Sage Whispers

Coming Events/Community Calendar News and Updates BC Nature Spring Meeting Report BC Nature Education Award Our Members Dewdrop Cleanup Letter to BC Hydro Dewdrop-Rosseau Wildlife Brochure

September 2016

INDEX What’s Inside

Newsletter of the Kamloops Naturalist Club www.facebook.com/kamloopsnaturalistclub

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BC Nature Spring Meeting BC Nature Education Award Dewdrop-Rosseau Wildlife Brochure

BC Nature Education Award Vice-President Frank Ritcey

Kamloops Naturalist Club

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KNC PROGRAMS September 15 – David Hill, Associ-ate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Stud-ies at TRU. “Here Come the Drones: How Consumer Grade technology is Enhancing Environmental Monitor-ing”. Advances in electronics manu-facturing and miniaturization have brought a number of powerful yet inexpensive technologies to the con-sumer market including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), programma-ble microcontrollers (e.g. Arduino) and microcomputers (e.g. Raspber-ryPi). This talk will discuss three projects in which these technologies are used to gather high spatial/temporal reso-lution data to facilitate environmental management. October 20 – Gary Hunt, recently retired Assistant Professor and Chair of the Natural Resource Sciences Department at TRU will be speaking about mushrooms. November 17 – Karl Larsen, Profes-sor in the Natural Resource Scienc-es Department at TRU will be speak-ing about badgers and rattlesnakes. Graduate student, Shorf Chowdhury will give a brief presentation on his work with Asian elephants. December 15 – This meeting will be our annual Christmas event where everyone brings their Christmas bak-ing and mingles with their friends. Look for an interesting slide show and a nature quiz.

FIELD TRIPS AND COM-MUNITY CALENDAR

September 28, 2016; Wednesday: Responsible Reptile Husbandry and the Small Pet Trade at the BIG Little Science Centre, 655 Holt Street,

Kamloops, BC. It will be presented by Elise Huffman at an older child and adult level. She will discuss the small animal industry and what it means for our pets. With the help of her scaly friends, she will demon-strate how to keep your pets as happy and healthy as possible. Be prepared to get hands on with snakes, lizards and amphibi-ans, if you wish.

NEWS AND UPDATES

BC NATURE SPRING GENERAL MEETING 2016

The BC Nature Conference and Spring General Meeting was held in Courtenay from May 12th to 15th, 2016 at the Filberg Centre, and hosted by Comox Valley Na-ture. May 12 I attended the club director’s meeting. The main topics were:

discussion and approval of the 2015 financial statement.

appointment of Alan Burger as BC Na-ture president, effective May 14, 2016.

update on the first year of the 5 year strategic plan.

vacancies for the positions of Conser-vation chair and Parks & Protected Areas chair.

The evening speaker was Dr. Richard Heb-da, curator of Botany and Earth History at the Royal BC Museum. The main focus of his talk was that the mean temperature of each of the last 12 months has set a record high. This trend has climatologists ex-tremely concerned, prompting fears that the accepted time line model for global warming may be too conservative. Dr. Hebda stresses the need to protect the Garry Oak ecosystem, as this will be the most likely successor to our present eco-systems that would not be able to tolerate the hotter arid climate that is predicted. May 13

The six morning presentations offered ses-sions on the river restoration, tree diseas-

September 2016

Kamloops

Naturalist

CLub

Mailing Address: PO Box 625, Kamloops, B.C. V2C 5L7 MEETINGS 7:00 pm, the third Thurs-day of the month from September to June. Meet at Heritage House, 100 Lorne St.

Annual Membership (Jan 1st to December 31st) Family $35, Individual $25, Student $20 Contact: Gordon Campone Tel: 250-374-1509

ART CREDITS: All line drawings in this issue courtesy of the Artist, Robert Savannah, for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Coming Events

KNC Newsletter is pub- lished every two months except for July & August. Editor: Paul Johansen kncnewsletter@gmail.com Telephone 250-377-7742. Please request contribution guidelines if unfamiliar with such. Deadline for submissions is the end of the month prior to the next issue.

Kamloops

Naturalist

CLub

The Kamloops Naturalist Club was formed in 1971 and became a registered Society in 1981. It is a member of the Federation of British Columbia Natu-ralists <www.bcnature.ca> and Nature Canada <www.naturecanada.ca>.

Sage Whispers is pub-lished every two months except for July and August. Editor: Paul Johansen kncnewsletter@gmail.com

KNC Mailing Address PO Box 625 Kamloops, B.C. V2C 5L7 Meetings 7:00 pm, the third Thurs-day of the month from Sept. to June. Meet at Heritage House, 100 Lorne St., Kamloops, BC.

