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There was a time not so many years ago when salt marshes were dismissed as waste areas or swamps, to be filled in with domestic and industrial trash.
We now understand that salt marshes are some of our most productive, precious and sensitive habitats, and homes to a rich and unique flora and fauna.
The salt marsh at Maplewood Conservation Area remains the last and most important area of this productive habitat on the North Shore. It is so sensitive to damage that it is out of bounds to sanctuary visitors except on a special annual, carefully supervised naturalist tour. However, the salt marsh can be viewed with binoculars or scopes from several good viewpoints along the trail.
Maplewood's salt marsh is populated with plants that have intriguing names like glasswort, milkwort, gumweed and dodder. Glasswort has several names, including salicornica, sea pickle and sea asparagus. Amid the shades of green, you can see patches of a stringy orange-coloured plant called dodder, or the devil's innards. Dodder is parasitic on sea asparagus, but they co-exist with no apparent problem.
In midsummer, the salt marsh glows with cheery blossoms of gumweed, so-named because of sticky goo around the bases of the flowers. Later come the beautiful Douglas asters with their lovely blue and yellow daisy like flowers. Aster is a nectaring source of neat little butterfly-like insects known as skippers.
And speaking of butterflies, the Wild Bird Trust's Richard Beard is working hard to restore the locally rare anise swallowtail butterfly to the salt marsh. His excellent colour brochure on identifying local butterflies in field and garden is available at the sanctuary office for a small donation.
Diverse birdlife in Maplewood's salt marsh includes swallows, swifts, hummingbirds, shorebirds and waterfowl. Purple martins make regular feeding forays over the marsh to snap up dragonflies and other insects. The marsh has hosted its share of local bird rarities including mountain bluebird, eastern kingbird, western kingbird and bank swallow. There is a good list of raptors like merlin (a small falcon), peregrine falcon, Cooper's hawk, red-tailed hawk, bald eagle and turkey vulture, great horned owl and short-eared owl.
Swifts and swallows, insect consumers, also forage over the marsh. Swifts are sometimes mistaken for swallows but have longer-looking sickle-shaped wings. Two species, the black swift and the Vaux's swift, occur here. Look for them on days when the cloud ceiling is low.
Great yellowlegs, pectoral sandpiper, solitary sandpiper and killdeer are some of the shorebirds that should be watched for in Maplewood's salt marsh.
The salt marsh habitat provides excellent habitat for the sanctuary's resident blacktail deer, who come to nibble on the succulent vegetation. Other mammals range from tiny shrews and small rodents (voles) to raccoons, river otters, and the occasional black bear. In the evening, bats appear from their day roosts to feed on abundant flying insects.
Below the surface of the muddy substrate is a world of creatures hidden from our view, such as worms, mollusks and crustaceans. From the bacteria to algae and higher plants and from microscopic creatures to the birds and mammals, all have important roles to play in complex marsh food webs.
Salt marshes like Maplewood's are full of nature's wonders. They are sensitive habitats that are easily damaged, and largely underappreciated. Science has taught us just how rich and important they are to the survival of a wonderful variety of plants and animals. Maplewood Conservation Area plays a vital role in protecting a natural treasure: a salt marsh.
Al Grass is a naturalist with Wild Bird Trust of British Columbia, which sponsors free walks at Maplewood Flats Conservation Area on the second Saturday of every month. The next walk is Saturday, July 12 where you can learn more about the fascinating world of the salt marsh. Meet at 10 a.m. at Maplewood Flats, 2645 Dollarton Highway (two kilometres east of the Iron Workers Second Narrows Memorial Crossing). Walks go rain or shine. Website: www.wildbirdtrust.org.
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