Covenant Monitoring Program Weeks Eight and Nine

Andrew MacKinnon tries to get his bearings

Week eight found the TLC Covenant Monitoring team out at a privately-owned property on Sooke Road. There are no hiking trails through this lush forested area, but we set forth bravely through shoulder high salal and wove along whatever deer (or bear?) trails we could find. We found a lot of evidence that a bear had been in the area, including piles of dung and a dug-out rotten stump where we think a bear was looking for grubs. Although this is a fairly untouched second-growth forest, we did find the occasional invasive English ivy and laurel-leaved daphne seedling, likely grown from bird-dispersed seed. Of course, we pulled out all the ones we could find. On the rocky outcrops there was, sadly but not surprisingly, a fair amount of Scotch broom. We spent the afternoon monitoring Highlands Estates, making our way through the covenanted areas on each property (See Week seven for more on Highlands Estates covenants).

Lush vegetation along De Mamiel Creek

Week nine saw TLC staff and volunteers back in Sooke, where we traversed a section of De Mamiel and Rocky Creeks in order to monitor the covenants at De Mamiel Creek Estates. This residential development was designed with connecting areas of covenanted riparian zones that will protect these two important salmon-bearing streams in perpetuity. We saw a diversity of native plants, including maidenhair fern, vanilla leaf, trailing blackberry, huckleberry, red columbine, and Cooley’s hedge nettle growing along the creek banks. An American goldfinch was also spotted. Many homeowners here are on board with removing invasive plants on their properties (we salute you!).

If you would like to support the TLC monitoring program that protects over 230 sites throughout BC with covenants, please donate today.