Empower B.C.’s habitat caregivers this #GivingTuesday

This #GivingTuesday we invite donors to help support the people behind the scenes that care for B.C.’s natural areas. As a charitable organization, we depend on your generosity to continue to increase TLC’s capacity to care for the 250 conservation covenants and 10 properties across the province. Sustainably managing 15,000 acres of at-risk ecosystems requires a tremendous amount of people-power. To protect B.C.’s special places, TLC seeks out local experts with site-specific ecological and traditional knowledge. We develop partnerships with private titleholders, community stakeholders, regional governments, and environmental organizations. Our covenants team travels hundreds of kilometers to collaborate with landowners to steward the unique ecosystems on their properties. Furthermore, our education team works with hundreds of volunteers to restore disturbed protected areas and to grow B.C.’s conservation-minded community with nature-based learning programs like the Passport to Nature program.

If you feel called to do so, you can make a #GivingTuesday donation by clicking the green button below. Alternative ways to donate while the Canada Post strike is ongoing include calling us toll-free at 1-877-485-2422, making an e-transfer to accounting@conservancy.bc.ca, or by dropping by in-person at our office (5150 Cordova Bay Road, Victoria) or at the Abkhazi Garden gate kiosk (1964 Fairfield Road). All #GivingTuesday donations are eligible for a charitable tax receipt. Tax receipts will be sent via email. If you would like a paper copy of your tax receipt mailed once the strike has concluded, please email lcross@conservancy.bc.ca or call our office.

In the meantime, I invite you to continue reading below about how your donations have already made an impact growing B.C.’s community of nature caregivers. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for your continued generosity.

Sincerely,

Dianna Stenberg

Executive Director
The Land Conservancy of BC

Second Annual Blenkinsop Invasives Bash

228 volunteer hours dedicated to restoring TLC’s Alston-Stewart protected area

For the second consecutive fall we paired up with the Greater Victoria Green Team (GVGT) to remove invasive English ivy (Hedera helix), English holly (Ilex aquifolium), and Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) at TLC’s Alston Stewart property in the Blenkinsop Valley. Over the course of two events, 71 volunteers managed to clear 630 square metres (around one sixth of an acre) of forest floor, removing a volume of invasives equivalent to 140 bathtubs (22.3 cubic metres)!

It is such an honour to meet the wonderful array of conservation-minded volunteers we have in our greater Victoria community. Each event brings so many different walks of life, from UVic international students, mom and daughter duos, and retired do-gooders. Volunteers play a large role in furthering our conservation goals, providing us with capacity to take on large projects such as restoring the at-risk Coastal Douglas-fir and Garry oak ecosystems present on the Alston-Stewart property. With the busy schedules many of our volunteers face, we are incredibly grateful for the time they dedicate to restoring critical habitats for the benefit of current and future generations. A big thank you is also in order for Greater Victoria Green Team staff, Kaitlin and Viloka, whose collaborative facilitation of these events is tremendously helpful.

Mushroom Mania at Millstream

78 species found at the Passport to Nature Mushroom ID event

While dark and dreary Novembers call us mammals to curl up and hibernate, it’s an invigorating time for fungi, as was demonstrated on November 9th’s Millstream Creek Fungi ID Passport to Nature event where an astonishing 78 species were found by sixteen eagle-eyed participants!

The rushing of Earsman Creek provided background serenity to our mushroom scavenger hunt with guides, naturalists, ecologists, and fun-guys Andy MacKinnon and Kem Luther. Stretching sunward to reach branches, ducking under logs, and crouching in the crevices of stumps, participants performed what could only be described as “fungi-yoga”  while they searched. Their efforts were well rewarded with fungi treasures of many shapes, sizes, textures, and smells!

Colourful species such as fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), Western witches’ caps (Hygrocybe singeri), and waxy caps (Hygrocybe sp.) are always crowd favourites with daring reds, oranges, and yellows. However, this year participants were particularly enamoured by the Western elfin saddle (Hevella vespertina), a greyish-brown, brain-like mushroom. Often mistaken for morels, elfin saddles are not edible and grow underneath conifer trees. While many facts about these curious mushrooms can be found in ID guides, the presence of mycological experts Andy and Kem let participants in on the Western elfin saddle’s deeper secrets. To the great perplexity of the group, the first thing Kem did when handed an elfin saddle was place it next to his ear. While auditory observation is not typical in mushroom ID, Kem explained that elfin saddles will whisper a secret if you listen closely enough. The “whispering” in question is actually the soft popping of spores releasing themselves from the underside of the mushroom’s cap. Participants took turns listening to the Helvella’s secrets, although it was sometimes hard to hear over the groups’ playful bantering about “mycelial mind-melding”.

We are extremely grateful to our volunteer, Elora from the South Vancouver Island Mushroom Society (SVIMS), who recorded our findings on iNaturalist.  View the full iNaturalist list here. These observations will be added to those from the 2023 Bioblitz Event (where 264 species of plants, animals, fungi, and lichens were found), and contribute to our baseline ecological inventory for the area. The data will also further refine conservation management planning for the Millstream Creek Watershed property.