Garry oak meadows - ancient model of sustainable agriculture

[obscurantist]

[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070126.BCOAKS26/TPStory/TPNational/BritishColumbia:d8697]Cultivated by First Nations for centuries, garry oaks now endangered[/url:d8697]

...Irvin Banman, a restoration technician with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, ... whose job is to remove invasive species and tend the health of the trees, is on the front lines of Canadian and U.S. efforts to restore Garry oak meadows. These ecosystems are the most diverse in British Columbia and include more than 100 of Canada's endangered insects, plants and animals.

Garry oak ecosystems were never wild, untouched by human hand. The meadows were creations of aboriginal people, who tended them for thousands of years to promote the growth of their agricultural products.

Before the mid-1800s, Garry oaks (Quercus garryana, named after Nicholas Garry, a 19th-century Hudson's Bay official, and sometimes called Oregon oaks) stretched from southern B.C. along the Pacific Coast to California.

Edible plants flourished beneath the trees, including the Deltoid balsam root and camas lilies, the bulbs of which were a staple food in aboriginal diets. For thousands of years, locals promoted camas growth by annually burning the meadows' ground cover to destroy unwanted plants, said Stephanie Peter of the Cowichan Tribes First Nation.

"The idea that the landscape is simply a virgin landscape is far from true," said anthropologist Bruce Miller of the University of British Columbia. "The Coast Salish people managed the landscape even though they were primarily fishers. Early Europeans didn't notice . . . it's like Goldilocks and the three bears; they came into the table that was set."

Local people also propagated the Garry oaks, said Prof. Miller, who noted that genetic tests proved that an oak stand in the Fraser River Valley was planted from seeds aboriginal people brought from Vancouver Island.

But by the mid-1800s, European settlers in B.C. forced the aboriginal people to stop burning. Other native tree species soon spread into the meadows, but much more damaging, experts say, was the introduction of species from Europe.

European immigrants replaced the vegetation in the meadows down the Pacific Coast with European grazing and ornamental grasses, Scotch broom, English hawthorn, daphne laurel and English ivy.

"They eventually took over and formed a dominant cover," said Tim Ennis, provincial land stewardship officer with the Nature Conservancy. ...

Today, less than 5 per cent of the Garry oak ecosystem is left in the world, conservation groups say. Conservation and restoration of the remainder is under way, with support by all levels of government, academics and several native bands. ...

Ms. Peter, who has worked on environmental issues with the Cowichan Tribes, said she hopes one day to eat camas, the staple food of her ancestors. "I've never had one. I've read that it tastes like cooked pear," she said, adding that camas is more healthy than potatoes.

Part of the challenge of preserving Garry oak ecosystems is the soaring value of real estate on Vancouver Island, Mr. Ennis said. Garry oaks prefer what he calls "nice sunny view lots" -- the same properties considered prime development real estate.

Many remaining Garry oak meadows on Vancouver Island are being subdivided for housing, Mr. Ennis said, including tracts near Bear Mountain and west of Victoria. One rare success story was a stand in Victoria's Inner Harbour, where a savvy developer traded land with Garry oaks on it for development concessions. ...

Having lived for the last several years in a Saanich subdivision that my landlords could remember walking through when it was a garry oak meadow (and quite a few of the trees were still standing, including one that was right outside my bedroom window), I know the threat from residential development is nothing new.

The history of garry oaks as part of an ecosystem cultivated by First Nations was news to me, although I guessed that a number of things in my immediate neighbourhood probably dated back prior to European settlement, like the trails going up Christmas Hill.

[gumgum]

Intersting stuff.
I didn't know about the native cultivation factor either.
I think they should be preserved as much as possible as they are trees I've never seen anywhere else in my travels. They are quite striking.

[aastra]

Preserving the remaining areas is great, but why not also create new ones or restore ones that were only recently destroyed? Should be easy to do.

Nobody ever seems to mention it but I'm convinced the Garry Oak areas strike a lot of people as being unkempt and esthetically displeasing. Big rocks, tall dry grass, scraggly trees...people think they're doing nature a favour by ripping it all out and replacing it with a green lawn and (shudder) evergreen trees. Breaks my heart.

I believe there are new Garry Oaks on the north side of Beacon Hill Park where the old angled parking area used to be, no?

[Savannah]

Originally Posted by aastra

Nobody ever seems to mention it but I'm convinced the Garry Oak areas strike a lot of people as being unkempt and esthetically displeasing. Big rocks, tall dry grass, scraggly trees...people think they're doing nature a favour by ripping it all out and replacing it with a green lawn and (shudder) evergreen trees. Breaks my heart.

Not I. I really like the look of Garry oaks, the older, the better. They are 'unkempt', yes, but to me, they are appealing to look at in their randomness, their asymetry, their very crookedness. Garry oaks in autumn fog are the epitome of "October". I'm lucky enough to have one growing on the hillside just inside Mill Hill Park where my back yard ends.

