OUTSIDE

OUTSIDE East End parks offer summer nature on a budget

by Martin Dunphy

Scenic outdoor settings with wildlife were a natural draw for Lower Mainland residents during the worst days of the pandemic, when so many indoor recreational pursuits were denied them.

The COVID-19 scourge lingers, though, and even though the scope of potential leisure activities has expanded vastly with the dropping of mask and vaccine mandates, many people seem to have retained that desire for a connection to wild flora and fauna.

For those without a vehicle or much discretionary income, distant objectives like provincial parks probably remain out of reach this summer. Public transit, though, can take you to picturesque parks and parklike settings in and around Vancouver where unexpected summer wildlife encounters can still happen.

Marine mammals, bobcats, river otters, bald eagles, beavers, great blue herons, coyotes, and a multitude of other bird species, migratory and native, can still be seen for the price of a bus ticket and a bag lunch.

Some almost overlooked green spaces in Vancouver are hiding small populations of unexpected flora and fauna that are available for the viewing to the most casual visitor, as long as they know what to look for.

Two Vancouver East End parks, in very close proximity, have been featured previously in the Straight (but in a different context). They are still “hidden” gems, though

The extensive shoreline and saltmarsh restoration at New Brighton Park, just north of the PNE and the nearby racetrack, is attracting people and wildlife. Photo by Port of Vancouver. one of them is well used by locals during nice weather. And don’t let an overcast day discourage you from a picnic and some educational strolls: it cuts the visitors by half, at least.

HASTINGS PARK SANCTUARY/NEW BRIGHTON PARK These neighbouring East End parks—one relatively new and the other recently restored, with both due to be connected in the near future—host an astonishing variety of wildlife for their size and urban/industrial locations.

Hastings Park’s 66 hectares is mostly taken up by the PNE, the Pacific Coliseum, and the Hastings Racecourse, but four hectares is devoted to the aptly named Hastings Park Sanctuary.

Open areas are rare in this shaded, sunken refuge whose southern boundary is just metres away from the traffic streaming through the intersection of West Hastings and Renfrew streets. Sanctuary Pond, 12 metres below Hastings Street, is filled with groundwater and rain and storm runoff and aerated for the rainbow trout stocked at least twice a year by the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. The fish attract great blue herons, cormorants, kingfishers, and assorted diving ducks, and Canada geese and dabbling ducks like mallards are almost always present.

In fact, more than 140 species of birds have been recorded at the park since its 1999 official opening, with a changing seasonal cast during the spring and fall migrations, and Nature Vancouver conducts occasional bird walks along the two-kilometre circle trail there. (The Hastings Park Conservancy also leads monthly nature walks.)

Raptors such as owls, hawks, and eagles are seen regularly because of that rotating migratory menu, and even an occasional visiting bobcat has been observed. Native coastal B.C. species of trees, shrubs, and understory vegetation make for a markedly different Vancouver park experience, with skunk cabbage and alder replacing the flowerbeds and ornamental trees often encountered in many Vancouver parks.

The marshland at the Sanctuary’s southeast corner is a natural biofiltration plant for the channelled runoff and groundwater, and a daylighted stream will, within a year or two, connect this pocket jewel—via the resurrected Hastings Creek (sometimes called Renfrew Creek) in a feature-filled greenway corridor through the PNE and the racetrack—to the more open New Brighton Park to the north, on the shores of Burrard Inlet.

Part of this passage, called Creekway Park, was completed back in 2013, between McGill Street and the railway tracks, north of the racecourse, as the first phase in the park-connection plan..

New Brighton, which a few years ago had its historical saltmarsh partly reestablished with a coastal lagoon as part of a major shoreline-habitat restoration project, is sporting new gravel paths, a beachside trail, and viewing decks, among other amenities, such as picnic tables and benches.

The addition of meandering shallow saltmarsh channels in 2017-18 boosted the park’s original 150 metres of cobble-andsand shoreline to 440 metres, and much of this has been planted in native saltmarsh vegetation that has already attracted juvenile chum and chinook salmon seeking shelter, food, and rest on their hazardous journey through Canada’s largest port to the ocean.

All told, the wetland work saw 25,000 saltmarsh-grass plugs and 4,000 shrubs planted, including salmonberry, as well as 200 native trees. The saltmarsh restoration attracts an array of avian life, including feeding and nesting shorebirds, songbirds, and waterfowl.

Because the culverted creek had originally been home to salmon, there are hopes in some quarters of eventual late-summer and fall spawning runs providing a seasonal and spectacular link to the past. Get a bird book, ID and count the species, and make it a contest for the kids. g