🌅 August 2026 Newsletter 🌅
Hi, friends!
Summer seems to go by fast, doesn’t it? As we enter the last month of the sunny fun season, and the excitement winds down, GWAS is ready to settle back in and continue our hard work with keeping Esquimalt Gorge Park and the Waterway in tip-top shape. Thanks to a new set of summer hires joining our team, our efforts will be no problem!
We’ll be switching the Nature House to Fall hours by the end of August, so be sure to swing by for a visit while we’re still open every day. And as always, if you’re looking to get involved with us in the Nature House and the Park, our volunteer and member options are welcome for signup. We hope you’ll join us in making the most out of the remaining days of summer!
GET INVOLVED
🌷 Volunteer With GWAS 🌷
Interested in getting involved at the Gorge Waterway Nature House? Volunteers support hands-on environmental education, restoration, and community outreach aligned with our Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) programming. From welcoming visitors to supporting shoreline learning, your time helps connect people to place and care for the Gorge Waterway!
Summer options for volunteering:
Weekdays at the Nature House
European Green Crab trapping, email andrea@gorge.ca for more info
Ecological Restoration Community Drop-Ins on Thursday mornings from 9:30am to 11:00am, meet at the Nature House (no registration or experience required)
Dungeness Crab Light Trap Volunteering, email andrea@gorge.ca for more info
For any other volunteer-related inquiries, contact us at volunteer@gorge.ca.
💚 Become a GWAS Member 💚
An annual membership with GWAS helps fund vital restoration projects and environmental education initiatives, such as the operation of our youth-focused Nature House in Esquimalt Gorge Park. As a member, you will receive free admission to the Gorge Waterway Nature House, free tea and coffee, and you'll also receive voting privileges at the Annual General Meeting to help decide the future of GWAS!
BLAST FROM THE PAST
Welcome to the last installment of “Blast from the Past,” a new segment run during the summer months focused on noteworthy stories from GWAS’ archives!
Today, the Selkirk Trestle acts as a popular bridge connecting cyclists and pedestrians to the Galloping Goose Trail and between Vic West and Burnside, though this was not always the case. The Trestle was built in 1917, over 100 years ago, by the Canadian Northern Pacific Railway and was used by local industries along the Gorge. Railcars used to stop at the Trestle to dispose of logs delivered from the Cowichan Valley into the Waterway.
Eventually, the Selkirk Trestle was abandoned since it was no longer needed for industry and was left unused. In a 1991 GWAS newsletter, the organization asked for members to voice their opinion on how to move forward with the Trestle: preserve it or tear it down. The newsletter suggested that if the Trestle is preserved, it could be used as a pedestrian bridge. Six years later, in 1997, the Selkirk Trestle was reopened as a pedestrian and cyclist bridge, thanks to the help of GWAS and community members who advocated for this vision to come to life. Next time you walk or cycle across the Trestle, you can imagine what it would have looked like over a century ago!
The image above is from Dennis Minnaker’s book, The Gorge of Summers Gone (p. 59). It depicts the Cameron Brothers sawmill along the Selkirk waterfront in 1910.
JULY RECAPS
🌞 New Summer Staff Members! 🌞
We are pleased to welcome another new cohort of summer staff members to the GWAS team for the remaining summer months!
A huge thank you to our funders and to Employment and Social Development Canada for the opportunity to bring on these aspiring new members.
🎼 Gay4Choir Dress Rehearsal Recap 🎼
The evening of July 6 gave us a wonderful blue sky and golden setting sun as we gathered in front of the Nature House with our friends and family to hear the Gay4Choir ensemble perform. Accompanied with live music and conducted by Anna Brigland-Pritchard, the ensemble performed beautiful renditions of “Make Me Feel,” “Over the Rainbow,” “Silk Chiffon,” and “Beginning to Feel the Years.” The choir has been working hard to prepare for their upcoming performance at Victoria Pride Festival, and this rehearsal was the latest of many across six weeks. The voices were lovely and the faces wore the brightest smiles. We thank the amazing Gay4Choir ensemble for bringing a new installment of our Queering Climate Action series!
🦀 BC CrabFest Recap 🦀
The waterfront was bright and beautiful on July 18 as GWAS took a trip to Ship Point for the annual CrabFest! The air was filled with the delicious smells of crab dishes, the bumping tunes of live music, and the excited chatter of an incredible, sizable turnout! We had over 200 eventgoers stop by the GWAS tent, who were eager to find out what we do and how we do it. Many rounds of Crab Jeopardy were played and we had just as much fun as all our guests did. CrabFest is still one of our favourite events to attend and we’ll be happy to come back next year!
