Got Bats?

Little brown bat,

myotis lucifugus. Photo: Wikimedia commons

Article by Dianne Noort

It was the first time Julie had come to stay overnight at my cabinhouse. Through raising teenagers at the same time, we had become best friends. Then, Julie moved away from the Cariboo and a few years later we moved, too, to a magical spot in the woods in Horsefly, BC Of course, Julie came to visit, and it was that night we made an important discovery.

With a lavish August sun setting over the lake, Julie and I climbed into my hot tub, each of us with a glass of chilled chardonnay. She sighed, sinking her shoulders down. As we chatted, we heard a peculiar scratching at the edge of my cabin’s tin roof. Then, something seemed to fall out. Julie and I peered into the looming darkness in stunned disbelief as we counted over 90 small brown bats, dropping and gliding silently above to feast on the multitude of mosquitoes and other insects.

Strong myths raise many fears, vilifying bats as hosts to disease. Could my little piece of paradise be tainted? Can people coexist with bats? I was warm to the idea of their dietary choice. That could be mutually beneficial. By mid-September they were gone, and all activity ceased. I stuffed copper ribbon into the ridges on the corrugated roof and installed three bat houses. Excluding bats can be done safely and without harming them if certain measures are put in place, during the time they are away.

Uncertainty lingered, however. Was copper ribbon the right material to stuff in? Would they move into the bat houses? Toward the end of April, I had my answer. They were back in my roof. I wanted to think the best of the bats; however, I needed more information. Thankfully, my research led to a community bat program (CBP), which operates under the mandate to educate landowners about conserving this vulnerable species.

I registered my colony through the CBP website. When I say this out loud, a smile breaks onto my face, stemming from a yearning to in some way take part in animal conservation. Within 24 hours a volunteer called, deftly congratulating me, and setting up contact with our regional educator. One Tuesday morning I spoke with Bill Gilroy from Scout Island Nature Centre in Williams Lake. He enthusiastically informed me that my house roost is a maternal colony. They love the heat of a metal roof while raising their pups. Did I know they are called ‘myotis’ bats, named for their little mouse-like ears? Bats are not aggressive, nor do they claw or destroy their roosts.

Bats can carry rabies and should therefore never be touched with bare hands. The CBP is on the lookout for signs of white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease harmless to humans but responsible for the deaths of millions of bats. WNS was detected in Washington State and soon it will likely be here. • BC has 15 species of bats, the greatest diversity of any

Canadian province. • The location of bat hibernation sites is a mystery. • Bats mate in fall but females store the sperm until spring. This is called delayed fertilization. • Bats cannot carry coronavirus. • See www.bcbats.ca for where to get a bat box or bat box plans.

Both human and environmental health is intertwined with all the fauna with whom we co-exist. My summer visitors now ask, “How are the bats?” Some do live in the bat houses. When the pups begin to fly in August, we do our official count—only 58 this year. Bill Gilroy agrees that the fires of 2017 affected them. Julie feels like a bat godmother, and we are both curious about whether the colony will rebuild. Time will tell.

What You Can Do to Help

• Report known roost sites, dead bats, and unusual late winter/early spring bat behaviour (e.g., bats flying during the daytime) to info@bcbats.ca or 1-855-922-2287. • Work with local groups to conserve bat habitats (e.g., old trees and buildings, water bodies) on your property and in the community. • Participate in habitat enhancement programs (e.g., box installation) to help bats. • Educate your friends and families about bats and their benefits and encourage them to be stewards of these important species. • Bats are important, are in trouble, and need your help.

Learn more at www.bcbats.ca

Dianne moved to the Cariboo 26 years ago to be closer to nature. She is a natural living inspirationalist. Follow her on Instagram: @hairsadream.

Guardian of the Vegetables:

The Magic Greenhouse

Article by Terri Smith

My greenhouse sanctuary. Photo: Terri Smith

One of my favourite bits of gardening advice comes from Eliot Coleman and goes something like this: If your garden is a place you want to spend time in, you will spend more time there and consequently, it will become even more beautiful, and you will want to be there even more!

After market gardening for seven years, I didn’t always want to spend time in my garden. For the first few years after I moved to Quesnel from Williams Lake, I almost had to force myself to tend my new garden space that was full of quack grass and other weeds and just seemed so daunting. But over the last few years, I have finally begun to listen to the advice I always give in my gardening workshops, and my garden has now become my favourite place!

Last year when the world shut down, it seemed that everyone discovered gardening again. I think this has been one of the silver linings to this whole strange time in the world. In April, I suddenly found myself with even more time than usual, and I began planning a completely new approach to my garden and greenhouse. Combining both permaculture and biodynamic growing methods, I even surprised myself with the lush oasis I created that produced more food than ever before!

Our greenhouse was the one I had used for market gardening, and for the first few years after I arrived here, I actually left half of it empty because it was just too big for the two of us. In January of last year, we were heading home from a walk and approaching the greenhouse across the meadow and I lamented that I really was not making good use of the space. “It’s 800 square feet!” I said to Mark. “That’s way too many tomatoes!” Mark laughed and replied that it was the same size as the house belonging to one of our closest friends, and that simple comment made me rethink my whole idea of the greenhouse. “I need to grow some rooms in there,” I replied.

As spring slowly arrived, we set up a squash arch from pieces of my smaller, unused greenhouse, and I began drawing elaborate plans for how to move away from the greenhouse-on-a-grid, as I had always grown it, to create meandering paths and plant communities. We placed old barrels throughout the space and filled them with water that warmed up all day and then radiated heat back out at night. I planted basil and peppers and tomatoes around the barrels, and as a result, I had peppers and tomatoes earlier than ever before and basil that lasted longer into the fall. I filled every inch of my greenhouse space, and in between the plants I seeded clover to fix nitrogen and to act as a living mulch to conserve water and keep out weeds.

