AN INVITATION TO ATTEND GUIDED TRIPS INTO THE OLD GROWTH CONSERVANCY
Summer 2014
The guided trips are fully booked. Thanks for your interest.
Past Events
* 2013 AGM *
Thank you to all who attended our 2013 Annual General Meeting. It was a great night! The OGCS would like to thank Sandra Bicego, DWV Manager of Environment and Sustainability, for her presentation. We are excited to have Sandra as a District resource and look forward to working with her in the future.
Below are PDF versions of all four newsletters that Hugh Hamilton has produced in his two years as OGCS President.
Newsletter #1_ OGCS_Jan – June 2012
Newsletter #2_OGCS_July – December 2012
Newsletter #3_OGCS_Jan – June 2013
Newsletter #4_OGCS_June – December 2013
Reports
Trip #5 to the Old Growth Conservancy – September 21st 2013
See the report here: Trip Report #5.OGC 130921.dec
Understanding the old growth forest of Lighthouse Park: Notes on a field trip by the Old Growth Conservancy Society
By OGCS Board Member D.L. Cook
OGCSLighthouseParkFieldTrip090411Final140811
Please take a look at OGCS Board Member David Cook’s article on Old Growth Forests, published in Discovery, a journal of natural history and conservation for British Columbia. It is published annually by the Vancouver Natural History Society (Nature Vancouver).
Discovery2012_OldGrowth
David has also produced field trip reports from two other hikes he led this summer through Nature Vancouver. Please have a look below if you are interested!
Cypress Falls Park Trip
Eagle Lake Field Trip
Past Events
Thank you to everyone who took part in the 2013 Coho Festival !
Thank you to everyone who made it out to our 2012 AGM and 2013 Winter snowshoe trips.
The Greater Vancouver Rainforest
with Ira Sutherland
August 18th, 2012. Phyl Munday House,
Lighthouse Park, West Vancouver.
As Ira would put it, his career is one of adventure seeking. Half a century ago Ira would have been exploring the last remaining patches of the globe not yet penetrated by Europeans. Today those last tracts are “conquered” and what is left for the intrepid explorer are the discovery of unexplored fragments of those larger tracts, repeat ascents of the highest peaks, treks through seldom traveled terrain and extended travel in unconventional ways. With youth on his side Ira is able to energetically pursue all these activities. Ira prefers to undertake many of these adventures alone, thus affording him an opportunity for inward perspective. In addition to discovering new limits and new horizons he is interested in a sustainable lifestyle. This led to such projects as urban farming and construction using recyclable materials.
He soon realized that what was really driving him was a need to re-establish a connection with Nature. In an attempt to more efficiently achieve this reconnection he needed to understand more clearly what he was seeing in the natural setting and so went back to school pursuing courses at Langara College and presently in the Natural Resources Conservation program at UBC Faculty of Forestry. As his appreciation of the value of the forests that blanket large tracts of the globe developed, he decided to focus his efforts on the conservation of some of the last remaining fragments of coastal old growth forest before they were completely gone.
With that goal in mind he became active with the UBC Ancient Forest Committee and began giving talks and leading field trips into many of the remaining fragments of old growth in our area to share what he had discovered with anyone who would listen.
Ira is also an accomplished photographer and film-maker and some of his work can be viewed on his blog site www.irasutherland.blogspot.com.
West Vancouver Community Day
A Centenary Celebration, Saturday June 2nd 2012
They kept coming and coming! All day from 10:30 to 5:00 families with kids and many other interested people enjoying Community Day at Ambleside Park stopped at the Old Growth Conservancy Society display tables to learn and discover about wonderful old trees and forests in West Vancouver.
The 20 x 20 tent fitted in five environmental volunteer organizations including the Old Growth Conservancy Society and was located at a strategic location near the entrance to the Park, so nearly everyone passed by this location. The five environmental groups provided a focus of the natural environment to the public from fish, flowers, and old growth trees to invasive plants.
A display of tree stem cross sections showed the yearly growth of trees and was accompanied by beautiful photos of ancient trees and plants taken in or near the Conservancy. To complement the main display, a table was laid out with examples of foliage and cones of nearly all the coniferous trees found in the fores
ts of West Vancouver. Visitors were encouraged to ask questions and pick up and examine any one of the many specimens of tree foliage.
The sunny day provided a wonderful ambiance for the crowds to enjoy the many features and attractions of West Vancouver Community Day including the many displays and of course the concession stands.