Sunshine Coast (British Columbia)
The Sunshine Coast is a region of the southern mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada, on the eastern shore of the Strait of Georgia, just northwest of Greater Vancouver. The region includes the coastal areas of the regional district of Sunshine Coast, where the name originated, the regional district of Powell River up to and including the village of Lund and into Desolation Sound, much farther up the coast. While populous and visited by tourists, the Sunshine Coast can be reached only by ferry or by float/airplane. Population centres on the Southern Sunshine Coast include Gibsons. On the Sechelt Peninsula are Halfmoon Bay, Secret Cove and Pender Harbour. At the north end of the peninsula, the ferry to Powell River docks north of Egmont at Earl's Cove; these small settlements are near Skookumchuck Narrows, where the skookumchuck or "strong water", the world's biggest tidal marine rapids, channels the tidal flow in and out of the fjord known as Sechelt Inlet. On the Northern Sunshine Coast, a popular boating destination is Desolation Sound, beyond the end of Highway 101 in Lund.
The Sunshine Coast boasts some of the best outdoor recreation. Mountain biking and ocean paddling draw in locals; some of the most popular outdoor recreation activities include: Mountain biking Kayaking/Paddle Board/Canoe Cycling Hiking/Backpacking Snowshoe and skiing Scuba diving Fishing Rock climbing The Sunshine Coast Trail is Canada's longest hut-to-hut hiking trail, at 180km stretching from mountains to shorelines to lakes. It begins at Sarah Point in Desolation Sound, ends at Saltery Bay. Not only is it free, but hikers can access the trail at multiple points along the length if they do not feel like tackling the entire route; the Powell Forest Canoe Route is a 57-km, 8-lake, 5-portage journey that takes 5 days. Portages range from 0.7 km – 2.8 km, paddling stretches from 1 km – 28.5 km. The best time to travel the route is from June – October. Coast Gravity Park - Canada's first low elevation mountain bike park. Located 10km from Sechelt the park has trails for all riding levels, as well as a shuttle system to access the trails crafted by world-renowned builders and riders.
Sprockids Mountain Bike Park - Sprockids Mountain Bike Park is the first recognized mountain bike skills park in North America, is perfect for younger riders. The park is located in Langdale and contains 14km of downhill, ramps and teeter-bars. Powell River Bike and Skate Park - Funded and supported by the Powell River Community Forest Foundation and the City of Powell River, this dynamic park contains a beginner pumptrack, slopestyle dirt jump trails, downhill flow trails, a beginner flow line. Admission is open to the public year round. There are four breweries on the Sunshine Coast, together they make up the Sunshine Coast Ale Trail. Three are located in Gibsons: Persephone Brewing Company, Gibsons Tapworks, The 101 Brewhouse + Distillery. One is located in Powell River: Townsite Brewing; the Bricker Cider Company is a recent addition to the Sunshine Coast, serves a variety of drinks on a beautiful 5-acre farm. The four breweries along with Bricker Cider Company, comprise Brewers Coast; the Sunshine Coast is home to more artists per capita than any other Canadian region.
Throughout the year you can follow the Purple Banner Flags - artists hang them outside their studios to signal they are open - from Langdale to Lund and see everything from painting to pottery to glass-blowing. The Sunshine Coast Art Crawl is one of the signature events of the region. Occurring annually in the Fall, visitors flock to the area from all over the world for a three day journey through 100+ galleries and studios; this is Canada´s longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers, features established literary stars alongside new voices. Powell River Historical Museum and Archives - Telling the rich stories of Sliammon First Nations and the first pulp and paper mill on the west coast of Canada, the museum is open year round. Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives - Located in Gibsons, the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives tells the story of the region and its inhabitants Tems Swiya Museum - Located in Sechelt, this museum is home to an extensive and growing collection of artifacts from the shíshálh Nation Texada Island Heritage Society - Texada Island Heritage Society operates two museums that tell the history of the area.