I combined so many different flowers and vegetables and had so much fun experimenting with different combinations of plant communities. One of the unexpected things that made me so happy was the bees! In previous years, every evening when I would go out to close the greenhouse, there would be several bumblebees trapped near the top and I would spend way too long holding up a rake until each one would land on it so I could lower it out the door and let them fly away. Last summer, though, because there were so many flowers in the greenhouse, the bees stayed low to be near the blooms and flew in and out of the doors without flying too high and getting themselves trapped. I also had a few saucers of water filled with pretty stones where the bees could safely drink without risk of drowning, and instead of bees becoming trapped in my greenhouse, I found that many of them just decided to live there full-time. There may have been massive upheavals and a global pandemic going on outside, but I found it was hard to stay anxious when each morning I was greeted by cute little bumblebee butts peeking out of the marigold blossoms!

Beneath the squash arch I made myself a little reading nook, and in that rainiest of summers it became my sanctuary. Lying on my mattress, snuggled up with a cat, I could gaze up at the squash leaves above and feel all my troubles melt away.

This year we plan to set up a bathtub beneath the squash arch!

If you need me, I’ll be in the greenhouse. -GG

Terri Smith is an artist, educator, gardener, burlesque performer and sometimes reluctant writer living in Quesnel, BC. She teaches workshops on gardening and needle felting and can be found on Facebook at: Road’s End Vegetable Company, or: Something Magical.

The Zero Waste Birth

Article by Oliver Berger

We had everything set up: birth pool, vapour barriered Among the piles of machinery and monitoring devices, my trashy mind floors, hoses, heaters, towels, and music. spotted the garbage cans. ‘Black Holes’ we call them—looming vortexes

We are pregnant and making the choice to have a sucking in all kinds of things never to be seen again. home water birth. It felt right, and luckily for us we had I know hospitals create a lot of waste. Everything must be kept just received Cariboo Midwives to the region, and they took us on. sanitary to the utmost standards; everything must come packaged and

There is a lot to plan. Mentally, you must be prepared to use your sterile. I get it. space for something that is usually reserved for a hospital. Firstly, you What really blew me away, though, was how fast we filled those order a birth pool. Which one? Next, you better make sure you have a two significantly large garbage cans within the next six hours. Plastic hose with access to hot water because you ain’t filling that pool with package after plastic package, disposable absorbent pads the size of your outside cold-water tap. Now, you want to protect your flooring. You small blankets, and soiled tissues like an army of meteorites kept getting have hundreds of litres of standing water in an open pool. Who knows drawn into the gravitational pull of the mighty garbage cans. what could happen? Your mattress, couches, chairs, Swiss ball, yoga Where were our reusable towels now? mat, and any other potentially These garbage thoughts were useful areas should be prepared not at the top of my mind during for liquids. our key moments, buuuut… I

Normally, many of the items would be lying if I didn’t tell you used during home birthing are they crossed my mind a fair bit. considered one-time use and We had put a lot of effort into get immediately disposed, even our home birth to make sure we towels and sheets. Luckily, would not create any more-thanour midwives were super necessary waste. accommodating to our zero After hours of heavy breathing waste home birth plan and and concentrated awkward supported our concerns. bodily movements, we had a

I created solutions for each beautiful baby girl to hold in our one. The birth pool could arms. Nobody understands that be reused, for us or another moment until you feel it. It is pregnancy. I used end-of-the- amazing. roll pieces of vapour barrier I had Now, she rests. collected over the years from Food comes in later and once construction jobs. Amazingly, I again my brain tweaks towards had just enough to cover what Styrofoam bowls with plastic was needed. Any other spillage lids, single use cups for drinks, concerns would be handled by a and those tiny I’ll-never-usecollection of towels we acquired them condiments that will get from friends and family. thrown out whether you use

Of course, I had to have a waste them or not. I wonder why in a diversion station too: a large bin building with a full commercial for the textiles we would wash kitchen we cannot have real and reuse, a recycling box for dishes and cutlery. So, I load up all the plastic packaging from the packaging and extra food in the medical devices that the our bags to take home to reheat, midwives might use, and finally, reuse, and recycle. Those black a small can for unknowns. That holes had enough, as far as I was was it. Feeling pretty confident concerned. with my set up, I could now focus Currently, this is the way we 100% on my partner and her Time to go zero waste, baby! Photo: Makarena Sánchez provide a healthy birth. The needs. nurses and staff are seriously

It was a long, very magical phenomenal; it is the waste evening. Supporting my partner’s upper body with my arms as she creation part we need to work on. It is up to us to ask the system to do floated in the pool with exhaustion is a moment I remember well during better. Did you know our local hospital is one of a few in Western Canada all the other duties of tracking contractions and keeping warm tea and that does its own laundry service on site? hot water bottle and ice on tap and massaging shoulders and adjusting As for the two heaping piles of trash that were created for our birth, lighting and keeping the music going and holding hands and steering we now have a tiny human who eats the zero mile diet straight from clear… mom with zero packaging. She is already setting the bar. -GG

It was not for lack of trying, alas, the call had to be made to pack up our go bags and head into the hospital. Oliver Berger has a 39-year degree in life, enjoying school from birth to

After a painstaking wait for the epidural to set in, we could both get the present in the Cariboo area. Constantly venturing around this Earth some rest. It is funny, the term ‘rest’; it is just the lower swell of the on a quest to learn new skills, Oliver’s priorities include dedication to and next wave, the calm before the storm, you could say. It was during that education about the management of society’s leftovers. bottom swell that I had a good chance to look around the delivery room.