🎹 Of Water I Sing! Piano Recital Recap 🎹
We gathered at Christ Church Cathedral on the afternoon of July 19 along with our friends and fellow organizations for a very special performance. As part of the Celebrating Gaia series, courtesy of the Gail O’Riordan Climate & the Arts Fund, we were treated to a stunning performance of classical piano from Vancouver Island pianist Sarah Hagen. Sarah gave us a selection of several pieces from artists including Gershwin, Chopin, Debussy, and many more. In between some of the performances, GWAS’ Brad Procter got the chance to get up in front and introduce our many projects and opportunities to the crowd. Between good outreach and wonderful music, the event was a wonderful time that we were happy to contribute to!
🧺 BCCEC Summer Picnic Recap 🧺
On the bright and sunny evening of July 28, GWAS and the BC Climate Emergency Campaign invited friends, family, and fellow climate action organizations to Esquimalt Gorge Park for a lovely picnic outside the Nature House. We all spent the evening playing some intense cornhole matches, enjoying a great selection of food brought in from our various guests, enjoying live music from the amazing Anna Brigland-Pritchard once again, and networking with each other. Representatives from all the different climate organizations got to stand up and speak to promote their recent actions and upcoming initiatives. It was a fun, happy time for all our guests and a great way for many of our summer staff to unwind and enjoy themselves before their time at GWAS concludes. We give our thanks to all of the organizations that came out to speak and network, and to all the guests for having fun with us!
🏞️ Georgia Strait Alliance: Climate Ready Now! 🏞️
Our friends at Georgia Strait Alliance have launched a new campaign as part of their Resilient Coastal Communities work: Climate Ready Now! The goal is to help communities around British Columbia prepare for and be informed about climate change and the steps needed to take to be climate ready.
The campaign is organized into steps: Imagining what climate ready communities can and should look like; Amplifying the vision by bringing more people into the call for change; and Organizing together where we live to turn momentum into community.
Through this campaign, the people of British Columbia can be united to organize, lead, and champion the big changes our communities need. We will be working together to bring these issues to local governments and voice our demands for compensation and adaptation.
UPCOMING EVENTS
🔎 GWAS Summer Bioblitz! 🔎
It’s about that time again: the Annual Gorge Summer Bioblitz will be happening in August!
Join us in Esquimalt Gorge Park for a fun day of citizen science. As usual, we’ll be getting out in the park and using iNaturalist for a scavenger hunt of species identification. We’ll have guided nature walks for participants to find as many amazing species as possible. This event is open to all ages, be it the kiddos who want to get out and explore the park, or the dedicated adults that love the thrill of the hunt—scavenger hunt, that is. There are lots of great prizes to be won for participating, so be sure to join us if you want to get something cool, or find the most interesting thing in the park!
🗓Sunday, August 19
🕰12:00-3:00pm
🧖 Community Feedback Survey: A Public Sauna in Esquimalt Gorge Park 🧖
A mobile public sauna from the company Gatherwell is being proposed to be built in Esquimalt Gorge Park in the Fall, and we at GWAS are interested in hearing community perspectives on this project. Click the button below to answer some questions as part of a short survey. Your responses are anonymous and will help us better understand community opinions. We appreciate your feedback!
🐛 Uplands Park Insect Bioblitz 🐛
Mark your calendars for another Uplands Park Insect Bioblitz!! Organized by CICADA (UVic's Bug Club), Friends of Uplands Park (FOUP), and the BC Native Bee Society, the iNaturalist project will be open for observations Friday, August 7th to Monday, August 10th with several events planned for the weekend!
Dress for the weather and bring a camera. If you've never used iNaturalist before - download the app beforehand and we can help you get started :)
There will be prizes for the most observations, most species, the coolest find, as well as a random draw from everyone who participated!
We hope to see you there! Please reach out to cicadauvic@gmail.com with any questions :)
🗓Friday, August 7 to Monday, August 10
🕰9:00pm (August 7), 10:00am (August 9)
🪸 Pauquachin Sea Garden Restoration 🪸
The Pauquachin Marine Department would like to invite you to a summer filled with sea garden restoration events in Coles Bay! Join us as we continue to build on the 400ft wall that was started last year by amazing community members and volunteers. These events will include moving rocks, spreading shellhash, and hanging out with a lot of other awesome volunteers!
For more information on registration, please visit this page on the Pauquachin website.
📆 Save the Date for these Events! 📆
Nature House Fall Hours | Tuesday, September 1
Birdsong: A Festival Day of Music and Nature | Saturday, September 12
The Great Canadian Bioblitz | September 18-27
We hope you make the best of the rest of summer and are looking forward to what Autumn holds afterward! We’ll see you in the next newsletter.
Sincerely,
The GWAS Team
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