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METCHOSIN’S PROTECTED TREES You can download this in a PDF:TREE BROCHURE print ANY NATIVE TREE ONE METRE DBH AND ABOVE DBH = diameter at breast height (1.3m) Almost any native tree that is measured at one metre dbh will be at least 150 years of age. Large, old trees supply critical habitat for woodpeckers, bears, and many other species, and older trees have a crucial relationship with fungal root systems (mycorrhizae) that are critical to supporting forest health. GARRY OAK Poster child for our endangered Garry oak ecosystems and British Columbia’s only native oak tree, its calcium rich bark hosts abun- dant moss, lichen and insect communities. PACIFIC DOGWOOD BC’s provincial flower, its late spring floral display is breath-taking. The bright red clusters of berries are eaten by numerous birds including the blue-listed, band-tailed pigeon. ARBUTUS The only native, broadleaf evergreen tree in Canada, its white flowers are used by many pollinators and hummingbirds. Steller’s jays and others flock to its red or orange berries. ANY Arbutus tree 50 cm and above receives increased protection. MANZANITA This attractive bonsai-like shrub with red, peeling bark and ever- green leaves provides food for many bees, butterflies, humming- birds and other animals. CASCARA Over-harvested as a natural laxative, only the occasional young tree can still be found. Leaves turn a beautiful clear yellow in fall. Grouse and songbirds harvest the berries. WESTERN YEW Slow growing, it is the original source of taxol, a cancer-fighting drug. Many birds eat the bright red fruit (poisonous to humans) and the leaves supply food for black-tailed deer. SEASIDE JUNIPER Very rare, tree-sized juniper that has recently been recognised as a new species; appearance is similar to Rocky Mt. juniper. TREMBLING ASPEN Uncommon on Vancouver Island, although common in the BC Interior, there is a healthy population that shows a beautiful, yellow, fall colour at Witty’s Lagoon. OREGON ASH A red-listed, species-at-risk typically found in poorly drained, humus rich soil, in swamps, estuaries and seasonally flooded habitats. |
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Please contact Metchosin District staff with any questions on the amended Tree Management Bylaw. 250-474-3167 or email www.metchosin.ca |
Category Archives: Biodiversity
Overhanging Vegetation, Invertebrates and Forage fish
Development along shorelines can very easily destroy or alter the natural coastal ecosystems so that the food supply and habitat maintenance of Forage Fish is affected negatively. Ramona de Graff has made several presentations on the importance of Forage Fish and has encouraged local residents to join in the documentation of occurrence of eggs on beaches.
From The Islands Trust “Sharing our Shorelines”
page 6: Shorelines Connect – Linking The Land And The Sea
page 6: Shorelines Connect – Linking The Land And The Sea
Marine Riparian Vegetation
What is marine riparian vegetation?
The term “marine riparian” vegetation refers to grasses, shrubs, trees and logs lining marine shorelines. Marine riparian zones link the land and the sea through the exchange of water, sediments and nutrients.
Where is marine riparian vegetation located?
Vegetation above the high water mark, within “backshore” areas such as
private shoreline properties, on bluff tops and slopes form the marine
riparian zone.
Why is marine riparian vegetation important?
Insects captured by the winds as “wind fall” from shoreline vegetation are critical
for young salmon growth. Removing overhanging shoreline vegetation from summer
surf smelt spawning beaches causes embryos to die. Vegetation removal reduces key prey for juvenilesalmon and can reduce surf smelt populations. Fish losses affect the entire food web. Vegetated buffer zones are a wildlife migratory corridor and leaf litter provides nutrients to stimulate marine plankton growth.
Maintaining shoreline vegetation is a net benefit to property owners as a free
“ecosystem service” limiting erosion and stabilizing slope soils. Trees and
shrubs absorb large volumes of rain water and filter pollutants. Vegetation
removal may cause large sediment loads to enter the ocean limiting light for eelgrass growth and clogging fish gills.
See also on this website: Land Plants of Coastal Metchosin.
