearly all the economic activities of a village.
They offer loans to peasants but usually on the condition
that farmers sell them their coffee at reduced prices and
repay their loans at extremely high interest rates.
Farmer-run cooperatives work with fair trade
organizations to bypass these unethical intermediaries and
receive a better share. This is obviously more desirable for an
ethically-centered business practice, but it isn’t always easy.
The cost of paying a licensing fee to TransFair Canada for
using the Fair Trade logo has at times made running the SS
Coffee Co. at least a bit challenging. However, while McLeod
knows they may not reach the level of profitability of a large
corporation, he feels it is more important to be doing the
right thing.
As McLeod explains, the day-to-day running of the
business to meet ethical and ecological concerns is of huge
importance to the company. This means things like using
Continued on page 12

Inside SSIC
Green Pilgrims Guide
The Green Pilgrims Guide to the Southern Gulf Islands is
a 70-page, 4”x 9” book held in a larger, book-shape folder
containing brochures with maps for the larger islands in one
pocket and a notepad in the other.
The guide tells the broad story of the southern Gulf
Islands, from their formation through eons of change to the
life forms and communities that now call it home. It tells
readers where to look for sites and information of particular
interest, to nature-lovers.
This guidebook is designed to travel tidily, and to make
a great keepsake. It’s for islanders themselves, as well as the
perfect gift for company and clients who’ve been here or
family and friends we’d like to woo.
Green Pilgrims are tourists with a difference. Whether
far afield, in their own back yards, or making an armchair
tour, they look for what’s special about a place. They’re
already primed to revere nature, but can benefit from a brief
natural history overview of an area
and some key defining details.
Green Pilgrims can then make
their own personalized tour of
southern Gulf Islands’ nature,
paying their respects to such
things as:
• the forms and colours
of arbutus trees, no two
alike;
• myriad mosses sending up
calyptras when the rains
come;
• sandstone sculptings on massive and Lilliputian
scales;
• Garry oak meadow rarities, surviving despite native and
non-native invaders;
• California quail, Mexican turkey vultures, Scotch broom,
and Himalayan blackberries, all relatively new to the
islands and loving them;
• Star-bright nights, rich with subtle and sudden sounds…
There’s more, worlds within worlds more.
Resources abound for travellers. This guide points
readers in the right directions, with an eye to keeping
them light on their feet, ever open to what’s available and
happening, while staying light on the islands themselves.
Cost: $25, including taxes; $5 goes to the Salt Spring
Conservancy for copies they sell. To get $5 off the $25
purchase price of the new Green Pilgrims Guide to the
Southern Gulf Islands, go to the Conservancy office at #201
Upper Ganges Centre, 338 Lower Ganges Road, Tues-Thurs
10 am. - 3pm.
For more information, check out www.greenpilgrims.
com or call Brenda Guiled at 653-4722.
 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
In Her Debt: Hilary Brown
The breadth and depth of my ignorance continues to surprise
me, though others have come to expect it. For example, I
was reading Arthur Sweet’s “Islands In Trust” this fall and
came across his passing mention of Hilary Brown. How, I
wonder, could I have thought and talked about the Islands
Trust all these years and not know of her?
Hilary Newitt Brown is a woman who speaks her
mind, and it is a mind worth speaking. Early in the 1970s
she spoke well and forcefully about the need for a public
body nurturing and protecting BC’s interests in the unique
archipelago known as the Gulf Islands. Her reward -
occasionally punishment - was to be appointed chair of the
General Trust in 1974, mandated to implement the brand
new Islands Trust legislation. Salt Spring Island’s own Marc
Holmes served with her that year as vice-chair. (Jean and
the late Marc Holmes are longtime Conservancy members.)
Ms. Brown’s remarks to the Trustees at their first meeting,
hopeful and practical, set the tone for a bonnie start.
How did the right person pop up at this fleeting, crucial
beginning of the Islands Trust?
Hilary Brown, born in Scotland in 1909, was blessed
with parents who taught her the importance of a good
education and the responsibilities of active citizenship. She
learned thoroughly. She was at the University of Frankfurt
studying languages and history, as the Nazis rose to power.
She forged a strong partnership and friendship there with
Harrison Brown, journalist and anti-war activist. They
married. They weren’t appreciated by Adolph Hitler. Forced
to leave Europe, the Brown’s settled on Hornby Island in
1937. (Hornby Island? How in the world...? There is a story
there, if I knew it.)
1937 also brought Hilary Brown’s first book to the
public. “Women Must Choose” is a study of women in
democratic, socialist and fascist states. Her second book,
“Half of Humanity,” carried a North American perspective
on the tasks ahead for both men and women if the world
hoped to avoid further wars. To round out her publishing
career, Ms. Brown found time for studies in China which
came to fruition in “Tomorrow’s Ancestors,” regarding that
nation’s elderly.
Hilary Brown is alert to the need for reforms at every
geographic and political scale. Local issues aren’t “beneath”
her; to the contrary, she embraces them with heart and
body as well as the intellect. Hilary and Harrison Brown
homesteaded on their chosen island, naming it “Heron
Rocks.” They founded a co-op store and credit union on
Hornby Island and helped to establish Elderhousing “Village”
within walking distance of the store. Hilary represented BC
in The Womens’ Institute and Voice of Women, and worked
for Oxfam.
Continued on page 13

