Aqua March/April

Aqua Gulf Islands MARCH/APRIL 2017

Living

Volume 12, Issue 2

Flight Time Birds, bees and drones

Arts | food

| people

out & about Nettlefest, Easter Art and Heroes on tour

| passions

| festivals | nature

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DAVID DOSSER PHOTO

COVER STORY

Kenna Fair of Black Bird Studio, PAGE 8

contents TANTALIZERS! BUSINESS

The Cobbler The Cobbler 8 View Street, 718 View Victoria Street, Victoria

High-tech world of InDro Robotics grows on Salt Spring, PAGE 12

0-386-3741 250-386-3741

FESTIVALS

INDRO ROBOTICS PHOTO

PAGE 6

Celebrate spring's bounty at the 10th annual Galiano Nettlefest, PAGE 16

COVERI NG THE ISLANDS

24

ECOLOGY

Time to get serious about saving the bees, PAGE 24

THE ARTS

Q&A

cherie thiessen PHOTO

Tim Marchant keeps an organized eye on the birds, PAGE 38

S EA F I R ST I N S U RA NC E B ROK E R S Suite 1103 - 115 Fulford-Ganges Rd., SSI, BC V8K 2T9 Ph: 250-537-5527 • Fax: 250-537-9700 Website: seafirstinsurance.com

16 Page 4 – AQUA – March/April 2017

JEN MACLELLAN PHOTO

Solstice Theatre takes April tour, PAGE 27 South Pender Island Easter Art Walk beckons, PAGE 31

12

MARCH/ APRIL 2017

elizabeth nolan photo

Editor’s Message

Going wingy

I

clearly spoke too soon and with too much cheek about the demise of winter when I penned my message for the last issue of Aqua.

Once again, I began composing my thoughts for this space after seven days of being blinded by walls of snow. I was stranded at home without electricity for 32 hours, and we had a few toppled fir trees to deal with.

My husband Michael even fired up the generator so I could charge the laptop battery and get my work done.

We had deliberately chosen a springtime theme of birds, bees and other flying things for this early March issue. The poor birds were probably distressed about the snow as well, and the inclement weather delayed work on gathering other photos and stories, like Pat Burkette's cool piece on Salt Spring’s InDro Robotics company.

Even without weather challenges, native bees everywhere are under threat, and islander Ron Pither wants to do something about that, as you’ll read in this issue.

The main thing residents can do is cultivate lots of flowering plants that pollinators love. We’ve included a list to get you started as well as links to other resources.

Our Q&A person is Salt Spring’s Christmas Bird Count coordinator Tim Marchant. Yes, the weather was terrible on the Dec. 18 count day, but that apparently didn't scare the birds away.

The Mouat’s Home Hardware crew even got into the spirit of our theme with a custom “Let Us Tell You About the Birds and the Bees” advertisement. We love it when advertisers get creative with us.

Our beautiful cover image is a painting by featured artist Kenna Fair of Galiano Island’s Black Bird Studio, where our writer Cherie Thiessen visited her last year.

Cherie also wrote about the Galiano Nettlefest and South Pender Island’s Easter Art Walk, two springfuelled events that will come around again soon, as well as Pender’s Solstice Theatre and a mini-tour of its play Heroes.

I won’t be ruling out a freak spring snowstorm as we go to press with this magazine, but winter really is over this time. I promise.

— Gail Sjuberg

Aqua Gulf Islands

Living

This issue published March 1, 2017 Publisher: Amber Ogilvie Editor: Gail Sjuberg Art Director & Production: Lorraine Sullivan Advertising: Fiona Foster, Dave Mercer Aqua Writers: Cherie Thiessen, Pat Burkette, Gail Sjuberg Aqua Photographers: Jen MacLellan, Cherie Thiessen, David Dossor, Pat Burkette Cover photo of 'Oh the possibilities' by artist Kenna Fair by David Dossor Aqua is published by Driftwood Publishing Ltd., 328 Lower Ganges Road, Salt Spring Island, B.C. V8K 2V3 Phone: 250-537-9933 Email: news@driftwoodgimedia.com Websites: www.driftwoodgimedia.com; www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com Publications Mail Reg. #08149 Printed in Canada

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March/April 2017 – AQUA – Page 5

COURTESY SS ARTS COUNCIL

• The Salt Spring Arts Council’s Easter Art Show runs at Mahon Hall from April 14 to 23 this year, with the opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, April 14. The 2017 theme is “Body of Work,” featuring portraitures and figurative fine art work. Artists’ talks and other visual arts events will take place in the week following the opening.

• Festival Active Pass is gearing up for its third annual spring celebration. This year it’s on Mayne Island from April 21 to 23. The festival is described as a “must do” event for naturalists, birders, photographers, visual artists and arts enthusiasts, historians, families and children. The festival organizing team is working on a great array of activities and events, including a showcase of multimedia artists and their inspirational works; Big Weekend Bird Count Challenge; boat and land-based nature explorations; spoken word presentations of local authors; island food and music; a square dance; natural history and science of the region; gallery and studio 'Aaron' by Jeannette Sirois, openings; heritage orchard and historical part of the Easter Art Show.

tours; family-oriented activities and more. See www.festivalactivepass. com for all the details.

• Sea Star Vineyards on Pender Island is now a Tesla destination charging station with three stations available for use by thirsty Tesla owners. In other Sea Star news, winemaker Ian Baker's 2015 Blanc de Noir Rose recently won the vineyards’ first national award with a “best in show” at the Gold Medal Plates - Canadian Culinary Championships.

• Gulf Islanders were excited to see the Salish Orca ferry in local waters in February. It’s the first of three Salish-class BC Ferries vessels that will go into service later this year. The Orca’s sister ships, the Salish Eagle and Raven, will be dedicated to Southern Gulf Islands routes while the Orca will run between Comox and Powell River. First Nations artists designed the stunning artwork for all three vessels.

