Fall 2009

The
Steward
d Green Map is Born €
Where does the Cowichan Valley Green Map go
After conducting several community mapping
from here?
workshops in the spring and countless editing
sessions over the summer with many supporters,
• We want to help you be better stewards of your
the Cowichan Land Trust is ready to launch the
land and natural places that are important to you.
Cowichan Valley Community Green Map.
• We want to help develop effective community
partnerships that lead to better care of the land.
The Cowichan Land Trust will join other
• We will continue community mapping by
community partners in the Cowichan Sustainable
developing web-based mapping tools and
Harvest Festival at Providence Farm on Sunday,
resources for the community.
September 27th to celebrate the launch of the
Cowichan Valley Community Green Map. We are
In the Green Map Project…
excited to give the map back to the community,
We collected data…
and share the values and concerns you told us.
Data becomes colourful map
information…
The theme of the green map is that we are all
Information pondered becomes
connected to this land, the people and the food.
knowledge…
The message of the green map is that when we
This knowledge upon reflection,
value the land, we will take care of it and it will take
can lead to wisdom…
care of us.
But ultimately we hope…
By telling the stories of local people and the many
It leads to… Action.
groups and individuals that care for the Valley,
we hope to open new doors of partnership for
Visit the Land Trust Green Mapping website for more
conservation and stewardship. information: maps.cowichanlandtrust.ca

Attention Members!
Annual General Meeting is coming up on
September 30th from 6:30pm-8:30pm at
Providence Farm in the
St. Anne’s Garden Room
Come celebrate a great year with the CLT
and sample local food and refreshments.
The Steward
Mission Possible:
Chase Woods Saved
Thanks to a successful fundraising campaign and
overwhelming public support, Chase Woods has been
saved from future land development. The Nature
Conservancy of Canada (NCC), with the help of local
partners such as the Cowichan Land Trust and private
donors, was able to achieve the seemingly impossible
goal of raising $1.7 million by July 24, 2009.
Now the NCC would like to thank everyone for their
support. On Sunday, September 27 from 3 to 5
p.m., the NCC is hosting a community celebration for
Chase Woods at Affinity Guest House at 5155 Samuel
Road in Duncan. Coordinator of Conservation Proj-
ects Katie Blake and other members of the NCC will
be there to express their thanks to the community.
Chase Woods on Mount Tzouhalem is an ecological
treasure in the Cowichan Valley because of the signifi-
cant trees and wildlife in the area. Douglas fir forests
and Garry oak woodlands along with animals such as
Peregrine falcons, Pacific treefrogs and Great blue
herons will now be preserved for future generations.
Fall 2009
Fall Fun
The Top Ten List!
Autumn is a great time of year to get out and enjoy
the outdoors. Yes, there is still some gardening and
yard work to do, but it should be minimal once you
harvest your produce. You can cut down on your
work by letting some seed heads stand in the garden.
The foliage will add beauty to your yard and the
seeds will provide food for the birds in the winter. You
can also save work by throwing your leaves in the
compost pile or by using them as mulch in your flower
beds and around your trees.
What will you do with the time you save in the yard?
Here are some suggestions to help you and your
family get the most out of autumn:
1. Discover a new place in the Valley to hike and
enjoy the spectacular autumn colours
2. Go birdwatching at Somenos Marsh
3. Pick apples for the Cowichan Green
Community ‘FruitSave Program’ (see //www.
cowichangreencommunity.org/food_security/
cowichan_valley_fruit_save_program.html)
4. Build a mason bee nest to attract these native
pollinators to your yard
http://www.yesmag.ca/projects/bee.html
5. Go for a bike ride through our beautiful Cowichan
wine country
6. Fly a kite at China Beach or join those crazy
surfers
7. Use a GPS device to go Geocaching
(see Geocaching.com for more information)
8. Check out the local markets like the Saturday
Duncan Farmers Market
9. Go canoeing or kayaking on the Cowichan River
or on Cowichan Bay
10. Jump in a pile of leaves, and then compost them
Whatever you choose
to do this fall, savour
the unique colours and
textures of the season.
It is a wonderful time of
year for all the senses.
Take some time to enjoy
the scenery!
The Steward
Can migratory waterfowl
co-exist with farming?
The sight of migratory birds overhead means Fall is
on its way! It also means the Cowichan Land Trust
(CLT) is busy with waterfowl habitat stewardship in
the Cowichan Valley. The Land Trust will be visiting
local landowners, farmers, and community members
to hear their perspectives on waterfowl conservation.
The Cowichan Valley is located on the Pacific Flyway
and receives large populations of swans, geese and
other migratory waterfowl species over the winter.