Deborah Miller
photo by Maxine Leichter
Deborah Miller is a new Board member but she is far from
new to the Conservancy. She has been on the Education
Committee for several years. Her enthusiasm for the
Education Committee and the Schools program is not
surprising: she was a professional environmental educator
before her recent retirement.
Deborah has been teaching senior Biology, science,
English and other subjects on Salt Spring Island since she
moved here as a beginning teacher in 1971! While raising
three boys, and teaching she also chaired the Environmental
Educators’ section of the BC Teachers’ Federation and
advocated for environmental education to be incorporated
into the school curriculum.
Deborah’s expertise and contacts have been a tremendous
benefit to the Conservancy’s Schools Program. While she
was still teaching, she promoted it and got other teachers
involved. Since retiring, she has succeeded Kate Leslie as the
Schools Coordinator and has written the curriculum for the
new program for grade 4 and 5 students at Channel Ridge
this fall. Deborah has also volunteered to be the next Chair
of the Conservancy’s Education Committee. (Those are the
folks that put on those marvelous Friday night education
programs!) Now that she is retired, Deborah is hoping to
also have time for hiking, painting, and kayaking, reading,
gardening.
Deborah wants to thank Conservancy Education event
supporters for their donations at the door. These donations
cover the costs of the meeting rooms, snacks and speaker’s
transportation. She also invites you to help the Schools
program which enables SSI Elementary and Middle School
students to learn through directed experiences about our
island’s natural places, an opportunity they would not have
without help from our wonderful volunteers. If you can help,
contact Deborah at 537-4797.
Autumn 2006
Inside SSIC
Ashley Hilliard
Last spring, when Ashley Hilliard retired after a 29 year
career as a lawyer in Vancouver, he moved to Salt Spring
Island. One of the first things he did was to volunteer his
help to the Conservancy.
Ashley and his wife Wendy have been coming to Salt
Spring since the 1980’s and purchased 13 acres of land in
1989, on which they built their “island get-away”. A member
of the Conservancy for many years, Ashley has been concerned
about conservation issues all his life. Now, he says he is glad
to be able to contribute towards environmental protection in
a more hands-on way. He selected the Conservancy because
he saw how well we are working to protect natural areas
on our island and thought his skills could contribute to our
work.
His first volunteer position was with the Covenant
Committee, where his legal expertise has been very helpful.
We are pleased that he has now joined the Boardof Directors
and is serving on the Executive as Vice President.
Having a large forested property is giving Ashley and
Wendy another opportunity to protect at least their piece
of our island. Their house was designed to minimize its
footprint on the land. Trees from the site were incorporated
into the structure. A combined well/rainwater collection
system supplies domestic water. Ashley and Wendy have also
joined the ranks of “baby broomers” and have enlisted with
their neighbours in the endless battle against this noxious
weed.
Ashley sees the Conservancy, with its dedicated
membership, as being in a unique position to help address
the pressures that Salt Spring’s popularity is placing on our
natural environment. That’s our job in a nutshell! Ashley’s
help is certainly appreciated.
photo by Maxine Leichter