Sunshine Coast Arts Council and Arts Centre - Located in Sechelt, the Sunshine Arts Centre houses a public gallery of local and guest artists, a music studio and a public art studio. The Arts Centre hosts a variety of events such as concerts, literary readings, lectures. Wildlife that can be encountered include cougars, black bears, marbled murrelet, great blue herons, sea lions, bald eagles. There are abundant tide pools where hikers can see a variety of molluscs, sea anemones and fish. Hikers are instructed how to react to possible encounters with dangerous animals at the mandatory orientation session prior to starting the trail. During certain times of the year, there is the possibility of encountering seal pups on the beach, they should not be approached, as the mother may abandon them. All wildlife on the trail sh
Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area
The Dean Creek Wildlife Area is a wildlife management area located near Reedsport, United States. Jointly managed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the United States Bureau of Land Management, it is the year-round residence for a herd of Roosevelt elk. Elk have inhabited the location, now the Dean Creek Wildlife Area since the 1930s. During that time, native salt marshes were drained and freshwater allowed to irrigate the site's grasslands. Used for cattle grazing by area farmers, the Bureau of Land Management, in partnership with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, took over management of the site in 1991; the same year, an covered interpretive center was constructed at the site. The O. H. Hinsdale Interpretive Center was built at a cost of $85,000 and was named after a Reedsport-area community leader. Funds to finance the center were raised by a local community group. In addition to the interpretive center, the site includes restrooms and several viewing platforms; the 1,040 acres are divided between pasture and woodland.
The pasture covers about 440 acres of the area and is visible from the road. The remaining 600 acres of the wildlife area comprise conifer trees and other hardwoods; the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area is the year-round residence for a herd of about 100 Roosevelt elk. A mild winter climate and abundant food allow the Roosevelt elk to remain at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area all year. In addition to the elk, beaver and Canada geese all spend some time at Dean Creek, as do coyotes, red-legged frogs, the great blue heron. Migrating ducks use the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area as a rest stop on their long journeys between winter and summer homes, resident waterfowl raise their young at Dean Creek during the summer; this article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government document "http://www.blm.gov/or/resources/recreation/files/brochures/Dean%20Creek%20Elk%20Viewing%20Area.pdf"
Even-toed ungulate
The even-toed ungulates are ungulates - hoofed animals - which bear weight on two of the five toes: their third and fourth toes. The other three toes are either present, vestigial, or pointing posteriorly. By contrast, odd-toed ungulates bear weight on one of the five toes: the third toe. Another difference between the two is that even-toed ungulates digest plant cellulose in one or more stomach chambers rather than in their intestine as the odd-toed ungulates do; the aquatic cetaceans evolved from even-toed ungulates, so modern taxonomic classification sometimes combines the Artiodactyla and Cetacea into the Cetartiodactyla. The 220 land-based even-toed ungulate species include pigs, hippopotamuses, llamas, mouse deer, giraffes, sheep and cattle. Many of these are of great dietary and cultural importance to humans; the oldest fossils of even-toed ungulates date back to the early Eocene. Since these findings simultaneously appeared in Europe and North America, it is difficult to determine the origin of artiodactyls.
The fossils are classified as belonging to the family Dichobunidae. These were small animals, some as small as a hare, with a slim build, lanky legs, a long tail, their hind legs were much longer than their front legs. The early to middle Eocene saw the emergence of the ancestors of most of today's mammals. Two widespread, but now extinct, families of even-toed ungulates were Enteledontidae and Anthracotheriidae. Entelodonts existed from the middle Eocene to the early Miocene in North America, they had a stocky body with short legs and a massive head, characterized by two humps on the lower jaw bone. Anthracotheres had a large, porcine build, with an elongated muzzle; this group appeared in the middle Eocene up until the Pliocene, spread throughout Eurasia and North America. Anthracothereres are thought to be the ancestors of hippos, probably led a similar aquatic lifestyle. Hippopotamuses appeared in the late Miocene and occupied Africa and Asia – they never got to the Americas; the camels were, during large parts of the Cenozoic, limited to North America.
