Islands Trust Conservancy Board regular meeting, December 9, 2021

[0:00:00] Voice 3: Okay, I think we will begin.

[0:00:04] Voice 3: Good evening and welcome to the virtual open house for the Lisa Bale Nature Reserve Management Plan. Thank you for joining us electronically at this very busy time of year.

[0:00:13] Voice 3: I am Nuala Murphy, the Property Management Specialist at the Islands Trust Conservancy.

[0:00:17] Voice 3: I am grateful to live and work on the territory of the Lekwungen-speaking people, the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations.

[0:00:24] Voice 3: Islands Trust Conservancy acknowledges and respects that Steyas, or North Pender Island, is within the territorial lands and waters of Coast Salish peoples.

[0:00:35] Voice 3: Unfortunately, a First Nations member could not join us tonight, but Islands Trust Conservancy is committed to building mutually respectful relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners in conservation.

[0:00:47] Voice 3: conservation. The Islands Trust Conservancy is a conservation land trust for islands in the

[0:00:53] Voice 3: Salish Sea. We protect natural landscapes as nature reserves, as well as help owners to protect

[0:01:00] Voice 3: private land through conservation covenants. We also work closely with local island conservancy

[0:01:05] Voice 3: groups. Islands Trust Conservancy will work in partnership with Pender Island Conservancy

[0:01:10] Voice 3: Association, who hold a conservation covenant on a portion of the nature reserve that is part of

[0:01:15] Voice 3: the existing leading him covenant and in the future we hope to register a conservation covenant

[0:01:20] Voice 3: over the entire nature reserve there will be restrictions on the use of the property

[0:01:25] Voice 3: outlined in the covenant that will be put in place to protect the native plants and animals that live

[0:01:30] Voice 3: there so here is a brief agenda for tonight's open house some housekeeping items and then

[0:01:40] Voice 3: claudia schaefer the biologist contracted to complete the lisa bale management plan

[0:01:44] Voice 3: will speak to the ecological inventory and description of the land that will help form

[0:01:49] Voice 3: the basis of the management plan. I'm also very happy to have Lisa Bale here with us as she

[0:01:56] Voice 3: cared for this land and donated it to the Islands Trust Conservancy to become a nature reserve.

[0:02:03] Voice 3: We also have Dr. Erin O'Brien, the Community Outreach and Project Coordinator from the

[0:02:08] Voice 3: Pendera Islands Conservancy Association. So a few things, this session is being recorded

[0:02:17] Voice 3: recorded and will be made available to view on the Islands Trust website.

[0:02:23] Voice 3: Are you all

[0:02:25] Voice 3: right, Lisa? You can ask questions throughout by typing them into the question and

[0:02:33] Voice 3: answer at the bottom of your screen. And we will go over questions at the end of the slideshow.

[0:02:38] Voice 3: The chat function and the raised hand function will not be active for this.

[0:02:44] Voice 3: So Claudia Schaefer is a registered professional biologist of BC with a master's degree in botany

[0:02:49] Voice 3: and ecology she has surveyed and assessed the ecological qualities of nature areas for over

[0:02:55] Voice 3: 30 years focusing her career on conservation projects i welcome claudia to present the

[0:03:00] Voice 3: findings from her field work and research so far thank

[0:03:05] Voice 2: you nula welcome everyone uh lovely to have

[0:03:09] Voice 2: you this evening uh dark december evening i'm just going to uh share my screen uh and find the right

[0:03:20] Voice 2: item here. Here we go. Sort of right. Oh, there it is. Okay, hopefully everyone can see my screen

[0:03:39] Voice 2: now. I'm here to present findings on the baseline biological assessment that I completed for the

[0:03:51] Voice 2: the Lisa Bale Nature Reserve, and to share with you some of the management plan considerations

[0:04:00] Voice 2: that we will be formulating into a plan for the next 10 years or so.

[0:04:12] Voice 2: Sorry, I'm just, oh, there we go. So to give you an idea, probably most of you know this is where

[0:04:19] Voice 2: the reserve is, but it's at the north end of North Bender Island, and it is accessed off of

[0:04:28] Voice 2: Clam Bay Road. This is one of the beautiful scenes at Lisa Bale Nature Reserve. That's Clam

[0:04:40] Voice 2: Bay Road that you can see in the background there, and I think that's one of Aaron's

[0:04:46] Voice 2: bird nesting boxes on the tree on the right. So the purpose of a protected area is to protect

[0:04:54] Voice 2: the natural ecosystems and natural values of the site. Also to preserve any and all cultural and

[0:05:00] Voice 2: archaeological features that may occur there and to maintain the biodiversity of the site for the

[0:05:07] Voice 2: benefit of the flora and fauna, Pender Island residents, local First Nations and the province.