Annual Membership (Jan. 1st to Dec. 31st) Family $40, Individual $28, Student $23 Contact: Winnifred Fischer Tel: 250-376-3944

Page 3 BC Nature Spring Meeting

September 2016

es, conservation, mimulus genetics and the concept of a steady state economy to replace capitalism and consumerism. The latter would require the removal of 6 billion people from the planet in order to work, so we may have to wait for nat-ural selection to make the idea more appealing. Jack Minard, head of the Tsolum River restoration, described how they were able to contain toxic runoff from a de-funct mine to improve pink salmon re-turns. Unfortunately, despite introduced hatchery fish returning to spawn, natural returns were almost non-existent. But a new discovery by the restoration team will have far reaching effects on the Tsolum and other stream restoration projects. The increased water volume of the spring freshet displaces the gravel in the salmon spawning beds. The un-hatched overwintering salmon eggs are crushed by the moving gravel, causing almost complete mortality. By securing large rocks and trees along the riverbed (as can be seen on our Tranquille Riv-er) the water flow has been altered enough to prevent the damaging move-ment of the gravel. The afternoon tour of estuary restora-tion showed the difference CVN involve-ment has made to resolving problems caused by ill-conceived industrial devel-opment in the past. May 14 The official portion of the AGM began Saturday morning with an address from outgoing president Kees Visser, at which time Alan Burger was confirmed as the new BC Nature president by the general membership. Keynote speaker Steven Price spoke on the necessity to co-ordinate migratory bird conservation efforts with other north and South American countries. Although some folks regard all birds that we see here in the spring and sum-mer as “ our birds”, we need to remem-ber that some species may be in our area for two or three months. They take advantage of the explosion of insects that emerge here in the spring and early summer to hatch and raise their brood before exiting back to their real home.

KNC Executive and Officers President Julie Schooling Past President Jean Crowe Vice-President Frank Ritcey Secretary Adele Stapleton BC Nature Director Ken Lipinski Treasurer Jean Crowe Directors Justine Densmore-McCulloch Andy Raniseth Communications Margaret Graham marggraham@shaw.ca 250-554-1285 Membership Winnifred Fischer Newsletter Committee Paul Johansen Carrie Dougan Programs Justine Densmore-McCulloch Margaret Graham Bluebird Co-ordinator Susan Weilandt

On Saturday afternoon we participated in a tour of the Vancouver Island University Research Station, which is housed in a building designed to look like a giant clam. The station does research on vari-ous types of aquaculture. The largest feature inside the building is a re-assembled skeleton pf a gray whale that hangs from the ceiling of the station for three full stories! There are also several small aquariums and hands-on tanks with fish and invertebrates, including a large octopus.

Although the conference continued on Sunday with several optional tours, the AGM Banquet and Awards was the fina-le for us. The highlight of course, was the presentation of the BC Nature Edu-cation award to KNC’s own Frank Ritcey, which I accepted on Frank’s behalf. (He was unable to attend as he was off train-ing people!) . It was special to hear Alan Burger describe Frank’s many and var-ied contributions to our understanding and appreciation of the natural world via his field trips, trail cams and videos . We are very fortunate to have Frank as one of our club members, as we get to enjoy hanging out with him on a regular basis.

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Least Sandpiper Taken at Separation Lake by Terry Conroy

Kamloops Naturalist Club

Photo by Marina Lipinski

BC Nature Education Award 2016

Frank Ritcey, Kamloops Naturalist Club

by Ken Lipinski

At the 2016 BC Nature spring AGM in Courtenay, Frank Ritcey was awarded the 2016 BC Nature Education Award. The following is a modified ver-sion of the nomination submitted and co-written by Julie Schooling, Jean Crowe and Ken Lipinski. Frank Ritcey has been a member of the Kamloops Naturalist Club for eleven years and has been an active volunteer for six years, most recently as vice-president of the club for the past five years. Frank possesses a wide-ranging knowledge of the envi-ronment and its associated joys and problems, and is very motivated to engage others by experiencing the outdoors through his eyes. Through his experience as a wilderness guide, WildSafeBC coordinator, teacher, newspaper editor and growing up with Wells Gray Park as his back-yard, Frank’s expertise knows no bounds. Frank is also a writer, photographer, videographer, musician and cowboy poet with the ability to take club mem-bers and field trip participants to a deeper level of appreciation for the outdoors with his colourful ex-planations of wildlife behaviours and habitat.

Over the past six years Frank has been in-volved in many educational endeavours through the KNC:

Organized field trips and led Thompson Rivers University (TRU) international student prospects for trips in the Tranquille River area in 2015 and 2016. The trips included night walks to view owls and bats, day trips to view snakes, birds and beaver dams, and a historical and active gold panning trip. All funds collected went to KNC. Students raved about these trips and TRU has booked Frank and other KNC members to lead more trips in 2016.

