also known as ...
aka MYCOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Great Canadian Parks-Cape Scott Provincial Park BC-1998
Great Canadian Parks-Cape Scott Provincial Park BC-1998 1of2
Season 3, Episode 9 (EP 3 x 9) - Cape Scott
Airdate: 1998
Cape Scott is a place of extremes: rugged, impenetrable wilderness on the northwest tip of Vancouver Island. The treacherous currents and unrelenting weather at Cape Scott is notorious among sailors and hundreds of shipwrecks dot the coast. The isolated Cape Scott lighthouse is one of the last in British Columbia still tended by a keeper. This climate and landscape can be unforgiving, and two separate attempts at settlement here ended in failure. The forest reclaims quickly; so the few poignant reminders of the park's human inhabitants are disappearing. Black bears forage along the beaches and enjoy the shelter of the dense forest. Seals and sea lions inhabit the offshore rocks and islands.
http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Kootenay National Park BC -S4-Ep8--1999
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Kootenay National Park BC -S4-Ep8--1999 1of2
Season 4, Episode 8 (EP 4 x 8) - Kootenay National Park
Airdate: 1999
Kootenay National Park is the "undiscovered" park of the Rockies, and shelters remarkable climactic and vegetation diversity. The park's Columbia Valley is part of North America's longest continuous series of wetlands, which provide habitat for over 250 species of birds.
( from : http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Willmore Wilderness Park ALBERTA-1997
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Willmore Wilderness Park ALBERTA-1997 1of2
Season 2, Episode 9 (EP 2 x 9) - Willmore Wilderness Park
Airdate: 1997
Willmore Wilderness Park is situated in west central Alberta, sandwiched between the B.C. border, Jasper National Park and the Continental Divide. Willmore's landscape is typical Rocky Mountain, with foothills and mountainous terrain. Peaks along the Continental Divide exceed 3,000 meters in elevation. The Willmore is home to over 20% of Alberta’s bighorn sheep and mountain goats and about 600 woodland caribou. Other mammal species include moose, elk, black and grizzly bear.
http://www.goodearthproductions.com/viewshows.cfm?series=Great%20Canadian%20Parks&season=Season%201&episode=10
http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Fundy National Park NEW BRUNSWICK-1996 1of2
Season 1, Episode 8 (EP 1 x 8) - Fundy National Park
Airdate: 1996
New Brunswick's spectacular Bay of Fundy is famous for tides that rise and fall over 5 stories every 12 hours or so, moving one hundred billion tons of water. It is a rich, sheltered ocean shore environment and a bird watching mecca, with almost 350 species. The bay is also a staging area for popular whale watching excursions and research on the Right Whale, the rarest of the great whales.
http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Vuntut National Park YUKON-1997
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Vuntut National Park YUKON-1997 1of2
Season 5, Episode 8 (EP 5 x 8) - Vuntut National Park
Airdate: 1997
Located in the northern Yukon, Vuntut protects the Old Crow Flats, a vast plain of more than 2000 shallow lakes and ponds. The Flats are recognized as a wetland of international importance, and are one of the most important waterfowl areas in the world. The Porcupine caribou herd, one of the world's largest remaining herds of barren-ground caribou migrates through the Flats.
http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Ts'ilós Provincial Park BC-S1-Ep7--1996
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Ts'ilós Provincial Park BC-S1-Ep7--1996 1of2
Season 1, Episode 7 (EP 1 x 7) - Ts'ilós Provincial Park
Airdate: 1996
One of Canada's newest parks, Ts'ilós (pronounced sigh-loss) is bordered by the rugged Chilcotin ranges of coastal mountains. Stunningly beautiful and rich in wildlife, it is also a testament to creative park management. It is cooperatively managed with local native people, who carry on hunting, fishing and other traditional activities. The park's centerpiece is Chilko Lake, a magnificent aqua blue glacial lake that is the largest and highest natural freshwater lake in North America.
