KNP Landscape Photo Documentation Project Update

A wooden bridge over a creek surrounded by cedars — Creek Trail and the Flume

We all love the Kimberley Nature Park. It provides us with four-season access to appreciate and learn about nature across varied ecosystems, as well as a safe place to recreate—all right in our backyard! But changes are taking place due to natural processes, climate change, and human activity.

A lake viewed through trees with a marshy shoreline — Dipper Lake

What is changing and where are the changes occurring? To help answer these questions, the Natural History Group launched the Landscape Photo Documentation Project in 2022. Volunteers take photographs at a chosen location in the Nature Park and Horse Barn Valley Interpretive Forest four times a year, in conjunction with the solstices and equinoxes. At this time there are nine dedicated volunteers and 14 sites. Sites include areas of recent logging and “Special Places” shown on the Kimberley Nature Park Society Trail Guide, such as Eimer’s Lake, Sunflower Hill, Dipper Lake, Duck Pond, and Creek Trail. If you use the Trailforks app to navigate, the sites are marked with a purple symbol (⌘).

A frozen pond under snow, surrounded by trees — Duck Pond

How will the photographs be used? These monitoring data will be used to inform adaptive management of the Nature Park. In its Management Plan, the Kimberley Nature Park Society (KNPS) has committed to making changes in activities if negative effects to natural systems are identified.

Two trails diverge on a grassy slope with a valley in the background — Sunflower Hill

Can more sites be added to the project? Absolutely! If you have a favourite place in the Nature Park or in the Horse Barn Valley Interpretive Forest, please get in touch with us. We would especially like to add sites on Myrtle Mountain and in the Williamson’s Sapsucker Habitat Area, where habitat restoration/fire mitigation work is taking place.

The future of the Nature Park is in your hands.

Project photographs by Birgitta Jansen, Dina Hanson, Ruth and Kent Goodwin, and Betty Baker.