[0:05:13] Voice 2: objectives of protected area for the islands trust conservancy is to preserve and protect

[0:05:24] Voice 2: the natural ecosystems biological diversity and natural values to support and protect

[0:05:30] Voice 2: continued use of areas of sacred and cultural significance by first nations to restore

[0:05:36] Voice 2: plant and animal communities and ecological processes if necessary and if feasible and to

[0:05:44] Voice 2: support ongoing inventory mapping and monitoring to guide management of the reserve it also allows

[0:05:53] Voice 2: for natural forest succession and natural ecological processes and functions to proceed

[0:05:59] Voice 2: unimpeded except in the case of wildfire and to remove invasive species throughout the reserve

[0:06:10] Voice 2: so we've got two maps here let's just start with the one on the left side here this is a

[0:06:16] Voice 2: giving a landscape context to the reserve property.

[0:06:20] Voice 2: So it is outlined in yellow and it is, again, at the north end of North Pender Island.

[0:06:30] Voice 2: So it's not far from the ocean.

[0:06:32] Voice 2: And the green lines crossing the map are contours and they're 10 meter contours.

[0:06:39] Voice 2: So as you can see, most of the area are slopes, and they do face mostly north and northwest, and some of them are quite steep.

[0:06:53] Voice 2: And that takes us to the map on the right, and I apologize, I know it's poor resolution, but it's all I had.

[0:07:01] Voice 2: But you can get the general, just it's steep slope hazard mapping.

[0:07:09] Voice 2: And the blue area, light blue area, is the reserve area, and it shows the high-risk, very steep slopes in red, moderate risk in the orange, and then the sort of pale yellow are low-risk slopes.

[0:07:29] Voice 2: So it's generally a north-facing sloped site.

[0:07:37] Voice 2: Right. Here we have on the left a map of the development permit areas for Pender.

[0:07:46] Voice 2: And again, the reserve is outlined in yellow.

[0:07:50] Voice 2: And as you can see, there is a development permit area designated at the very south end of the reserve property.

[0:08:00] Voice 2: And this is because there is a sensitive ecosystem there, which is woodland.

[0:08:07] Voice 2: And so, as we'll get into the very southern boundary is this very high top ridge of lovely woodland and rock outcrop.

[0:08:22] Voice 2: And that's an image of it on the right with some arbutus.

[0:08:27] Voice 2: So you don't have to read everything here, but what I wanted to show was that there are a number of at-risk ecological communities found within the reserve.

[0:08:37] Voice 2: and these are all um red listed by um uh the province of BC and um they are the Douglas fir

[0:08:50] Voice 2: dull organ grape community the Douglas fir arbutus community which is um up at the ridge

[0:08:56] Voice 2: uh grand fir dull organ grape and grand fir three-leaf foam flower which is a very um has

[0:09:05] Voice 2: has rich and moist, moister than average soils.

[0:09:09] Voice 2: And that's found at the north end of the reserve

[0:09:14] Voice 2: where at the bottom of the slope,

[0:09:17] Voice 2: which is the toe slope

[0:09:18] Voice 2: and just on the other side of Clambe Road,

[0:09:23] Voice 2: it's depression and a swamp,

[0:09:27] Voice 2: treed swamp there, so.

[0:09:30] Voice 2: And here are some images from the reserve,

[0:09:35] Voice 2: of the different forest types some are very lush like the one on the left that is at the

[0:09:46] Voice 2: toe slope near clam bay road where you get a lot of vanilla leaf a lot of mosses that are more

[0:09:55] Voice 2: moisture loving and a lot of very large productive tree growth and then other ones like the on the

[0:10:07] Voice 2: the image on the right. They're drier, less nutrients, so a less lush understory of herbaceous

[0:10:16] Voice 2: plants, usually a mix of salal and sword fern. While there have not been any at-risk

[0:10:30] Voice 2: animal species so far recorded in the reserve, it hasn't been studied that much. So

[0:10:39] Voice 2: um the ones that might occur on the property um as they do occur nearby on um north pender island

[0:10:47] Voice 2: are the sharp-tailed snake and the northern red-legged frog and i thought i might have heard

[0:10:55] Voice 2: one calling um while i was doing field work there but i i couldn't confirm it but um that is

[0:11:01] Voice 2: something and i think lisa will be on the lookout for it um so you don't have to see everything