( from : http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Kouchibouguac National Park NEW BRUNSWICK-S4-Ep10--1998
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Kouchibouguac National Park NEW BRUNSWICK-S4-Ep10--1998 1of2
Season 4, Episode 10 (EP 4 x 10) - Kouchibouguac National Park
Airdate:1998
Kouchibouguac has the most dynamic ecosystem in the national parks system; it is constantly changing. The park is a rich marine mosaic of bogs, salt marshes, tidal rivers, barrier islands, and sheltered lagoons. Colonies of both harbour and gray seals bark and splash on offshore dunes all summer.
( from : http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park ALBERTA -S3-Ep7--1998
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park ALBERTA -S3-Ep7--1998 1of2
Season 3, Episode 7 (EP 3 x 7) - Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park
Airdate: 1998
Southern Alberta's Writing-On-Stone Park protects more rock art than any other location on the North American plains. For centuries, native people created petroglyphs and pictographs on the park's sheer sandstone cliffs. Writing-On-Stone has a unique and mystical landscape, characterized by mushroom-shaped rocks known as 'hoodoos' and 'coulees', damp, steep-walled ravines. Pronghorn antelope graze on the open prairies, white-tailed and mule deer cruise along the river and yellow-bellied marmots bask on the sun-warmed sandstone.
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Kananaskis Country ALBERTA-S4-Ep11--1998
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Kananaskis Country ALBERTA-S4-Ep11--1998 1of2
Season 4, Episode 11 (EP 4 x 11) - Kananaskis Country
Airdate: 1998
Located in the southwest corner of Alberta, "K-Country" encompasses 4000 square kilometers of rolling hills and rushing creeks, snow-capped peaks and lush forests. Kananaskis represents an experiment in land use; protected areas, wildlife sanctuaries, scientific research and recreational use co-exist here. Innovative local outfitters guide adventurers up to alpine areas using domestic goats as pack animals.
( from : http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Mount Revelstoke National Park BC-S5-Ep6--1999
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Mount Revelstoke National Park BC-S5-Ep6--1999 1of2
Season 5, Episode 6 (EP 5 x 6) - Mount Revelstoke National Park
Airdate:1999
For such a small park, Mount Revelstoke has a great diversity of ecosystems from the old growth rainforest to the high alpine and abundant glaciers. Mount Revelstoke's alpine ecosystem provides habitat for caribou, bears, wolverines and Bighorn sheep. The park has a close relationship to the people of the nearby town of Revelstoke. In recent years they have devised a bear awareness program which has greatly reduced the number of bear moralities.
( from : http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
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GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-WAPUSK NATIONAL PARK-1997
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-WAPUSK NATIONAL PARK-1997
Season 2 Episode 21-(ep8 of season) (S 2 ep 21) - Wapusk National Park Manitoba
Airdate:1997
Wapusk National Park
Season 2 Episode 21
Canada’s 7th largest park was created in1996 near Churchill, Manitoba. Wapusk National Park protects an area of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, which contains the world’s largest concentration of polar bears. Wapusk National Park sits along the northern tree line, which is characterized by treeless tundra and boreal forest. During the short, intense summer, a variety of wild flowering plants spring from the tundra soil.
Length: 30 minutes
http://www.goodearthproductions.com/viewshows.cfm?series=Great%20Canadian%20Parks&season=Season%201&episode=10
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Juan De Fuca Provincial Park- The Fate of Sombrio -BC -S2-Ep7--1997
(received a DMCA notice - had to edit some of this post !)
first notice I've had - and weird the topic at hand
would generate a warning.
Season 2, Episode 7 (EP 2 x 7) - Juan de Fuca Marine Trail
Airdate: 1997
The Juan de Fuca Provincial Park is a 73 km hiking trail stretching along the western shoreline of Southern Vancouver Island. The trail offers rugged beauty, wildlife viewing and roaring surf in its course along the pacific coastline of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The park is known for its series of tide pools teeming with marine species such as sea stars, anemones, mussels, barnacles, crabs and sea urchins. The serene seal grotto is a birthing den for hundreds of seals, and Northern Sea Lions frequent the park's offshore waters.
