Join us as in exploring Breton Island, an entire 5-hectare island devoted to conserving ecosystems and wildlife. Shallow marine water surrounds the island with aquatic animals darting between the rocks and shells, protected from boats and buildings.
As you walk along the rocky shoreline dotted with grassy bunches of Roemer’s fescue and junegrass, a globally critically imperiled herbaceous community, you look over the water and spot the numerous birds that thrive on this protected island. You see a common loon glide over the green ocean water, while a great blue heron hunts in the surf.
Walk inland where globally vulnerable mature forest ecosystems survive. Douglas-firs and western hemlocks stand as sentinels of the island, the waxy green leaves of salal and the fluffy bunches of Oregon beaked-moss on the forest floor below.
All around you are the calls of birds and the sounds of their wings flapping. From marbled murrelets, to western grebes, to bald eagles and Savannah sparrows, this island has given birds a sanctuary and a home.
Facts
- In 2020 with the help of many donors, the Nature Trust of BC was able to acquire the 5.1-hectare Breton Island – Whitridge Reserve. Encompassing an entire small island, this property conserves numerous ecosystems from sensitive mature Douglas-fir communities to herbaceous rocky shoreline and surrounding shallow marine habitat.
- The property and surrounding marine ecosystem provide excellent habitat for sea ducks, shorebirds, seabirds, and other waterbirds.
- At-risk species using the island include: the Red-listed Brandt’s cormorant and common murrelet; marbled murrelet (SARA Schedule 1 Threatened); and the ancient murrelet, Cassin’s auklet, great blue heron, horned grebe, and western grebe (all SARA Schedule 1 Special Concern).