The Link between Salmon and Forest Ecosystem Productivity
In the past few years, Dr. Tom Reimchen of the University of Victoria and his students have established clear relationships between the health of Coastal forest ecosystems and the ocean through the food webs involving salmon. Below are links from the publications of Dr. Tom Reimchen to some of the research articles and papers they have published on this topic:
49. Reimchen, T. E. 2000a. Some ecological and evolutionary aspects of bear – salmon interactions in coastal British Columbia. Can. J. Zool. 78: 448-457. (.pdf version)
60. Hocking, M. D. & T. E. Reimchen. 2002. Salmon-derived nitrogen in terrestrial invertebrates from coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest. BioMedCentral Ecology 2:4-14. ( http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6785/2/4/qc ) (.pdf version)
63. Reimchen, T. E. D. Mathewson, M. D. Hocking, J. Moran and D. Harris. 2003. Isotopic evidence for enrichment of salmon-derived nutrients in vegetation, soil and insects in riparian zones in coastal British Columbia. American Fisheries Society Symposium 34: 59-69. (.pdf version)
66. Mathewson, D., M.H. Hocking, and T. E. Reimchen . 2003. Nitrogen uptake in riparian plant communities across a sharp ecological boundary of salmon density. BioMedCentral Ecology 2003:4. (.pdf version)
70. Wilkinson, C. E., M. H. Hocking, T. E. Reimchen. 2005. Uptake of salmon-derived nitrogen by mosses and liverworts in Coastal British Columbia. Oikos 108: 85-98. (.pdf version)
76. Hocking, M.D and Reimchen T.E. 2006. Consumption and distribution of salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) nutrients and energy by terrestrial flies Can. J. of Fish. and Aquatic Sciences 63: 2076-2086. (.pdf version)
87. Christie, K. S., M.D. Hocking, and T.E. Reimchen. 2008. Tracing salmon-derived nutrients in riparian foodwebs: isotopic evidence in a ground-foraging passerine. Can. J. Zool. 86: 1317-1323. (.pdf version).
98. Hocking, M.D., R. A. Ring and T. E. Reimchen. 2009. The ecology of terrestrial invertebrates on Pacific salmon carcasses. Ecol. Res. (.pdf version)
102. Darimont. C.T., Bryan, H., Carlson, S.M., Hocking, M.D., MacDuffee, M., Paquet, P.C., Price, M.H.H., Reimchen, T. E., Reynolds, J.D., & Wilmers, C.C. 2010. Salmon for terrestrial protected areas. Conservation Letters 3: 379-389. (.pdf version)
TR12. Reimchen, T. E. 2001. Salmon nutrients, nitrogen isotopes and coastal forests. Ecoforestry 16:13-17. (.pdf version)
TR15. Reimchen, T. E. 2004. Marine and terrestrial ecosystem linkages: the major role of salmon and bears to riparian communities. Botanical Electronic News. BEN#328. http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany-micro/ben/ben328.html
Crumia latifolia- wideleaf crumia moss
Crumia latifolia was one of the six special species recorded on the 2013 Bioblitz. The following was written by Kem Luther for the Bioblitz 2013 website
entered on iNaturalist at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/33786772
Team of Bryologists and Kem Luther examining habitat of Crumia spp.
” The Bioblitz moss group, (l. to r.) Wynne Miles, Olivia Lee, Steve Joya, and Kem Luther, look at Crumia latifolia. Photo by Garry Fletcher.
Garry Fletcher found this moss on a morning seashore foray along the shores of Parry Bay, at a seepage area above a rock beach. When he brought the moss back to the BioBlitz headquarters for identification, Steve Joya recognized it. The moss team made a detour in the afternoon to see Crumia in situ. “We only have a handful of collections from B.C.,” says Steve, “and these are mainly from islands in the Strait of Georgia area plus one from Limestone Island in Haida Gwaii…. I am not aware of any modern collections from Vancouver Island proper, so the Metchosin record was interesting.
Wilf Schofield, the late doyen of BC mosses, extracted this moss from a motley classification group and moved it to its own genus, naming it after the famous moss biologist, Howard Crum.”
Habitat and ID:
Crumia latifolia normally occurs on seepy shaded calcareous outcrops. The location on the Taylor bluffs is not normally considered to be calcareous.. The seeps originate from a deep glacial till layer.
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- Vertical erosion bank at toe of bluffs
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- Fresh water seeps at base of cliff
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- Mosses growing in Fresh water seep.
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- The mosses Pholia sp.and Crumia sp.
I returned in the summer and took more pictures of the site and a specimen closeup:
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- Macrophoto of Crumia
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- A clump containing Crumia latifolia
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- Even in Juy, water seeps from the layers of glacial clay. Photos by Garry Fletcher
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- The dark moss in the seeps is Crumia. This is on the cliff about 1 metre above the beach level
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- Another moss growing in the same seeps is Brachythecium frigidum, Golden Short-Capsuled Moss.
Crumia can be separated from Tortula, a similar species, by the row of swollen, orange colored marginal cells on the leaves.