[0:11:10] Voice 2: that's going on here um and i will break it down into um sort of other categories as we go

[0:11:17] Voice 2: forward but this is a map of the ecological features of the reserve so they the ecological

[0:11:25] Voice 2: communities are mapped and they're depicted by the orange lines that delineate polygons

[0:11:34] Voice 2: and then there's some wildlife species and also old trees and old snags so this is one of the

[0:11:47] Voice 2: amazing features of this property um that there are so many um old growth trees on the property

[0:11:56] Voice 2: and um this is an example of some of them um you can see the one on the left has a

[0:12:03] Voice 2: also a lot of um wildlife um evidence um of its use and um uh mostly woodpeckers um

[0:12:14] Voice 2: leave this type of evidence. There's many, the larger cavity near the top of the left photo

[0:12:23] Voice 2: is kind of characteristic of a pileated woodpecker. So they're definitely being used by

[0:12:32] Voice 2: wildlife. And some of them are, while they're living, they're being used by wildlife. Others,

[0:12:39] Voice 2: there's like the photo on the right is a really large, it's hard to tell from the perspective of

[0:12:46] Voice 2: the photo, but a very large standing snag. So that is a dead tree that is still standing. And

[0:12:55] Voice 2: it had a lot of evidence of wildlife use. In fact, in 1998, I'll just work through what I'm

[0:13:09] Voice 2: showing you here but uh basically on the left you have a diagram of um three lots lot a b and c

[0:13:17] Voice 2: and the lisa bale nature reserve is lot b and um there was a covenant placed on um a swath along

[0:13:27] Voice 2: clam bay road where there was this high density of very large old growth trees and snags and um

[0:13:36] Voice 2: These were measured in 1998 and then listed their diameter at breast height for the different species that occurred there.

[0:13:51] Voice 2: And this list that you're seeing on the right side of the screen is only for Lot B.

[0:13:58] Voice 2: So you can see there were a really highly significant number of old trees.

[0:14:05] Voice 2: There might be some typos in there, we're going to look into that because there's a couple that are sort of beyond belief in their diameter, but on the whole, I mean, I looked at them and it's just, it's quite amazing, the girth of these various trees.

[0:14:29] Voice 2: While I was conducting fieldwork, I did also make note of any other old growth trees, which are often also referred to as VETS, and VET kind of stands for veteran, representing a tree that still exists from a past generation.

[0:14:54] Voice 2: So the second growth forest around it is obviously younger, but this old growth or vet tree is from a previous forest ecosystem.

[0:15:11] Voice 2: And also any wildlife trees or snags were also recorded.

[0:15:17] Voice 2: And it's by no means a full inventory of them. It was more observational as I came across them. I did make note of them and map them.

[0:15:31] Voice 2: um there was also one um uh potentially uh a culturally modified tree or um a cmt it's also

[0:15:45] Voice 2: known as um that uh represents a tree that was um um used by first nations um the usually it's cedar

[0:15:55] Voice 2: and the bark is um stripped in a certain way um off the tree and um is um made use of to create

[0:16:04] Voice 2: baskets or clothing or mats um various things and um um Harold uh Joe who's from the Malahat tribe

[0:16:16] Voice 2: did go out with Lisa and also Catherine from Islands Trust and did a walkthrough to look for

[0:16:27] Voice 2: things of cultural significance to First Nations. And he did suspect that this tree probably was

[0:16:36] Voice 2: a culturally modified tree. So you can see on the right to try to do a close up there to show

[0:16:45] Voice 2: where the stripping of bark um has occurred and um this um this method did not uh does not kill

[0:16:55] Voice 2: the tree it um it is able to um heal over that area and um continue to thrive so um

[0:17:07] Voice 2: i did want to point out that uh lisa bale the donor of this nature reserve has um done uh a

[0:17:18] Voice 2: a great amount of um excellent um citizen science uh in the reserve area and um and nearby and this

[0:17:29] Voice 2: um little snapshot in the orange bounding box shows um uh and it's hard to see but um you can

[0:17:38] Voice 2: see uh near the top of that bounding box is clam bay road so you can get an idea of that this is a

[0:17:44] Voice 2: a fairly small area that includes the nature reserve and these are all her observations that

[0:17:52] Voice 2: she has added to iNaturalist which is a fabulous app that one can have on one's phone

[0:18:00] Voice 2: where plants, animals, insects, fungi, fish, birds, all kinds of organic life can be documented and

[0:18:13] Voice 2: And one doesn't have to know exactly what it is one is recording.

