The Next Hike

Check here every week for details on the next Trekker hike!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 19th November.
We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last week the weather was not too bad but raingear was certainly needed.  We drove south past Davie Bay and parked just before reaching the power line to Vancouver Island.  The hike was to Shingle Beach campground where we sat to eat lunch in the dry under the rustic roof of a small bandstand which was built as one of the facilities for the annual Diversity Music Festival.  
My photo this week was taken on the gas pipeline near Twin Peaks close to a small forest lake.  It's shows a cluster of yellow flowering plants that are classed as noxious and invasive weeds.  This one is called Tansy Ragwort or Jacobaea vulgaris, and is native to Northern Europe including the British Isles. There is a problem with when it gets established in pasture land as it's poisonous to some domestic animals included horses.  Most farm animals don't eat the growing plants because they have a bitter taste, but if dry after cutting as part of a hay crop they are eaten and cause liver damage over a period of time.  The plant has become quite widespread over the southern part of Texada and seems to be increasing along roadsides, old logging roads and along the gas pipeline right of way. 
JD.

 
Tansy Ragwort, Jacobaea vulgaris [or Senecio jacobaea] a noxious weed on the gasline near Twin Peaks.

No comments:

Post a Comment