Wildflower Festival celebrates spring

Nature lovers, native-plant gardeners and curious ecologists of all ages are invited to celebrate the arrival of spring at the In Bloom Wildflower Festival, Saturday at the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve in Duncan.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada is hosting this familyfriendly event, with an opportunity to explore a restored Garry oak meadow.

Learn more about birds, bees, splashy wildflowers, native plants and wetland bugs.

Visitors can take a self-guided tour around the preserve, with stops at information displays, listen to Coast Salish storytellers and learn about the world of the Garry oak ecosystem at hands-on discovery stations.

Nature Talks presenters include Elizabeth Elle, a conservation ecologist and Simon Fraser University professor who will share her discoveries of bees and other wild pollinators (including a mason bee that is new to science), and Royal B.C. Museum Archeology Collection manager and researcher Genevieve Hill, who will discuss archeological evidence for traditional use of wetland and Garry oak ecosystems.

Children’s activities include hay rides and nature crafts.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada is the nation’s leading land-conservation organization, working to protect our most important natural areas and the species they sustain.

Admission is by donation. The event runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve, 1241 Maple Bay Rd., Duncan.

Drivers are asked to park on Maple Bay Road, then walk to the end of Aitken Road to enter the preserve. For more information, go to natureconservancy.ca/ bc, bcoffice@natureconservancy.ca or 1-888-404-8428.