• the weather was a cool a 6C with a wind that got up to about 20 kph at times. The sun felt quite warm when not hidden by clouds.
• I saw/heard 15 species of birds,including the 2nd earliest blue-listed Gray Flycatcher. I did not find any expected Red Crossbills,but did find some migrating White-crowned Sparrows.
• I found about 15 plants in leaf or flower. I dug up abut a dozen small knapweed rosettes;they seem to surface during wet springs like we have had so far. I anticipate that bio-control agents will look after the few that I miss as they have been extremely effective over 20 years. I found only one Sulphur Cinqefoil plants,so my digging them up is an effective control.I forgot to look for the emerging red-listed Dalles milk-Vetch,but will do so during my annual Meadowlark Festival hike on May 19th.
• I saw no deer,bear or coyotes,no even a squirrel.
• I saw no sign of human activity in the ER,but I did see where what looked like a dirt bike had tried to climb the very steep slope on the outside of the E-W fence,close to the fence,but it appeared that it powered out with the slope and the deep soil that it tore up.
• Fence repairs are still outstanding. While the major section at the talus slope is not as critical to fix as other smaller sections of the fence, in the past I have found horse tracks along the game trail that the fence covered,when the top wire was  down. It would be an easy access for a trail bike as it now stands,er, lies! Fence posts are starting to rot out as some posts are now 35 years old. This has caused small sections to list heavily. A small repair needs to be done near the 12 green of the golf course as the top of the fence wire has broken where it was stapled to a post.

martin_1989_addendum_2_mara_meadows_er

See the full PDF: klaskish_ps
Primary Role The primary role of Klaskish River Ecological Reserve is to protect an outstanding estuary and adjacent alluvial forest in the hypermaritime subzone of the Coastal Western Hemlock Zone. The reserve encloses the lower 1.5 kilometres of the Klaskish River, the upstream half of Klaskish Basin, alluvial lowlands associated with the river and its estuary, and valley slopes.
The main feature of the ecological reserve is the estuary of the Klaskish River which is in a near pristine state. It provides important habitat for juvenile salmonids, bald eagles, shorebirds, wintering waterfowl, including trumpeter swans, and potential habitat for the Olympia oyster (), which is the only oyster native to British Columbia and is of limited occurrence on the coast. Significant runs of chinook, pink, coho and chum salmon spawn in the Klaskish River. The ecological reserve is also utilized by black-tailed deer, black bears, and Roosevelt elk.
Klaskish River Ecological Reserve contains diverse plant communities. Marine communities in the lower intertidal zone are dominated by eelgrass and rockweed. Three saltmarsh communities have been described on the rich flats in the upper intertidal zone. Sitka spruce dominated forest stands occur in the alluvial lowlands, and old growth western hemlock — western redcedar and western hemlock – amabilis fir associations occur in the uplands.

Diagram from DFO report on the Olympia Oyster.

]]> http://ecoreserves.bc.ca/2012/04/21/klaskish-river-er-purpose-reserve-2003/feed/ 0 http://ecoreserves.bc.ca/2012/04/21/klaskish-river-overview/ http://ecoreserves.bc.ca/2012/04/21/klaskish-river-overview/#comments Sun, 22 Apr 2012 06:54:38 +0000 Garry Fletcher http://ecoreserves.bc.ca/?p=9428 Original Purpose: To protect an outstanding estuary and adjacent alluvial forest in the
Hypermaritime subzone of the Coastal Western Hemlock Zone.

Physical: The reserve encloses the lower 1.5 km of the Klaskish River, the northern half of Klaskish Basin, alluvial lowlands along the river and in its estuary, and valley slopes to 30 m elevation west of Klaskish River and Basin and the 150 m level east of the river. Soils include Regosols in alluvial areas, Gleysols and Humisols in the inner estuary and Podzols on the uplands.

See the Complete PDF from BC parks website: klaskish

Biological: The main feature of the reserve is the near-pristine estuary of the Klaskish River. This has formed at the upper end of Klaskish Basin, a steep-walled lagoon connected to Klaskish Inlet by a narrow channel. Marine communities dominated by eelgrass and rockweed occur in the lower intertidal zone. Three saltmarsh communities have been described on rich flats in the upper intertidal zone. The Lingbye’s sedge community is the most seaward of these, and is replaced toward the forest edge by tufted hairgrass-red fescue-silverweed- springbank clover brackish meadow.
Forest stands dominated by Sitka spruce occur on alluvial materials adjacent to the Klaskish River and estuary. Old-growth western hemlock-western redcedar and hemlock-amabilis fir associations, with blueberry, fern and moss understories, dominate the uplands.
Sitka spruce in this reserve are not of great stature as older specimens are subject to periodic blowdown. Evidence of a catastrophic blowdown that may have occurred 100 to 150 years ago is still seen in the form of large rotting logs on the ground.
At least one rare plant, the Western lilaeopsis is present. The native Olympia Oyster, of limited occurrence on the British Columbia coast, occurs in Klaskish Basin.
The estuary is important for wintering waterfowl, including Trumpeter Swans. Black-tailed Deer and Black Bears utilize the reserve and Roosevelt Elk were reported in the past. Significant runs of Chinook, Pink, Coho and Chum Salmon spawn in the Klaskish River, some of these within the reserve. The lower river and estuary provide important rearing habitat for juvenile salmonids.

Queen Charlotte avens  Red listed
Sea Otter Blue listed
Grey Whale Blue listed
smooth douglasia  Blue listed
three-forked mugwort  Blue listed
alp lily Blue listed
Bald Eagle
Black Oystercatcher
Calder’s lovage
Chinook Salmon
Chum Salmon
Coho Salmon
Pink Salmon
Trumpeter Swan
Great Blue Heron
Olympia Oyster*

Red listed Blue listedBlue listed Blue listed Blue listed
No status Blue listed

Flora:

avens, Queen Charlotte (Geum schofieldii)
blueberry (Vaccinium spp.)
clover, springbank (Trifolium wormskjoldii)
douglasia, smooth (Douglasia laevigata var. ciliolata)
fescue, red (Festuca rubra ssp. rubra)
fir, amabilis (Abies amabilis)
hairgrass, tufted (Deschampsia cespitosa)
hemlock, western (Tsuga heterophylla)
lilaeopsis, Western (Lilaeopsis occidentalis)
lily, alp (Lloydia serotina)
lovage, Calder’s (Ligusticum caldera)
mugwort, three-forked (Artemisia furcata var. heterophylla)
redcedar, western (Thuja plicata)
sedge, Lyngbye’s (Carex lyngbyei ssp. cryptocarpa)
silverweed, coast (Potentilla egedii)
spruce, Sitka (Picea sitchensis)

Fauna
Bear, American Black (Ursus americanus)
Deer, Black-tailed (Odocoileus hemionus ssp. hemionus)
Eagle, Bald (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
Elk, Roosevelt (Cervus canadensis roosevelti)
Heron, Great Blue (Ardea herodias)
Otter, Sea (Enhydra lutris)
Oyster, Olympia (Ostrea conchaphila)
Oystercatcher, Black (Haematopus bachmani)
Salmon, Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
Salmon, Chum (Oncorhynchus keta)
Salmon, Coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch)
Salmon, Pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)
Swan, Trumpeter (Cygnus buccinator)
Whale, Grey (Eschrichtius robustus)