Itchy grizzlies, sneaky turtles, shy salamanders, angry birds, mountains of knapweed, thousands of native plants...
- Lorna Visser
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 1 hour ago
... a peek into hands-on stewardship work at the Snk'mip Marsh Sanctuary... and how you can help
Ever since the Valhalla Foundation for Ecology purchased the land that is now the Snk'mip Marsh Sanctuary, we've had a clear philosophy: use the best professionals and experts and listen to them. This includes the engineers, biologists, wetland restoration experts, reptile experts, bat experts, bird experts, botanists, those knowledgeable about the removal of invasive species... the list goes on. Recently our very own expert, VFE biologist Amber Peters (who is a Registered Professional Biologist) completed a third year of monitoring work at the Snk'mip Marsh Sanctuary. We're delighted to share some of her findings.
Amber set up remote cameras to record wildlife activity throughout the nature sanctuary and to attempt to measure the effectiveness of our restoration work. This involved wading through muck, crawling through brush, dodging thistles and thorns, walking every inch of the trails and pathways, and, when necessary, paddle-boarding into the very shallow Snk'mip marsh waterbody.
Amber counted salamanders and turtles and tallied hours of weed-pulling... then she mapped and collated all that in a detailed report (available upon request by email, reach Amber at: amber.vfe_at_xplornet.ca or send us a note using the Contact Us form on our home page).
To get caught up on some of our previous work at Snk'mip, take a look at these previous posts to get a sense of our work there during the past 8 years, for example:
For 2025, here are Amber's key findings:
We saved and restored homes for a shy, at-risk salamander and set a provincial record for sightings of Coeur d'Alene salamanders
Snk'mip Marsh and the adjacent rail-trail is home to a significant population of blue-listed Coeur d'Alene salamanders (blue-listed is the provincial designation for this threatened species). These small amphibians are very difficult to find, spending most of their time hiding under rocks or in cracks in rocky areas. We suspect they may also inhabit other areas along the rail-trail right-of-way.
Coeur d'Alene salamanders are an at-risk species in a family of lungless salamanders. Unlike some other species of salamanders, these are terrestrial: they breed on land and then lay their eggs in cracks in or under wet rocks (hibernacula). Amber located a major habitat location at the sanctuary that is likely one of what we call 'salamander palaces' (a rocky area where salamanders can safely overwinter). Fifty-four salamanders were found adjacent to it in a single night survey!
Based on provincial government ranking of the status of B.C.'s species and ecosystems, the Conservation Data Centre data (the CDC provides information on species and ecological communities at risk in British Columbia), this is a provincial record for the number of individuals of this species officially identified in a single survey.
Without your help we literally could not do this work. Please support our restoration of this precious marsh. A monthly gift is the best way to help as it supports our stewardship work on an ongoing basis and allows us to stay focused on our mission: 'saving wild places for wild things.' It's as easy as clicking this button...
Learning where wildlife travel and what areas they frequent or avoid
Amber's monitoring showed that a significant number and diversity of wildlife use the forested areas of the sanctuary (and the surrounding area) as a travel corridor. This includes cougars, coyotes and grizzly bears using Snk'mip as a travel corridor between Valhalla Provincial Park and Goat Range Park.
A forested wetland area of the sanctuary is a low-human-disturbance area. It's fair to conclude that the absence of human presence is the reason a larger number and higher diversity of wildlife use this area -- as compared to the high-human-use recreational trail (a restored railway line we call the rail-trail, it forms the border of our nature sanctuary property). Some wildlife such as moose and deer have been documented using the rail-trail but our study shows that shyer creatures tend to avoid areas routinely used by people.
That contentious rail-trail...
This finding supports the Valhalla Foundation's extensive efforts to ensure that the rail-trail be designated a non-motorized recreational trail. Clearly our concern that motorized vehicles on trails cause disturbance was well-founded, that has been proven by numerous other scientific studies. These have been compiled by our VFE biologist Wayne McCrory and that report is also available on request.
Today, even with only nonmotorized use (hikers and bicyclists) using the rail-trail pathway, our studies show that the shyer and more sensitive animals avoid this area.
An interesting finding was how much less animal use there was on this trail during the summer of 2024 when nearby wildfires and intense smoke made conditions dangerous and unhealthy for humans to recreate outdoors. During the summer of 2024, Amber's study found that animal activity increased significantly on the trail when human use of the trail was low.
The quieter, forested area of the sanctuary consistently saw a lot of wildlife activity.
We were frustrated by elusive turtles...
While we've occasionally seen Western Painted Turtles at Snk'mip since the completion of the Valhalla Foundation for Ecology's major restoration works in 2020, on the whole these beautiful reptiles have proven to be quite elusive.
We have not been able to determine how many there are in the marsh. We've documented multiple turtle sightings but do not know if that was the same turtle moving around or several different turtles! Our remote wildlife cameras did not capture any turtle photos, likely because they chose not to use those particular basking-log locations. Who knows the mind of a turtle?
Public outreach for sightings in the Slocan Valley has so far only reported sightings at Snk'mip Marsh. We continue monitoring for Western Painted Turtles and encourage anyone who has seen a turtle in this area (Slocan Valley) to contact us.
Never in our wildest dreams did we anticipate the mountains of knapweed we'd have to pull!
Because the habitat of Snk'mip marsh and the surrounding upland areas was damaged prior to the property being acquired by the Valhalla Foundation for Ecology land trust, this created a situation where a huge number of invasive plant species took hold and put down deep, persistent roots and massive seed-beds.
We've tackled this problem by engaging teams of workers to work in spring/summer/fall to remove invasive plants by hand (no pesticides or herbicides are used in this wetland environment), and to haul the plants out and take them off-site for proper disposal. We're pleased we could provide local employment for youth doing such important restoration work... here are a couple of photos of our amazing crew:
This has been a massive job, the scope of which we did not envision when we took on the property. Hand-removal of literal mountains of invasive species such as knapweed, thistle, burdock, oxeye daisy, and Saint John's Wort has been a huge undertaking that has required hundreds of hours of contractor work aided by volunteer labour.
Revegetation with native plants (trees, shrubs and native grasses) has been another huge undertaking, with thousands of plants put into the ground in the past 5 years. Continued stewardship will be needed to help native plant communities re-establish and out-compete the invasive plants. It's a difficult task but we persevere.
And finally... you can't please everyone
This angry bird was NOT happy with our wildlife camera placed on a basking log in the wetland. Our biologist Amber had to paddle-board deep into the wetland waterbody to place this camera -- and this is the thanks she gets! Clearly this killdeer was not impressed, here it is attacking the camera. (In case you're worried, all annoying wildlife cams have now been removed.)
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