• Salt Spring’s SeaChange Seafoods has been sold to a Quadra Island company. SeaChange’s smoked salmon products are known to Canadians, international travellers and even astronauts, who have taken SeaChange products into space four times since 1996. Walcan Seafood Ltd., a family-owned Canadian seafood processor that was SeaChange’s primary supplier for almost 30 years, is the new owner.

e h t t u o b a u o y l l e t s u birds and the bees..

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Island Artists

for the

Birds

Kenna Fair and Black bird Studio

By CHERIE THIESSEN Photos by David Dossor

T

he first moment when you walk into a gallery is always special. It’s a sacred space: artists have put their heart, soul and passions on public display with as much thought, love, time and creativity as they bring to their art.

Their special space is the embodiment of it all and in Black Bird Studio that really hits home. I stand transfixed and let it sink in, hushed.

Kenna Fair’s compact and airy gallery is full of motion, waves, light and feathers, vivid splashes of colour, blackbirds, robins, herons and cormorants preening, perching and prowling, sharing space with rockfish, starfish and tide pools.

Fair, who is a fifth-generation Vancouver Islander and grew up in Campbell River, says she loved being on the beaches as a child and still does.

Page 8 – AQUA – March/April 2017

“I love the colours, the light, there’s always something new to see. Even now when I go home to Campbell River we always go down to the beaches. It’s my connection.”

So are birds. “I love the metaphor of birds.

I feel they connect to me in all kinds of different ways. They tell my story. I’m not much of a theorist. It took me a little while after leaving Emily Carr to settle into painting birds and the ocean and to be able to say to myself, ‘It’s OK to do this. You’re a West Coast kid.

Painting things you connect to is OK.’” It clearly is OK. The artist, who was creating art at the age of four, and was trained at Langara College in Vancouver (a two-year fine arts program) and then went to Emily Carr College of Art & Design, has exhibited at Victoria’s Winchester Gallery, has almost 500 of her works scattered around the globe in private homes and, when I interviewed her, had five commissions on the go.

Much of the work in the gallery today has been purchased. It seems she is just one brush stroke ahead of the demand. A self-proclaimed workaholic, she works almost non-stop, and when she goes to bed, after thinking about what she’s working on or about to work on, she dreams art.

Blackbirds and cherry blossoms triptych called 'Balance.'

“Here’s my dream day: I get up after six to eight hours of sleep, go into my garden, then paint for a while, then go for a big walk with the dog and then back into painting. It doesn’t have to be painting but just the process of creating. I love the nighttime when I’m not being disrupted. I get into the headspace. I’m lucky — I can do this and not have to go to a job every day.”

The process of creation is always new to her, inspiring and exciting. Her energy is palpable and she thrives on it, looking much younger than her 49 years. I look at a striking 48.5 x 33-cm work called “If it takes all day,” a patient heron waiting in shallow water. (See image on the index page of the magazine.)

The sky is serene, but if I look too long at the

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From top: Kenna Fair's painting of a cormorant, a bird her father called "shagpokes;" lingcod that is part of a larger painting titled Shagpoke and a Ling.

Next page: Kenna talks about one of her newer pieces.

Page 8: The artist at work in her Galiano studio.

“I’m lucky – I can do this and not have to go to a job every day.”

— KENNA FAIR waves, I’ll get seasick. The stillness of the sky is juxtaposed with the movement of the water below. Fair explains how she pulls this off.

“I often have a very strong image in my head, so I start getting the pieces together, either photographs or in my head, and then I draw and draw and draw because once I carve it I can’t change it, so I have to feel good about my composition and the movement within the piece. It has to have energy.

I start with grey, almost a blue black, and then work my way forward. That colour gets into the grooves of the carving and I work from there so that the dark areas recede back and the lighter parts come forward more. I always start from dark and work my way up.” As a result, the light heron jumps out at the viewer.

The unusual process she’s referring to, of texturing and layering her work with sculpturing, goes back to 2001 when she grabbed a piece of wood in an effort to make a birthday present for a friend who liked birds.

“At that time I was already trying a bit of sculpture. There was some work being done around my place and someone had left some scr.ap wood lying around so I grabbed a small piece. I drew out a woodpecker for her, carved it in relief and then painted it. It was pretty rough, but I thought ‘hey, wow, this is interesting.’ Never looked back.” Now, all of Fair’s work is on wood. “I love how the paint sits on top of the surface of wood.”

The energy and movement I first felt when entering has been partially explained. The pictures really do jump out at you. She shows me Page 10 – AQUA – March/April 2017

another of her pieces, “A rose is a rose is a rose.”

“This is the last piece I finished. The carving is the connecting point between those two empty spaces. It’s not just about the branches and flowers; it’s about the background and how that connects. It’s how all things intercept, and that excites me. I want you to enter, to move through, and then it brings you back — it’s circular. I like people to be able to travel through the whole frame. There’s a story there, but I like the space also to be part of it. So I draw and draw and draw and finally think, 'this is the spot,' and then I carve it.

Sometimes a lot, sometimes a little, depending on the character.”

Fair has lived for 23 years on Galiano, where she helped start up the Gulf Islands Film and Television School, and before that she called Vancouver home for 10 years, where she sometimes worked on contract doing editing, sound and post production for film. Her interest and background in film obviously helped create her unusual and confident approach to art. She also teaches drawing at Opus in Victoria and has been giving fall classes on Galiano for 15 years.

The artist, who loves collaborative community-based projects, also teamed up with fellow Galiano artist Arnie Bell to create, in a small

way, a popular miniature show now in its 12th successful year.