( from : http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
been evicted from the Coast since 1997, shortly after the episode aired.
watch the episode in 2 parts below :
part 1
part 2
Knowledge network of BC has a little blurb about Sombrio :
For over three decades, aging hippies, artists, New-Age alternative types, surfers, social misfits, and a family with ten children called Sombrio Beach home. On the picturesque shores of Vancouver Island's southwest coast, they built shacks out of driftwood and lived on what they gathered from the forest and the sea. Most just wanted to be left alone and follow their own idiosyncratic path in the sun and surf, but when the government determined that the beach fell within the perimeter of Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, it was time for them to go. Sombrio reveals the squatters' personal stories and convictions as they come to terms with their impending eviction.
There is a very excellent Documentary made about the residents
of the Trail.
But they put out a DMCA against my blog
just for posting a short clip PROMOTING their
doc. Amazing..so I will no longer do so.
_________
The Globe and Mail (a newspaper) wrote this bit in 1997
regarding the changes @ Sombrio Beach which took
place shortly after the Episode of Great Canadian Parks aired :
No home for the Flower Children
For decades, the southern shoreline of Vancouver Island was the idyllic home to social misfits, free spirits and unreconstructed hippies. Now the provincial government is sending out eviction notices.
Published: The Globe and Mail, February 1, 1997
Deborah Jones, Sombrio Beach, B.C.
WHEN Mike Callaway arrived on this remote beach 15 years ago, he just wanted time to recover from the painful break-up of a band he'd played in, the Codfish Cowboys. And so, on a rocky strip of land sandwiched between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the towering mountains of southern Vancouver Island, accessed only by a narrow coastal road winding from Victoria 90 minutes away, Mr. Callaway set up house in a crude shelter under the moist canopy of rain forest. "I had a spiritual feeling that I belonged around here."
He surfed the massive rollers that incessantly crash on his doorstep, played music, made forays to far-off stores to supplement the local seafood, drank clear water from the Sombrio River and only occasionally returned to his North Carolina home for brief visits.
Eventually he acquired a family of abandoned cats he was too kind-hearted to let starve. He constantly improved his jerry-rigged home with driftwood and funky artifacts and erected an out-building where, behind a vast window with a view to die for, he started a business repairing surfboards. Now Mike Callaway has fully metamorphized into Rivermouth Mike, a cheerful guru of B.C.'s surfing scene and by dint of age (45) and tenure a relative old-timer in the diverse community of Sombrio Beach squatters.
Within weeks, that community will change forever. Last fall, the provincial government formally warned most squatters that they'd have to move on. Starting yesterday and continuing through next week, they are being served legal notice of eviction.
The arrival of bureaucracy heralds the end of an era on Sombrio. For decades, it and a chain of other beaches on the Canadian side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca have been home to free spirits who refuse to march to middle age and conformity with the rest of the baby boomers. Here amid abundant plant and animal life across from Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, the old ways -- early homesteader meets flower power -- prevail. Society's misfits and dropouts have also taken up residence. A less unusual group are the hardy campers who periodically spent a few months living on a beach before returning to everyday life.
Now the B.C. government wants to open up their exclusive preserve to the public. It has turned 47 kilometres of spectacular coastline, owned by the Crown and private forest companies, into the Juan de Fuca Trail. The new park consists of four established parks, from Botanical Beach at the west end to China Beach at the east, and a trail linking them.
During the past two years, park workers have built the rugged hiking trail between the beach and the "squats." Outdoor toilets have been erected, as has modern signage and information boards, gravel paths to the trail and a series of suspension bridges across rushing rivers. The relatively easy access and rave media reports have caught the attention of ambitious hikers, families on weekend outings and many more surfers.
Some of the squats, including Rivermouth Mike, see themselves as hosts to these visitors from the outside world and cheerfully give them directions, teach them how to surf and clean up candy wrappers and pop cans after them. "The parks department should hire me!" he jokes.
Others rail bitterly at the intrusion: Some systemically tear down park structures or simply keep out of sight when tourists appear.