[0:18:19] Voice 2: That's the beauty of iNaturalist in that you can take a picture of something,

[0:18:25] Voice 2: upload it, and others with knowledge about that particular group,

[0:18:31] Voice 2: whether it's mushrooms or dragonflies or what have you,

[0:18:37] Voice 2: will if they can give a um a correct identification for the species and um and then it can go into a

[0:18:48] Voice 2: bank of um of data on species distributions so um lisa has done a fantastic job of um

[0:18:58] Voice 2: um, uh, recording, um, all the different, um, species, uh, in the area. And, um, these are,

[0:19:07] Voice 2: um, Lisa's photos from iNaturalist. Um, and, uh, this is fairy slipper on the left and ghost pipe

[0:19:17] Voice 2: on the right. And these are, um, species that, um, this photo might not be from the reserve,

[0:19:24] Voice 2: but these are species that Lisa has recorded in the reserve.

[0:19:30] Voice 2: These are also Lisa's photos.

[0:19:33] Voice 2: On the left, we have white fawn lily, checker lily in the middle,

[0:19:39] Voice 2: and great camas on the right.

[0:19:42] Voice 2: And again, those species have been recorded by Lisa in the reserve.

[0:19:47] Voice 2: I was not conducting field work at the right time of year to see these species,

[0:19:53] Voice 2: So I was very glad to have Lisa's records to incorporate into the report.

[0:20:03] Voice 2: Lisa also has recorded a barred owl on the left.

[0:20:09] Voice 2: That's her photo, but I don't think it's from the reserve.

[0:20:12] Voice 2: But she has recorded barred owl on the reserve property and pileated woodpecker.

[0:20:19] Voice 2: and that's a very nice shot she's got on the right because she can also see the cavities

[0:20:25] Voice 2: within the cedar tree there that the pileated woodpecker has created and I thought this was

[0:20:35] Voice 2: such a funny photo of Lisa's these are turkey vultures and while this picture is not taken on

[0:20:45] Voice 2: the reserve um she has recorded turkey vultures and and i did also see them while i was doing

[0:20:51] Voice 2: field work on the reserve site um this is a map of the anthropogenic features of the reserve

[0:21:02] Voice 2: and um there the green line represents the the old um easement road that was used in the past for

[0:21:13] Voice 2: for the residents of the lots on either side to access their property.

[0:21:20] Voice 2: It's no longer needed for that purpose, and so it hasn't been used in many years.

[0:21:29] Voice 2: And then the purple line near the southern portion of the reserve

[0:21:37] Voice 2: is a trail that leads from that easement road up into the ridge itself.

[0:21:46] Voice 2: The red dots represent invasive species that should be removed.

[0:21:55] Voice 2: And the red outlier dot at the top left, sorry, well, the top of the ridge,

[0:22:03] Voice 2: but the bottom left of the photo um i i did note because um it's a broom in particular and um on

[0:22:12] Voice 2: the dry ridge there that's a perfect habitat for it would love to uh spread and um and potentially

[0:22:20] Voice 2: um spread into the reserve so uh if possible that should also be removed and um there's a

[0:22:28] Voice 2: couple of old log piles um and um uh that that's recorded with the blue dot um and um you know

[0:22:39] Voice 2: we'll be discussing whether those need to be removed or if they could be left to uh decay

[0:22:45] Voice 2: um my um my thought is that uh it it would be better at this point to leave them as is because

[0:22:54] Voice 2: Because now that they've been there for a good length of time, it's quite possible that there's amphibians and insects and other species that are maybe snakes that are using those log piles as refuge and breeding sites.

[0:23:14] Voice 2: So removing them might cause more harm than good.

[0:23:19] Voice 2: And there's also the pink little squares are just a couple of spots where there's some refuse, one is larger, one is small, but those things can be removed going forward.

[0:23:38] Voice 2: And here's some photos of those anthropogenic features that I just outlined on the map.

[0:23:44] Voice 2: So this is the old road track that is no longer used and on the left and then top right is there's a small terrace sort of central in the reserve area that has some old home site building materials left in a pile and some old logs.

[0:24:11] Voice 2: And again, at the bottom right, you can see some of these old logs that have been left.

[0:24:22] Voice 2: The left photo is hard to make out there, but that's a broom.

[0:24:28] Voice 2: So that's one of the invasive plants that is found.

[0:24:33] Voice 2: Really, the number and cover of invasive plants is not high in the area.

[0:24:39] Voice 2: It's very good floristic integrity on the site.

