Somenos Marsh is a fascinating, rich and diverse wetland complex lying at the geographic, demographic, and economic centre of the Cowichan Valley.
It is still an area of exceptional bird, fish and other wildlife values - and a testimony to the passion and determination of so many to preserve it, who for over 19 years have been active in the Somenos Marsh Wildlife Society.
The Somenos Marsh Conservation Area is located in North Cowichan, BC, on the north edge of Duncan. It is a one-hour drive north from Victoria and one hour south of Nanaimo, via Highway 1, the Trans-Canada Highway.
We made it! Thanks to the outstanding support and generosity of our membership, directors, residents of the Cowichan Valley and several corporate supporters, we have reached our budget of $114,200. At $6,000, our contingency is still a tad light but the donations keep coming in, and we are confident that we will top this up to a more comfortable level of $7,500.
The construction of the new OAC boardwalk will begin, the first week of September. We have selected Jornic Marine Construction of Lake Cowichan to build it, being marine construction specialists and having a lengthy and positive track record. And, of course, it is still not too late to contribute and get your own name or a name of choice engraved on a boardwalk board.
This weekend's boardwalk bash was a great success!
The boardwalk has been completely removed.
Now we need to get almost 400 boards engraved with their donor's words and have the work completed for the beginning of September when the new boardwalk starts construction.
Volunteers are urgently needed too help with this work.
We need stencillers and router operators. The work is easy and fun.
We will be doing the next engraving day Wednesday August 22 from 9:00 am till 8:00 pm so a few different times are available for routering.
If anyone has some free time Monday or Tuesday and would like to take a run at pre-stenciling, please let me know and we can meet for a tutorial. And if you have a router that would be excellent since we have only two.
Please pause to admire the ‘heron’ banner in the logo of the Somenos Marsh Wildlife Society. It was a gift to us from internationally renowned Canadian bird artist, J. Fenwick Lansdowne--a treasure indeed.
It is with sadness that we acknowledge the passing on July 26 of Fenwick.
As with all of his art, his love of nature and commitment to the conservation of bird habitat will live on. For the SMCA, it lives on in our respect for Fenwick and in our continued use of his beautiful heron image to identify all SMCA stewardship activities.
The Board of Directors on behalf of all the members of the Somenos Marsh Wildlife Society.