Urban development in the region is putting pressure
on waterfowl habitat. As wetlands are lost, more birds
rely on farmlands for foraging areas. Waterfowl forag-
ing can damage farmers’ crops and fields; however,
farmers currently don’t receive compensation for
these losses.
The CLT will be looking closer into these and other
issues in order to help create a regional stewardship
action plan by March 2010.
The success of waterfowl habitat protection relies
on support from both community members and local
farmers, whose work is extremely important for food
security. The Land Trust is investigating how farming
and waterfowl habitat protection can become more
compatible.
The Comox Valley and the Delta Farmland and Wild-
life Trust offer great examples of how communities
have sustainably managed waterfowl habitat within
farmland settings.
The CLT would like to hear from anyone who is inter-
inter
ested or has waterfowl or wetland related concerns.
For more information, please see the project website:
http://waterfowl.cowichanlandtrust.ca
Fall 2009
GIS - Bringing the
Land Trust into
the Digital Age
GIS? What is
that? Good question.
Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) is
simply a way to bring
the location of things that
exist in the world into a digital
environment and then use this information to
answer questions. The Cowichan Land Trust
has recently acquired the capabilities to bring
GIS into our projects. We applied to ESRI for
a conservation grant and were approved for an
ArcView and an ArcEditor license. Fantastic!!
We also have two new staff members with
Advanced Diplomas in GIS from Vancouver
Island University, who are keen to use their
newly acquired skills.
The next step is data
acquisition and building up
digital information about
the natural environment
for the Cowichan Valley
area. As this information
is gathered, GIS will allow
the CLT to track patterns
and trends in our land base and conduct critical
baseline inventorying and monitoring of natural
habitats and features. The Cowichan Land
Trust envisions GIS as a tool to help bring the
Land Trust into the digital age with interactive
web maps and publicly available data that can
empower people with their conservation projects.
The Land Trust will also be able to use GIS to
help create attractive and accurate maps that
help to raise greater public awareness of the
importance of protecting natural spaces.
Stop in at the Land Trust the next time you are in
town and let us show you how we are using GIS
to help support local environmental stewardship,
conservation and restoration of natural habitats.
The Steward
The Legacy of Charles Poole
The Cowichan region lost a good friend when
Charles Poole suddenly passed away last year.
For many years Charles was a valuable volunteer
with the Cowichan Land Trust, serving on our
board as treasurer, volunteering at the office, and
spearheading our part of the campaign to purchase
the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve and the Holland
Creek Trail Corridor. He showed his commitment
to protecting the natural and cultural heritage of our
community by leaving the Cowichan Land Trust a
bequest of $50,000, which the Board of Directors has
placed in a fund for land acquisition.
We can all follow Charles’s example and remember
the Cowichan Land Trust in our wills. Donations can
be earmarked for land acquisition, environmental
stewardship, or our endowment fund. Until then we
can support the Cowichan Land Trust while providing
significant tax savings to ourselves or our estate
through gifts of cash, land, securities, life insurance,
or in other ways. All that is needed is some careful
estate planning and a commitment to preserving our
beautiful rural community.
The Cowichan Land Trust cannot give specific tax
advice to prospective donors, but we can provide
general information and we can direct you or your
financial advisor to chartered accountants who
specialize in charitable giving. The many options
for donation have been outlined in the book Green
Legacies, which can be found online at
www.greenlegacies.ca/.
We can all learn from Charles’s example of unselfish
community service and real concern for the welfare of
future generations of all life.
Fall 2009
Message from the President
2009 has been a landmark year for the
Cowichan Land Trust. As envisaged in our
Strategic Plan, we have increased our staff
from one to seven; increased our revenues
to over $250,000 per year; increased the size
and the breadth of the Board; and developed
working partnerships for land acquisition and
stewardship, such as the recent purchase
of Chase Woods in partnership with Nature
Conservancy Canada.
In addition, we have continued many of
our hands-on stewardship activities, such
as the Streamkeepers courses, Eelgrass
Transplanting, Community Mapping, Migratory
Waterfowl Stewardship, and Children and
Nature program support. Land Trust staff,
Board members and volunteers have also
maintained a strong presence at the Duncan
Farmers’ Market most Saturdays, as well at
the Mill Bay Garden Show and Cobble Hill
Fair. They have also continued site visits and
research for landowners who are working
towards restoring ecologically important
features on their lands as well as monitoring
covenants.
Special mention must, of course, be made of
the Cowichan Valley Green Mapping Project.
