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BCnature Winter 202227With Profound Appreciation from the Arrowsmith NaturalistsPeople really can make a differ-ence. The Arrowsmith Natural-ists recently received a very gener-ous donation from an anonymous and other citizen science efforts. donor through BC Nature. We’ve spent every penny making our club Because we do a great deal stronger and more effective in our of stewardship work in the community.Our first and most expensive purchase was 11 durable good-quality binoculars. We were able to purchase the number we needed thanks to the great help we received from Nanaimo’s Backyard Wildbird and Nature store. These binoculars have already been used with great success by our affiliated NatureKids group on an outing to the new French Creek eagle sanctuary. These excellent binoculars will also help more volunteers to participate in our annual Christmas Bird Count, Feeder Count, Shorebird surveys Englishman River estuary and broom is our greatest enemy, we purchased a chainsaw and battery. Loppers work really well for the smaller stands of broom but for the larger ones the chainsaw works wonders and saves knees and backs. We can now tackle all the broom much more effectively. The stewardship team, led by Dave Hutchings, goes almost every week throughout the year and it’s making such a difference. One of our newest initiatives is to encourage municipalities and area residents to plant pollinator-friendly plants to boost the numbers of bees, butterflies and other essential pollinators. This club effort is spearheaded by Rosemary Taylor who has campaigned tirelessly created ,some fabulous displays, and has so many ideas to promote this effort. To help with this effort, we’ve now been able to purchase a large portable three panel -double-sided display system to take to numerous public events to inform visitors about pollinators, their invaluable work, and how they contribute not only to human food production but also to biodiversity and ecosystem resilience. Education is key, and the new display system will greatly enhance this effort. Another means of “spreading the word” about the importance of pollinator support was to provide attractive informational free bookmarks with links to resources to help promote No Mow May as well as suggesting pollinator plants for gardens in our area. These bookmarks were a spectacular hit and there were constant calls for more from libraries and other locations throughout our communities. We are now able to order 2,000 more for distribution in 2023. Our club’s largest annual public event has been the informative and enjoyable Mushroom Festival held each fall at the local Fairgrounds -https://bit.ly/3Avojhd We’re always happily amazed that a thousand plus attendees come each year. Due to this year’s severe drought and probable lack of large numbers of mushrooms, member Terry Taylor came up with the idea of making it the Mushroom and Nature Festival so we could broaden the scope. While a lesser quantity of mushrooms did come in, the addition of nature displays and interactive nature games went over extremely well. So well in fact, we’re sticking with it! Signage has always been a big expense for this event, not only for promotion but also for the informational displays. With the funding provided, we were able to purchase two metal Thank you for Your Generosity!In the Spring of 2022, two generous donors came to BC Nature, with a thought to assist with the project funding of 14 of the BC Nature clubs. The donors had read all about the great projects that the BC Nature clubs have been doing in past editions of this magazine. We wanted to share how much the Arrowsmith Club was able to do with their donated funds and how many people their portion of the donation affected. Thank you!Author - Sally Soanes, Arrowsmith NaturalistsContinued page 28Photo: L. GreehoughLooking for those eagles with the new \binos\