Park wardens, however, are taking a tough line. Under B.C. Parks rules, people are not allowed to reside on park land for longer than 14 days. And, points out Dave Chater, district manager for B.C. Parks, there are matters of sanitation (the squatters' toilets are holes in the ground in the woods), concerns about confrontations between more garrulous residents and park visitors, and the squalour of some of the dwellings -- rough, smelly hovels with dirt floors, that are surrounded by garbage.
There is no running water, no electricity, no phones, no garbage dump. "There is also concern about damage to cultural sites," says Mr. Chater, noting that some huts are built over historical artifacts of the Pacheenaht First Nations.
If the squats refuse to abide by eviction notices, they will eventually be escorted off park land, he says. "People could be arrested, but obviously that's the worst-case scenario. One hopes it will never come to that."
Sombrio is by far the largest of the squatter communities. Its 15 to 20 dwellings each shelter between one and 11 people. Because so many of the people are transient an accurate population count is impossible, although Mr. Chater estimates there are as many as 35 squats.
A few Sombrio residents will escape immediate eviction: Rivermouth Mike is one. So too is his next-door-neighbour Steve, an American who arrived 25 years ago and lives with his wife Barb and their nine bright children in two cedar houses surrounded by pens for goats and domestic fowl.
The two families' clean and well-kept homesteads are located on a 1.2-hectare strip of private land owned by the estate of a deceased Seattle resident. Mr. Chater says the B.C. government is trying to contact the estate in the hopes of buying the land and adding it to the Juan de Fuca Park. But if the government is unsuccessful in acquiring the land, Rivermouth Mike, Steve, Barb and the children plan to stay put.
Many of their neighbours have left, or are getting ready to do so. One that has already departed is the builder of an elaborate two-storey, cedar-sided house that sits abandoned on a rocky point, its valuable cedar shingles in the process of being ripped off. Visible through a gaping hole in the walls is an abandoned calico cat.
As winter storms buffetted the coast and the Jan. 31 deadline for eviction neared, a few long-time residents made plans to set up an organic farm in Nelson, in B.C.'s interior, and continue their loosely communal lifestyle. For others, notably those who viewed Sombrio as a haven from a society they despise, the future looks unkind.
Across the misty Sombrio River from Rivermouth Mike's home, right at the end of an incongruously modern suspension bridge, a hand-hewn cobblestone path leads to the home of Blue and Wendy, who settled at the beach nine years ago (Blue objects vehemently to being called a squatter).
Their crude dwelling consists of a ground-floor room large enough for a few shelves, two tattered armchairs and a black wood stove. In the middle stands an artful winding staircase. Numerous soot-smudged cats crawl over the chairs and staircase and sprawl under the stove, while a big brown dog sits by Blue. "Home Sweet Home" reads a sign on the wall, not far from the eviction notice. The air reeks of urine, and everything, including animals and people, is coated with grime.
"I hate the rich," Blue says, glaring at a reporter and photographer who have come inquiring about their eviction. "The rich want to make a park so they can play in it. They're kicking the squatters off it. Have you got any tobacco? We're out. Did you know that I'm a Zen Buddhist? And it's the judges who are the real criminals in society."
Wendy, whom Blue says had four of their children taken away from her at birth by the provincial Social Services Department, huddles in one of the armchairs. "I don't want to talk about it," she whispers to Blue, as he starts describing how he was arrested by police when he tried to stop the department from taking the infant.
It's not clear if Blue is more angry at the social workers or the park people. "They were buddy-buddy with us," he says. "They cut down trees and built the bridge and there was not one whisper about kicking people off [until last fall]. Nine years ago this place was really beautiful. Now it's completely destroyed."
Abruptly, he gets up and holds the door open for me to leave. Asked what they will do about the eviction, he shrugs. "I'm not worried about it."
Just outside the house a man and a toddler, clad in expensive outdoor clothing and leather hiking boots, cross the suspension bridge over the river, gazing curiously at Blue and Wendy's house amid the ancient forest.
Is this a case of big government moving in and removing the little people? It's not that simple, of course. Some of the squatters happily live off government, collecting social-assistance cheques. The don't report their income from sporadic labouring jobs or selling crafts.
