Wittys Lagoon Regional Park Vancouver Island British Columbia.
235 views · Published 7 December 2016 · 1:50 · Indexed 29 September 2026
Channel: Eric Backman · 2016 · Entertainment
Begin your exploration of Witty's Lagoon at the Nature Information Centre. Check out the interpretive displays on the lagoon's natural and cultural history, and find out what's in season. CRD Parks Naturalists will give you a sense of direction before you hit the trails. Adjacent to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, in the Bilston Creek Watershed, lies Witty's Lagoon Regional Park, a harmonious blend of protected natural environments. Enter through a dark woodland of immense Douglas-fir: the Songhees people made fishing hooks from this wood's knots. Broadleaf Maple is also common here, called "Paddle-Tree" in a number of Coast Salish languages, a reference to its carving use. Running through the forest is Bilston Creek, its edges laced with delicate Lady Fern. The creek tumbles toward a waterfall, then spills over volcanic rock-a trickle in Summer, and a thunderous cascade in Winter-misting Ocean Spray and Stonecrop clinging to the cliff. Where fresh water meets salt water, the lagoon is formed. Wind, tide, and current create an environment teeming with life. The calm, nutrient-rich waters are warm and shallow, valuable as nurseries for animals which tolerate both salt and fresh water, and feed on the microscopic life flourishing here. Further on lies the salt marsh, a tidal zone bordering the lagoon. Here channels of salt water create new territory for tiny snails, rock crabs and fish which migrate from the ocean. A thick carpet of green covers the marsh. This is Glasswort; in Summer it is entwined in the orange stems of Saltmarsh Dodder, a parasitic plant. Many of the plants found in the saltmarsh are critical for wintering wildfowl which feed in this area. Beyond, a wide beach beckons. Few plants and animals survive the rolling, churning movement of sand here. But just below the surface are those who have adapted: burrowers such as Bloodworms find food among the tiny grains; Bent-nose Clams, filter feeders, strain food out of the water; and browsers like Purple Shore Crabs eat decomposing plants and animals. Above the high water mark, tall rye grasses rustle in the wind, and Beach Pea and Sea Rocket grow among the driftwood.