Among the North American camels were groups like the short-legged Merycoidodontidae. They first developed a great diversity of species in North America. Only in the late Miocene or early Pliocene did they migrate from North America into Eurasia; the North American varieties became extinct around 10,000 years ago. Suina have been around since the Eocene. In the late Eocene or the Oligocene, two families stayed in Africa. South America was settled by even-toed ungulates only in the Pliocene, after the land bridge at the Isthmus of Panama formed some three million years ago. With only the peccaries and various species of capreoline deer, South America has comparatively fewer artiodactyl families than other continents, except Australia, which has no native species; the classification of artiodactyls was hotly debated because the ocean-dwelling cetaceans evolved from the land-dwelling even-toed ungulates. Some semiaquatic even-toed ungulates are more related to the ocean-dwelling cetaceans than to the other even-toed ungulates.
This makes the Artiodactyla as traditionally defined a paraphyletic taxon, since it includes animals descended from a common ancestor, but does not include all of its descendants. Phylogenetic classification only recognizes monophyletic taxa. To address this problem, the traditional order Artiodactyla and infraorder Cetacea are sometimes subsumed into the more inclusive Cetartiodactyla taxon. An alternative approach is to include both land-dwelling even-toed ungulates and ocean-dwelling cetaceans in a revised Artiodactyla taxon. Order Artiodactyla/Clade CetartiodactylaSuborder Tylopoda Family †Anoplotheriidae? Family †Cainotheriidae Family †Merycoidodontidae Family †Agriochoeridae Family Camelidae: camels and lamoids or llamas Family †Oromerycidae Family †Xiphodontidae Clade Artiofabula Suborder Suina Family Suidae: pigs Family Tayassuidae: peccaries Family †Sanitheriidae Clade Cetruminantia Clade CetancodontamorphaGenus †Andrewsarchus? Family †Entelodontidae Suborder Whippomorpha Family †Raoellidae Superfamily Dichobunoidea – paraphyletic to Cetacea and Raoellidae Family †Dichobunidae Family †Helohyidae Family †Choeropotamidae Family †Cebochoeridae Family †Mixtotheriidae Infraorder Ancodonta Family †Anthracotheriidae – paraphyletic to Hippopotamidae Family Hippopotamidae: hippos Infraorder Cetacea: whales Parvorder †Archaeoceti Family †Pakicetidae Family †Ambulocetidae Family †Remingtonocetidae Family †Basilosauridae Parvorder Mysticeti: baleen whales Superfamily Balaenoidea: right whales Family Balaenidae: greater right whales Family Cetotheriidae: pygmy right whale Superfamily Balaenopteroidea: large baleen whales Family Balaenopteridae: slender-back rorquals and humpback whale Family Eschrichtiidae: gray whale Parvorder Odontoceti: toothed whales Superfamily Delphinoidea: oceanic dolphins and others Family Delphinidae: oceanic t
Mammal
Mammals are vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia, characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding their young, a neocortex, fur or hair, three middle ear bones. These characteristics distinguish them from reptiles and birds, from which they diverged in the late Triassic, 201–227 million years ago. There are around 5,450 species of mammals; the largest orders are the rodents and Soricomorpha. The next three are the Primates, the Cetartiodactyla, the Carnivora. In cladistics, which reflect evolution, mammals are classified as endothermic amniotes, they are the only living Synapsida. The early synapsid mammalian ancestors were sphenacodont pelycosaurs, a group that produced the non-mammalian Dimetrodon. At the end of the Carboniferous period around 300 million years ago, this group diverged from the sauropsid line that led to today's reptiles and birds; the line following the stem group Sphenacodontia split off several diverse groups of non-mammalian synapsids—sometimes referred to as mammal-like reptiles—before giving rise to the proto-mammals in the early Mesozoic era.