[0:24:44] Voice 2: meaning that, you know, the vast majority of the vegetation cover is native.

[0:24:53] Voice 2: However, there are a few spots, particularly occurring along the roadway,

[0:24:59] Voice 2: where Himalayan blackberry or broom or thistle have taken root.

[0:25:06] Voice 2: So it would be helpful to have those removed.

[0:25:10] Voice 2: On the right, there's this odd couch.

[0:25:15] Voice 2: um that uh occurs um and so that can also be removed so some of the management recommendations

[0:25:26] Voice 2: that are being considered are um and these are not um firm yet the um the purpose of this open

[0:25:35] Voice 2: house is to present um things that are being considered for the reserve and um receiving

[0:25:42] Voice 2: and receiving feedback from the public and on their thoughts and concerns and suggestions.

[0:25:51] Voice 2: So these are some of the things that we are considering though.

[0:25:55] Voice 2: So to discharge any easements that are no longer relevant and particularly given that the property is now becoming a nature reserve.

[0:26:08] Voice 2: to remove invasive species and to remove refuse and to consider access only for monitoring or

[0:26:18] Voice 2: scientific purposes and the reason for this is that by restricting public access the reserve

[0:26:27] Voice 2: will provide wildlife and ecosystems a space and a place to exist undisturbed and you know so often

[0:26:36] Voice 2: And we, as humans, you know, create parks or reserves or conservation areas.

[0:26:44] Voice 2: But then we, as humans, are attracted to those places.

[0:26:49] Voice 2: And certainly, you know, it's lovely to go and enjoy those places.

[0:26:54] Voice 2: But there also needs to be some places that are left free of a human presence and the noise and disturbance level that we think we're moving quietly through a natural area.

[0:27:17] Voice 2: But, you know, birds, for instance, have been shown to be highly negatively affected by just the presence of humans or particularly if they have dogs with them, because they are a prey species and they're constantly on guard for predators.

[0:27:43] Voice 2: And that stress level that they experience has been shown to reduce their breeding capacity and therefore their population numbers.

[0:27:57] Voice 2: So it's something that we're considering that this would be a quiet place for nature to exist without human influence.

[0:28:08] Voice 2: and there are some areas where trees could be planted where there's been small clearings from

[0:28:17] Voice 2: past human activities and any trees or vegetation of any kind for that matter would be

[0:28:27] Voice 2: native species and ones that are native to this local area and already present in the reserve and

[0:28:36] Voice 2: preferably locally sourced so that the the genetics of the individual plants is consistent

[0:28:47] Voice 2: with what is in the local area and this may happen in a couple of the clearings and

[0:28:54] Voice 2: potentially in sections of the roadway or along edges of the roadway although re-vegetation is

[0:29:02] Voice 2: occurring naturally quite nicely along much of that road easement. There should be some

[0:29:13] Voice 2: signage erected at the roadway entrance which is currently off a private driveway and also some

[0:29:24] Voice 2: signage along Clambay Road, indicating that it is an Islands Trust Conservancy Reserve

[0:29:34] Voice 2: and that there are prohibited uses. Annual monitoring will be conducted

[0:29:42] Voice 2: by the Pender Island Conservancy Association, possibly occasionally by Islands Trust Conservancy

[0:29:53] Voice 2: and during those monitoring events.

[0:30:00] Voice 2: They will be on the lookout for any invasive species occurrences that have cropped up and also any human disturbance to the site.

[0:30:14] Voice 2: And then there will be a suggestion that neighboring landowners be contacted to make them aware, and we already have done so.

[0:30:32] Voice 2: They've been sent questionnaires for seeking their feedback on the management plan considerations for the nature reserve.

[0:30:43] Voice 2: And also alerting them to the opportunities that exist to protect their property as well into the future so that those spectacular wild places can remain as they are and evolve naturally.

[0:31:07] Voice 2: culturally and that's um that's what i wanted to um to tell you about tonight um but we're

[0:31:17] Voice 2: also very interested in any questions that you have any concerns or any suggestions

[0:31:23] Voice 2: and um as nula said there is a q a tab if you touch your screen it should pop up along the

[0:31:34] Voice 2: bottom of your screen and you can type in a question there and we will do our best to address

[0:31:40] Voice 2: it and hopefully there is some time that Erin can also share with us some of the work she's been

[0:31:50] Voice 2: doing in the reserve by erecting many many bird nesting boxes for chickadees and swallows and

[0:32:02] Voice 2: but she has more information on that.

[0:32:05] Voice 2: So I'm sure everyone would be interested in hearing that.