Stewardship
Three New Sharp-tailed Snake Sites
Three landowners in the north end of Salt Spring have found
the endangered sharp-tailed snake this spring and early
summer. All of the landowners who identified the snake had
attended a neighbourhood meeting or talk on the snake. The
three new sites almost double the number of known sites for
this extremely elusive snake on the island. The Salt Spring
Island Conservancy has been educating landowners as part
of its Species at Risk Stewardship project, and these new
sightings come as a result of outreach to landowners and
neighbourhood gatherings near the snake’s known locations
on Salt Spring. The landowners are given tips on how to
identify the snakes and monitor artificial cover objects
(ACO’s) in likely habitat identified by snake experts. The
sightings were all verified by a digital photo. Sharp-tailed
snakes are found in only a few locations in BC, and all sites
on the Gulf Islands are located on private land, which means
that they are unprotected by law. The future of the snakes
depends on landowners to voluntary protect their habitat.
Sharp-tailed snakes are non-venomous and completely
harmless to humans. They may be confused with juvenile
garter snakes but can be distinguished by the sharply pointed
scale at the tip of their tail, and the distinctive black and
white banding on their belly. Adult sharp-tailed snakes are
brown in colour, about as thick as a pencil, and up to 30 cm
long, which makes them one of the smallest snakes in BC.
Hatchlings are bright reddish brown and the size of large
earthworms.
Sharp-tailed snakes are most active in early spring and
fall. During the hot and dry periods in the summer they are
hiding under ground. Even when they are active near the
surface they are rarely found on the surface but hide under
rocks, rotting logs, or debris. They sometimes venture out
at night.
10 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
Garter snakes give birth to live young,
but sharp-tailed snakes lay eggs. Females
lay between three and five eggs, and deposit
them underground or in cracks between
rocks. Because hatchings depend on the
sun’s heat, sharp-tailed snakes use south/
southwest facing rocky slopes or small
openings in Douglas-fir/arbutus forests for
nesting, so it is important to protect such
habitat.
Humans and sharp-tailed snakes
often live near each other, which means
that snakes can become victims of cars,
weedeaters, cats, and indirectly, a loss of their
habitat to construction activities, including
backyard projects. “Tidying” a property can
also threaten its habitat. Gardeners may be
pleased to learn that small slugs are most
likely the favourite food of the sharp-tailed snake – an added
incentive to provide suitable habitat.
Salt Spring Conservancy’s project Habitat Protection
and Stewardship of Species at Risk has received $40,930 in
grants from the Bullitt Foundation and the Government of
Canada Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk.
Now that we are entering another period of activity for this
endangered snake it’s time to keep your eyes peeled. If you
think you have seen a sharp-tailed snake, please try to take
a photograph and send it to: ssiconservancy@saltspring.com
or phone the office with a description.
If you would like to be involved in this project, or just
want to learn more about this elusive snake, please call Karen
Hudson at the Conservancy office: 538-0318.
– Karen Hudson and Christian Englestoft
Recent neighbourhood sharp-tailed snake meeting
 Inside SSIC