The modern mammalian orders arose in the Paleogene and Neogene periods of the Cenozoic era, after the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, have been among the dominant terrestrial animal groups from 66 million years ago to the present. The basic body type is quadruped, most mammals use their four extremities for terrestrial locomotion. Mammals range in size from the 30–40 mm bumblebee bat to the 30-meter blue whale—the largest animal on the planet. Maximum lifespan varies from two years for the shrew to 211 years for the bowhead whale. All modern mammals give birth to live young, except the five species of monotremes, which are egg-laying mammals; the most species-rich group of mammals, the cohort called placentals, have a placenta, which enables the feeding of the fetus during gestation. Most mammals are intelligent, with some possessing large brains, self-awareness, tool use. Mammals can communicate and vocalize in several different ways, including the production of ultrasound, scent-marking, alarm signals and echolocation.
Mammals can organize themselves into fission-fusion societies and hierarchies—but can be solitary and territorial. Most mammals are polygynous. Domestication of many types of mammals by humans played a major role in the Neolithic revolution, resulted in farming replacing hunting and gathering as the primary source of food for humans; this led to a major restructuring of human societies from nomadic to sedentary, with more co-operation among larger and larger groups, the development of the first civilizations. Domesticated mammals provided, continue to provide, power for transport and agriculture, as well as food and leather. Mammals are hunted and raced for sport, are used as model organisms in science. Mammals have been depicted in art since Palaeolithic times, appear in literature, film and religion. Decline in numbers and extinction of many mammals is driven by human poaching and habitat destruction deforestation. Mammal classification has been through several iterations since Carl Linnaeus defined the class.
No classification system is universally accepted. George Gaylord Simpson's "Principles of Classification and a Classification of Mammals" provides systematics of mammal origins and relationships that were universally taught until the end of the 20th century. Since Simpson's classification, the paleontological record has been recalibrated, the intervening years have seen much debate and progress concerning the theoretical underpinnings of systematization itself through the new concept of cladistics. Though field work made Simpson's classification outdated, it remains the closest thing to an official classification of mammals. Most mammals, including the six most species-rich orders, belong to the placental group; the three largest orders in numbers of species are Rodentia: mice, porcupines, beavers and other gnawing mammals. The next three biggest orders, depending on the biological classification scheme used, are the Primates including the apes and lemurs. According to Mammal Species of the World, 5,416 species were identified in 2006.
These were grouped into 153 families and 29 orders. In 2008, the International Union for Conservation of Nature completed a five-year Global Mammal Assessment for its IUCN Red List, which counted 5,488 species. According to a research published in the Journal of Mammalogy in 2018, the number of recognized mammal species is 6,495 species included 96 extinct; the word "mammal" is modern, from the scientific name Mammalia coined by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, derived from the Latin mamma. In an influential 1988 paper, Timothy Rowe defined Mammalia phylogenetically as the crown group of mammals, the clade consisting of the most recent common ancestor of living monotremes and therian m
Blueberry
Blueberries are perennial flowering plants with blue– or purple–colored berries. They are classified in the section Cyanococcus within the genus Vaccinium. Vaccinium includes cranberries and huckleberries. Commercial "blueberries" – including both wild and cultivated blueberries – are all native to North America; the highbush blueberry varieties were introduced into Europe during the 1930s. Blueberries are prostrate shrubs that can vary in size from 10 centimeters to 4 meters in height. In commercial production of blueberries, the species with small, pea–size berries growing on low–level bushes are known as "lowbush blueberries", while the species with larger berries growing on taller cultivated bushes are known as "highbush blueberries"; the leaves can be either deciduous or evergreen, ovate to lanceolate, 1–8 cm long and 0.5–3.5 cm broad. The flowers are bell-shaped, pale pink or red, sometimes tinged greenish; the fruit is a berry 5–16 millimeters in diameter with a flared crown at the end. They are covered in a protective coating of powdery epicuticular wax, colloquially known as the "bloom".
