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We arrived early, pulling into Wickaninnish Beach parking lot E, and got out the equipment: a blue tote bin filled with red volunteer vests and old gardening gloves. I readied myself to teach, again, shaking out the dead head I get in the early morning. I breathed deep the fresh salty air. The trees were a lush green. Today was a good day…

The field trip was set to start in about fifteen minutes, at 0900hrs. I re-read the introduction of my lesson plan, and organized the handouts I’d give. The Pac Rim Resource Conservation manager, Mark, showed up to sign-off on the volunteer activity. We chatted about the state of Wick Beach, and the future of the Parks Canada volunteer program. The dune restoration program may be scrapped due to budget cuts. So my lesson may never again see the light of day. So I vowed to make it a good one.

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After discussing the program I’ve created for Parks Canada with my supervisor and also two sponsor teachers, I’ve decided to modify it heavily: I’m going to totally re-define this Plant Identification Sheet, as well as change the flow and activity order (removing some of the activities altogether).

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I’ve spent the last two days delving into the hidden past of this area, and the controversial history of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve…

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I walk into Ucluelet Secondary School, and in the office a man looks up at me and smiles.

“You must be Adam” he says
“Oh! Hi… Kevin?”
“Yeah. Nice to meet you. C’mon, let’s go find Erin and discuss this field trip…”

I was in a high school, again, and already it felt good. I met with Kevin and Erin, who are both very real and kind-hearted people… and I don’t toss around words like that, lightly. The vibe I got from the school was very communal, and seemed like a great place to work. Kevin, between making hilarious macabre jokes with me about the current situation of public education, tells me he’s not only been working there for years, he even went to that very high school. Small town schools…. I think I may have found a place to aim at.

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One of the inherent dualities of volunteering out here on the west coast of Vancouver Island is the desolation…

Sublime desolation.

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So far, my field experience with Parks Canada has only really seen the use of my educational skillset — and specifically the myopic and bureaucratic aspect of that: my lesson planning.

However, today was special. As I was sitting in my closet, working away on the Dune Environmental Education Program, I overheard a couple of the Parks Canada staff discussing something very unexpected but very near and dear to my heart: paintball.

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Mike arrived to pick me up for work, today, and told me that we’re going on a field trip…

The beautiful, long trail through the dense bush of the Pacific Northwest.

We hiked in along the “trail”, which was actually a fully up-kept wooden walkway that spans magical kilometers through totally dense rainforest. The amount of time and work that goes into something like that is just incredible to fathom…

The majestic rainforest & it’s “trail”…

Schooner Cove was our destination. It’s is the second site of sand dune restoration activity on the Long Beach Unit of Pac Rim. Today’s mission: survey the site since the planting of an endangered species of dune plant — the pink sand verbena.

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After my ethical battles on the beach, I’ve now found myself stuck in a kind of prison: an office.

The Closet – Office lyfe

The great irony of volunteering at Parks Canada: most of my time is spent indoors, without even a view of nature. I sit in this closet for hours every day, and design the DEEP (Dune Environmental Education Program) lesson plan.

Apparently there will soon be two of us in here. No, I’m not joking.

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The next morning, it was still raining. Today was to be my first day at Pacific Rim. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had a bit of an idea with what I’d be doing. My supervisor came and picked me up at 8:15 … 8:45, and we drove up the highway from Ucluelet towards Tofino. The rain was beating rhythmically on the windshield, and I was trying desperately not to fall asleep. My supervisor told me about what to expect today: we had a group of university students from Langara, and today was to be as much an introduction to “restoration” for me as it was for them…

We arrived at the beach and Mike, my supervisor, lead the introduction, saying something like “Wickaninnish Beach is one of the last remaining sites of sand dune ecosystems on Vancouver Island — and it’s also the biggest. But it’s threatened by invasive grasses”. So the group put on ill-fitting red vests that labelled them as “volunteer” or “dune restoration crew” and we wandered out onto the beach of drizzle. The wet coast was as I remembered it: wet. Even in spite of my rain gear, you still get some wet, and if you stand still, the cold of the wind and drizzle grips your bones and shakes you. We wandered, though, up the beach. We came across the first sand dune area, with a large fore-dune covered in grass. “We need to remove European and American beachgrass to preserve the ecological integrity of this site” was the general understanding…

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