Ten-year Members
New friends bless us with fresh perspectives; longstanding Continued from page 
friends give the gift of loyalty. Checking back to our first year a donation by a generous Conservancy member.
of reliable records (1997) we discovered that 70 people are The Conservancy is proud of our school program. We
now completing their 10th consecutive year as participants are proud of the job Kate Leslie did with the first school
in our Conservancy. Among them, 17 have been directors
program two years ago at the middle school level, and then
and many have volunteered in other ways. Let’s thank all
last school year the elementary component of the school
these long-time friends with a smile and greeting when next
we meet. program. We are proud of Deborah Miller who ran last
year’s Stewards in Training program at the middle school
Nancy Achilles David Kerman and who taught this autumn’s program to 4/5 students. We
Paul Adams Jean King are especially proud of the 50+ volunteers who altogether
Chris Anderson Juliette & Rick Laing volunteered almost 1300 hours of their time to the program.
Rita & Leon Aptekmann Peter Lamb With out their commitment and passion this program would
Birgit & Robert Bateman Walton Langford not be possible.
Maureen Bendick Ilse Leader We are so happy we can continue to offer this great
David Borrowman Sam Lightman program. Thank you to everyone involved.
Nancy Braithwaite Heather Martin – Jean Gelwicks
Debbie & Harry Burton Sharon McCollough
Grace & Pat Byrne Cate McEwen
Deborah Cran Maureen Milburn
Bill Curtin Art Morton
Dorothy Cutting Judy Norget
Susan Evans Alisa Pearse
Don & Fiona Flook Anton, Eva & Karen Pedersen
Jim & Noni Fogarty Briony Penn
Jean Gelwicks Andrea Rankin
Sharon Glover Carole Reiner
W. Thomas Gossett, Jr. Ann Richardson
Donald Gunn Margaret Schubart
Ted Harrison Art & Marg Simons
Frances Hill Judi Stevenson
Gary Holman Bill Turner
John, Anne & Sara Bob & Judy Weeden
Humphries Nicola Wheston
Gavin Johnston Doug Wilkins
Charles Kahn Irene & Tom Wright
Nona, Sada & Gordon Keel

Autumn 2006 11
Inside SSIC
Andreas Vogt Nature Reserve Notes
Plant Assays: Two years ago student aide Yvette Ruesen
spent three months on the Reserve laying out plant transects,
installing study plots and creating a strategy for counting
plant species. Her time didn’t allow work on the south end
of the property. This year Robin Annschild extended Yvette’s
work.
As a researcher thoroughly grounded in plant taxonomy
and ecology Robin has given us site descriptions as a base
from which changes in AVNR flora can be sketched. Thanks
to her efforts we now can track changes and consider them
in relation to climate change, human activity, invasions of
aliens like carpet burweed, and other shifts.
You’ll see white wooden stakes at intervals on the
property. Please leave them where they are, and don’t walk
on or disturb the area in a 25 metre circle around them.
Plants and science both can be fragile!
Rot, Wot?: One of the features students study on the
AVNR is “wildlife trees,” which are dead or dying trees used
by animals and other organisms as sources of nutrients,
moisture and protection. Once fallen, the trees enhance the
soil as they rot.
The Galiano Conservancy kindly gave us a copy of their
Photo by Karen Hudson
12 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
compact disk “Let It Rot” (Gulf Islands Film and Television
School), which depicts efforts to help a cut-over forest area
develop toward old-forest status. (Why we want forests to
grow old fast, while we resist the same process vigorously, I’ll
never know.) Part of the process involves spreading logging
debris instead of windrowing and burning it.
We encourage you to bring some friends to the SSI
Conservancy to view the presentation (6.36 minutes). Please
make arrangements with Karen Hudson (538 0318) at the
office in advance.
– Charles Dorworth
Continued from page 
the BC Hydro Green Energy Certificates, using bio-diesel for
trucks, and encouraging the use of travel mugs (which they
sell in environmentally friendly corn plastic and stainless
steel).
Another very important aspect is providing “shade
grown” coffees, which contributes to sustainable agriculture.
In its natural habitat, coffee grows as part of a mixed forest.
The SS Coffee web site explains, “Many of the larger “modern”
coffee farms have elected to remove shade trees and plant
more “sun-tolerant” coffee varieties in dense stands for the
hopes of higher production. While higher production is
likely, the ecological price tag is higher on these farms due
to the increased dependence on herbicides, pesticides, and
fertilizers as well as increased soil erosion and water runoff.”
Using non-hybrid varieties grown in their natural setting
allows farmers to keep the bio-diverse forest intact. Bird
habitats are restored, which can be very beneficial in keeping
out harmful insects and disease. The leaves of other forest
trees provide important nitrogen and fiber to the soil. All of
this also results in a better tasting bean.
It’s quite likely that the Salt Spring Coffee Co.’s high
quality product is the root of their success. With no set plan
for growth and almost zero marketing over the past two
years, the company has recently expanded through BC Ferry
locations and into Vancouver, with a café location on Main
Street. Exciting news is a new café slated to open at UBC in
January. McLeod went to Vancouver September 21 to accept
an award through the Georgia Straight magazine for best
Fair Trade coffee in Vancouver. In addition, the company
will appear in Waking Up the West Coast, an upcoming guide
to conscientious consumer choices.
When asked about the company’s future plans, McLeod
says that generally, all they want is to keep doing what they
are already doing, but to do it better. “We want to create
better relationships with farmers and get to know them
better; to continue doing work in the community. But really
we just want to do the best job we can do.”
– Elizabeth Nolan
 Inside SSIC

