Last week TLC was joined by two volunteers to conduct White-top aster (Sericocarpus rigidus) counts in our Langvista covenant near Mill Hill Regional Park. The White-top aster is a blue-listed at-risk species that are found in Garry oak meadow ecosystems on Vancouver Island. Asters are a family of flowering plants that look very similar [...]
Last week TLC staff member Torrey Archer and I monitored DeMamiel Creek in Sooke, with landowners Gertie and Dean. The creek was unusually full this year from the cooler summer and abundance of rain, which was great for the salmon fry and other creatures in the creek! One super cool critter we found that [...]
One of the most common invasives in Victoria is English Ivy (Hedera helix), a pervasive and fast-growing vine that sprawls across landscapes and climbs structures like trees and buildings. English ivy has a rapid growth rate and even grows in the winter because of its need for little light or water, making it a [...]
We wish to send a HUGE thank you to the 26 volunteers from Habitat Acquisition Trust (HAT), TLC, and Edward Milne High School for showing up on June 23 to help restore part of Ayum Creek Regional Park Reserve from the invasive Common Periwinkle (Vinca minor). The team put cardboard and mulch over a [...]
The past week I had the amazing opportunity to participate in covenant monitoring at the Howard Horel Nature Reserve on Salt Spring Island with TLC's Covenant Coordinator Larissa Bron, Salt Spring Island Conservancy's (SSIC) Land Manager Rachel Bevington, and SSIC Volunteer Warden Keers Ruurs. This was my first covenant monitoring experience, and I had [...]
Dear TLC Members, Amidst Passport to Nature events, restoration activities, welcoming guests to Abkhazi Garden, and seasonal covenant monitoring, we are looking ahead to what is bound to be a fully scheduled fall. I’m writing today to ask that you mark your calendar with TLC’s 2022 Annual General Meeting on Saturday, September 24, at [...]
May 1, 2022 Dear Friends of Conservation, It might be spring, but this week in the Clearwater River Valley we witnessed hail and flurries, trails hidden knee-deep in snow, ice-covered bodies of water, and below zero temperatures. Despite the cold, small signs of spring’s arrival are sprinkled throughout TLC’s Clearwater Wetlands and Wildlife Corridors: [...]
The skies cleared and sun illuminated the first restoration event of the year at Ayum Creek Regional Park Reserve at the end of February. Volunteers worked together to hand-pull the garden escapee, and very invasive, periwinkle (Vinca minor) that blankets some of the forest floor. Since 2017, TLC’s biologist Torrey Archer has been spearheading [...]
At the end of March, TLC’s Covenant Coordinator Larissa Bron was joined by four volunteers for annual covenant monitoring at the Barer and Kinghorn covenants. The crew began the day greeted by many competing bird songs as the forest was enjoying a warm spring morning. This was followed by many moss observations, three photo-point [...]
This spring TLC is celebrating its 25th year of protecting critical ecosystems and vital habitats throughout B.C. Today the organization protects 250 conservation covenants covering a combined 12,868 acres, and a further 2,784 acres of habitat where we manage and hold title. What an accumulation of efforts and achievements! In my time with the organization, [...]