Organized and helped installation of a video webcam for the filming of an osprey nesting in the Tranquille area. This filming resulted in about 1200 hours of footage that Frank donated to TRU for re-search purposes. Frank, the landowner, and other volunteers overcame the lack of a utility pole for nest-height viewing by mustering resources (mostly donated) to erect one and provide power to it! Foot-age from the camera, and supporting information, can be viewed at: https://wildsafebc.com/osprey-cam/ . The webcam had hundreds of Likes on Fa-cebook, and was enjoyed by many across the prov-ince and beyond. Frank included quizzes with the webcam for viewers to guess hatching and fledging dates. Footage also appeared on Global TV News.

Organized the annual Herp Day in Kamloops starting in 2013 to raise the profile of reptiles and

amphibians in our community. Frank leads herp-finding field trips and collects results of those who par-ticipate in the count on International Herp Day. Frank’s snake den videos are infamous and can be found at his blog frankritcey.blogspot.ca/ or on YouTube account youtube.com/user/FrankRitcey

Regularly posts photos and videos on the KNC Facebook page educating members on the habitat and behaviour of bears, deer, and beavers amongst others. His recent posting of a pygmy owl slurping up the innards of a mouse received over 600 views; his videos reach a wide audience beyond the KNC. Frank always attempts to make learning fascinating!

Provides leadership for Tranquille Valley Steward-ship. One of Frank’s new projects is to help coordinate a stewardship program for the Tranquille River, which will help educate Kamloopsians on the many diverse uses of this area by humans and by our furry friends as Frank would say.

Led a 5-day Hut-to-Hut trek in the Trophy Moun-tains in 2014 as part of KNC's Wells Gray Park field camp. A fun and educational experience for partici-pants. All net proceeds went to the KNC and BC Na-ture.

Frank is often called upon to speak on the topic of safety around wildlife, but especially bears. He has done presentations at schools and several interior BC Nature clubs, including KNC and Nicola Valley Natu-ralists.

In late February of this year, Frank mobilized the KNC executive to organize a cleanup of the Dewdrop area. Three weeks later, more than 150 people gath-ered to remove over 11 tons of trash from the grass-lands. This exercise has been used as an example for other BC Nature clubs for what can be accomplished when a small group of people initiate a positive action to combat habitat degradation. Frank is also active in naturalist education in the com-munity, which helps to increase the profile of the club:

Delivers a regular Sunday morning radio spot on CBC Kamloops’ North by Northwest program as their Outdoor Guy, educating listeners about the outdoors.

Working on writing a children’s book with Dr. Lyn Baldwin (TRU Biology) called The 12 Labours, to help children engage in the environment through twelve outdoor activities.

Frank’s enthusiasm to learn about the outdoors and his dedication to protecting the environment is conta-gious. Anyone who knows him will agree that he is very deserving of the Education award. He motivates everyone he has contact with to higher levels of en-gagement, learn more about the environment, and to give more to the community.

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Kamloops Naturalist Club September 2016

BC Nature Education Award

Eleanor Hancock

by Joan Best How many of us know where Zeballos is? Eleanor does! How many of us have ever been there? A guess would put that figure at or close to zero. Though not born there but at Kinsella, Alberta, just south-east of Edmonton, Eleanor grew up in Zeballos, a settlement on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island. In 1939, her grandfather bought Nelson Brothers Fisheries General Store. At that time the town was only two years old and in the midst of Canada's last significant gold mining boom. In time, her parents took over the store and continued operating it. At the time, the rea-son for settlement in the area was not what one nor-mally associates with any Vancouver Island or any west coastal location; the lure of gold! Gold mining, then, was the economic foundation of Zeballos and continued to support the town until gold gave out and the loggers moved in. While working in her parents' store, Eleanor listened to the many stories told by cus-tomers; miners, loggers, fishers, and the Nuu-chah-nulth people and became fascinated by the area's his-tory. At age 15 she left, and what a cultural shock it must have been, to attend the third-largest junior-senior sec-ondary school, Gladstone, in Vancouver. She then attended the University of British Columbia. She never forgot Zeballos, though, and whenever she could she returned, on holidays, to work in the general store, the post office, restaurants and aboard the MV Uchuck II, a freight and passenger ship plying the Nootka Sound area (look that up on your atlas too!). As an adult she undertook becoming a teacher and taught in Powell River and Dawson Creek amongst other locations. She married a mining engineer and they lived in a number of B.C. towns before she and Trevor, with their daughter, Jennifer, moved to Kam-loops for his work. Never straying far from her histori-cal interests, and while serving as an on-call teacher, she became editor of the Kamloops Museum Associa-tion's newsletter, a position she maintained for 11 years. As well, she served as education director on the board of the Kamloops Wildlife Park and she teaches a creative writing course for the City of Kamloops' Arts, Culture and Heritage. During all this time she was honing her interests and became an amateur historian, concentrating on the Zeballos area and its' people's recollections. This inter-est led her to compile and publish her first book, based on the recollections and other historical data. The book deals with the memories of five very different people