Garden Benches Find New Homes

This year’s winner of the Garden Bench raffle is Maria
Emerson of the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund. Maria had
been buying tickets for the Conservancy raffle for the past
several years on her visits to the Ganges summer market.
She relates, “It was always a good souvenir for me when
I visited Salt Spring. The benches are amazing works of art
and I have always respected the work of the Conservancy,
so the gamble is a good one either way. I would leave the
market always hoping I would get a call.”
While she never made it to this year’s Fall Fair to buy
up the last of the tickets as she promised one Conservancy
volunteer, Maria got lucky and one of her tickets was drawn.
She is thrilled to have won and would like to thank the
artist who made the beautiful bench for his donation and
generosity to the Conservancy.
Last year’s winner, Susan Harland, has donated her
bench to the Lady Minto Hospital, where it will be a welcome
addition to the Palliative Care Unit.
She writes, “After what seemed like a lifetime of bitterly
cold winters and sweltering buggy summers in Ontario, we
decided we had had enough and started looking around for a
less onerous climate, preferably one where a shovel and bug
spray were not to be seen. A good friend recommended we
visit Salt Spring Island before making up our mind where to
live. He had spent time on the island visiting his brother who
was ill in the Lady Minto hospital and thought the Island’s
friendly and warm atmosphere would appeal to us. He was Susan Harland and Executive Director Karen Hudson
right, for after we had been on Salt Spring for just three After admiring it in our garage for a few days, I contacted the
albeit hectic days, we left owning a house near Vesuvius. Lady Minto Foundation and the timing was just right, for
Once we had settled in, the friend happened to mention that they were in the planning stages of a palliative care unit and
if I ever decided to do any voluntary work, could I direct it garden and were delighted to be offered the bench. I am very
towards improving the garden at the hospital. During his pleased that it is now incorporated into a very well thought
time visiting his brother there, they had found the garden a out garden, where one can sit and look at, and listen to, the
restful place to sit. Shortly after, by a stroke of luck, I found lovely fountain.
quite to my surprise that I had won the lovely driftwood “Many thanks to all of you at the conservancy for your
bench that the SSI Conservancy had raffled last September. hard work and dedication.”

