Squamish’s nature lovers or the merely curious are invited to pull on their gumboots and head out to our local wetlands.
BC Wildlife Federation’s Wetlands Education Program is coming to Squamish on Saturday, Oct. 22 for a free Map Our Marshes workshop. Participants will learn how to map wetlands with GPS receivers, Google Earth and the federation’s new community mapping tool.
“We’re hoping to provide an overview of some of the wetland mapping that has been going on in the District of Squamish in the last year,” said Neil Fletcher, the federation’s wetlands education program coordinator.
“The goal of that is to increase the base knowledge for both government and non-government organizations… so then they have better management tools of knowing what wetlands are there, how rare they might be and it provides some guidance going forward on how best to conserve them.”
Wetlands are unique places where water, soil impacted by water and plants thrive with “wet feet,” Fletcher explained. They are important habitat for numerous creatures including amphibians, several bird species and mammals.
In urbanized areas around the province 95 per cent of wetlands have been lost, according to Fletcher, and between 75 to 85 per cent of wetlands have been lost in less developed areas.
The Squamish Estuary is an area that residents readily think of in terms of wetlands, but Squamish is home to many other valuable wetland areas as well, he said. Squamish has swamps, marshes, bogs and a fen, which are wetlands that have a thick layer of organic soil that has built up over time.
A bog exists in Alice Lake Provincial Park and one fen has been recorded in the district, but the location is not being disclosed because it is such a sensitive area.
“If people even just walk through a trail you can find that trail the next year. They are very sensitive to disturbances,” Fletcher said.
These areas – such as feeder swamps –may be abundant in Squamish, but not in the rest of the province, he added.
“The Sea to Sky area is one of the fastest growing areas and there is a desire to know how best to manage those wetlands areas and acknowledge where they are so there can be better land use planning involved,” Fletcher said. “Hopefully this will inform some of the official community planning that is going on right now.”
He said one of the goals is to get private citizens and developers who have wetlands on their property involved in the program.
As of February, when the Water Sustainability Act came into play in B.C., a permit from the province is required to do any work in or around wetlands.
To sign up for the free workshop go www.eventbrite.ca and search for Map Our Marshes. For more information, call 1-888-881-2293 ext. 225 or email [email protected].
