Follow us through Savary Island, along a white sandy beach that stretches far into the distance with steep cliffs to the side. Over the sound of the waves comes the piercing calls of mew gulls and black oystercatchers. You stop to watch them hop through the waves and rocks, stooping down to feed on the critters that scuttle between the pools.
You scramble up a path over the loose sandy cliffs and head inland, through a flat dusty field dotted with small green plants. A patch of purple catches your eye and you stoop down to examine the flowers of a Red-listed Grey Beach Peavine growing from the sand.
Walking further into the island, a mature forest closes in around you, Douglas-firs and other evergreen trees standing proud. Through the grasses and herb layer under the tree canopy you spot a black-tailed deer and her fawn.
Soon you emerge from the trees to lightly slopping sand dunes with the ocean beyond. The hills are immersed in plants and you even spot a Red-listed Contorted-pod Evening-primose and a Blue-listed moss.
Your heart warms to know that the beautiful and rare sand ecosystems at the heart of Savary Island are protected forever.
Facts
- In 2002, the Nature trust of BC acquired 50% interest in a property called the Heart of Savary Island. Sixteen years later, the other 50% was secured enabling the protection of 142 hectares of land on the increasingly populated Savary Island.
- The land conserves one of the best examples of coastal sand dunes in Canada and the largest groundwater recharge area on the island.
- The property has been identified in a Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory (SEI) as containing Cliff, Herbaceous, Mature Forest, and Old Forest ecosystems.
