Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 16th September.

We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am

Last week we drove not far south on the road to Davies Bay and parked at the first red gate on the right.  From there the old logging road has some places where the TIFR logging company has replanted the forest with a variety of tree species that are not common on Texada.  Of special interest are a cluster of the giant Sequoia redwoods that are native to the mountains of eastern California, the Sierra Nevada.  To see some of the worlds largest and oldest giant specimens of this species try to visit the Sequoia National Park sometime.

I also noticed they had planted a few deciduous trees that I did not recognize at first, but could see that they looked very similar to the Silver Birch I know from the British Isles. When I checked out the  photos later at home I figured they were actually a native BC birch called Paper Birch, Betula papyrifera.  This species has male and female catkins that are open before the leaves come out and the female ones develop into these green cones you can see in my photo.  Eventually the cones ripen and break up to shed many small seeds with thin paper like wings attached and these get dispersed by the wind.

JD. 

Betula papyrifera - the paper or canoe birch tree leaves with immature green cones. The trunk of this young tree is already quite white.