Over the past few months the Mayne Conservancy has been busy working with others in the community to plant native trees and shrubs in public parks and private conservation lands across the island. Planting efforts have focused in areas where past land uses have caused the loss of native plant communities or where excessive deer browse has prevented natural regrowth. In the winter of 2025/26, we planted at Bennett Bay (Gulf Islands National Park Reserve), Village Bay Park, and Hedgerow Farm Wetland. We were also proud to support the Mayne Island Parks and Recreation Commissions restoration efforts at Sandy Hook Park.

In total across all sites, 143 trees, 265 shrubs, and 8 herbaceous perennials were planted. All the plants were grown from locally collected seeds and cuttings, and raised right here on SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island in our small-scale native plant nursery (with the exception of the pacific dogwood, red alder, and red elderberry). We’re excited about re-establishing a population of pacific dogwood, since we are down to only a few individuals remaining on the island. The ones we recently planted were a gift from Parks Canada, and were grown from seeds collected in the Goldstream area.

Bennett Bay

The Conservancy has been actively managing invasive plants and re-establishing native species at Bennett Bay since 2008. In recent years, a huge volunteer-driven effort has resulted in successful management of what was a very dense and extensive Scotch broom infestation in an old hay field. Another invasive plant, sweet-briar rose, has also been a target of management at the site. The sooner we can establish some shade at the site, the sooner we can stop investing so many hours managing the shade-intolerant Scotch broom. Trees have been planted over the past decade as resources allowed, with some established trees now more than ten years old and growing well. We’ve even managed to establish a few arbutus trees, which we grew from seed. The following native plants were planted at Bennett Bay this winter.

Table 1. A list of native species planted at Bennett Bay in the winter of 2025/26.

Species	Size	# Planted	Notes for Jan/Feb 2026 planting
Douglas fir	1 gal	50	In field individually caged
red-osier dogwood	1 gal	10	In fenced enclosure
oceanspray	1 gal	10	In fenced enclosure
Scouler’s willow	1 gal	20	In fenced enclosure
snowberry	1 gal	20	In fenced enclosure
western red cedar	1 gal	20	in field individually caged
grand fir	1 gal	5	in field individually caged
	Total	135

The 100 trees we planted in February of 2024 are doing very well, with more than 95% surviving after two growing seasons. We feel we’ve now got our planting methods dialed in for this site after some less successful attempts back in 2012. The recipe for success has been to use three to four year old trees established in one gallon pots, with compost added to each planting hole, and a generous layer of chipped branches as mulch on top. Despite higher costs up-front, the large metal tree protectors have proved more effective than the plastic protectors we used previously. In the most recent round of planting, we were able to reuse 75 metal protectors that previously protected trees at Henderson Park, thus reducing material cost and environmental impact.

Village Bay Park

In February we started a new restoration project at Village Bay Park to complement the work the Mayne Island Parks and Recreation Commission is leading to keep the park free of priority invasive plants such as daphne and English holly. We’ve established a 2500 square foot fenced pilot area and planted 111 native trees and shrubs with the help of students from the Mayne School. We expect fast results at this site, which has relatively rich wet soils, some wonderful large diameter fallen trees in varying states of decay, and semi-shade from nearby mature big-leaf maple trees. We focused the planting on deciduous understory shrubs such as salmonberry and thimbleberry that are absent from the park due to deer overpopulation.

Table 2. A list of native species planted at Village Bay Park in the winter of 2025/26.

Species	Size	# Planted
Salmon berry	1 gal	30
red-osier dogwood	1 gal	20
pacific willow	1 gal	4
Douglas fir	1 gal	2
western red cedar	1 gal	4
grand fir	1 gal	5
June plum	1 gal	4
thimbleberry	1 gal	4
salal	1 gal	4
snowberry	1 gal	10
red alder	1 gal	2
pacific dogwood	1 gal	1
red elderberry	1 gal	3
small-flowered fringecup	1 gal	8
	Total	111

Hedgerow Farm Wetland

We continued our collaborative work at this private conservation site with the help of volunteers. It’s a joy to see how much wildlife is living in the restored areas of the largest wetland on SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island.

Table 3. A list of native species planted at Hedgerow Farm Wetland in the winter of 2025/26.

Species	Size	# Planted
red-osier dogwood	1 gal	30
Red-osier dogwood	Live stake cutting	10
oceanspray	1 gal	10
Scouler’s willow	1 gal	8
snowberry	1 gal	20
pacific dogwood	1 gal	2
Hooker’s willow	Live stake cutting	10
	Total	90

Sandy Hook Park

At the request of the Mayne Island Parks and Recreation Commission, the Mayne Conservancy completed a Stewardship Plan for Sandy Hook Park in 2025. Since then, volunteers led by the MIPRC have worked with neighbours of the park to remove invasive plants and install native plantings. We were happy to support their efforts with some plants from our nursery.

 Table 4. Native species planted at Sandy Hook Park by the MIPRC in the winter of 2025/26.

Species	Size	# Planted
red-osier dogwood	1 gal	10
oceanspray	1 gal	10
Scouler’s willow	1 gal	10
snowberry	1 gal	40
	Total	70

Thank You!

We’d like to thank our volunteers, partners, and community donors for making our habitat restoration work possible. The Victoria Foundation has been a strong ongoing financial supporter of our land stewardship work, as has the Province of British Columbia, community donors, and recently this year we received a grant through Parks Canada as part of the Federal 2 Billion Trees Project. Parks Canada also provided the resources for cultural monitors from SȾÁUTW̱ | Tsawout First Nation to attend the Bennett Bay planting, and donated 50 pacific dogwood seedlings to help in our restoration efforts.

Our long-standing partnerships with the Mayne Island Parks and Recreation Commission and Mayne School were instrumental for the Village Bay Park restoration work. The neighbourhood effort to steward Sandy Hook Park has been rewarding to watch. It’s a joy to collaborate with volunteer Commissioners and students.

Our dedicated restoration volunteers who come weekly are amazing, they remove invasive plants, build fences, and plant with equal enthusiasm. Thank you all for making this work possible! I hope you have the opportunity to watch these plants grow and see the wildlife that will live in these sites. For me that is the ultimate reward.