“I love doing miniature work, always have, so after Arnie and I had a show in the summer that went really well, with great support from the community, we started to think about doing that in November. The fall season is always a dead time of the year for the arts so we thought why don’t we put on a miniature show then? We created parameters: work had to be 5x7 inches or smaller, artists had to present a series of at least three pieces and it had to be non functional. We invited people to make work for the show, young and established artists, jewelers, sculptors, we really mixed it up.

We always try to find a few ‘closet artists’ who people have no idea about. It’s really fun that way.”

Fair’s gallery also features wonderful avian art by Laurie MacCallum, a gifted ceramic and pottery artist, and Patti Moreland’s intriguing fabric art. They’re a perfect fit in this magical space.

“I’m so lucky that I am able to do what I love and that so many people seem to love it too,” says the magician.

Fair has a Facebook page where she posts new work, or you can visit her website at www.kennafair.com. Check out these sites for classes.

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Ventures

The Sky's the Limit Salt Spring drone company takes on dull, dirty and dangerous tasks

By PAT BURKETTE Photos courtesy InDro Robotics, except as noted

Page 12 – AQUA – March/April 2017

P

repping for a visit to Salt Spring’s drone world, InDro Robotics, I researched drones online. I watched 300 drones assembling as a red and blue American flag backdrop for Lady Gaga at this year’s Super Bowl. But I also got hits full of heavy-duty drone phrases like “orthorectified images” and “advanced situational awareness.” The phrases were clues to a burgeoning field of technology that goes way beyond fun flying.

At InDro’s website (www.indrorobotics.com), it was clear this Salt Spring tech start-up has permeated dozens of disciplines, like agriculture, engineering, mining, utilities, and humanitarian and first responder missions. My ears began to buzz, attempting assimilation with the sound of the male bees that UAVs — unmanned aerial vehicles — are named for.

On a wing and a prayer, I took off to learn more at InDro’s digs on Upper Ganges Road where a team of 17 in casual dress, working away at no-frills desks and tables, and drones, scattered about like futuristic sculptures, awaited.

President and CEO Philip Reece, an entrepreneur who’s built companies in information technology, oil and gas, and control and instrumentation, originally hails from Newcastle, England, but spent time in London, Houston and Toronto while growing his businesses. He moved to Salt Spring in 2007, looking to spend more time with his family.

His interest and experience in aviation led him to Salt Spring Air, where he became CEO and realized many flights for clients in construction, mining, forestry and wildlife industries could actually be handled by UAVs. A year ago, he sold Salt Spring Air to Harbour Air and formed InDro Robotics, Salt Spring’s first IT company.

Reece says, “I think drones, as an industry, will explode.”

He believes Salt Spring is a perfect place for some of that explosive growth to occur.

“I went to a Salt Spring Eggheads meeting,” he explains.

“A fellow was talking about working with NASA. He was a rocket scientist, and there was another fellow also speaking who was a jet pilot. I looked around the room and I thought, ‘This island is full of such magical minds, I’ve got to build a company that accommodates and attracts people like this.’”

If looking at the InDro talent pool, which includes young engineers, a former helicopter test pilot and a UN humanitarian consultant for the Syria crisis, is any indica-

Congratulations Saanich Fair on your 14 Above: InDro CEO and president Philip Reece with a MKII UAV on a trial with BC Ambulance Services in 2015.

Previous page: Reece thinking about the future of a drone business way back in 2014.

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the BC L

At left: An InDro Scout MKIII drone is used during a controlled burn training exercise with Salt Spring Fire Rescue in 2015.

Below left: Renfrew paramedics use an InDro MKV on a recent live ice rescue.

Page 15: Some of InDro's Salt Spring-based staff with a brand new DIB drone, which can be piloted remotely via cellphone or satellite, allowing the pilot to be based in the InDro office and the UAV to be out in the field almost anywhere in the world.

tion, he’s well on his way. One of the engineers is Adam Day, who graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland’s architectural and naval engineering program with a special interest in marine robotics.

Day built his first robot out of Lego at the age of 10. “I tried to build a flick switch to get the robot to open and close a door,” he says. Day jumped at the chance to work at InDro alongside friend and fellow engineer Liam Johnson, with whom he once built robotic sailboats.

In fact, the word robot came up right away when our conversation moved past the personal to the dronish. Turns out “flying robot” is an easy way to define a drone.

Basic drone bones are a motor, a battery and a computer interface. An average drone weighs less than two kilograms.

Information gathering goodies, like cameras, GPS, weather stations and sensors, are where it’s at for drone industry growth. If drones are the medium, such add-ons are the message.

Current Transport Canada rules dictate that the UAVs must remain within line of sight of their pilots, who typically use an RC controller and feedback screen to fly the machines. However, InDro is one of only two companies in Canada who have earned a 12-month exemption to test fly drones “BVLOS” (beyond visual line of sight). As such, InDro is a technical advisor to Transport Canada in determining how new regulations can be written to allow such drone flying. Australia, France, Israel and Poland already have advanced regulations for BVLOS flights.

So, when these robots are flying, what do they do?

“We mainly use a robot for a task,” explains Day, “when it’s dull, dangerous or dirty.”

Page 14 – AQUA – March/April 2017

“The drone business is estimated to be worth $28 billion by 2020, with 30 per cent of that in agriculture.”

InDro offers an ever-expanding range of UAV applications built around that guiding principle, sourcing and modifying existing drones and technology, creating their own, and offering drone pilots and pilot training.

Eye in the sky photography, 3-D modelling based on photo captures and mapping fit into the “dull” category. InDro recently landed a contract with the Canadian Space Agency to research ground control points, which help rectify aerial and satellite images. And drone flying with an infrared sensor, which produces colour-coded vegetation maps highlighting areas of plant stress, is what farmers might actually call exciting.

