This post has been contributed by Louise Pedersen of the Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”). I have been following SPES since I moved into the West End almost eight years ago and I recently became a member. I wanted to offer Louise and her team an opportunity to share their news, events, and work so I have created “SPES Saturday” where they will be contributing stories with my audience once a month.
Stanley Park: World’s Most Beautiful Park
To Vancouverites it may not come as a big surprise that the world loves Stanley Park too, but it makes us nevertheless a little proud when magazines like Travel + Leisure in their May issue enlists “our” park among the ten most beautiful parks in the world.
And what’s not to love for the eight million locals and tourists who visit the park every year. Within a short walk from downtown, we have 400 acres of lush temperate rainforest, a myriad of forest trails that wind their way through the park and past giant ferns and towering red cedar, hemlock and Douglas fir trees, and an 8km long seaside promenade – the most popular recreational facility in Vancouver.
But Stanley Park is more than just nature “bling”; it’s a place many of us turn to again and again to spend time in nature, for a fresh breath of air and to get away from traffic noise and the many distractions that are part and parcel of living in a big city. As a significant green “island” in an urban landscape, the Park is also a home to an astonishing diversity of wildlife species, including at least 30 mammals, 236 birds, 10 amphibians and 72 freshwater and marine fish. The most noticeable difference between Stanley Park and more remote natural areas is the absence of large mammals such as deer, wolves, bears and cougars; however coyotes, river otters and beavers all thrive in the park.
With Vancouver celebrating birds all week during the city’s inaugural Bird Week, it’s appropriate to highlight Stanley Park as a bird lover’s paradise. The summer breeding bird populations are diverse and plentiful. The park is not only home to nesting pairs of bald eagles and an expansive great blue heron colony; it is also a nursery for songbirds, owls, and many other species. Its winter seashore is teeming with thousands of waterfowl, shorebirds and wading birds, and a short hop over to Lost Lagoon will provide a view of freshwater species. As Vancouver is on the Pacific Flyway, fall and spring migration are exciting times in the park with flocks of warblers, birds of prey and the occasional rarities passing through.
During this 125th anniversary year of Stanley Park, let’s send a appreciative nod to Lord Stanley and the newly formed Vancouver City Council who in 1888, when Vancouver was home to just 2,600 inhabitants, designating the area as a public park. This park truly is a gem to us and the rest of the world, who come here to visit.
Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”) is based in the Park, and with the help of our members and supporters we make a difference for wildlife throughout the Park by directly tackling their habitat needs through habitat restoration, monitoring and conservation action as well as by providing scientific information that help Park managers create better management plans.
Every year, we give over 20,000 children and adults opportunities for learning about nature on their doorstep through our weekly public events, school programs, Young Naturalist’s Club or by visiting the Stanley Park Nature House on Lost Lagoon, Vancouver’s only ecology centre. Through our popular volunteering program, more than 1,200 locals learn new skills, improve their CV and meet like-minded people every year.
To find out more SPES, including our weekly events in the Park, opening hours of the Nature House and volunteering opportunities, visit the website and follow @StanleyPkEcoSoc on Twitter. Upcoming events: Insect Superheroes on Sunday, May 12th; Mosses and Lichens on Sunday, May 19th; Community Invasive Species Management (Volunteer) on Saturday, May 25th; Birds of a Feather at Lost Lagoon Nature House on Sunday, May 26th.
The Grouse Grind, Vancouver’s favourite natural stairclimber, opens for the season on Saturday, May 11, 2013 and whether you complete it once or even fifty times this season you can support a great local campaign with each step.
With the opening of the popular 2.9km mountain route comes another year of the Grind for Kids campaign from the BC Children’s Hospital. Here’s how it works:
Grind For Kids is in its fourth year and leverages the enthusiasm of the thousands of people in the Lower Mainland that do the Grouse Grind on a regular basis. People sign up and ask friends, family and co-workers to pledge $1 or more for every Grouse Grind they do between June and October. At the end of the season participants will share their success with the people who have pledged them and request they fulfill their pledges. One time donations are also accepted.
The first step is to sign up online and then start collecting pledges between now and October. With your $20 registration fee, you will get an official Grind Timer from Grouse Mountain Guest Services that tracks your progress real time. Simply swipe the timer at the base of the Grouse Grind before you start and at the top when you finish. You will be able to go to your personal donation page to track your progress at any time, enjoy complimentary bag-check service, and you’ll be entered to win weekly fundraising prizes.
Be sure to follow Grind for Kids on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates and fundraising tips throughout the season.
Vancouver is known for its veggie culture but the carnivore is still alive and thriving with help from barbecue joints, butcher shops, delis and grilled goodies from food trucks. It seems like just the right time to launch the city’s first “Festival of Meat” — Brewery and The Beast on Sunday, June 16th.
A handful of Vancouver’s finest restaurants, chefs, and favourite barbecuers will be on site for the day serving up whole pig and lamb roasts, house-made sausage, charcuterie, smoked meats, ethnic-inspired dishes, classic BBQ, and other full-flavored exotic foods.