They have a sweet taste, with variable acidity. Blueberry bushes bear fruit in the middle of the growing season: fruiting times are affected by local conditions such as altitude and latitude, so the peak of the crop, in the northern hemisphere, can vary from May to August; the genus Vaccinium has a circumpolar distribution, with species being present in North America and Asia. Many commercially sold species with English common names including "blueberry" are from North America. Many North American native species of blueberries are grown commercially in the Southern Hemisphere in Australia, New Zealand and South American nations. Several other wild shrubs of the genus Vaccinium produce eaten blue berries, such as the predominantly European Vaccinium myrtillus and other bilberries, which in many languages have a name that translates to "blueberry" in English. See the Identification section for more information. Note: habitat and range summaries are from the Flora of New Brunswick, published in 1986 by Harold R. Hinds, Plants of the Pacific Northwest coast, published in 1994 by Pojar and MacKinnon.
Some other blue-fruited species of Vaccinium: Vaccinium koreanum Vaccinium myrtillus Vaccinium uliginosum Commercially offered blueberries are from species that occur only in eastern and north-central North America. Other sections in the genus, native to other parts of the world, including the Pacific Northwest and southern United States, South America and Asia, include other wild shrubs producing similar-looking edible berries, such as huckleberries and whortleberries and bilberries; these species are sometimes sold as blueberry jam or other products. The names of blueberries in languages other than English translate as "blueberry", e.g. Scots blaeberry and Norwegian blåbær. Blaeberry, blåbær and French myrtilles refer to the European native bilberry, while bleuets refers to the North American blueberry. Russian голубика does not refer to blueberries, which are non-native and nearly unknown in Russia, but rather to their close relatives, bog bilberries. Cyanococcus blueberries can be distinguished from the nearly identical-looking bilberries by their flesh color when cut in half.
Ripe blueberries have light green flesh, while bilberries and huckleberries are red or purple throughout. Blueberries are sold fresh or are processed as individually quick frozen fruit, purée, juice, or dried or infused berries; these may be used in a variety of consumer goods, such as jellies, blueberry pies, snack foods, or as an additive to breakfast cereals. Blueberry jam is made from blueberries, sugar and fruit pectin. Blueberry sauce is a sweet sauce prepared using blueberries as a primary ingredient. Blueberry wine is made from the flesh and skin of the berry, fermented and matured. Blueberries consist of 84 % water, they contain only negligible amounts of micronutrients, with moderate levels of the essential dietary mineral manganese, vitamin C, vitamin K and dietary fiber. Nutrient contents of blueberries are a low percentage of the DV. One serving provides a low caloric value of 57 kcal per 100 g serving and glycemic load score of 6 out of 100 per day. Blueberries contain anthocyanins, other polyphenols and various phytochemicals under preliminary research for their potential role in the human body.
Most polyphenol studies have been conducted using the highbush cultivar of blueberries, while content of polyphenols and anthocyanins in lowbush blueberries exceeds values found in highbush cultivars. Blueberries may be cultivated. In North America, the most common cultivated species is V. corymbosum, the northern highbush blueberry. Hybrids of this with other Vaccinium species adapted to southern U. S. climates are known collectively as southern highbush blueberries. So-called "wild" blueberries, smaller than cultivated highbush ones, have intense color; the lowbush blueberry, V. angustifolium, is found from the Atlantic provinces westward to Quebec and southward to Michigan and West Virginia. In some areas, it produces natural
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Canadian province of British Columbia; the island is 460 kilometres in length, 100 kilometres in width at its widest point, 32,134 km2 in area. It is the largest island on the West Coast of the Americas; the southern part of Vancouver Island and some of the nearby Gulf Islands are the only parts of British Columbia or Western Canada to lie south of the 49th Parallel. This area has one of the warmest climates in Canada, since the mid-1990s has been mild enough in a few areas to grow subtropical Mediterranean crops such as olives and lemons. Vancouver Island had a population in 2016 of 775,347. Nearly half of that population live in the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria. Other notable cities and towns on Vancouver Island include Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Parksville and Campbell River. Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, is located on the island, but the larger city of Vancouver is not – it is on the North American mainland, across the Strait of Georgia from Nanaimo.