“The drone business is estimated to be worth $28 billion by 2020,” says Reece, “with 30 per cent of that in agriculture.”

Underwater mapping has been successfully performed by Talos, an innovative InDro-built autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) named for a mythological bronze automaton that circled Crete’s shores three times a day to drive off pirates and invaders. Talos comes with both RC and autonomous options and has already been used to survey some eelgrass populations on Salt Spring.

Day adds, “The vessel’s path can be saved and stored by using collected GPS data, so year after year the exact missions can be run, which is important when temporal changes are being investigated in water bodies like lake beds.”

InDro’s “dirty” drone missions have included testing for temperature variances and silt buildup in Saanich reservoirs, scaring off birds at landfill sites and, with a thermal camera, sussing out landfill hotspots that could develop into fires.

InDro has also worked at Chalk River, flying over the nuclear reactor site there to sniff out radiological spills, using a microelectro-mechanical systems detector to analyze air quality.

First responders, including paramedics, fire departments and the RCMP, are potentially important drone users in the “dangerous” category. In fact, one of InDro’s first clients was the UN. Their drones helped with disaster relief and emergency planning in Haiti and Nepal.

“Drones could be very useful for looking at the state of a fire, like the Fort McMurray fire, and helping with planning,” says Day.

PAT BURKETTE photo

— PHILIP REECE

InDro has develped a smartphone app that will call 911, page first aiders in the area, provide instructions on emergency care and relay GPS data to a drone that then takes flight carrying a “smart” AED. A new UAV, the Mark 3B, nicknamed Gertrude, is being specially built by InDro for first responders, satisfying a need for dust and grit resistance and operation within a gaseous environment.

InDro has deployed drones on several search and rescue missions.

“In early 2016, Search and Rescue called for a helicopter to do a search on Mount Maxwell. The wait time was six hours.

One of our drones was deployed quickly and successfully found the location,” says Reece.

“We’ve flown out and searched for three girls playing on the ice in Ontario,” he adds. “Two of them fell through, and one got to shore and ran off to get help. We sent up the UAV and paramedics found them 200 feet further along from where they’d fallen in.”

The InDro team is now working on a drop mechanism to deploy items like a life ring for a person in the water.

InDro’s emphasis is on innovation no matter the mission, whether creating new drone applications or finding new clients, because the start-up has yet to make a profit. But dynamic is a word that defines the IT industry, the sky where InDro flies now and hopes to soar in the future.

March/April 2017 – AQUA – Page 15

Food

Going

Wild

Galiano Island’s Nettlefest a feast for foragers Story and photos by Cherie Thiessen

Page 16 – AQUA – March/April 2017

T

hey’ve surrounded us under the cover of bags, boxes and plastic — troops of virulent greens. They advance on the hall’s stage and steps, amass on the kitchen counters, lurk in bags.

They’re even waiting in ambush in the community hall’s giant double sink.

It’s April 15, 2016.

“Nettles are edible all spring and summer but definitely spring is the best time to harvest them,” our leader, Alison Colwell, is explaining to the troops, a mere 10 of us in South Galiano Community Hall’s expansive dream kitchen.

“When they begin to flower, the leaves aren’t as tender.” She spreads flour on the wide wooden block table.

Armed with our own weapons, rubber gloves, we are set to launch a counter offensive and take back the ground lost to their recent advances. It looks impossible — there are so many more of them and only 10 of us. But we’re humans and they’re plants; we can do this.

Our captain reassures us: “Drying, steaming or freezing takes away the sting,” then gives us our first maneuver. “We’re going to start with the pasta because it needs to be wrapped in plastic and sit for half an hour before we can cook it.

I need several volunteers to finish washing up the nettles in the sink and drain them in the colanders.” Two of us move tentatively forward while the others regroup.

Galiano Islanders really know how to put on an event. Where else would you come across Nettlefest, an event now in its 10th year? A veteran of many nettle offensives on Pender Island, there was no way I was going to miss out any longer.

Arriving on the afternoon ferry, I just had time to drive to the hall and glove up while my partner, David Dossor, booked us in at the Galiano Inn, checked his camera and joined the battle at 8 p.m. when it had already been fought and won, just in time for the feast.

Above: Foragers of all ages at Galiano Nettlefest 2016.

Previous page: Child in a field of miner's lettuce on festival day; naturalist Patti Pringle harvesting a nettle plant.

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The well-organized early evening event soon had us all working together as an efficient unit, chopping garlic under the watchful eye of assistant Karen Barnaby, clearly a veteran. (“Try using the flat of the knife to squash the garlic rather than doing all that chopping”), cracking eggs, (“Tuck your little finger inside the shell and hold the yolk”), cleaning up the counters and table between courses, rolling out noodles and using a fancy little pasta

licking up my plate. “The nature walk will be on Saturday, April 1 and the potluck dinner on Sunday, the 2nd. When we first started Nettlefest under the Galiano Club Community Food Program we could be more flexible, but now that the food program is busier it’s hard to find the time.”

I get that! The four program coordinators — Alison Colwell, Emma Lana Davis, Colleen Doty and Barry New — are kept very busy indeed. The program’s projects

“spring is the best time to harvest them.” — Alison Colwell gizmo, and at the end, mopping up the gore, washing and sterilizing dishes.

And the feast? Wild Nettle Pakora as an appie — yum! Followed by Warm Lemon Orzo and Nettle Salad; Chickpea, Rice and Nettle Soup with Lemon and Mint; and finally Nettle-filled Ravioli Pasta with Butter and Sage, totally gourmet.

