SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island is in the Coastal Douglas Fir Ecosystem and hosts a variety of environments and habitats that exist within this region. Common plants that you might find are salal, Oregon grape, ocean spray, snowberry, Nootka rose and sword fern. Common trees are Douglas fir, red cedar, arbutus, alder, and big leaf maple. Less common are coastal Juiniper, Garry oak, and cottonwood. See if you can spot these different trees and where they grow on your walks around the island!
I, Garry oak, am the only native oak tree in the region surrounding SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island. In Washington, Oregon, or California I might be called the Oregon white oak or Oregon oak, but the most common name in Canada is the one botanist David Douglas gave me. He named Read more
Islands are fascinating places. Natural isolation provides the perfect opportunity for things to get weird. I think we can all agree SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island is unique in all kinds of ways. As a plant ecologist, one of the unique things I notice about the island is which native plants Read more
This time of year, the Mayne Conservancy’s native plant nursery on SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island is bursting at the seams. All spring we have been ‘potting up’ seedlings to the point where nearly every surface is covered by over 40 different species, like a forest in miniature. I often catch Read more
A landscape in New Zealand, where similar invasive species to BC are being managed. Photo by Ethan Heckrodt. I knelt to tie my boots, leather shining from the rain. It was a soggy morning in Bluff. A small fishing village at the bottom of Aotearoa | New Zealand, Bluff is Read more
Photo by Nancy Gibson. If you are an outdoors sort of person living on a small island like SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island, you will probably have come up with some strategies to make our lovely but very limited number of walking trails more interesting. One idea is to walk the Read more
Speaking for the Trees: Island Voices in the Forest (story #4) I rise with quiet grace on SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island, my branches draped like open arms, my fragrant wood carrying stories older than memory. I am the Western red cedar, gentle in voice, enduring in presence, and long honoured Read more
Voices in the Forest – Story #3 I am the tree that breaks the rules. While others reach for deep soil and sheltered valleys, I choose the cliff’s edge. I cling to the rocky bluffs of SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island, my roots gripping stone where most trees wouldn’t even try. Read more
Hi! I’m ḴÁLḴEIȽĆ. You might know me as Rosa nutkana, my Latin name, or by my English name, Nootka rose. I’m native to SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island and I am mixed up with the invasive sweet briar rose so often. You can tell us apart by our thorns. Mine are straight. Read more
Speaking for the Trees: Voices in the Forest – Story #2 I am big leaf maple, the broad armed neighbour who never learned how to hold back. In this rare and threatened Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem, where every life is precious and every loss is felt, I’ve made it my purpose Read more
I have stood on SḴŦAK | Mayne Island for generations, my bark thick and furrowed, my crown reaching toward the sky. I am one of many species in the rare Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem, the smallest and most at-risk forest zone in British Columbia. Around me grow arbutus and Garry oak, beneath Read more