The following taxonomy is from the ITIS database : www.itis.gov
| Kingdom | Plantae – plantes, Planta, Vegetal, plants | |
| Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae – green plants | ||
| Infrakingdom | Streptophyta – land plants | |
| Division | Bryophyta – hornworts, mosses, hépatiques, mousses, non-vascular land plants | |
| Subdivision | Bryophytina – mosses | |
| Class | Bryopsida | |
| Subclass | Dicranidae | |
| Order | Pottiales | |
| Family | Pottiaceae | |
| Genus | Crumia Schof. – crumia moss | |
| Species | Crumia latifolia (Kindb. in Mac.) Schof. – wideleaf crumia moss |
Trees of the Coast of Metchosin
Terrestrial and Marine Systems Interact with exchanges of materials and energy between the two. This page when developed further will illustrate that interaction.
Some ideas to be developed here:
1. Energy and materials transfer to the ocean of terrestrial vegetative material by freshwater runoff . Carbon and Nutrient input from forests to the oceans.
2. The close ties between salmon and forest productivity
3. Overhanging trees in Coastal areas providing shelter and insect food for forage fish.
4. Control of coastal erosion by tree cover.
5. Coastline aesthetics of tree cover.
Link to posts on this website tagged with “Trees”
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See the Protected Tree Map of Metchosin
The Protected Trees of Metchosin was a topic of one of the Blue-Green Spaces Walk and Talk Series. The files on the trees have been prepared by Jim MacPherson and Moralea Milne.
Link to the Tree Cutting Bylaw proposal of MEASC, 2013
Link to the Tree Management Bylaw :
Link to:Times Colonist: Metchosin stops short of requiring permits to cut trees
First Nations and Coastal Metchosin
First Nations Peoples have lived on the shores of Metchosin for millenia using the bountiful resources of the sea, the forests and the fields of Camus. Many different groups occupied the shorelands and this location was at the boundary of the lands of the inner Coast Salish people and the outer coast where more warlike Nootka tribes lived The local tribes were often caught in the middle of intertriibal warfare. In the documentation that follows from the Race Rocks website, one such group, from 1500 to 1000 years ago inhabited the area and built the many burial cairns still present in fields of Metchosin, Rocky Point and Race Rocks. Then without any record of what happened, that complete cultural tradition disappeared.
Link to posts on this website tagged “First Nations”
Link to the First Nations FIle:
Clupea pallasii: Pacific Herring
These small herring –12cm were found washed up on Taylor Beach
Pacific Herring, (Clupea pallasii) found on Taylor Beach-photo by G.Fletcher
Cause of death unknown.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Clupeiformes
Family: Clupeidae
Subfamily: Clupeinae
Genus: Clupea
Species: C. pallasii
Link to other posts on this website on Fish ;
Link to the organisms added to our species list for Metchosin shores.
Ammodytes hexapterus: Pacific Sand lance, (Needle fish) : forage fish of Metchosin’s shoreline
See this post on Sandlance on Taylor Beach: 
Image from the presentation below
One of the unusual characteristics of sandlance on Taylor Beach is that in less thAN a minute after emerging from the sand after spawning, If they are not consumed by crows or gulls, then they will die. ( so far I have not found this reported in the literature?)
| Kingdom: Animalia |
| Phylum: Chordata |
| Class: Actinopterygii |
| Order: Perciformes |
| Family: Trachinoidea (Bonaparte, 1832) |
| Genus: Ammodytes |
| Species: A. hexapteris |
| Binomial name Ammodytes hexapterus |
Gobiesox maeandricus–Northern Clingfish
Charlie Carpenter found several clingfish today under rocks at low tide on the mid-north section of Taylor Beach .
| Kingdom: Animalia | |
| Phylum: Chordata | |
| Class: Actinopterygii | |
| Order: Gobiesociformes | |
| Family: Gobiesocidae | |
| Genus: Gobiesox | |
| Species: G. maeandricus | |
| Binomial name: Gobiesox maeandricus (Girard, 1858) |
Apodichthys flavidus –penpoint gunnel
June 8, 2013: Charlie Carpenter my neighbour arrived from next door with a bucket with a 15cm. gunnel and cling-fish he had found down on the rocky intertidal at the mid-north section of Taylor Beach. We took this photo for the species list before returning it.
These gunnels live under the rocks which are exposed at low tide.
| Kingdom: Animalia |
| Phylum: Chordata |
| Class: Actinopterygii |
| Order: Perciformes |
| Family: Pholidae |
| Genus: Apodichthys |
| Species: A. flavidus |
| Binomial name Apodichthys flavidus, Girard, 1854 |