“We will use the same format for next year,” Colwell tells me after dinner as I’m

include a community greenhouse, monthly community meals, holiday and special event meals, overseeing several community garden spaces, a New Horizons initiative bringing children and seniors together, a regular soup-for-seniors event, school projects, maintaining a seed library and weekend workshops!

Saturday morning, after an evening of waterfront luxury at Galiano Inn, we

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Above: Many hands chop nettles in the community hall kitchen.

At left: Nettle Soup with Lemon and Mint.

Page 19: Alison Colwell makes pasta.

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are rested and ready for some forest foraging.

Meeting up with naturalist Patti Pringle from the Galiano Conservancy and holistic nutritionist Cedana Bourne, both from Galiano, at 10 a.m. at the Alistair Ross Trailhead parking lot, we are happy to take the chill off with a cup of — you guessed it — nettle tea.

This is one popular event: 22 adults, 12 kids and three dogs are ready to go, and Pringle and Bourne don’t even budge from the parking lot before they’ve pointed out a whole field of miner’s lettuce growing right beside us. We get to taste it, of course. (No sign of dogs having been there first.) And it’s yummy.

“Remember all that stuff that was growing in my back garden plot?” David reminds me. “And I tore it all up?” OMG, we dug out buckets of wonderful organic greens. Never again.

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ping, learning, smelling and tasting that no one gets winded. Pringle cautions us whenever possible to pick leaves or needles instead of berries, because it’s more sustainable, as she picks some growth from a grand fir (balsam) and gives it to us to sniff and savour. It smells and tastes just like grapefruit. We learn it’s great in tea or for use in flavouring desserts.

We also learn that dandelion roots are excellent for allergies, that big leaf maple leaves should be picked when they first come out and are great raw, in salads, or fried in batter, and that Baltic rosehips are the highest in Vitamin C. Bourne also points out that rosehip oil is good to treat sunburn and that salal berry leaves are a great astringent as the berries are high in antioxidants.

And so it goes. I’ve always considered myself a pretty experienced forager, but I’ve picked up lots of new information, miner’s lettuce aside.

The next time I get stung or the nettle plans a revenge attack, I’ll be on the hunt for some broadleaf plantain!

The two hours go quickly, and soon we join a rough road, meeting others who have come to help with the community nettle pick.

The late afternoon is given over to creating nettle dishes for the annual nettle dish competition, deadline 5:30. Kitchenless and unable to compete in this category without cheating (i.e. bringing a dish from Pender), we take the afternoon off to enjoy a pizza from Babes in the Woods Eatery and check out the creations of talented artists Rolando and Kasumi Lampitoc of Bodega Gallery.

The sting in the story (sorry Nettlefest organizers, I couldn’t resist stealing this!) is that we couldn’t stay for dinner. Our ferry was coming in and we needed to board. The Nettlefest continued without us.

Nettlefest 2017 Want to join the troops? The 10th Wild Kitchen cooking with nettles workshop will kick off the weekend on Friday, March 31.

The Forest Foraging Walk is the next day, followed by a community nettle harvest, a nettle cooking competition and the final potluck.

As formats, leaders and times may change this year, be sure to check the website closer to the dates, but register early for the Wild Kitchen event as spaces are limited. www.thegalianoclub.org/

Getting there: See the B.C. Ferries website for schedules at www.bcferries.com, and www.galianoisland.com for more information about island services.

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Ecology

Buzzed on Bees Preserving pollinator habitat a top priority

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Page 24 – AQUA – March/April 2017

he irrepressible Ron Pither is talking to me about the state of bees around the world and a new community-based venture called Pollination for the Nation of Salt Spring Island (P4N-SSI).

“Native and honey bees are the ‘angels of agriculture,’” he says, “and responsible for many popular food crops. But really they are mostly responsible for life as we know it, including our sacred salmon runs, and many other things we take for granted — even coffee and ice cream.”

Operating under the charity he and others established in 1984, the Coast Stewardship & Conservancy Society (CSCS), the focus of P4N-SSI is native pollinator protection and enhancement for homes, workspaces and public areas. So far Pither has reached out to schools, our transportation and park commissions, and retail sectors. He hopes to eventually involve all of the Gulf Islands.

“It’s a program of doable strategies that already exist or are transferrable from elsewhere that can reverse our bee declines,” says Pither, a merchant farmer who has kept honey bees for nearly five decades, is an international sustainable food-systems consultant — which is why he's always beetling off to Cuba — and chairs the CSCS. “No bees = no seeds = no food” should be a simple enough message to spur decisive actions, he says.

P4N-SSI now includes library-hosted events, beautiful banners and T-shirts, posters, books and resource items and more, helping us learn how to become more pollinator-friendly beings.

While western honey bees (apis mellifera), an invasive species to

the Americas that the First Nations called “white man’s flies,” have also been challenged in recent times, “It’s the native and wild bees we have to engage more holistically and technically, as the case may be,” says Pither.

Ted Leischner, a Duncan-area pollinator conservation and habitat restoration specialist, tells us that “Native pollinators are the reproductive strategy of 80 per cent of the 400,000 species of plants, which form the ecological foundation for life support on this planet.”

In other words, without healthy populations of especially wild bees (but also butterflies, hummingbirds, beetles and such), food production is severely threatened. That’s why supporting pollinator habitat is a pretty basic but critical action we can all take.

Professor Elizabeth Elle and researcher Julie Wray of Simon Fraser University and its Pollination Ecology Lab outline the importance of habitat in their report titled Wild and Managed Pollinators: Current Status and Strategies to Increase Diversity.

“The main threat to wild pollinator populations is habitat loss.

When natural areas are repurposed for agricultural or residential use, natural nesting materials and floral resources become less available across the landscape. Bees are then forced to spend more time and energy on foraging (think of it as a longer commute to work!) and less time on producing and feeding offspring (Zurbuchen et al., 2010).”