The end of the first phase of this project --
the launch of the printed version of the map
--is due to take place at the Harvest Festival
on September 27. This exciting event will
be the cornerstone of a plan to increase the
awareness of the important work that the Land
Trust does throughout the Cowichan Valley.
Please join us in this celebration and
remember that you can renew your
membership on-line at
www.naturecowichan.net/donate.html
The Steward
Eelgrass Restoration Project Update
Eelgrass restoration efforts in Cowichan Bay
continued this summer and 2600 shoots were
transplanted at the end of June thanks to the help of
our wonderful volunteers. In addition to transplanting
eelgrass shoots, project work this year is also
focusing on public education and mapping existing
eelgrass beds along the CVRD coast line.
Mapping both transplant sites as well as existing
eelgrass beds will allow the Cowichan Land Trust
to establish some base line data for eelgrass
within our community. Once this base line is
recorded, continued monitoring of these beds
will enable us to use GIS to show how eelgrass
sites have increased or decreased over that time
period.
Cowichan Land Trust T-Shirts are coming soon!
They are available in the colours white,
black, chocolate, olive, royal blue and
are available in men’s and women’s
sizing for a great low price of $20!
Call the land trust today for more
information or to order this hot new
item for your wardrobe.
Cowichan….it’s worth protecting.
Fall 2009
Currently, we are working on
lining up the field logistics for
subtidal mapping of existing
eelgrass beds. We would like to
map 2 to 3 sites by Thanksgiving
(Bird’s Eye Cove and two more
which are yet to be determined).
We are also in the process of
gathering community knowledge
of eelgrass beds in our area, including both past and
present locations of eelgrass habitat. Once we have
this data we would like to get out and ground truth it.
Finally the Land Trust is also working towards building
some educational resources that can be used to help
promote awareness of eelgrass and why it is such an
important ecosystem. We are excited to use some of
our new software such as Adobe Creative Suite and
ArcMap to create attractive and educational maps and
posters that can be displayed in various locations in
the Cowichan Valley.
How can you help? Please pass on any information
about past or present eelgrass beds in the Cowichan
Valley Area to Shari at the Land Trust. We are also
interested in any community input about locations for
permanent signage about eelgrass.
The Steward
Hood Canal Salvage
The Bridge to Nowhere
Four gigantic sections of the old floating Hood Canal
Bridge were towed into Cowichan Bay and moored
beside WestCan Terminal in early May. The arrival
of this huge structure, towering over the estuary and
village, was a surprise to almost everyone.
The owner of the bridge sections planned to remove
the road and superstructure components and break
them up, with the concrete to be used for aggregate
and the steel to be recycled. The pontoons were to be
sold for use as breakwaters and piers. The work was
to begin in June and last five months.
Hood Canal Bridge seen from high on Mt. Tzouhalem.
Possible environmental impacts of the proposed
work were significant – noise, dust, and turbulence
threatened eelgrass, fish, birds, water quality, and
marine mammals. The Cowichan Bay Residents
Association and the Cowichan Valley Naturalists’
Society expressed their concerns about this project
and Area D's Director Lori Iannidinardo brought
a request for a public information meeting to the
Electoral Area Services Commission of the Cowichan
Valley Regional District (CVRD) on June 2.
The Cowichan Land Trust thanks our current funders!
Fall 2009
After a legal review and consultation with the Ministry
of Finance, the CVRD determined that the zoning
does not permit the bridge demolition. In the event
that the company begins work, the CVRD will seek
an interlocutory injunction to force the work to stop
immediately.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans, after being
alerted by a local resident, has also determined that
the bridge is too large for the water lease and is
“trespassing” on the conservation area of the estuary.
Other residents have questioned how well the bridge
was examined for the presence of invasive species.
At the time of writing, the bridge is still at the dock and
no work is taking place. The surprising appearance
of the bridge should alert all of us to the limited
protection for the estuary provided by the Cowichan
Estuary Management Committee and other agencies
mandated to protect the environment.
MEMBERSHIP
Membership in the CLT is an important
contribution to our continued presence in the
Cowichan Valley and makes it possible for us
to continue our work to conserve our natural
heritage.
Thank you to all our members, volunteers and
Directors for your support. If you are interested in
becoming a member of the Cowichan Land Trust
or making a donation, please contact the office at
(250) 746-0227 or visit our website at:
www.cowichanlandtrust.ca
We would like to thank our Fall Newsletter
contributors, Roger Hart, John Scull, Shari
Willmott, Margaret Paridaen, and Erin Ward.
And a special thanks to Linda Wilkinson,
volunteer editor, and Amber Hiscock, graphic
designer.