Vancouver Island has been the homeland to many indigenous peoples for thousands of years. The island was explored by Spanish expeditions in the late 18th century, it was named Quadra's and Vancouver's Island in commemoration of the friendly negotiations held in 1792 by Spanish commander of the Nootka Sound settlement, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, by British naval captain George Vancouver, during the Nootka Crisis. Bodega y Quadra's name was dropped from the name, it is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, who explored the Pacific Northwest coast between 1791 and 1794. Vancouver Island is the world's 43rd largest island, Canada's 11th largest island, Canada's second most populous island after the Island of Montreal, it is the largest Pacific island anywhere east of New Zealand. Vancouver Island has been the homeland to many indigenous peoples for thousands of years; the groupings, by language, are the Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, various Coast Salish peoples.
Kwakwaka'wakw territory includes northern and northwestern Vancouver Island and adjoining areas of the mainland, the Nuu-chah-nulth span most of the west coast, while the Coast Salish cover the southeastern Island and southernmost extremities along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Their cultures are connected to the natural resources abundant in the area; the Kwakwaka'wakw today number about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the mainland. They are known as Kwakiutl in English, from one of their tribes, but they prefer their autonym Kwakwaka'wakw, their indigenous language, part of the Wakashan family, is Kwak'wala. The name Kwakwaka'wakw means "speakers of Kwak'wala"; the language is now spoken by less than 5% of the population—about 250 people. Today 17 separate tribes make up the Kwakwaka'wakw; some Kwakwaka'wakw groups are now extinct. Kwak'wala is a Northern Wakashan language, a grouping shared with Haisla and Wuikyala. Kwakwaka'wakw centres of population on Vancouver Island include communities such as Fort Rupert, Alert Bay and Quatsino, The Kwakwaka'wakw tradition of the potlatch was banned by the federal government of Canada in 1885, but has been revived in recent decades.
The Nuu-chah-nulth are indigenous peoples in Canada. Their traditional home is on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In pre-contact and early post-contact times, the number of nations was much greater, but as in the rest of the region and other consequences of contact resulted in the disappearance of some groups, the absorption of others into neighbouring groups, they were among the first Pacific peoples north of California to come into contact with Europeans, as the Spanish and British attempted to secure control of Pacific Northwest and the trade in otter pelts, with Nootka Sound becoming a focus of these rivalries. The Nuu-chah-nulth speak a Southern Wakashan language and are related to the Makah of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State and Ditidaht; the Coast Salish are the largest of the southern groups. They are a loose grouping of many tribes with languages. On Vancouver Island, Coast Salish peoples territory traditionally spans from the northern limit of the Gulf of Georgia on the inside of Vancouver Island and covering most of southern Vancouver Island.
Distinct nations within the Coast Salish peoples on Vancouver Island include the Chemainus, the Comox of the Comox Valley area, the Cowichan of the Cowichan Valley, the Esquimalt, the Saanich of the Saanich Peninsula, the Songhees of the Victoria area and Snuneymuxw in the Nanaimo area. Europeans began to explore the island in 1774, when rumours of Russian fur traders caused Spain to send a number of expeditions to assert its long-held claims to the Pacific Northwest; the first expedition was that of the Santiago, under the command of Juan José Pérez Hernández. In 1775, a second Spanish expedition under the Spanish Peruvian captain Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra was sent. By 1776 Spanish exploration had reached Bucareli Bay including the mouth of the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington, Sitka Sound. Vancouver Island came to the attention of Britain after the third voyage of Captain James Cook, who spent a month during 1778 at Nootka Sound, on the island's western coast. Cook claimed it for Great Britain.
The island's rich fur-trading potential led the fur trader John Meares to set up a single-building trading post near the native village of Yuquot, at the entrance to Nootka Sound. The building was removed by the end of 1788; the island was further explored by Spain in 1789 with Esteban José Martínez, who est
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