Pither says native bees need wood or soil cavities for their nurseries, bushes or treed areas in “pollinator pathways” where they

can protect themselves from predators “while learning to do their amazing things,” food sources in the form of lots of flowers (see lists at the end of this story) and messy areas of natural debris.

“We have got to stop trying to beat nature’s diversity by being too straight-jacketed tidy,” he stresses.

Neonics Ban ALSO Needed A 2014 independent review of some 1,100 peer-reviewed scientific articles concluded that neonicotinoid pesticides (AKA neonics) were having a devastating effect on wild pollinators, among other negative environmental impacts. According to Wray and Elle, Friends of the Earth Canada discovered in 2014 that about half of plants “sold in retail stores tested positive for neonicotinoids, so gardeners and landscape managers should use caution when purchasing so-called ‘bee-friendly’ plants for pollinatorfriendly gardens.”

Health Canada is proposing to phase out the neonic pesticide imidacloprid within three to five years. Public consultation on the topic ended in February, and a decision should be forthcoming.

Other Resources • www.feedthebees.org • www.sfu.ca/biology/faculty/elle/Bee_info.html • www. planbeenow.ca — includes a link to a House of Commons petition asking the government to create a National Strategy for Pollinator Conservation and Health.

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Sue Earle of Duck Creek Farm embraces the Queen Bee role with a handpainted bee vase.

Plants to Plant for the Pollinators Native plants for pollinators • Yarrow, Achillea millefolium • Pearly everlasting, Anaphalis margaritacea • Fireweed, Chamerion angustifolium • Red-osier dogwood, Cornus stolonifera • Beach strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis • Salal, Gaultheria shallon • Common avens, Geum aleppicum • Black twinberry, Lonicera involucrata • Arctic lupine, Lupinus arcticus • Tall Oregon-grape, Mahonia aquifolium • Red-flowering currant, Ribes sanguineum • Baldhip rose, Rosa gymnocarpa • Nootka rose, Rosa nutkana • Thimbleberry, Rubus parviflorus • Salmonberry, Rubus spectabilis • Trailing blackberry, Rubus ursinus • Canada goldenrod, Solidago canadensis • Snowberry, Symphoricarpos albus • American cranberrybush, Viburnum trilobum

Garden plants to consider • California lilac, Ceanothus • Pot marigold, Calendula • Bellflower, Campanula • Heather, Erica • Cranesbill, Geranium • Lily of the valley bush, Pieris • Rhododendrons, Rhododendron • Lavender, Lavandula • Shrubby veronica, Hebe • Asters, sunflowers and relatives Pollinators also appreciate flowering non-invasive “weeds” such as dandelions (Taraxacum officinale), lawn daisies (Bellis perennis) and white clover (Trifolium repens) much more than perfectly manicured lawns.

SOURCE: Wild and Managed Pollinators: Current Status and Strategies to Increase Diversity, by Julie Wray and Elizabeth Elle, Simon Fraser University

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Theatre

From left, actors Barry Mathias, Evan Llewellyn and John Pender.

Taking it on the Road Pender Solstice Theatre Society tours with Heroes By CHERIE THIESSEN |

Photo courtesy Pender Solstice Theatre

S

olstice artistic director Evan Llewellyn is explaining why Heroes, the society’s November 2016, production, is being dusted off and polished for an inter-island tour: “It was originally successfully mounted on Nov. 11, 12 and 13 in the spirit of Remembrance Day, as a tribute to all our veterans. We decided to tour the show because we had good audience responses. It’s also

a simple show, with minimal staging and props and just three actors. I have to confess too that after putting a lot of time into mounting a show, it seems a shame to do it only three times, so we thought we could extend its life a little.”

Llewellyn, who also directs and acts in the play, has a long history in community theatre: “My mother was English and the English, as you probably know, have a long tradition of community theatre, what used to be called Little Theatre. As a kid I would go to the productions, and then as an adult in my 30s I thought it would be fun to get involved again. It was either that or electronic bull wrestling. I was involved with community theatre on the North Shore in Vancouver for over 30 years.”

Originally called Wind in the Poplars and written by Gérald Sibleyras, the French play was first staged in Paris in 2002.

Later, with a change of title and an English translation by wellknown British playwright Tom Stoppard, it moved to London’s West End where it won an Olivier Award for the best new comedy in 2005.

Now it has arrived on the West Coast to entertain islanders and introduce them to Philippe, Henri and Gustave, three feisty First World War veterans who tackle themes of sex, death, friendship and the meaning of life on the back terrace of their retirement home, a “territory” they have “captured” and continue to defend. (Until their “escape,” that is — an escape we know will never happen.) The outside world has become too alien for these heroes.

Called “a gentle comedy,” Heroes is a play well suited to community theatre and very well suited to these three experienced actors. Barry Mathias, who arrived on Pender in 1995, four years after Solstice Theatre

Society was founded, has been acting and directing with the company ever since, his wellloved performances always delighting audiences. In Heroes, he plays Henri.

John Pender, who was a member of a theatre troupe in Nanaimo for three years, targeting youth at risk — and being recognized on CBC’s program called People Who Make a Difference — is Philippe. And the ambitious director and producer himself plays Gustave.

This is community theatre at its finest. Penderites who missed it the first time around can see Heroes on April 1, and on Mayne they hit the boards at the old Agricultural Hall on April 8. On Galiano there’s a 4 p.m. show on April 16 and on Saturna, April 29. To check times, places and ticket details and to confirm dates, you can go to their website at www.solsticetheatresociety.org or email Evan at evanllewellynmax@gmail.com.

