"I didn't have it all figured out when we sourced our first
Garry oak casks in 2011," confides Hofmann.
Fortunately, a unique collaboration between the not-for-profit Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team (GOERT) and Parks Canada is giving the remaining slivers of habitat, which support at least 116 species at risk, some much-needed protection.
Together, the partners developed three landmark Garry oak recovery plans that address entire ecosystems rather than individual species.
With much of the surviving habitat on private land, Garry oak recovery depends on stewardship from local landowners.
The English Country Garden, Victorian Rose Garden, and Rotary Garden in front are open to the public; the property behind (The Terraces, Garry Oak Woodlands, and Cary Castle Mews) may be toured with Friends of Government House, $10.
A mix of wetlands, Garry oak glades, and two hectares of specialty demonstration gardens: a Native Plant Garden.
At that time, I was documenting the loss of the ecosystem that I had grown up in--the Garry oak meadows.
It became the poster child of local conservation campaigns that coined the name "Garry oak meadow" to describe one of the most endangered ecosystems in Canada.
This land makes up one-tenth of the island, and it is home to the largest remaining
Garry Oak woodland in Canada as well as rare animals, insects and plants.
All the Common Sharp-tailed Snake records from the San Juan Archipelago are from areas with similar habitat, open grassland or savanna woodland with some
Garry Oaks (Quercus garryana), on a rocky substrate with a west- to south-facing aspect (Table 2).
The landscape varies from manicured and natural gardens to forest, swampland, lakes,
Garry oaks and camas
In their consideration of this project the architects have clearly seen both the beauty and the form of the natural setting - the crest of a rocky outcrop in a woodland of rare
Garry oaks which are a native in this part of Vancouver Island - as both the ground and grounding of the project's 'found potential'.
And despite cold, rainy winters, Salt Spring produces some good wines: Sip a dry Pinot Gris pondside at Salt Spring Vineyard [call for hours; 151 Lee Rd.; 250/653-9463) or pick up a bottle of subtly spicy Pinot Noir at
Garry Oaks (1880Tulford-Ganges Rd.; 250/653-4687}.
