The South Okanagan Naturalists’ Club is celebrating its 50th anniversary. In March 1962 a group of local residents interested in nature formed the club. For several years prior many of the charter members had been carrying out the Christmas bird count. Founding members of the club included Jean and Steve Cannings, Violet and Les Gibbard, Carleton McNaughton.
From the beginning, the club’s purpose was twofold: to get people outside to enjoy and learn which plants and animals comprised the natural world of the Okanagan Valley and to promote conservation. The first purpose entailed many outings, some of just a few hours duration. Others were overnight camping trips. The second involved identification of vulnerable natural areas and working with various levels of government and land conservation organizations to protect that habitat.
Almost immediately SONC was involved in the discussions that led to the formation of a province wide natural history organization, originally called the BC Nature Council and now BC Nature. BC Nature has 50 affiliated nature clubs throughout the province, working together to preserve natural areas and to promote public education. On the local level SONC promoted the transfer of land at the north end of Vaseux Lake to the Canadian Wildlife Service.
Given that about 85 per cent of the original wetlands in the Okanagan Valley have either been destroyed or severely compromised, this was a significant achievement.
During the next three decades, SONC took an active role in the formation of three provincial parks and one regional park. Cathedral Park, Okanagan Mountain Park and Brent Mountain Protected Area all came about after significant lobbying by SONC and other groups. In 1992 the club, led by Eva Durance and accompanied by Penticton Mayor Jake Kimberly, hiked to the top of Brent Mountain as part of the campaign to have Brent Mountain declared a park.
During the 1970’s club members worked hard at having acreage near Adra on the old KVR made into a park, succeeding in 1979 when Rock Oven Park was designated by the provincial government and turned over to the regional district. This park preserves the rock ovens used by the crews that built the KVR early in the last century as well as some old-growth ponderosa pine forest.
The club soon recognized the need for various guides to the fauna and flora of the valley and proceeded to produce a checklist of the birds of the South Okanagan in 1970. This has been updated several times since with the most recent edition – Checklist of the Birds of the Okanagan Valley (2010), covering the entire Valley with detailed occurrence information for 340 species. The bird checklist proved so popular that it was followed by the Checklist of Plants of the South Okanagan basin listing about 190 flowers, shrubs and grasses that occur below 900 metre elevation. After that came the butterfly checklist for the South Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys and adjacent highlands. Finally in 2010 the club, in collaboration with the other Okanagan Naturalist Clubs, produced the Okanagan Valley Birding Trail Guide, a compilation of the best bird-watching sites in the valley and an immediate best-seller.
Other issues and projects the club has been involved in over the years will be discussed in another column. There will a number of events celebrating this big anniversary beginning in March with a major exhibition at the Penticton Museum. If you are interested in nature, whether it is birds, wildflowers, butterflies, geology or anything in between, come to a meeting and join with us in celebrating the unique natural beauty of the South Okanagan.
The South Okanagan Naturalists’ Club meets at 7:30 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of the month in the basement hall of the Penticton United Church, 696 Main St. The Jan. 26 meeting features bats of the Okanagan by Tanya Luszcz of Partners in Flight. All are welcome.
Jim Ginns is a mycologist and member of SONC and the BC Field Ornithologists.