Author: Mike Mesford

Wasps are an occupational hazard for the Beaufort Watershed Stewards. Not so much because we run into them when we’re sampling but rather because they’re attracted to our beer cans. But before you form a mental picture of a tipsy group of citizen scientists thrashing drunkenly through the bush, let …

Where were you in 1963? I was 9 years old. And despite being an avid reader who was fascinated by stories of travellers and exotic locales, I had never heard of a place called Fanny Bay. But the folks in Qualicum knew of Fanny Bay. In December of that year, …

How much is a frog worth? The little Northern Red-Legged frog that plopped into the water as we approached Hart Creek for our weekly water sampling was certainly a valuable addition to our morning. Growing up on the edges of suburbia my days were often spent catching frogs and snakes …

It’s been a good year for strawberries. And now the raspberries are demanding attention. The ruby red flashes among the leaves remind us we need to get serious about picking them. And the blueberries are beginning to live up to their name, so it won’t be long before they’re ready …

During recent summer months well levels have been lower than previous years. Some are going dry. This is not unprecedented. There were similar problems in 2015. Perhaps the time has come to take stock of how we use this resource we call water. The first thing to realize is that …

I woke up to the sound of heavy rain this morning and it’s raining quite hard now as I write this. But by some stroke of luck it was only a drizzle earlier when we did our regular Tuesday stream sampling.  Mud Bay was its usual constant self, perhaps a …

On a recent Thursday morning, under drizzly grey skies, a small group of BWS volunteers gathered in the Fanny Bay Hall parking lot. We were meeting Neil Goeller, a Regional Hydrologist who works out of the Nanaimo office of FLNRORD*. Neil had given a presentation at a recent symposium demonstrating …