and relates how they each saw life in the area dur-ing the 1930s. Eleanor's book, Salt Chuck Stories from Vancouver Island's West Coast - Zeballos, Nootka Sound, Kyuquot is the only book of its type dealing with the Vancouver Island coast north of Tofino. It covers the opening of the Nootka Sound area through fishing, trapping, mining and logging as seen through the experiences of five pioneers. A current work-in-progress is entitled Hardly the Klon-dike - the 1938 Zeballos Gold Boom. It will be based on further interviews with 120 people she interviewed in the 1980s. Eleanor adds; "This was before I knew how to write!" The entire history of Vancouver Island makes for fascinating reading, if only because it is so very different from our own area, B.C. being, of course, home to the widest range of ecosystems in Canada. Here's a sample from the back cover of her current book; "Life was rough; rain lashed the impenetrable forests and hostile seas. The wind howled through the inlets....." The book contains 62 photos, most not heretofore seen in print. It has been sold on BC Ferries for three years. Last year a power-point slide show was made of Salt Chuck Stories and was chosen by Victoria's downtown library on Feb-ruary 25 for Heritage Week. Anyone interested in obtaining Eleanor's book can find it locally at Chap-ters, where it can be ordered in, or at Access Pic-ture Framing on Notre Dame next to BCAA where four copies are available. Eleanor joined the Club because it afforded the op-portunity to experience, with like-minded people, the pleasure of field trips, of being out in nature and learning more about it. In this she is joined by most of our members.

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Kamloops Naturalist Club September 2016

Our Members

September 2016

Dewdrop Cleanup Page 6

Kamloops Naturalist Club

a letter from the TNRD and City of Kamloops to waive the tipping fees. Over 10,000 kg of garbage went over the scales on Sunday and Monday. Some big-ticket items were diverted from the landfill for re-cycling such as a wrecked car and large truck tires. A letter to the editor of Kamloops This Week went out after the clean-up to thank the following groups and organizations who donated their manpower, supplies, and publicity to help make the cleanup a suc-cess: City of Kamloops; Forests, Lands and Natu-ral Resource Operations; BC Parks; TNRD; Conser-vation Officer Service; Kamloops This Week; CBC Daybreak Kamloops; CFJC TV; NewsKamloops.com; Costco; Shoppers Drug Mart Aberdeen; Pepsi-co; Kamloops Fish & Game Club; Kamloops Trail Blazers 4x4 Club; Four Wheel Drive Association of BC; Kamloops Thompson Trails Alliance; Kamloops Outdoors Club; Kamloops Hiking Club; Kamloops Bike Riders Association; Kamloops Fire Centre; Fred Legace of Kamloops Airport Ltd.; Teresa the Travel-er. The Naturalist Club donated the remaining food sup-plies to the Fish and Game Club for their next charity event. Hopefully, it will be a long time before another clean-up of the area will have to be organized. People can report an illegal dumpsite on the TNRD website: http://www.tnrd.ca/content/illegal-dump-sites or con-tact Graham Casselman gcasselman@tnrd.ca, Envi-ronmental Services Technician, TNRD at 250-377-7195.

By Margaret Graham The Naturalist Club held a very successful cleanup of the Dewdrop Flats area on March 20 thanks to the efforts of more than 140 volunteers and the support from various levels of government, busi-nesses, and other organizations. Frank Ritcey got the ball rolling and was the chief organizer. He contacted the Fish and Game Club to cook the hamburgers and hotdogs and provide coffee and hot chocolate for the participants. We used a do-nation from Costco to purchase supplies from them, and Shoppers Drug Mart in Aberdeen sup-plied bottled water, juices, and granola bars. Gar-bage bags were donated by various groups. Thanks to Frank, we also had a porta potty at the rendezvous site. Throughout the day we were serenaded by mead-owlarks and some people were lucky enough to see bluebirds. While some of us set up tables and tents, Richard Doucette and another man combed the parking area with magnetic sweepers to pick up all the nails. Just as Frank announced the start of the cleanup and began assigning areas to team leaders, a slight rain shower threatened to dampen the participants but after a few minutes the rain stopped. Armed with gloves, garbage bags, and plastic pails, people set off in all directions and re-convened at noon with bags and pick-up trucks full of garbage. Once fed, the volunteers dispersed to continue with their Sunday activities, while the driv-ers took their loads to the Mission Flats landfill with

Kamloops Naturalist Club September 2016

Dewdrop Cleanup Page 7

Photos Courtesy of Karen Willies and Julie Schooling

September 2016

Letter to BC Hydro Page 8

Kamloops Naturalist Club