I was showing a house for rent this afternoon in the Henderson area with three Garry oaks in the back yard, and we all walked around and I think all three of us felt the same way about them.

I like them.

[VicHockeyFan]

Someone say "sustainable"?

[gumgum]

Sadly a lot of people consider them a nuisance because of the apparently gummy stuff they shed.
And many do underappreciate them esthetically. But that's just being shortsighted IMO.


aastra wrote:

why not also create new ones or restore ones that were only recently destroyed? Should be easy to do.

Here's a pic I took back in Nov 2005 of some saplings in north Beacon Hill:
[img]http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r277/gumgum123/IMG_0538-1.jpg[/img]

[aastra]

People also worry about branches falling off. As if branches don't fall off of evergreens.

[Caramia]

I live in Rockland surrounded by Garry Oaks. I always imagine them as gnarled old woman claws. In the spring time they have such fine, light greenery that seems so delicate. Such a contrast to the twisted limbs that support it.

[ressen]

But damn they make such good firewood... :shock:

[Mike K.]

:lol:

[Ms. B. Havin]

Originally Posted by aastra

People also worry about branches falling off. As if branches don't fall off of evergreens.

I understand that Garry Oaks "pop" their branches off when they're drought-stressed. They're drought-tolerant, but even so, they need water. When they don't get it over long enough periods, whap!, a branch goes. That's what I was told by an arborist, anyway...

As for the unkempt look/ aesthetics: I love the look of the trees, but I have to admit that the scrubby stuff on the ground (mostly the grass / groundcover), all wilted and scraggly in the dry summers, doesn't look as good as it does in the wet drippy winters (when it's not sticking up as much). Which makes me wonder whether burning off the grass underneath the trees in summer (as per native practice) isn't an idea worth reviving! You'd probably get arrested, though... :shock:

[Icebergalley]

Gumgum's posting of the Gary Oak saplings in Beacon Hill Park..

I once met a man - Friend of Beacon Hill Park, who was watering these soon after they were planyed..

I understand that they have to mark them well as if they don't, the big mowers will get them and send the park back to it's mowed lawn state..

[gumgum]

I'll have to go back and see if they've grown at all.

[gumgum]

Here's a couple pics on the same day in the same area of some mature ones.
I really think garry oaks are spectacular.
[img]http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r277/gumgum123/IMG_0534-1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r277/gumgum123/IMG_0535-1.jpg[/img]

[Baro]

Living in rockland I'm blessed with a bit of a secret forest. Between Rockland and Richmond there is a little lane called "oak shade", and about half way down is a lot about 1/4 the size of a city block, one of the largest undeveloped residential lots in the city. It's just FULL of gary oaks. If it wasn't for the blackberries, it would be a garry oak meddow. I remember as a child it would often be tall grass, rocks, and gary oaks. Now it's mainly oaks and dense dense blackberries and other such 'brambles'. I've really not been taking care of it as well as I used to, I used to have quite a few lovely walking trails in there (that would attract school kids to smoke, do drugs, leave massive amounts of garbage, and steal people's backyard furniture). It used to be the gardens for an old mansion, but nature has taken it back.

It's great to hunt aroudn back there for relics and signs of what it used to be. The odd ancient bottle, a tap sticking out of nowhere, an exotic asian plant now gone wild.

This area woudl make a great park...

[Caramia]

Baro you live about half a block from me if you live on Oak Shade.

[ressen]

There is no doubt that Garry Oaks are noble trees. The other tree that makes good fire wood is the Arbutus tree. Here are some pictures of a very rare and endangered arbutus grove that I took today. The reason that they are not SUSTAINABLE is that they are growing in Langford.

[img]http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p150/ressen/IMG_1851_62_q001.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p150/ressen/IMG_1873_40_q001.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p150/ressen/IMG_1863_50_q001.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p150/ressen/IMG_1850_63_q001.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p150/ressen/00450023.jpg[/img]

These nest pictures are of a dwarf variety that grow more like a bush, close to the ground.

[img]http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p150/ressen/IMG_1876_37_q001.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p150/ressen/IMG_1882_31_q001.jpg[/img]


[img]http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p150/ressen/IMG_1880_33_q001.jpg[/img]

[VicHockeyFan]

^ great photos.

[Caramia]

Arbutus is my favorite tree.

[Scaper]

I love arbutus trees too!!!

Here is that Garry Oak photo I was asked to post here!!!!

[img]http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j283/thegreatscaper/sundayphotos016.jpg[/img]

[ressen]

Now thats a Garry Oak meadow.

[Icebergalley]

Scrapers Gary Oaks almost look like an orchard.. cultivated...

[zoomer]

Wow, these are so incredible I made a new group in Flickr. Please post your images to the site below!! I'll make a new thread about it as well.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/victoriabc_florafauna/