fragments – Ecological Reserves under the British Columbia Ecological Reserves Act

Pacific dogwood, Cornus nuttallii, half-way up the south-west face of Mount Maxwell, Salt Spring Island

At the northern margins of its range, Pacific dogwood, Cornus nuttallii, is a particularly beautiful, and increasingly rare, flowering tree. On the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, ‘dogwood’ is largely confined to the edges of underground streams with year-round moisture but rarely truly riparian. On the south-west face of Mount Maxwell on Salt Spring Island, relatively dry and with soil ph levels relatively higher and less acidic, there is a ‘draw’ that drains a glorious swamp near the top of the mountain (on the summit road about 1 kilometers before the parking lot) and quickly becomes a stream emptying into Burgoyne Bay (about 2 kilometers north along the shore from the Burgoyne public wharf). In 2011, the parcel with lower part of this seasonal stream was finally acquired for protection by Nature Trust and in 2014 was quite drinkable. And going up the stream through the oak meadows this ‘draw’ continues to be full of ‘dogwood’.

I have been photographing this particular grove of dogwoods, half way up Mount Maxwell, for thirty-five years now. There has been no sign, so far, of the introduced Dogwood anthracnose (dogwood leaf blotch) blights from the introduced fungus Discula destructiva, When finding these trees again, in a violent rainstorm on the 14th of May, 2014, all we had to make photographs were un-smart cellular telephones. But these were the same trees that I photographed decades before with medium-format Rolleiflex and Pentax cameras.

These photographs were taken in collaboration with Julian Castle. We jointly made these exposures and montages as ‘castle & ingram’.

Written on May 14th, 2014 , Coastal Douglas fir forest and parkland at its northern margins around the Salish Sea, Ecological Reserves under the British Columbia Ecological Reserves Act, Gulf Islands of British Columbia & drier parts of south-eastern Vancouver Island, island ecosystem, traditional indigenous / aboriginal food plant

Camas, Camassia leichtlinii, re-establishing half way up the south-west face of Mount Maxwell of Salt Spring Island

In recent decades, the two northern species of camas, Camassia leichtlinii and C. quamash, have been disappearing markedly on Salt Spring Island and other Gulf Islands. Fields of camas were harvested and stewarded by Salish women who have been effectively obstructed from their gardens for more than a century. Similarly, controlled burning based on five millennia of Salish knowledge, and often carefully focused on maintaining sites of camas and other nutritious bulbs, has been outlawed. And sheep grazing, that initially involved Salish engaging in more western agriculture, began in the 1850s and continued until 2001 (even in the original boundaries of the Ecological Reserve) along with a large feral population. And spiking, native deer populations, buoyed by the lack of historical predators and hiking, have grazed remaining the tops of blooming camas bulbs before they have been able to produce seed.

In this area of Mount Maxwell, where the original Ecological Reserve was established in the early 1970s, Cowichan food gatherers were active and burning until the 1930s. Since then, the Garry oak savannah, the original Salish fields, have grown in to woodland and Douglas fir forest. And in 1980-81, I proposed re-establishment of some controlled burning in this area in a report to the Ecological Reserves Unit of the Province of British Columbia (as part of my M.Sc. thesis in Ecosystem Management).

As as the decades have passed, the population of flowering camas on Salt Spring Island have plummeted. Curiously, one of the few signs of any increase in camas populations and ANY reproduction has been seen in the area burned in the June 12 – 15, 2009. What is unclear, after this May 8, 2014 site report, is whether or not there has been an increase in camas throughout the burned areas or just those that saw the application (or more likely lack of application) of fire retardant. Another question is whether or not the seed that was being produced on May 8 continued to ripen (or was browsed) and was viable.

These photographs were taken in collaboration with Julian Castle. We jointly made these exposures and montages as ‘castle & ingram’.

Written on May 8th, 2014 , Coastal Douglas fir forest and parkland at its northern margins around the Salish Sea, Ecological Reserves under the British Columbia Ecological Reserves Act, Gulf Islands of British Columbia & drier parts of south-eastern Vancouver Island, historic Garry oak (Quercus garryana) savannah typically the result of Salish food production & burning, island ecosystem, Northern Garry oak, Quercus garryana, ecosystems on the Salish Sea

Garry oak, Quercus garryana, ecologies on & below Mount Maxwell, Salt Spring Island

The white flowering tree in the upper left is Pacific dogwood, Cornus nuttallii, that sometimes occurs on the cusps of more open Douglas fir forest and Garry oak woodland.