Conserving Our Island’s Rainforest

Here on Salt Spring Island is a rare coastal temperate rainforest. The air is cool and moist. It feels, smells, and looks different than the drier rainshadow landscape we are accustomed to on the Southern Gulf Islands. Yet, there is much more that makes this forest rare and special.

Fifteen and a half acres of this temperate rainforest, the Creekside Rainforest, are now the object of a conservation project. Cusheon Creek, one of the few salmon-bearing streams on Salt Spring Island, flows through the land. Local conservation groups have been working to protect Cusheon Creek for almost 40 years. In 2008, a community-led project resulted in the protection of a 19.5-acre adjoining parcel, Jarrod’s Grove Nature Reserve. The Conservancy now has the opportunity to acquire and protect 15.5 more acres of this unique ecosystem.

Photo: Pierre Mineau

Concerned neighbours initiated the conservation efforts. In 2021, Susan Bloom, a supportive neighbour and donor to the project, said of Creekside Rainforest, “We must save this precious jewel.”

Salt Spring Island Conservancy is now leading the conservation effort. If it can be acquired, Creekside Rainforest, with the adjoining Jarrod’s Grove Nature Reserve, will protect 35 acres that include Western redcedar up to 250 years old, enormous Bigleaf maples draped in moss and lichen, and creek banks lined with maidenhair ferns. Also found on the land are two ecosystems that are provincially classified as imperilled.

Beyond its ecological value, “it’s kind to the eyes, the ears, to the skin and the breath, and also to the soul,” said Julia Grace, a neighbourhood volunteer. She added, “[It] has more shades of green than we have words to describe.”

The land’s deep ravine, higher than normal rainfall, and northerly aspect combine with the continuous forest canopy to create an exceptionally cool and moist microclimate that is home to numerous species associated with older rainforests, including many at risk, and also other island wildlife that uses this property as a corridor and water supply. Salmonids, swimming upstream to spawning and rearing habitat, benefit from Cusheon Creek’s cool temperature, maintained thanks to shade provided by the tree canopy.

Photo: Pierre Mineau

Kathy Reimer, Director of the Island Stream and Salmon Enhancement Society, noted, “Cusheon Creek flows through Creekside Rainforest and Jarrod's Grove Nature Reserve that, together, represent the largest section of pristine riparian habitat on Salt Spring Island." Reimer added, “It is vitally important that this unique, irreplaceable riparian property is protected for the future.”

For species under stress from climate change, including those from rainshadow forests experiencing higher summer temperatures and extended droughts, this Creekside Rainforest is a refugium. Protecting this land will also ensure that the forest’s high carbon storage and sequestration values are maintained.

The benefits of protecting Creekside Rainforest extend beyond its ecological importance, with numerous culturally modified Western redcedar and archeological deposits recorded nearby indicating use by the Coast Salish people of the ancient village sites in the Cusheon Creek estuary and Beddis Beach area.

Salt Spring Island Conservancy launched a community fundraiser for this critical landscape at the end of April 2022. TLC The Land Conservancy of BC will be a fundraising partner. Fundraising will continue through to the fall.

Peter McAllister, a long-time conservationist and key to many successful campaigns, including the Great Bear Rainforest, commented, “This incredibly rich and diverse land, with its special history and unique beauty, deserves to be preserved in a natural state for future generations to enjoy.”

As local naturalist, writer, and educator Briony Penn has encouraged, “Let’s finish up this project started over a decade ago to protect Salt Spring’s most important climate sanctuary.”

Learn more about what makes Creekside Rainforest unique and how you can help protect it: https://saltspringconservancy.ca/creeksiderainforest

Video by Alex Harris

Avatar of Coreen Boucher

By Coreen Boucher

Staff Writer, Salt Spring Exchange News

May 6, 2022 10:11 AM