It’s Time to Visit Henderson Park!
Here on SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island, we are incredibly fortunate to call this place home. From its natural beauty, strong sense of community, to the abundance of outdoor spaces that connect us to the land, it is truly a unique place. But, did you know just how unique it really is?
An opportunity awaits at Henderson Park: immerse yourself in the Coastal Douglas Fir ecozone while experiencing Henderson’s latest interpretive facelift. Last year, the Mayne Island Parks and Recreation Commission (MIPRC) received funding through the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation to refresh the interpretive trail. With help from the Mayne Island Conservancy, the interpretive trail was updated. The new self-guided interpretive trail uses Quick Response Codes (QR codes) placed discretely along the trail, including the Don Herbert Memorial Trail and trails leading to Vulture Ridge. Visitors can access the new content on their phones by taking a photo of the QR Codes, minimizing excessive signage and reducing paper waste while providing an interactive experience in the form of audio, video and text.
It offers visitors an opportunity to experience a glimpse into the remarkable diversity of the Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystem in a small, yet charming park. Across its 26 acres, there is a mosaic of habitats: rocky Garry oak bluffs, coastal Douglas fir forests, and beach access to coastal shoreline. Hikers can move through a diverse array of landscapes in just a short, albeit steep, 2.6 kilometres of trails.
Henderson Park was designated as a community park in 2006 and is managed by the MIPRC. Like many landscapes within the Gulf Islands, the park is full of both natural and human disturbances. The deeper, moister sections of forest were clear cut most recently in 2005 before the property was donated to the community as part of a larger subdivision. Shallower, more elevated and dry areas, such as those atop Vulture Ridge, have experienced more selective logging, with large snags and a collection of a few old Douglas fir and Garry oak trees standing atop the ridge.
In 2012, the Mayne Conservancy and the MIPRC collaborated to design and build an interpretive trail with a corresponding reusable guide to give insight into the surrounding habitat in Henderson Park. The guide highlighted a variety of features and relationships, including burnt tree snags, the connection between Stellar’s jays and Garry oaks, the role of nurse logs, as well as information on pollinators and land use history. However, over ten plus years of use, the 800 reusable guides were used up.
Within Henderson Park, you can also find traces of Garry oak ecosystem species, such as great camas (Camassia leichtlinii), sea blush (Plectritis congesta) and other native wildflowers that once engulfed coastal meadows in colour across the Southern Gulf Islands and southern Vancouver Island. These ecosystems and food systems were carefully stewarded for millennia by Coast Salish peoples through practices such as cultural burning, which maintained open meadows, supported food systems, and encouraged biodiversity. Today, Garry oak ecosystems are among the most endangered ecosystems in Canada, are only found within the Coastal Douglas Fir (CDF) Biogeoclimatic zone, an increasingly rare ecosystem in our province.
BEC zones are classifications used to understand how abiotic and biotic characteristics such as climate, soils, vegetation, hydrology, and wildlife interact across landscapes. Originally developed for forestry and land management, these zones now help guide conservation and restoration work across BC. The CDF zone covers less than one percent of the province, making it British Columbia’s most rare ecozone. Despite its small size, it supports an array of biodiversity. It is also situated within the most populous region in BC, making it especially vulnerable to land changes, disturbance and degradation. On SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island, parks and protected spaces conserve only 10% of the island, making places like Henderson Park essential for local wildlife.
Henderson Park continues to recover through ongoing stewardship and restoration efforts led by the Mayne Conservancy. The park has also become an outdoor learning space for the Mayne Island School, where students have participated in tree planting and outdoor education over the years.
It is a unique community park that would not be possible without the combined collaboration between the Mayne Island Conservancy Society and Mayne Island Community Parks and Recreation Commission. With its 20th anniversary coming up, it’s the perfect time to pay a visit to Henderson Park and connect with the land around you!
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