March/April 2017 – AQUA – Page 27

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Thanks again for all the support for the 2016 sale, including our main sponsor, the Salt Spring Rotary Club Page 30 – AQUA – March/April 2017

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Art Tour

Looking for the

Balloons South Pender Island’s Easter Art Walk Story and photos by CHERIE THIESSEN

easter walk

It’s March 27, 2016, so not surprisingly the early spring day is grey and unpromising.

It’s Easter Sunday, however, so there are lots of things to do in spite of iffy weather: hunt for Easter eggs, try to catch a glimpse of the Easter Bunny, cook up a ham, celebrate a long weekend, or chase after yellow balloons like we’re doing.

We’re not alone in the chase — 100 to 200 others will be joining us, although hopefully not all at the same time!

The balloons are floating all around South Pender Island, placed near seven studios and driveways by enterprising artists in residence today. The cheery spheres are bouncing about, in honour of the 17th annual Easter Art Walk.

March/April – AQUA – Page 31

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We have many repeat visitors; it’s become an Easter weekend tradition with many families.

— SUSAN TAYLOR Considering that South Pender’s population is only about 10 per cent of North Pender’s (235 compared to 2,068 by the latest census figures), the number, quality and diversity of the galleries is impressive.

Just a short distance away from the narrow bridge that joins the north and south islands is our first stop: Dana McConchie’s Sea Glass Studio. Even before we’ve walked down to the studio it has been worth the trip simply to admire the stained glass sign hanging by the gate, the property’s views over the entrance to Browning Harbour and the expansive home, perfectly situated to soak it all in. There’s often a certain reticence in disturbing artists, so having an opportunity to visit on a specific day to ask questions, watch some at work and take in these magical places and their offerings is perfect.

We watch McConchie at work while she tells us, “Creating original stained-glass designs is a labour-intensive process. Each piece must be carefully cut, foiled and soldered together. However, it’s always worthwhile to see the finished piece transformed by natural light.”

We turn to the back windows to admire some of her completed pieces flirting with the light and agree that it definitely is.

My partner David Dossor and I have carpooled today with friends Gerry McKeating and Pat Crossley and we all leave Sea Glass Studio far better informed about the artistry and craft of stained glass as well as admiration for McConchie’s exquisite and exacting work.

Now we head onwards — on the hunt for more balloons. We turn right on Spalding and soon reach Castle Road, the home and studio of impressionist and modern artist Carol Davidson. Another half hour is spent oooohing and ahhhing before reluctantly leaving to visit fibre artist Heather Duncan, who works with felt and mixed media to create 3-D magical landscapes I want to stroke.

Our fourth stop is at Dorset Norwich-Young’s studio, where her large-format acrylic paintings stop us in our tracks, our senses overwhelmed by the scale of the striking canvases. The artist is hard at work when we arrive, looking almost like a piece of art herself, decorated as she is in a vibrantly spattered smock. I’m betting she could frame that smock and sell it! Today she’s working on a 48” x 24” acrylic on canvas, pulsating with colour and movement and appropriately called Following The Tide.

“This painting was inspired by one of my many soul-quenching trips on the ocean, this time to Russell Island, a marine park off the mouth of Fulford Harbour on Salt Spring Island. What I was intrigued by was the pathway created by the ocean with the incoming tide.” She stands back to critically assess her almost completed canvas.

Norwich-Young, who became involved in the art walk when she first came to Pender, says this is the 10th year she has participated. “It’s a great way for people to visit my studio and get a better sense of who I am and how I work. Also, it’s always fun for people to see a work in progress, which is radically different from the finished artwork.”

With more What! How can it be 3 p.m. already! We’re only halfway through the before, tour. Time to pick up the pace. We still need to roll over to Seaside it’s

FRIEND’S NEW BEST FRIEND. From top: Artwork by Carol Davidson; Heather Duncan quilt; Dana McConchie's glass work.

Page 31, from top: Dorset NorwichYoung's Moonstruck, acrylic on canvas; yellow balloons that signal the NorwichYoung studio is an Easter Art Walk participant.

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Orchard Studio where Kim and Nichole van Steenbergen are showing their acrylic paintings in their new studio along with Caroline Pomahac’s hand-woven scarves and hand-knit shawls and accessories. We elbow our way into the crowded, welcoming studio where hot wine is on offer as well as nibblies. I’m after a few lightweight gifts to send to England so I browse through Pomahac’s creations while sipping wine with the other hand, planning to look at the gorgeous canvases after my purchase, but Gerry, who’s driving, commands, “Finish that drink and buy that scarf. It’s quarter to four and we’ve gotta move on.”

Now we go up the hill to Jems, to see Janet Blakeley’s exciting and classy jewelry, where we can barely squeeze into her downstairs studio, normally an open space but not with this number of visitors slowly circling. My partner buys me a sterling silver necklace with a knitted feather-light pendant pierced with shards of semi-precious stones, a piece that he saw me admiring histrionically. My plan worked!

Our last stop takes us to Robert Wilman’s studio, Island Treen, where I learn that Treen means “of wood” and get to add a new term to my “word palette.” His bright, warm and functional workshop is full of the tools of his trade and many of his creations: bowls, candlestick holders, carving boards, wine holders, turned wood pieces both decorative and functional. David’s eyes get wide in this ultimate “man cave,” while Pat and I mentally lay out our favourite pieces in places of honour in our homes.

Now it’s my turn to say “gotta go!” and we move purposely up the road alongside Island Treen to Susan Taylor and Frank Ducote’s

Above: Dorset Norwich-Young paints during last year's Easter Art Walk event.

Page 37: Sea Glass Studio piece on the deck.

March/April 2017 – AQUA – Page 35

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ON THE GULF ISLANDS

Come and enjoy our island paradise!

Salt Spring, Pender, Mayne, Gabriola, Galiano and Saturna are the most popular Gulf Islands and offer daily ferries from both Vancouver and Victoria.

