GOMPS 2018 Annual General Meeting 

Join GOMPS on Tuesday, May 29 @ 7PM at the University of Victoria in David Turpin Building Room A102.

Protect your land: Learn more about  Conservation Covenants

After a short Annual General Meeting of the Garry Oak Meadow Preservation Society, our guest, Barb von Sacken of Habitat Aquisition Trust (HAT), will present information on Conservation Covenants.

You can prevent damage to natural areas
- limit logging to ecologically sustainable forestry
- prevent sub-division and development
- protect a wetland

Barb is originally from the Okanagan Valley where farm life provided ample opportunities to explore fields, forests and wetlands and peek her interest in the natural world.   This lead to a degree in Geography from UVic followed by over 10 years working with the Ministry of Environment (MoE) , developing provincial standards for ecological classification and mapping. Travel and work with MoE honed her appreciation of the varied landscapes in B.C. and piqued an interest in land protection strategies, particularly of rare and endangered landscapes.  Prior to joining HAT Barb was also involved in environmental education and outreach through the Environmental Technology and Geography Departments at Camosun College.

Since the fall of 2015 Barb has been with the HAT as the Land Acquisition Coordinator.  At HAT Barb leads the work on the covenants program, working with public and private landowners to assist them in placing permanent protection on their lands through conservation covenants or acquisitions. In addition, Barb performs annual compliance monitoring on HAT’s covenanted properties.

Note: This presentation is meant to introduce  participants to Conservation Covenants and will present a general overview. Conservation covenants are complex legal documents and legal advice should be sought.

Click here for a poster of the event.

At this work party we had 4 volunteers contribute 13.5 hours of work.

We were very excited to see that acorns planted in April had already begun to sprout! We are also pleased to share that an expansion to the nursery is underway. An area has already been cleared in preparation for another strip of landscaping cloth and new irrigation system to be installed.

What we accomplished:

• we planted the remaining 180 acorns in 2" styroblocks
• we weeded between 500 and 600 of the 1-gallon pots
• we weeded all of our 5-gallon and 10-gallon seedlings, approximately 90 in total

At this work party we had 7 volunteers contribute a total of 19.5 hours between us.

What we accomplished:

• we planted 1567 acorns in the 2" styroblocks
• we moved 216 of the 1-gallon seedlings from the landscaping cloth up onto pallets