On the last conference day I spent the afternoon at the Royal BC Museum. The exhibition on the natural history of British Columbia had some very nice parts, like a blown up model of life in the soil. I also liked the life-sized dioramas of wildlife in their natural habitat. But overall I found the natural history exhibit could use some modernization. There were lots of workstations where visitors could engage with a computer for more info. However, this is not my idea of effective interactivity. Another part of the museum is an exhibition on First Nations culture and the development of British Columbia after the arrival of European settlers at the end of the 18th century. This was a very immersive exhibition where they had rebuilt whole streets with storefronts like there were in the 19th century. There was even a replica of the stern of the HMS Discovery, the ship used by George Vancouver during his exploration of the west coast of North America. It was definitely a very different world back then. After discovery of British Columbia the new settlers immediately started to develop multiple forms of exploitation of its natural resources: hunting, fur-trapping, fishing, logging, mining – it must have felt like they hit the jackpot. The CSEE conference was concluded with a banquet on Wednesday evening (May 10th). Walking into the big room full of tables I chose a seat with some friendly looking guys and girls. I had a lovely evening and went with them for some drinks at the ‘official’ after party location downtown. While the conference ended on Wednesday evening, there were a number of optional excursions planned on Thursday. These were all fully booked right away, and I had not managed to acquire a ticket. However, someone tipped me that there usually were no-shows on these activities, and that I could always try to claim one of those spots. So I showed up early in the morning and sure enough I could join on a fantastic trip to Botanical Beach on the southern coast of Vancouver Island, where we visited tidal pools with the most amazing sea life (anemone, sea urchins and all kinds of other cool creatures). After that we drove to Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew, an area of old growth coastal rainforest, discovered a couple of years back by TJ Watt from the Ancient Forest Alliance, just as it was slated for logging. TJ was there himself to guide us through the area, which the AFA managed to get protected from logging, and where they are working hard to open it up to the public by building stairs and boardwalks to create a nice hiking loop along the ancient and huge trees. We saw multiple giants of western red cedars, hundreds of years old, with circumferences that could reach over 10 meters! What a lucky break for me that I managed to get in on this excursion after all!
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In May 2017, I will spend some time in Victoria & Vancouver, British Columbia, as part of a 'Teacher's Internship'. You can follow my adventures in this blog. Archives
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