This post has been contributed by Kathleen Stormont, Fundraising & Communications Specialist with the Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”). I have been following SPES since I moved into the West End almost a decade ago and I have been a member for two years. I wanted to offer the team an opportunity to share their news, events, and work so I have created “SPES Saturday” where they contribute and share stories with my audience once a month.
Putting the Chill Back in Winter
A lunchroom fridge offers native bees an edge in Stanley Park
A native orchard mason bee pollinates an
apple blossom. Photo by Red58bill, Wikimedia.org
Lunchtime at Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”) can be a tricky affair. A moment of inattention and someone’s grabbing a yogurt container full of mason bees from the fridge, or mixing up their sandwich sprouts with the wild flower seeds germinating in the crisper. With a little forewarning, though, SPES staffers willingly navigate around these fridge obstacles, cognizant of the important conservation role their fridge plays in Stanley Park.
Unlike Vancouver’s increasingly variable winter temperatures, a fridge’s interior provides a consistent chill that’s perfect for animals and plants adapted to cold winters. The larvae of mason bees, for instance, rely on an even cold temperature to keep them “asleep” in cocoons over winter – emerging only with the warmth of spring and blooming flowers. A sudden onset of warm winter temperatures, though, can stimulate the bees to emerge too early when their flowery food source isn’t yet available; a return to regular winter temperatures can also threaten the newly hatched bees’ survival.
SPES works to support these important pollinators by providing them with mason bee “condos” or blocks of tubes in which the solitary bees live. In late fall, SPES volunteers clean out the bee condos, wash any parasitic mites off the bee cocoons, and store the cocoons in the safety of our fridge until spring.
(Left) An orchard mason bee rests on its “condo”. Photo by Michael Schmidt. (Right) A SPES volunteer removes mason bee cocoons from the bee “condo” in late fall. Photo by SPES.
Like many bee species around the world, our blue orchard mason bees (Osmia lignaria) are threatened by loss of habitat, pesticide use, and pollen mites. Although we are hosting only a small number of mason bees (about 300), the benefits may be significant: six mason bees will pollinate one fruit tree compared to 10,000 honey bees!
In Stanley Park, the bees work hard to pollinate early spring flowers like our native salmonberries. A single mason bee will visit between 1,600 to 2,400 blossoms daily, and pollinate over 90% of them. SPES’ biggest mason bee collection lives outside our offices on the porch of the Stanley Park Dining Pavilion.
You can visit other mason bee condos in the Stanley Park Rose Garden and in our Native Plant Demonstration Garden.
Keeping mason bees in your own garden is an easy way to promote pollination and support this important pollinator. Learn about mason bees and their care online – and remember to label that yogurt container in your fridge.
Every January and October, like clockwork, a blanket of fog moves in. It bubbles up from Burrard Inlet and the Fraser River, shrouds office towers, and we get what social media users dub #Fogcouver. City lights are dulled by the enveloping cloud while streets become eerily quiet and photographers capture beautiful and haunting scenes.
Vancouver Fog Photos January 2015
Related: Vancouver Fog Videos.
I have curated the Miss604 Flickr Pool for the last seven years and I believe that no other animal has piqued the interest of local photographers quite like Yoda the Pug, aka The Red Baron. However upon looking around the corners of the internet to find out more about Yoda, I discovered that his pet parent, Mad Dog — who made his signature sidecar — was even more of a legend.
Mad Dog, referred to as the “Heritage Punk of Vancouver”, was featured earlier this year in a web series about The Real People of Vancouver. This multi-part documentary aims to showcase people who inspire, intrigue, who stand out from the crowd, and who the creators of the series believe should have their stories told.
I started watching a 25 minute clip and within the first 30 seconds Bev Davies began introducing Mad Dog. Davies, a legendary punk rock photographer, is one of my local idols.
Mad Dog’s is a fascinating story about the city’s gritty past, its punk history, and his one-of-a-kind art.
Every neighbourhood has “that guy”. The kind of crazy looking eccentric you see playing a keyboard with a peg leg or some woman in a cape who sells the most amazing jewelry known to man kind for chump change. In my neighbourhood, Mount Pleasant, just south of Downtown Vancouver, that guy is a bleached-out old punk dude named Mad Dog.
I didn’t know much about Mad Dog when I first saw him around. All I knew was that he rode a old, suped-up motorbike with a side car that held his tiny pug who wore goggles and a black vest. Then Mad Dog came into my work place and noticed my Germs circle tattoo. “You’re a little punk!” he yelled at me. “That band was great.” I was immediately intrigued. Asking around, I found out that Mad Dog was not only an artist who did everything from rebuilding old bikes to revamping baby dolls into Chucky-like sculptures to creating miniature replicas of now-destroyed hotels and clubs in our city, he also used to front one of Vancouver’s early ’80s hardcore punk bands, Slaughter Squad. For a tall can and some smokes, Mad Dog let me come over to his place and listen to his stories of what it was like to be a broke, starving, junkie punk in the days of D.O.A., shooting galleries, soup-kitchen handouts and moneyless freedom.
[Source: Michelle Ford for VICE]
Photo credit:
on Flickr
Other Real People of Vancouver that have been featured in these documentaries include Ken Foster, #Streetscript, and Mabel Todd. As for Yoda, we don’t learn too much about this adventurous canine but if you spot him around town, you’ll know a bit more about the person riding the bicycle next to him.
Vancouver is a hockey town but it’s also a world renowned yoga hotbed, making this weekend’s Yoga on the Ice event with the Canucks and lululemon even that more fitting. On Sunday, January 11, 2015, Shawn Matthias, lululemon and friends invite you to get bendy for charity. Join them to support the Canucks for Kids Fund for an hour of yoga on the ice of Rogers Arena led by instructor Alex Mazerolle.
The Canucks for Kids Fund dedicates resources to assist charities which support children’s health and wellness, foster the development of grassroots hockey, and facilitate and encourage education in British Columbia.
Tickets are available online now for $40, including parking in the Rogers Arena parkade for the duration of the event. The first 100 participants to arrive will receive a special gift from lululemon athletica.
Tips: Dress in layers and bring your game face as just a thin sheet of flooring will separate you from the home ice of your Vancouver Canucks. Bring your own mat and water bottle. Enter via Gate 10 starting at 4:00pm on Sunday and the yoga session will begin at 5:00pm. Culver City Salads will be on site with a selection of healthy salads available for purchase after the session.
Win Tickets to Yoga on the Ice with the Canucks
I have two tickets to give away for Yoga on the Ice on Sunday, thanks to lululemon. Here’s how you can enter to win your way in:
- Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
- Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 4:00pm TODAY (Friday, January 9, 2015) in order to notify and confirm the winner for Sunday. All event participants (or, in the case of minors, their parents/legal guardians) will be required to sign a waiver in order to participate in the yoga session.
Update The winner is Rita!