Brewery and The Beast is an experience our guests can feel good about, a time to get together with friends and enjoy a “backyard BBQ” on a Sunday afternoon. It will take you on a culinary adventure sure to astound your taste buds.
Chefs will create dishes using the highest possible quality ingredients for the conscientious consumer. Meats featured will be hormone and antibiotic free, ethically raised, and sourced from farms on Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, the Fraser Valley, and select farms in Northern Alberta.
The festival was created to educate guests on the importance of becoming a conscientious consumer of high quality meat. Reducing the carbon footprint created by mass production and distribution is a key role that our local and regional farmers play. It is more important than ever to support local farmers and food producers by purchasing and consuming their harvest in restaurants, grocery stores, and markets.
The “Brewery” side of the event will have refreshments and libations from Phillips Brewing Company, Vancouver Urban Winery, and Left Field Cider. Homemade sodas and traditional iced teas will also be served.
Brewery and the Beast will be take place on Sunday, June 16, 2013 from 1:00pm until 4:00pm at Concord Pacific lot at 88 Pacific Boulevard. Tickets are on sale now for $79 (plus tax) and your admission includes live music from The Electric Timber Company, beverages tastings, and all of the sweet, savoury, and smoky goodness that is being served up.
Follow Brewery and the Beast on Twitter and Facebook for more information. If you can’t get enough, check out their event in Victoria this September. This is a 19+ event and it will take place rain or shine. Please enjoy responsibly and plan a safe ride home.
The BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association along with Tourism Surrey are hosting the first Surrey Restaurant Week from Friday, May 24th until Sunday, June 2nd. Participating restaurants will be serving up three-course prix-fixe dinner menus for either $20, $30, or $40 per person.
You can choose between pub fare, delicious South Asian, Thai, and Greek specialties, homestyle dishes, country club eats, and pizza — or have it all. Over 40 restaurants have signed up to take part and several menus are already posted online, so far they include:
Big Ridge Brewing Co., Boston Pizza Guildford, Edith + Arthur (formerly the Fleetwood Arms Pub), Jack’s Public House, Morgans Restaurant and Wine Bar, Ashiana Restaurant, Sabai Thai Restaurant, The Henry Public House (in the revitalized Clover Inn), Townhall Public House, and more.
All you need to do is make your reservations and dine out some place new (or familiar) in Guildford, Whalley, Fleetwood, Newton, South Surrey, or Cloverdale. The restaurant list will continue to grow and watch for more menus to be added in the coming weeks. Follow Surrey Restaurant Week on Twitter for more information and restaurant updates.
I am proud to once again be the Social Media Sponsor of the Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards (the Jessies) and as such, I am featuring a local theatre company every Thursday.
The Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards are an annual awards ceremony and party produced by the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award Society to celebrate and promote the outstanding achievements of the Vancouver Professional Theatre Community. The Awards have been presented since 1982, originally by the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance, taken over in 1997 by the newly formed Society. Over 35 statues are awarded each year to outstanding theatre companies and artists.
These profiles contain basic information about each company, as supplied by their team, and a list of their upcoming productions that you can check out in the coming season. Today’s feature company is: Electric Company Theatre:
Electric Company Co-Founder and Director Kim Collier (foreground, pink shirt) amidst the flurry of a on-location film shoot at The Art Club’s Stanley Theatre for
Tear the Curtain, 2010. Jonathon Young and Laura Mennell in centre. Photo by Tim Matheson.
Electric Company Theatre
Date Established: 1996
Total number of plays/events produced: 17
Co-Founders: Kim Collier, David Hudgins, Kevin Kerr, and Jonathon Young
First Play Produced: Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla for the 1996 Vancouver Fringe Festival.
Mission Statement
SEE! SEE! SEE!
This Earth Made Rare
but you DIDN’T expect it
DREAMS GUARANTEED
Electric Company is dedicated to the creation of original works of theatre and the theatrical adaptation of existing texts with an emphasis on physical and visual imagery.
Coming Soon
YOU ARE VERY STAR
Wednesday, June 12th to Saturday, 29th, 2013
At the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in vancouver’s Vanier Park
Purchase Tickets
Perched like a spaceship in Vanier Park, the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre is being shifted from its position in your consciousness as a field-trip destination of childhood. YOU ARE VERY STAR is an immersive, and interactive transmedia experience that will transport you from 1968 to 2048. Come play with us, after closing, when we’re alone in this Vancouver jewel, filled with its ghosts, memories, and visions of the future. Try to remember what it was we all had hoped for.
Special Moment for the Company
Electric Company is Vancouver’s own moment maker. Maybe it is the moment you join us onstage. Maybe when you watch us through your cardboard telescope on the shores of False Creek? Maybe the moment the lights go down and you smell cinnamon. Or during an athletic pursuit of recision, with the threat of the accidental. Maybe when you lean forward in a soft seat to witness the human animals in motion? Maybe the seat is on a dolly track, when you are the camera and we are the grip.
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Stay up to date on the latest from Electric Company Theatre by following them on Facebook and Twitter.
