With permission from Nature Vancouver
A long-time member of Nature Vancouver, Al Grass, passed away on February 14, 2024. He is survived by his wife, Jude Grass.
Al was an all-round naturalist. The depth of his natural history knowledge was unsurpassed.
Al worked for three decades as a BC Parks Naturalist in Manning, Wells Gray, Mt Seymour, Cypress, Golden Ears and Rolley Lake Provincial Parks. He’s remembered for readily filling an interpretive amphitheatre and with kids on nature walks, he was the ‘pied piper’. Al authored many pamphlets, his favorite was “Camp Ground Critters”. In later years he shared his love of birds through his work at the Wild Birds Unlimited store and led many outings for Nature Vancouver.
Al was the most prolific writer for Nature Vancouver’s Discovery. He authored about 100 articles and co-authored another 20 articles, over four decades. His nature topics were wide-ranging, including: birds, fungi, chipmunks, squirrels, spiders, butterflies, wasps, bats, ferns, and plant galls, to name just a few. His series on tree species is most interesting, for example his article titled, “Shake Hands with a Spruce!”. Al also wrote “Ask Al”, a column for Nature Wild, the quarterly magazine of NatureKids.
A naturalist profile of Al & Jude was published in the 2002 issue (Volume 31, No. 2, page 8) of Discovery. It available from this link – https://drive.google.com/file/al-jude-grass.
Also, a five-minute video on Al and Jude Grass, that was produced in 2018 for the 100th Anniversary of Nature Vancouver for display at the Museum of Vancouver, is available from this link – https://naturevancouver.ca/branches-between-us/
For decades naturalist Al Grass wrote the Wild About Birds column for the North Shore News, keeping birders updated about the Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats. Andy Prest published an article about him on February 29 in NSnews.com.
Submitted by Bev Ramey with help from Kelly Sekhon as well as John Gordon’s chapter on Jude and Al in the Langley Field Naturalists 50th Anniversary Book titled, On the Trail: 50 Years of Engaging with Nature(Hancock House Publishers).