South Coast Ecological Reserves in BC

Posted February 19, 2013 | Categories : 106,116,131,143,144,153,21,48,69,74,76,89,92,98,99,Management,Reports,Warden Meetings,Warden Reports |

February 18, 2013 Fraser Room, South Coast
Ministry of Environment office, 2nd floor, 10470 152nd Street, Surrey

1. Welcome and Introductions (Joanna Hirner, Conservation Specialist, BC Parks)

New efforts on the Volunteers website have been made. All are encouraged to use the Blog : http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/volunteers/

2. Regional updates: current Ecological Reserves and their wardens and Area Supervisors; BC Parks staffing changes.

Getting ER wardens to identify their interest and willingness to review and provide feed back to the ER Warden Hand Book.

With regard to multiple wardens –it was desirable but how to integrate with existing wardens was an on-going discussion. ( Ed note: perhaps there was not enough discussion on this topic, as leaving it to wardens to indicate if they thought it was needed for their reserve is not very constructive.)
With regard to adding ER wardens there appears to be bottle necks and delays on Parks side that have resulted in long delays . two examples of over a year and a half were noted by those at the meeting. There are of course work-load implications for staff that have to be dealt with.
There has been a problem in finding a warden for the Liumchen ER . Difficult access..

3. Reporting and data collection priorities: invasive plants, Conservation Risk Assessment and Ecological Integrity Reporting.

A handbook on invasives was recommended . (Ed note) this link provides access to various reports done on this topic by BC Parks:

Work is being done on this by Tory Stevens on Ecological monitoring , and shortly plans will be made public.

4. Friends of Ecological Reserves (FER) and demonstration of FER website (Mike Fenger and Garry Fletcher, Friends of Ecological Reserves)

The intended outline for this presentation is at https://ecoreserves.bc.ca/?p=16220

Urged wardens and parks staff to submit archival materials and wardens reports for publication on this website
Need for photographs for galleries on websites. They can serve as valuable baseline information.
wardens interested in entering their own information can do so: see https://ecoreserves.bc.ca/get-involved/directions-for-contributing-to-this-website/

5. Thank you and awards presentation

Two new wardens were acknowledged: Nick Yaniw , warden for Stoyoma Creek and Jodie Krakowski, an extra warden for Bayne’s Island.

The longest serving warden in the group, Duuane Vandenburg of Pit Polder was recognized.
Richard Wallis was also welcomed as a representative of Metro Vancouver as he is in charge of the management for Pacific Spirit Park, which includes the former UBC Endowment Lands. He has worked cooperatively with warden Terry Taylor. It was noted that the actual ownership of the area was in some question, given that BC Parks has removed this ER from their website, but Metro Vancouver, by their signage still recognizes the ecological reserve.

6. Warden reports: round table report from each warden on their Ecological Reserve(s) (formal or informal)

BC Parks/area wardens meeting Surrey Feb 18, 2013, photo by Garry Fletcher

Presentations were made by wardens from all of the reserves in this area except those with no warden present,#98,#143, #144, and #153.
Links to images from presentations by, Bev Ramey , Nick Yaniw, and Jodi Krakowski are included here:

7.Lunch

8. Finish the warden reports:

Signage was not an issue in all parks , but a few, Pit Polder and Stoyoma for instance need to have better signage .
John Riley pointed out that for his four reserves in the Skagit , what is needed are more feet on the ground. People to help remind others about where the reserves are and what behaviour is expected, given the special values represented in Ecological reserves.

9. Group discussion

How to encourage research (e.g. by local University researchers) in Ecological Reserves? Mike Fenger noted the survey done recently by a U.Vic student on how U Vic profs have used the Ecoreserves for promoting research opportunities.. with discouraging results. It was pointed out by Parks staff that often research is done in areas around reserves right up to the boundaries where it stops… with the assumption that research has already been done there.

Improving communications between wardens and BC Parks staff.
(Ed Note:) There is an article in the Warden’s Handbook which says: Government staff will facilitate an annual meeting of Wardens to maintain communications with and among wardens.” This meeting arranged by Joanna is a great example of that!)

Funding from BC Parks available for areas and ecoreserves. It was noted that Wardens have not been informed about the possibility of funds being available for their reserves.