Continued from page 

Yellow montaine Violet - Federally listed threatened species found
on Salt Spring in Spring 2006 Photo: Robin Annschild
Hilary Brown is now an alert 97. She seems like the kind
of person I’d like to be when I grow up, vital, passionate,
and possessing the kind of muscular hope that admits no
impossibilities. BRAVO!, Hilary Brown.
Editor’s note: I’m much indebted to Meg Parrish, a
neighbour and friend of Ms. Brown’s, who told her I wanted
to do this brief profile, obtained permission, and discussed
a draft with her.
Thanks, too, to Andrea Lebowitz for sending her longer
piece written to nominate Hilary for the Therese Casgrain
Volunteer Award. Andrea also improved a draft.
– Bob Weeden

Autumn 2006 13
Inside SSIC
Robin Annschild - Staff Biologist
Lugh and Robin
This year, the Conservancy has significantly improved its
ability to protect the natural environment by establishing
the position of staff biologist and hiring our former part
time biologist Robin Annschild to fill the position. She is
well qualified, having a BSc in Environmental Biology with
a minor in ecological agriculture from McGill University.
She attended the MacDonald Campus which specializes in
agricultural and environmental sciences.
Robin originally came to Salt Spring in 2000 to take a
temporary contract with the Conservancy’s first Stewardship
Program and she has been working for the Conservancy on
and off ever since. In the process, she has become an expert
on local ecosystems and plant life.
Robin’s work is divided among the Conservancy’s
committees. She helps the Conservancy’s Schools Program,
monitors covenants held by the Conservancy, and is
Continued from page 
Dr. David Nagorsen will present an illustrated talk about bats.
The former Curator of Mammals for the Royal BC Museum,
Nagorsen is the co-author of Bats of British Columbia, and
he has done extensive research on bats throughout the
Province. On Saturday morning following the talk, there will
be a special session to cut and assemble wooden bat houses
which you can mount on your house exterior or in nearby
trees to encourage these valuable insect predators.
Please mark these talks on your calendars, and pass
along the information to friends. This fall/winter’s lineup is
certain to answer all kinds of natural history questions and
provide a wealth of information about the furry cohabitants
of our island and Province.
14 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
conducting a vegetation survey of the
Andreas Vogt Nature Reserve. She
also does landowner contact and site
evaluation for the current Stewardship
Project.
In 2005, Robin had a son, Lugh
(pronounced Lou). Robin and her partner
Mik were deeply touched by the help
and support given by their island friends
when she had serious complications
after giving birth. What a pleasure it is to
see Lugh on Robin’s back at Conservancy
events.
In addition to being a mum,
partner and biologist, Robin keeps a
large vegetable garden and is one of the
founding members of the SSI Biodiesel
Collective. She enthusiastically spreads
the word about the availability of biodiesel
at Pretzel Motors and she had her own car modified to run
not only on bio-diesel but also on unprocessed vegetable
oils. Did you know that using biodiesel helps fight Climate
Change and reduces exposure to hazardous fumes?
Robin says she is honoured by the trust and generosity
shown by the property owners who welcome her onto their
land to talk about stewardship. She feels privileged to be able
to see these special island treasures. We are privileged to have
Robin doing this important work to protect our island.
– Maxine Leichter
Continued from page 
weight of snowmobiles that pack the winter snow cover.
British Columbia’s enormous expanses of inland forest are
being chewed to bits by beetles that love warm summers.
The biggest trees in the world could succumb to excessive
zeal by Smokey Bear. It is illusory, even dangerous, to map
“sensitive ecosystems” for special attention when they may
be no more likely to go belly up than run-of-the-mill woods.
Show me an insensitive ecosystem and I’ll unplug my mike.
Meanwhile, let’s just agree that some combinations of plants,
animals and sites are rarer than others.
Worthwhile ideas usually are complex. We invent a word
or phrase to stand for them because sound bites, photo-ops
and high-speed internet browsing demand it. Following
our favourite adage that “Anything worth doing is worth
overdoing” we repeat the term often and thoughtlessly, finally
making it worthless. I sincerely hope “authentic community”
doesn’t meet that fate, flowering beautifully where first
seeded but ending up scattered carelessly or mischievously
where it doesn’t belong, another weed we can’t get rid of.
– Bob Weeden
 Essential details