[0:32:09] Voice 2: So thank you very much.

[0:32:10] Voice 2: I'm going to stop sharing my screen.

[0:32:14] Voice 2: There we go.

[0:32:15] Voice 3: Great.

[0:32:16] Voice 3: Thank you so much, Claudia.

[0:32:17] Voice 3: That was fantastic.

[0:32:21] Voice 3: I would love right now, there is no questions so far.

[0:32:26] Voice 3: So maybe if people could think of any,

[0:32:29] Voice 3: they have time to place them in.

[0:32:32] Voice 3: And in the meantime, if Erin, if you would like to discuss the work that you've been doing,

[0:32:36] Voice 3: that would be fantastic.

[0:32:41] Voice 4: Sure, I will. I just have a couple of slides. It's going to talk about the

[0:32:46] Voice 4: avian ecology work that we're doing. So I'll just share my screen here. Everybody see that? Okay.

[0:33:04] Voice 4: So in addition to acting as a co-covenant holder on this land, the Pendry Islands Conservancy has

[0:33:11] Voice 4: has also been working on establishing an avian bioindicator monitoring program on Pender Island

[0:33:17] Voice 4: for the past couple of years now. And the Lisa Bale Nature Reserve is part of this program. So

[0:33:24] Voice 4: I just wanted to talk a bit about it in general, just so that everyone has an idea of what kind of

[0:33:29] Voice 4: research we'll be doing on North Pender Island, but also specifically on the nature reserve.

[0:33:36] Voice 4: And I am an avian ecologist, I'm a bird bander, so I'm sort of leading the development of this project.

[0:33:45] Voice 4: So just in terms of a bit of the theory behind the work that we're doing here, organisms, specifically wildlife,

[0:33:55] Voice 4: can tell us a lot just through their condition and the things they do or the things they don't do about the condition of the environment they're living in.

[0:34:05] Voice 4: and it's really hard to measure environments. There's a lot of things you could measure there

[0:34:11] Voice 4: and it's quite a complex concept but organisms through their condition and things that are a

[0:34:17] Voice 4: little easier to measure sort of concentrate all of those environmental conditions into something

[0:34:22] Voice 4: that's measurable and so following individuals over time or individual populations over time

[0:34:28] Voice 4: you can look at changes in things that the animals are doing or changes in their condition and that

[0:34:33] Voice 4: tells you something about changes in the environment. So that's sort of the idea behind

[0:34:39] Voice 4: this study, is looking at specific traits, in this case in birds, to tell us something about

[0:34:46] Voice 4: environment quality and changes in that quality over time. And the species that we're looking at

[0:34:52] Voice 4: here as indicators are violet green swallows and chestnut-backed chickadees. That's in the larger

[0:34:57] Voice 4: Pender Island program. The reason for that, there's a couple. One is these are both cavity

[0:35:04] Voice 4: nesting birds and they will both use artificial nest boxes. And so that's sort of a logistic

[0:35:11] Voice 4: consideration. So if we're going to be measuring things like clutch size and measuring condition

[0:35:18] Voice 4: of nestlings and that kind of thing, it's difficult and it's not particularly safe to

[0:35:23] Voice 4: try to get into cavity nests. It's not safe for us or the birds, and it's also not very efficient.

[0:35:29] Voice 4: It's trying to climb trees and things, but if you can measure things in nest boxes, it's just more

[0:35:33] Voice 4: efficient for studying large numbers of birds to get this kind of information. So number one,

[0:35:38] Voice 4: they will both use nest boxes. Secondly, these two species are quite different ecologically,

[0:35:45] Voice 4: and so violet green swallows are using open meadows, wetlands, whereas chickadees are forest

[0:35:50] Voice 4: dwelling species. And so that allows us to measure the health of a wider range of environmental

[0:35:55] Voice 4: conditions by including both of these species. And so specifically related to the nature reserve

[0:36:03] Voice 4: we're talking about now, we're looking at chickadees. Because this is a forest species,

[0:36:08] Voice 4: they're going to be indicating the health of coastal Douglas fir forests on Pender Island.

[0:36:13] Voice 4: And this is a closer look at that nest box that you saw in one of Claudia's pictures earlier.

[0:36:21] Voice 4: And so because they're forest dwelling birds, they're going to give us a sense of the health of coastal Douglas fir forests in the different areas that we're establishing these study populations.

[0:36:31] Voice 4: And some of the things we want to measure, shown there on the screen, you'll see why it's nice to have nest boxes because it's easier to access them.