Offering a variety of activities and services to the visitor these islands are

all well known for their unique character, natural beauty and tranquility. Bring your friends and family to explore the rocky shores of these islands, kayaking the waters between them, or simply browsing through the local craft markets.

For details on accommodations, restaurants, things to do, attractions, events information and maps.

Page 36 – AQUA – March/April 2017

gulfislandstourism.com

well-known Blood Star Gallery with half an hour left. Blood Star is also showcasing Wendy Hacking’s Glass Art and Peter Kappele’s handcrafted silver jewelry, so along with Ducote’s folk art and paintings and Taylor’s ink and watercolour painted drawings, we find ourselves in a cornucopia of creations.

The gallery, which opened in 1999, reflects life in, on and around the Gulf Islands, as well as city life, and focuses attention on the beauty of the everyday.

“Our goal is to create memorable art,” writes the couple on their website.

It was Taylor and Ducote who started the Easter Art Walk in 2000.

“There were six studios participating that year,” Taylor recalls. “We saw it as a way to show islanders and visitors alike what South Pender artists and artisans had been creating over the winter months and to encourage them to return during the busier warmer months. The walk was very well received and has become a very popular way to spend Easter Sunday afternoon. We have many repeat visitors; it’s become an Easter weekend tradition with many families. The only complaint I’ve heard now that we have more participants is that there isn’t enough time to visit all of the studios.” That’s a complaint I can second!

And the 2017 line-up?

Susan Taylor says she expects to have a dozen or more studios and the roster will add some new artists like Mimi Fujino, wood block and linocut prints; Tracy Calvert, stained glass; James Wyper, geometric abstract paintings and prints; and Joanna Rogers, textile based/ mixed media, along with the returning artists.

The 2017 Art Walk will take place on April 16, Easter Sunday, from noon to 5 p.m. Keep checking on Facebook (South Pender Easter Art Walk) for an updated map of artists and locations as well as examples of artists’ works.

• Art Walk? Don’t be deceived. Maybe a “walk” back in 2000, but the event has grown to include the entire island, so walking and seeing all the studios in five hours is no longer an option. Cycling maybe, but better to drive.

More questions? Email Susan at bloodstargallery@gmail.com; or call her cell number at 778-891-9437.

For travel to South Pender go to www. bcferries.com for ferry schedules and costs.

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AL 3-13136 Thomas Road, Ladysmith, BC, V9G 1L9 250.245.5414 info@themilezero.com www.themilezero.com March/April 2017 – AQUA – Page 37

Q&A

Spotting the Avians Tim Marchant coordinates the annual Christmas Bird Count event on Salt Spring Island.

JEN MACLELLAN photo

How and why did you become the Salt Spring Christmas Bird Count coordinator?

A. The coordinator at the time was going to be travelling over the holiday, and so I volunteered. I can’t explain it, really. It just seemed like a fun thing to do, and it is.

Anybody with a pair of binoculars and a bird identification app or book or experience is welcome. We’re a pretty relaxed bunch and don’t wear ourselves out hunting over hill and dale from dawn to dusk as some more competitive circles do. A “circle” is a 24-km (15-mile) diametre circle registered with Bird Studies Canada/National Audubon Society. More than 2,500 circles are active across North America and now stretching into Central America.

Q. When did you become interested in birds?

A. Whoosh, long time ago . . . ever since I moved out of the city into the country upon graduation (awhile ago now, don’t ask). There was just so much bird activity around the old farm. Since I liked the outdoors, as well as gizmos like cameras and binoculars . . . there really was no other possible outcome.

Q. It looks like a tremendous amount of work to coordinate the bird count and tabulate the results. What exactly is involved?

A. It is and it isn’t a hard task. It would be hard to get 125 people out on one day and to collate their sightings of 12,000 or so birds into a vetted spreadsheet if we had never done this before, but we have done it 28 times now. We have a large group of hugely knowledgeable and generous birders on Salt Spring, some who practised professionally but most who just find it a very enjoyable hobby, who help counters learn the ropes and sustain the process. If you have birding questions, answers are only an email away. So the coordinating comes down mostly to promoting the count to attract new volunteers, followed by some email work to make sure each of our 12 island zones are staffed, and wrapping up with a bit of a spreadsheet effort once all the zone tallies are emailed to me. It does add up to lots of hours, but spread over three months.

Q. Why is it important to conduct annual bird counts?

A. Two aspects, really. First is the “citizen science” that has created the longest-running (started in 1900) and largest statistically valid set of data ever gathered (or perhaps the second largest). Birds are excellent environmental indicators. The CBC dataset is regularly used Page 38 – AQUA – March/April 2017

Birder Tim Marchant with binoculars at the ready.

to determine trends and threats in our environment. Secondly, the surveys help sensitize and connect people in our communities to the fragility of nature’s balance, and those people help counter-balance humankind’s natural inclination to ignore the environmental effects we have on our world.

Q. How else might people know you on Salt Spring Island?

A. Through our bagels, I suppose. Salt Spring Bagels have for 19 years now provided local, authentic (and now organic) Montrealstyle/New York-style bagels to local stores and usually at the summer market. I would hazard that many more Salt Springers know our bagels than know me because “real” bagels are really good and memorable. They are all made in our south-end commercial kitchen.

Q. What is one thing people who think they know you might not in fact know about you?

A. Oh, after living on Salt Spring for 15 years or so, I expect there are enough “alternative-fact” versions of stories floating around about me in the community. It is a little known fact that I like being organized. Brushing my hair, maybe; mowing the lawn, no; washing the truck, no; but organized, yes.

Editor’s note: Space limitations didn’t permit including a cool bird count day family story and some count data, so we’ve posted those online at www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com in the Lifestyles section.

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