Volunteer appreciation Week
- Details
- Created: Thursday, 15 April 2021 10:31

Karen is an active habitat steward who lovingly tends to the Garry Oak woodlands on her property in wonderful balance with her diverse vegetable garden. She never fails to show kindness to the natural world and the people around her, sharing her garden bounty with friends, neighbours and colleagues. Earlier this year she ran a small fundraiser by making her tomato seedlings available outside her home in exchange for a donation to HAT. The fundraiser raised over $1000 since 2017 and we are so inspired by the ways that incredible people like Karen continue to show HAT support. In order for us to show off how awesome our HAT community is Karen agreed to a short email interview about who she is and why she supports HAT, the interview is preceded by a write up about Karen written by HAT Land Protection Coordinator Barb von Sacken:
"In the early 1990's as a recent UVIC graduate I was delighted to find myself working for the Ministry of Forests, Research Branch in Victoria. There I was in awe of the vast knowledge of the Ecology program team which included Karen Yearsley. Karen's work as part of the ecology program involved annual fieldwork to many rugged and remote parts of the province to collect plant, soil, and site data that helped build what is now the ecosystem framework for B.C. known as BEC or the Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification. Karen’s varied work in ecology eventually lead her to the Conservation Data Center (CDC) where her sharing of tomato seedlings and welcoming of HAT donations idea first sprouted. Even from the early days Karen has been a keen supporter of HAT, acting as a board member for many years, attending HAT events, spending years advising the HAT Land Committee, being an annual HAT member and of course her generous donations via tomato seedlings. Most recently Karen has also shared her knowledge and interest in ecology by volunteering for HAT’s land protection program during our annual monitoring. It’s been a great pleasure to once again be sharing field days with Karen. "
Barb von Sacken
Land Protection Coordinator
The Search for the Screech - hoot hoot!
After several years of surveying and coming up short, we are excited to announce that a NEW Western Screech Owl (WESO) territory has been located, in Metchosin on February 18 2021!
Below is a link to our audio clip we posted on Instagram, and if you turn it waaayyy up and you might hear the call of the Metchosinite WESO🦉 recorded by two new HAT Habitat Stewards on their back deck. This is an exciting discovery since we knew these little owls used to have territories in this area, but we hadn't heard them calling during nesting season in over a decade. With only five known territories left in the region (that could be as few as 10 individuals left in the CRD) each new territory is precious, and much be protected.
This free online workshop is taking place on February 10th, 2021 from 9:30am - 12:30pm.
See full description below!