Canada’s annual Community Foundations Conference took place in Victoria this year, hosted by the Victoria Foundation (VF). The Metchosin Foundation helped the VF to organize an outing in Metchosin for conference participants. Two dozen of the more than 700 participants arrived on a bus on Thursday, June 6, to look at rural life in Metchosin and some of the work of the Metchosin Foundation.
Metchosin Foundation Director Morgan Yates had carefully choreographed the group’s itinerary. The event began in Victoria, where local Metchosin naturalist Andy MacKinnon met the bus group. He rode to Metchosin with them, talking on the bus about the natural systems of Southern Vancouver Island and some of what they would see that day.
First stop on the tour was Witty’s Lagoon CRD Park. The group paused at the map and Andy outlined where the walk would go.
The group stopped at the Sitting Lady Falls overlook, then hiked to the beach. The tide was out, providing a wide vista over the beach area and the Olympic Mountains beyond.
At the beach sand spit, Andy introduced the group to the extremely rare Camissonia contorta, the Contorted-pod Evening Primrose, and talked about plans to protect areas of the spit where it occurs. The group also got to see the blue-listed Abronia latifolia, the Yellow Sand- verbena, in full bloom.
Leaving Witty’s, the Community Foundations Conference group reboarded the bus and Paige Erickson-McGee from Habitat Aquisition Trust (HAT) talked briefly about the work of the Trust. HAT is a frequent partner of the Metchosin Foundation in its environmental work
The bus made a quick stop at the Metchosin Hall. At the Hall, Paige told the group about HAT’s work in bat protection. Local resident Janet Gray described the colony of about 1500 bats in the loft of the Metchosin Hall and what was being done to keep the loft bat-friendly.
A brief stop for refreshments at the Metchosin House gave Nicole Lalonde, one of the Directors of the Metchosin Foundation, a chance to talk about the importance of the House for residents of Metchosin.