Garry Oak Seedlings
Thanks to a very generous donation by Paul Linton, the
Conservancy now has about 600 Garry oaks, gathered as
nuts in 04, planted, and now potted in 8” pots in good
dirt. We are selling them as a fundraiser for $10 each, or
3 for $25. We encourage Salt Spring landowners that live
in current or former Garry oak ecosystems to plant oaks,
and we can provide information on the best way to do so.
Please call 538-0318 to arrange purchase of oaks, or for
more information about endangered Garry oak ecosystems
on Salt Spring.
Office Update
Items Wanted:
Donations of any of the following gratefully received.
Office Items Other Items
Air Miles Saws, clippers
Speaker phone Canadian Tire $
Laptop computer Field guides
Small refrigerator Hand secateurs
We would also appreciate donations of gifts, such as new
books or items related to nature or conservation, to give to
our educational speakers, who volunteer their time.

Help Wanted: Small Things Help!

• Do you like talking to landowners? Please remember to put your shopping receipt in the
• Are you interested in endangered species? green Conservancy receipt box at GVM, and to say
• Do you have 4-8 hours a month that you could “Credit #58” at the check-out at Thrifty’s. You can
volunteer to the Conservancy? also credit the Conservancy when you take back your
We need YOU to volunteer for our Stewardship Project! bottles to the Salt Spring Refund Centre (Bottle Depot
Please call Karen 538-0318 for more information. at GVM). Every little bit helps!
 
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:
Samantha Beare (Treasurer) Senior or Low-Income: 1 yr @ $20 _ 3 yr @ $60 _ that best describes areas you wish to
Maureen Bendick Regular Single 1 yr @ $25 _ 3 yr @ $75 _ help in. For now, which areas interest
Nigel Denyer Regular Family 1 yr @ $35 _ 3 yr @ $105 _ you? Please check off:
Charles Dorworth
Jean Gelwicks (Secretary) Group/School 1 yr @ $35 _ 3 yr @ $105 _ r Office Work (typing, filing or
Ashley Hilliard (Vice-president) Business 1 yr @ $55 _ 3 yr @ $165 _ computer work)
Maxine Leichter r Information Table at Saturday
Steve Leichter
Deborah Miller Name: _ ______________________________________ Market (May through September)
Linda Quiring Address: _ ____________________________________ r Education Programs
Brian Smallshaw _ ____________________________________________ r Eco-Home Tour
Ruth Tarasoff
Bob Weeden (President) Postal Code: __________________________________ r Information Table at SSI Fall Fair/
Doug Wilkins Phone:_ ______________________________________ Craft Fairs
Email:________________________________________ r Joining a SSIC Committee (Land
The Salt Spring Island
Conservancy Restoration & Management,
#201 Upper Ganges Centre, r Please send me the Acorn via e-mail. Fundraising, Covenants,
338 Lower Ganges Rd. (We NEVER give out member’s email addresses to anyone!) Acquisitions, Education,
Mail: PO Box 722,
Salt Spring Island BC r This is a renewal for an existing membership Stewardship, or Environmental
V8K 2W3 Governance)
Office hours : Tues/Wed/Thurs
Donations r Other: _______________________
10 am - 3 pm
Phone: (250) 538-0318 In addition to my membership fee above, I have enclosed
Fax: (250) 538-0319 my donation in the amount of:
Email:
$50 _ $100 _ $250 _ $500 _ $1000_ $2500 _ $5000 _
ssiconservancy@saltspring.com
Web site: Other ___________ Ganges PO Box 722
http://saltspring.gulfislands.com/ Tax receipts will be provided for donations of $20 or more. Salt Spring Island BC
conservancy V8K 2W3

Printed on 18% recycled paper Autumn 2006 15

Ganges PO Box 722
Salt Spring Island BC
40026325
V8K 2W3