Native Species

By the light of the Snow Moon, a whispered series of soft whistles echoed through the misty forest, just louder than the sound of water flowing over the falls of Shingle Creek on North Pender Island. This was the call of a Northern Saw-whet owl (Aegolius acadicus) – a tiny owl no bigger than a robin. These tiny forest dwellers are increasingly rare on Pender thanks to the loss of intact, old forests with large standing dead trees, or snags, containing woodpecker holes they ne

By Adam Miller Manager of Pender Native Plants pnp@penderconservancy.org As the flower buds began to swell on Oregon Grape around the island I found myself ready for spring and for the gardening projects I’ve got planned. It's easy to forget that in February we still have a couple of months of winter. Ever the optimist and garden planner, I’m opening the nursery for sales. Starting on February 1, 2025, Pender Native Plants will be open every Saturday from 10 am - 2 pm selling

by Bob Vergette The Banana Slug is one of only three (known!) native slugs on Pender Island. Which local creature is almost everyone on Pender familiar with? The Banana Slug, of course! Slugs are members of the Phylum Mollusca, in the Gastropod Class that also includes their hard-shelled snail cousins. Several species of slugs can be found on Pender; however, only a few are native. This includes the Banana Slug (Ariolimax columbianus) - the second-largest slug in the world, g

Introducing Vulture Ridge Nature Reserve and Osprey Ridge Nature Reserve: Two new nature sanctuaries on S,DÁYES, Pender Island! We are excited to announce that two new Nature Reserves have been established on S,DÁYES (Pender Island), protecting an additional 46 acres (19 ha) of diverse, mature forest and enhancing connections with existing protected lands. Vulture Ridge Nature Reserve lies on the north-facing slope along Clam Bay Road, supports forest wetlands, diverse microc

Native species in an ecosystem support wildlife and humans alike by creating a biodiverse and healthy environment. Sea Blush Wild...

Photo by Oliver Tweedie Near the top of the earthen slope that descends to the shoreline of KELÁ_EKE Kingfisher Forest, overlooking the viridian waters of Plumper Sound, are several excavated holes. Their engineer, the belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon), is the only member in Canada of a unique and globally diverse family of birds. While some kingfishers are mainly terrestrial species, the belted kingfisher is known as a “fishing kingfisher”, inhabiting the edges of stream

Shauna Doll Photo by Alex Harris Explore the incredible world of fungi at KELÁ_EKE Kingfisher Forest at EcoFair on S,DÁYES, Pender Island this fall! From October 22-23, 2022, Dr. Hugues Massicotte will be on S,DÁYES for EcoFair, an initiative organized by Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Pender Islands Conservancy, and PenderPOD. He will be leading two guided fungi forays through KELÁ_EKE Kingfisher Forest near Razor Point, North Pender Island to introduce visitors and resi

Dr. Pamela Wright On S’Dayes (Pender Island), we are blessed with a diverse suite of ecosystems from rich intertidal areas to nearshore kelp forests, coastal Douglas Fir ecosystems, wetlands and small lakes, like Gardom Pond and Roe Lake, and others. The diversity of these ecosystems, like in human communities, gives them strength. However, these diverse ecosystems are insufficient if they are not connected. Ecological connectivity is the unimpeded movement of species and

Belted kingfishers are the only species of kingfisher found in Canada. Living at the interface between land and water, these iconic blue birds symbolize the interconnectedness of all ecosystems surrounding the Salish Sea. Photo by: Oliver Tweedie By: Dr. Erin O’Brien, Avian Biologist, Pender Islands Conservancy Association Near the top of the cutbank that slopes down to the shoreline of KELÁ_EKE Kingfisher Forest are several excavated holes burrowed into the bank. These burro

Fall is a great time to get outdoors and enjoy what nature has to offer on the trails of Pender Island. Please join us on Saturday, November 6 starting at 9:30 am at the trailhead of the Found Road Trail on Clam Bay Road as we seek out the multitudes of mushrooms that proliferate there at this time of year. Mushrooms are mostly dormant during the dry summers but as the fall rains start, they produce fleshy reproductive fruiting bodies that pop up through the duff on the for

Stalwart Hope Bay Salmon Stream project volunteers spend 2 days hauling rock and shoveling gravel to enhance salmon habitat in the stream. They repaired weirs and placed spawning gravel and rock in the stream bed. Now we wait for the rains and keep our fingers crossed that some of the chum salmon that hatched in the stream four years ago will find their way back home to spawn.

June 1 - 4 2021, Divers planted 1700 shoots of eelgrass to create marine habitat in Hope Bay and in Bedwell Harbour off of Medicine Beach, creating habitat for many species of small marine creatures. The eelgrass shoots were harvested by Seachange Marine Conservation Society divers from healthy meadows at Welcome Bay. They were careful to remove only the number of shoots that would allow the meadows to recover easily. Each eelgrass shoot was then prepped for replanting by

The forage fish project is back up and running once again after a two year hiatus, under the guidance of Haley Tomlin and her colleagues at the University of Vancouver Island. Forage fish are various species of small schooling fish that consume plankton and tiny animals floating near the surface, and in turn become food for everything higher in the food chain. Thus, they are vital to our marine ecosystems, providing a crucial source of food for other marine creatures, and wit

The First Annual Ursula Poepel Broom Bash received a great deal of support from the Pender Islands Community!