[0:36:41] Voice 4: So things like timing of breeding, and that's usually measured by the first egg date.

[0:36:46] Voice 4: and I'm sure you've seen in the news over the last decade even in a lot of areas especially

[0:36:52] Voice 4: in northern latitudes the birds are starting to breed earlier and earlier in the spring in

[0:36:56] Voice 4: response to climate change so this is something that's really responsive to environmental

[0:37:00] Voice 4: conditions it's really easy to measure you just need to get out there every couple days

[0:37:03] Voice 4: look for eggs in the nests and then you get that timing of breeding measure and then secondly some

[0:37:10] Voice 4: measures of how the birds are investing in reproducing themselves so that can include

[0:37:15] Voice 4: include things like clutch size, how many eggs the females are laying, once they lay those eggs,

[0:37:21] Voice 4: how effective they are, how successful they are at hatching them, so hatching success,

[0:37:25] Voice 4: and then how effective they are at actually fledging young from the nest. And all of those

[0:37:31] Voice 4: things are going to be affected by food availability, as well as other things like

[0:37:35] Voice 4: microclimate and humidity. I mean, there's a lot of different variables that can go into that.

[0:37:40] Voice 4: And then finally, measures of condition, so how fat are the little birds when they fledge,

[0:37:45] Voice 4: um how long are their wing feathers like feathers are really costly to produce so

[0:37:51] Voice 4: especially food availability can affect things like that and then finally because we'll be

[0:37:56] Voice 4: banding birds we'll be able to look at survival over years so survival of adults between years

[0:38:02] Voice 4: as well as whether those young birds that are fledging are actually recruiting so those are

[0:38:08] Voice 4: all some of the things we're interested in looking at we put the boxes up a couple years ago on this

[0:38:13] Voice 4: particular piece of land. We haven't had any chickadees using them yet but we

[0:38:19] Voice 4: have had some interest so there's some moss being put into some of the boxes up

[0:38:22] Voice 4: on the ridge so we're hopeful that we will be getting birds establishing in

[0:38:26] Voice 4: them very soon. And then this will be added to, it's one of a couple of study

[0:38:31] Voice 4: sites we have established already on North Pender for chickadees and that's

[0:38:36] Voice 4: the plan for this land moving forward. So it's pretty minimal in terms of any

[0:38:43] Voice 4: kind of disturbance to the birds so we're just sweeping through looking in the nest seeing what's

[0:38:47] Voice 4: in there and moving on so it's it's very minimal disturbance um birds will reuse so i have uh

[0:38:54] Voice 4: swallows in boxes already and we've had them multiple years they're caught for banding and

[0:39:01] Voice 4: they keep coming back for nesting and they pledge young and so these these species are also really

[0:39:06] Voice 4: good to study because they're more resistant to they're not as sensitive to disturbance at the

[0:39:12] Voice 4: the level that we're doing here. So that's what we're doing. I just wanted to thank Lisa for

[0:39:16] Voice 4: allowing us to put the boxes on this site. This was our first site in this project. So it's exciting

[0:39:23] Voice 4: to have them there. And to the Islands Trust Conservancy for allowing us to continue this

[0:39:29] Voice 4: study on the site moving forward. And I'm happy to take questions as well if anyone has any about

[0:39:35] Voice 4: this specific project.

[0:39:39] Voice 3: Great. Thank you so much, Erin. That's really exciting. I find that very

[0:39:43] Voice 3: exciting and I can't wait for the first species to be found there. So we do, we have a question

[0:39:53] Voice 3: from someone who's a neighbour of the Steeles property which has a conservation covenant on it

[0:39:58] Voice 3: and they were wondering if this designation at the Lisa Bale Nature Reserve is different than that.

[0:40:07] Voice 3: and the answer is it in terms of the conservation covenant at the Steeles property that is something

[0:40:16] Voice 3: that is done on private land where that landowner still retains the ownership of the property but

[0:40:23] Voice 3: has set aside a portion of it that under the conservation covenant that enables it to be

[0:40:32] Voice 3: protected in perpetuity. And that's written on the title of the property. And so even if it changes

[0:40:37] Voice 3: owners, it still remains on there. For the nature reserve, the ownership has changed to the Islands

[0:40:45] Voice 3: Trust Conservancy. But we also usually do a kind of belt and braces approach so that even though

[0:40:52] Voice 3: it is now going to be managed as a nature reserve and protected, we often ask a secondary

[0:41:01] Voice 3: organization to hold a conservation covenant on it as well and it allows extra pairs of eyes to

[0:41:10] Voice 3: be on there and on island group like pender island conservancy association um you know to to be that

[0:41:17] Voice 3: eyes and ears on the ground and to do projects as erin was speaking of um the opportunity to do that

[0:41:23] Voice 3: so that's just the difference the nature reserves are owned by the islands trust conservancy whereas

[0:41:29] Voice 3: Whereas the conservation covenants, the landowner retains ownership, but protects a section of their property.

