‘The tragedy of the marbled murrelet….is not that it’s extinction will go unreported, but that it will go largely unmourned’  ‘Rare Bird, Pursuing the mystery of the Marbled Murrelet’. (2013) by Maria Mudd Ruth 

The First Annual MarMu Day was held in the   Unprotected Central Walbran on July 13th.

The Marbled Murrelet is becoming an ever more endangered bird and this event was organized in the hopes of raising awareness of its plight and to create connections and community to work for its protection.

It was also a chance to celebrate their extraordinary life and come together in the early morning and listen as their calls animate the Ancient Temperate Rainforest.

The location and the date were chosen as the previous year an Automated Recording Unit (ARU) placed here detected 438 individual birds on that single day. (MaMu do not make nests but lay one egg per year on large mossy horizontal branches, making the tree and the surrounding forest its nest.)

There were around 25 attendees who led by Dr Royann Petrell, gathered in the dark and patiently listened as the dawn light slowly increased. Over the dawn chorus many MaMu calls were heard and several observed, some high above moving fast and a few lower, one pair seen flying into the nearby forest. Conditions were not ideal with a full moon and no mist but we all got to experience the challenges and joys of watching MaMu in the forest.

There was also some art made to celebrate this bird of sea and forest and we hope for next year to have more art from birders and artists alike.

Thanks to everybody who came out, Jericho, Sonya and Kirsten for clearing space and the outhouse, Em and the Wilderness Committee for sticking with us, Royann and Briony for their work and vision. Until next year!

On the weekend of June 7th-8th the FoCW worked with members of BC Parks in the Walbran Valley on the Anderson Lake Trail. Parks are usually focused on the Carmanah side as it is considered to be its official entry point, this collaborative Walbran work group was organized as the  Carmanah side is now closed due to several significant land slides on the access road.

The weekend started by a guided walk through of  some of  the trails and work we have undertaken in the Central Walbran over the last 12 years.  Some significant OG trees had fallen during the winter on the Anderson Lake Trail so the rest of our time was spent clearing a new section of trail, building boardwalks over the wetland areas and then sets of stairs on a large fallen Spruce were built. The large fallen trees are left whole and not just chainsawed apart, as now horizontal they become part of the trail and can be quite wide and give another perspective to these impressive trees.

It was great to finally meet Parks and to show the care we have taken with our work here and to also workshop with them on the building of the boardwalks. We hope to make this an annual event.

The before and after photos of our work.

For more details and to pre-register for the Bioblitz contact FoCW. We also ask that the event not be posted on social media, thank you.

For a four days in late April a few trail builders from FoCW had an opportunity to branch out and to work building stairs and boardwalk on Flores Islands Wildside Trail.  The weather was sunny, the material was already dropped into the worksite and with help from Parks Canada we were able to replace rotten and dangerous sets of stairs and build sections of boardwalk over swampy ground. It was a fun challenge and satisfying to see how over the many years of building boardwalk in the Central Walbran and ‘Eden Grove’ how our building skills have progressed.
Many thanks to the Ahousaht Nation for inviting us onto their territory and the Wilderness Committee and Parks Canada for the organizing to make this happen.

Blue chanterelle  Polyozellus atrolazulinus

The 6th  Central Walbran Mycoblitz was a great success with more than  twenty eager attendees and  mostly sunny days.
The fall on the coast this year seems to be a banner year for fungi and there were plenty of interesting finds for us on the weekend. Around eight new fungi for the species list with potentially more as some require further identification. There were also a few new slime molds to add to the list.

Thanks to Juliet and James, Elora, Vail and Daniel with helping with identifications. Finds and species list are added to INat, in the Unprotected Central Walbran project. See you all next year.

Insect egg slime mold  leocarpse

For the 2024 Myco-Blitz please pre-register by email; friendsofcarmanahwalbran@gmail.com

On the first day of the weekend work group on June 29th-30th, in the Central Walbran volunteers worked on rebuilding a set of boardwalk stairs. On the second day the above poster was put on a small notice board with the fishing regulations at Anderson Lake which is within the park boundary. The sign is there in response to reports of fish being caught and not released in the lake, the lake is considered a ‘genetic refuge’ as its contains a land locked salmon Kokanee species.

Thanks to everybody for turning out and Owen for the beautiful poster.

Anderson Lake

The first Bioblitz of 2024 on May 25-26th was a great success working on the identification of species in the provisional Key Biodiversity Area of the Central Walbran an area that is not in the current logging deferrals. 

One of the key species identified in this area is the Western Screech Owl (Megascops kennicottii; kennicottii) listed as threatened with an estimated population of 2000 individual birds in Canada (COSEWIC). The Central Walbran has relatively large population and is a refuge for this critically endangered species. Photo below taken at the Walbran Bridge.

There is a one day plant survey of the high cloud forest ponds, bogs and meadows later in June, also a time when another endangered species the Marbled Murrelets are returning to nest. Please contact FoCW for more info.

Thanks to all the people who attended the Bioblitz in the wet and cold, to Deb Freeman for WSO photo and to all our supporters and friends.