Last month, volunteers from the Sunshine Coast Natural History Society (SCNHS), Tetrahedron Outdoor Club and BC Parks installed SCNHS signage between the top of Mt. Steele and the upper parking lot of Tetrahedron Provincial Park. Project funding came in large part from John Hind-Smith estate’s bequest to SCNHS as well as from the BC Parks licence plate program.
“Educating the hiking community to the biodiversity found in the Park is an important part of promoting natural history, with the hope that the more visitors who understand the ecological intricacies of the environment, the more likely they are to take steps to support biodiversity conservation at all levels, not just in the Alpine and Mountain Hemlock ecozones,” explans Rand Rudland of the SCNHS. The eight signs include insights into trees, flowering plants, mammals, birds, ferns, mosses, lichens and how they contribute to the biodiversity of the Mountain Hemlock and Alpine ecozones.
“This sign from the top of Mt. Steele looks beyond Panther Peak and honours two elders of our Sunshine Coast community: shishalh elder mala (Albert Louie) and Sunshine Coast elder John Hind-Smith. In the absence of smog, one could see Mt. Baker just to the left of Panther Peak, with Vancouver in the foreground and Vancouver Island to the right. mala/Hind-Smith Lake, originally was labelled “No-name Lake”, but was eventually renamed to honour these two important contributors to their respective communities,” says Rudland.
