Southwestern BC Art Bird Cards Released – June 27

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The culmination of months of collaboration, this past Saturday The Metchosin Foundation, The Metchosin Art Pod, and Rocky Point Bird Observatory released the Southwestern BC Art Bird Card series. A small (socially distanced) event for the project contributors was held outdoors at Bilston Creek Farm, on a typical sunny and windy Metchosin summer day.

Members from the Metchosin Foundation board, Ann Nightingale (Rocky Point Bird Observatory), Memet Burnett (Metchosin Art Pod), and contributing artists were in attendance, and scaled-up prints of the cards were hung on trees around the farm, making for a very pleasant mini art tour.

Many thanks to Bilston Creek Farm who generously donated their beautiful space for the event. The lavender fields, and ice cream, were spectacular. Such an idyllic setting to put on a wedding or other large gathering, right here in Metchosin.

We are very pleased to announce the first printing Art Bird Cards are now available for sale! $20 on heavy stock paper, or $25 for the waterproof/tearproof version – perfect for birding expeditions on the Wet Coast. Send an email to cards@metchosinbiodiversity.com to order yours!

UPDATE: due to high popularity, we are currently sold out of the Bird Cards!  Another printing run is in the works, so please check this website for news of when they come available.

Insect Biomass Study Procedures

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The Metchosin Foundation helps to fund a long-term study of Metchosin insect populations. The study, coordinated by University of Victoria’s Dr. Neville Winchester, will enter its third summer in 2020.

To measure the insect populations, sample insects are collected during the summer months at properties throughout Metchosin using Malaise traps (picture above).  The traps are tent-like structures that funnel flying insects into collection bottles.  The bottles are changed every two weeks. The bottles, filled with preservative, are then taken to a central location.  

During the winter months, after the traps have come down, the insects in the bottles are sorted, counted, and weighed. In 2018, 132,000 insects were collected.  The count for the 2019 collection is going on now. The expectation is that the count from the 2019 season will be much larger–perhaps 300,000 insects.

You may have seen the traps at some of their Metchosin locations. Metchosin Foundation supporters may be interested in the less visible part of the study–how the count actuallly happens. On January 31, Metchosin Foundation Director Kem Luther visited the lab at the University of Victoria where the insects are tallied.  Here is his account of the procedure

The 2019 bottles are stored on shelves. With 19 Metchosin trap sites and bottles being collected about every one or two weeks, approximately 245 bottles arrive at the lab over the course of the summer.

From the bottles, the insects go onto a special sorting tray under a dissecting microscope.  So far, most of the sorting–hundereds of hours of it–has been done by Dr. Winchester.

The insects are sorted into several broad categories and are moved to small containers for each category. Categories include moths, beetles, hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps), and flies. A multiunit counter at the desk keeps track of the insects in each category.

Stacks of the smaller containers holding the sorted insects sit beside the counting scope.  As each container is used, a label is affixed to note its contents, collection date, and location.

At a later point, the sorted collections in the small bottles are taken to the sink and each one is put through a filter that removes the preserving liquid. They are left in the filter until the liquid is mostly gone, measured by the number of drops per minute coming out of the bottom of the container.

The drained insect mass is taken to a calibrated scale where it is weighed and the weight recorded.

Once weighed, the insects are rebottled. But this time they are moved to special archive bottles supplied by the BC Museum. New preserving liquid is added, the bottles are sealed, and special archival labels are affixed.  The Museum will become the long-term home for the collected insects, available to future researchers.

Holiday Message from the Metchosin Foundation 2019

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Recent communications to the Metchosin Foundation have stimulated discussions about grassroot responses to decarbonization and greenhouse gas reduction. A natural synergy exists between these efforts and the Foundation’s mandate to pursue action and education on local environmental issues. The Foundation has been exploring ways that it could include some of these efforts inside of its funding mandate, while remaining sensitive to national political differences.

Some of the Foundation’s projects—the protection of undeveloped land through conservation and covenants, species and biomass databases that are maintained over long periods such as the Metchosin bioblitzes and the insect inventory—are inherently related to an increasing grassroots interest to understand and reduce Metchosin’s carbon footprint. The Foundation’s efforts, however, are only a small part of what has been done, and continues to be done, by Metchosin residents. A Metchosin Green Blue Spaces strategy, for example, has been in place for over a decade. Information about this project, which is linked through the municipal web site, can be found at https://metchosinmarine.ca. The multi-year efforts of the Metchosin Environmental Advisory Select Committee (MEASC), especially its work on identifying environmentally sensitive lands inside the boundaries of the district (see their March 2011 Report to Council) are important contributions to local planning around carbon sequestration. Several local farms, the Foundation has learned, have begun working with the Habitat Acquisition Trust to plant and enhance hedgerows around their fields to promote both biodiversity and agricultural productivity.

The communications received by the Foundation have also pointed toward efforts made by other communities to promote grassroots activities that address greenhouse gas issues.  The information found on three websites—naturalclimate.solutions, mnai.ca, and drawdown.org—include information on environmental stewardship practices that could yield multiplier benefits if applied to our own community. The Foundation encourages Metchosin residents to consider which of these outside strategies might be successfully imported.

Happy Holidays to all friends and neighbours from the Metchosin Foundation board of directors. We look forward to hearing more of your thoughts and ideas in the New Year, in person or through our website , about the importance of building a sustainable society and what can be done about it by local efforts, including the projects that might be undertaken by the Foundation.

Insect biomass study, first year

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Over 25 years of research hints at a stark, harsh truth: worldwide, both the bio-diversity and biomass of insects has declined dramatically, leading to such alarming phrases as “insect Armageddon” and “insect apocalypse.” We suspect this decline is happening in our own backyard, but we don’t have the data to prove it yet. This is changing, however. In a multiyear project sponsored in part by Metchosin Foundation, local Metchosin families have adopted Malaise traps, tent-like devices that allow scientists to figure out the amount (biomass) and distribution of flying insects across the municipality of Metchosin.

          During the pilot project in the summer of 2018, insects caught in the traps were collected at two-week intervals. Over the winter, the University of Victoria scientist Dr. Neville Winchester and his students meticulously sorted each of the collections (145 in total) into major flying insect orders (e.g., flies, bees, wasps and ants). The number of individuals and the biomass for each insect order was recorded.

          The total biomass for each trap varied, based on location. It is clear that some areas are very productive in terms of flying insect biomass, others less so. What attributes do some of these sites have that promote higher insect collection numbers? This, in part, is what will be measured in the summer of 2019, during the second collection season. One result, however, that has already emerged: the amount of flying insects in Metchosin tends to peak in the middle of the growing season (July).

          Dr. Winchester, his students, and the Metchosin Malaise trap adopters are looking forward to a second season of collections.

          Kennedy Nikel assisted Dr. Winchester in collecting and describing the first year’s data. Her honour’s thesis on the study can be viewed here.

The total insect biomass for each of the 15 Metchosin Malaise trap sites from July 22 to October 26, 2018. Each circle size is the relative total biomass, based on 145 collections, and the black dots indicates the location of the trap.