[0:41:36] Voice 3: Hopefully that answers that question.

[0:41:41] Voice 3: Let's see if there's anything else that's come up.

[0:41:44] Voice 3: No, I think I'll share again this screen.

[0:41:59] Voice 3: Go back to a slide here.

[0:42:01] Voice 3: just to remind people of the survey that's available and you can actually put your phone

[0:42:16] Voice 3: onto this and it will link you right to it right now we only have had one person fill out the

[0:42:22] Voice 3: survey form and I would really love for more people to fill it out it's kind of your chance

[0:42:28] Voice 3: you can ask further questions there you can answer questions pertaining to the nature reserve or to

[0:42:35] Voice 3: the surrounding area and it would be really helpful to have as many people input into that

[0:42:42] Voice 3: as possible for to go towards this management plan which as claudie was saying will hopefully guide

[0:42:49] Voice 3: the next 10 years and but is also a living and working document so it will be approved by the

[0:42:59] Voice 3: islands trust conservancy board as well as the pika board the pender island conservancy board

[0:43:05] Voice 3: and and we'll go forward as with the guiding principles but you know if things we go for a

[0:43:11] Voice 3: yearly monitoring visit and there's other issues that come up of course they will be dealt with and

[0:43:16] Voice 3: and things will move forward on that it's not a set in stone document

[0:43:24] Voice 3: and then also just my personal contact if if you have any further questions

[0:43:31] Voice 3: now do one last check of the questions but i think that is it because we're a small group here but

[0:43:43] Voice 3: again this is being recorded and will be put on our website and um and hopefully people who could

[0:43:50] Voice 3: make it tonight will be able to go and view it whenever whenever they like to see the wonderful

[0:43:55] Voice 3: presentations by claudia and aaron and i'm just so thankful that you've all made it here tonight

[0:44:01] Voice 3: night and lisa so thank you thank you so much is there anything that you wanted to add at this

[0:44:06] Voice 3: stage lisa um

[0:44:09] Voice 1: there was one thing oh yeah i did notice a lot of those little trees growing up in

[0:44:16] Voice 1: what was the driveway which is good they're quite small and there is the property next door

[0:44:23] Voice 1: or lot a which would be a fantastic addition no other because uh clam bay farm has at least 10

[0:44:35] Voice 1: acres and then there's the lisa b nature reserve 10 acres but in the middle is this beautiful piece

[0:44:42] Voice 1: of property i always have looked at it and uh it's got different you know i guess it's a bit

[0:44:49] Voice 1: of a different from lot b and then across the clam bay road there's a huge area that belongs to

[0:44:58] Voice 1: george and kelly larue which i don't think they're going to do anything with so there's a ton of

[0:45:05] Voice 1: all kinds of woodpeckers in there and birds and so on so it would be wonderful to conserve

[0:45:11] Voice 1: of that extra lot if it's possible yeah

[0:45:16] Voice 3: it's a lovely lovely area and already has some covenants

[0:45:21] Voice 3: in place and so to expand on that protected area network would be phenomenal so that's some and

[0:45:27] Voice 3: hopefully some community engagement and landowner contact around the area will hopefully help to

[0:45:33] Voice 3: spread the word and um and and people can begin thinking about that yeah

[0:45:38] Voice 1: that's the people that

[0:45:40] Voice 1: that own it don't live here.

[0:45:41] Voice 1: They've not done anything with that piece of land.

[0:45:43] Voice 1: Right.

[0:45:46] Voice 1: Oh, that's great.

[0:45:47] Voice 3: One final look, but no, there's no additional questions.

[0:45:51] Voice 3: So I will thank you all once again,

[0:45:54] Voice 3: and thank you for those attending.

[0:45:55] Voice 3: And I look forward to the management plan

[0:46:00] Voice 3: will be hopefully finishing off in February and March.

[0:46:05] Voice 3: And so there's plenty of opportunity

[0:46:07] Voice 3: to contact us and do the survey.

[0:46:10] Voice 3: so thank you so much and take care enjoy this holiday season thank

[0:46:17] Voice 1: you everyone thank you thank

[0:46:18] Voice 1: you bye bye