The Genesis of the Nanoose Naturalists
After moving to Nanoose Bay in 2000, I wondered if there was a need or desire to have a local nature club. Having had the satisfaction of being involved with several clubs in Ontario and BC, I chatted with Tony Ransom who was interested and supportive of the idea. We decided we would ask a small group of people to meet at the Fairwind's club house and explore the possibility of starting a nature club. This was in the winter of 2001. The group suggested that we have a nature walk in May 2002 to see how many people might be interested.
After a wide distribution of flyers with the heading, "A Walk on the Wild Side! Are you interested in learning more about nature and your surroundings?" we had our first exploratory nature walk around Dolphin Lake. We asked people to sign a form and indicate if they were interested in joining a local naturalist club. Thirty people indicated an interest and thus the exploratory committee met again. It was decided that:
We would establish a club called the Nanoose Naturalists
We would meet at the Nanoose Library meeting room on the 2nd Thursday of each month at 7 pm.
We would join the Federation of BC Naturalists as an affiliate club. (3 year maximum)
We confirmed a tentative executive.
There were some concerns expressed by the neighbouring Arrowsmith Naturalists that we might take away from their membership, but this has not happened. In fact a number of Arrowsmith Naturalists joined our club as well and we had visitors from their club to our meetings.
The first official meeting was on September 12 and featured reminiscences from Bob Harris who had worked for the Canadian Wildlife Service for many years and mentioned some of his significant contributions to the establishment of nature reserves. Following Bob, Anne Gransden put on a visually dramatic nature presentation of birds, botany and mammals set to music. We were surprised at the turnout of about 40 people. The next meeting we started taking memberships which were $10 single and $18 family.
One of our environmental activities was the participation of 13 members in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, collecting trash along the Nanoose Estuary.
The founding executive of the Nanoose Naturalists included Pat Audley, Carolyn Dodd, John Hall, Bob Harris, John and Lois MacKenzie, Tony Ransom and Jim Sinclair.
The club subscribes to the FBCN motto, "To enjoy nature and to keep it worth knowing." Members have shown a broad natural history interest including birds, wild flowers, trees, rocks, fossils, mushrooms, ferns, mammals and the preserving and enhancing of natural habitat.
John MacKenzie