[NPSBC] New BC Provincial Park: Koksilah/Eagle Heights

[Adolf Ceska]

KOKSILAH/EAGLE HEIGHTS PROTECTION - SLOWLY BUT SURELY
By Adolf Ceska
From: https://www.facebook.com/adolf.ceska/posts/1709044042464482 

It was almost 40 years ago when Oluna and I "discovered" this area. 
In the late 1970's, Oluna was a trout fishing addict and we were going to
Weeks Lakes whenever we had any free time. On one of our fishing trip, Oluna
noticed open areas that were across the Koksilah River from the logging
operations we had to drive through. 
We gave up on fishing and went to explore open areas of Eagle Heights. Our
first major exploration of this area was on May 20, 1978. That was the day
when we collected a large number of rare species. The most prominent among
them was Githopsis specularioides, "common bluecup". We knew "common
bluecup" from the 1927 collections of this species from Empress Mountain &
Sooke Hills made by Reverend Robert Connell. In 1977, the year before our
Eagle Heights find, we knew this species from Jocelyn Hill, Empress
Mountain, Buck Hill. For us, Githopsis specularioides was a good indicator
of "special places" and we started to push for the Eagle Heights protection.
We were organizing several trips with the Victoria Natural History Society.
On one of those trips, I first met Terry Taylor and Gary Shearman, both were
living in Vancouver at that time. We helped to organize a trip with the
prominent Pacific Northwest mycological group, the so-called Key Council. On
that expedition led by Prof. Joe Ammirati from the University of Washington
we found several mushrooms which turned out to be new, yet undescribed
species (e.g., _Cortinarius subfloccopus_ & _Inocybe chondroderma_). Toby
Spribille (now a lichenologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton)
organized a bryophyte workshop led by Prof. Wilf Schofield. At the late
1990's, Hans Roemer, when he was seconded to the Conservation Data Centre,
made a detailed survey of the "pocket grasslands" on Eagle Heights. Hans,
with Oluna and me, has produced a detailed report, more or less an
ecological reserve proposal, where he collected all the botanical and
ecological information we had at that time about this area. Donald Webb, who
lived close to the Koksilah River was a great help to Hans and us when he
shared his knowledge and experience with us. He was heartbroken where he
witnessed the logging of a great part of Eagle Height. That logging was
Okayed by the BC Provincial Parks, the same institution that is supposed to
manage it now as the newest park acquisition. 
I am curious to see what has been included into this new park area. I hope
that the area was drafted in such a way that it protects all the important
sites of rare plants and ecosystems. Our original proposal was to establish
an ecological reserve there. That was in the time when the Ecological
Reserves Program had the Advisory Committee with over 15 university
professors who were deciding about the managing individual ecological
reserves. That committee was dissolved in the mid 1980's and now all the
projects are being approved by a local administrator. In the case
Koksilah/Eagle Heights management, it would be the same administrator who
allowed massive killing of Douglas-fir trees in the Mount Tzuhalem
Ecological Reserve. Let's pray that nothing similar happens in this new
park.