Even the most enamoured residents admit beach life hasn't been perfect, but it has its special delights. "When you get up in the morning you can do whatever you want to, all day," smiles Lori, who comes from Ontario and has spent the past few years living an alternative lifestyle throughout North America with her partner Paul, whom she married on Sombrio beach last summer. Living expenses are minimal and the couple obtains money from welfare, craft sales, odd jobs and, recently, the sale of their dog's puppies.
What does the future hold? "I don't know," she shrugs. "We're hoping they won't actually evict us."
Nineteen kilometres down the road, in the hard-working forestry and tourism community of Port Renfrew (population 400), there are mixed feelings about the eviction of the squatters.
Says Tomi Smith, who ran a community recreation program and counts many of the beach people as friends: "There are a few down there who are highly educated," she says, "but they can't live in society. They clean the beach after the tourists and if somebody is hurt, they would get help for them. But other people in town say they're on social assistance and shouldn't be spending their time squatting on the beach."
Despite the changes, Barb and Steve hope to remain. "If I was raising nine kids in town, I'd go nuts," says Barb. "Here they can play." Steve points out, though, that they do have to watch out for cougars and, in the summertime, bears.
And, sometime in the future, officials bearing eviction notices.
Deborah Jones is a contributing editor to Report on Business and Chatelaine magazines.
Copyright Deborah Jones 1997
http://www.factsandopinions.com/Explore/F6113F5F-8B23-4AAF-BF5C-AA13991584D4.html
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Waterton Lakes National Park ALBERTA -S1-Ep6--1996
Season 1, Episode 6 (EP 1 x 6) - Waterton Lakes National Park
Airdate:1996
Land of the Shining Mountains was how the Blackfoot people referred to this place where the Rocky Mountains dramatically meet the plains. Alberta's Waterton Lakes townsite is delightfully unique as wildlife mix freely with both residents and visitors. Many of Waterton's crystal lakes were carved into hard mountain rock by ancient glaciers, creating a refuge for an abundance of wildlife and a place of sparkling beauty for visitors.
( from : http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
Friday, February 3, 2012
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Cape St.Mary's Ecological Reserve-NFNLD-1999 SE5-EP5
Season 5, Episode 5 (EP 5 x 5) - Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve
Airdate: 1999
Over 26,000 pairs of nesting seabirds nest in the spectacular 130 meter cliffs of Cape St. Mary's. Humpback, fin and minke whales feed in the offshore Atlantic waters in the summer months. The Cape St. Mary's lighthouse marks the southwest tip of Newfoundland's colourful Avalon Peninsula, and is battered on three sides by the North Atlantic.
( from : http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
watch :
GREAT CANADIAN PARKS-Goat Range Provincial Park BC -Ep3-S6--1998 part1and2
Season 3, Episode 6 (EP 3 x 6) - Goat Range Provincial Park
Airdate: 1998
Goat Range Provincial Park is the largest wilderness park in the Selkirk mountains. This wild and rugged country has a healthy population of grizzlies, a large proportion of which are rare and mysterious 'white grizzlies.' Our crew hikes through bear-denning areas with local experts, who unravel some of the complexities of old-growth forests. We attend a unique 'bear school' where the focus is on watching for bear 'signs' and interpreting bear behaviour.
( from : http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Great Canadian Parks - Prince Edward Island National Park S2-Ep6 -part 1 and 2
Season 2, Episode 6 (EP 2 x 6) - Prince Edward Island National Park
Airdate: 1997
Prince Edward Island National Park lies along 40 km of the Island’s north shore. The landscape varies from sand dunes, beaches and red sandstone cliffs to salt marshes and fresh water ponds. The park has the finest example of the delicate 'sand dune ecosystem' in Atlantic Canada. The star residents are the fragile piping plover, which nests in sandy beaches, and the great blue heron, a common sight along the inland salt marshes and shallow ponds.
( from : http://www.tvdome.eu/tv-shows/great-canadian-parks
part 1
part 2
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