Lovely Day at Alta Vista Park Community Picnic

It was a lovely sunny day today at the Alta Vista Park Community Picnic in south Burnaby. This event has been happening annually for, I believe, over 25 years. Just local folks, mostly women, organizing this small fundraiser to keep the park equipment updated and in good shape.

Volunteers from the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers Society have been attending this event for around ten years or more. We love this event because it’s NOT an environmental event, it’s truly a local community party, and it’s a great chance to talk to folks about their local watersheds and streams.

Here are a few photos from today:

alta vista park picnic
Local faves Rainshadow perform

alta vista park picnic
City of Burnaby Parks and Rec crafts table

alta vista park picnic
Clowning around…

Homelessness task force
Burnaby Task Force on Homelessness

alta vista park picnic
Hot dogs!

alta vista park picnic
Air guitar contest

alta vista park picnic
Byrne Creek Streamkeepers display

alta vista park picnic
Folks checking out 3D watershed map – cool!

Cooler Weather = First Batch of Oden Since Last Winter

You know you’re sliding toward fall and winter when you make your first batch of oden. It’s a bit late to dig in now (9:30pm) but it’ll be great with a side dish of genmai brown rice in the morning.

Anyway it’s often better when you let it sit for awhile and let all the flavors mingle…

Oden on stove

Yumi’s Mom in Aomori (northern Japan) makes wonderful nishime in the fall & winter — I get the impression that her stock simmers for months and she just keeps replenishing veggies and seafood.

Volunteers Go All Out on Byrne Ck Bug Count

Wow, thanks to everyone who helped with the bug count on Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby, BC, today. We went full out (10 volunteers for a total of 35 volunteer hours) and got all nine sites sampled and counted in one day — something that usually takes three days to do!
 
While the totals haven’t been tallied yet, as we surmised, it was pretty slim pickings.
 
Byrne Creek Bug Count
Using a D-net to take a sample. The variety and quantity of aquatic bugs is a good indication of water quality. Unfortunately, Byrne Creek regularly runs poor to marginal, or 1.5 – 2 on a scale of 4, using the methodology in module 4 of The Streamkeepers Handbook.
Byrne Creek pollution
And here’s why we have poor water quality in the creek. As we were taking our last sample today just upstream of Edmonds Skytrain Station, a slug of milky blue stuff came down the creek. We immediately reported it to City of Burnaby Environmental and they sent a tech out to try to find where it was coming from.
Bug count
Years ago we learned how to count in comfort. Here we are in a volunteer’s kitchen with coffee and muffins.
Byrne Creek bug
A Byrne Creek monster!
sample pails
There you go! Nine sites sampled in one day!