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Interpretive
signs at Marine Park
By
Soren Velice
To
answer questions about many of the sights encompassed by
Marine Park’s wide vistas, the parks department and
Marine Education Foundation came together to install interpretive
signs.
“A
lot of the questions that come up are for interpretation,”
parks board member June Auld said. “There’s birdwatchers,
dog-walkers and nature-lookers – a lot of people that
are interested.”
“The
interpretive signs are about birds, the history of the park,
the old sawmills and volunteer work that’s been an
instrumental part of Marine Park,” said Jim Jorgensen,
president of the Marine Education Foundation. “It gives
some insight into what you’re looking at – they
tell about Peace Arch, Point Roberts and White Rock.”
Jorgensen
was especially enthusiastic about the birdwatching information.
“I taught ornithology at the high school,” he
said. “That makes it pretty special for me.” He
proposed the signs to the tourism advisory committee in
August of 1999; the committee eventually decided to pay
for fabrication of the signs with hotel/motel tax revenues.
Wendy
Walker, an environmental studies professor at Western’s
Huxley College and member of the Marine Education Foundation,
designed the signs.
“I
did it for free in return for letting students work on it
” she said. “Karsten Carlson helped draw some
birds, Shelby Smith researched bird migration and Ryan Hilpert’s
researched the history; they did the research and writing
and I edited.” She said the students spent between
eight and 20 hours each on the project and guessed her design
and editing work totalled about 40. Sue Sturgill helped
with the history, while Jim Jorgensen contributed his expertise
to the information about birds.
“I
think it adds one more positive element to the park,”
Jorgensen said. “Whether it’s people going on
their daily strolls or visitors coming by, they’ll
not only know something about birds and the Pacific flyway,
they’ll know about the history of the area. It’s
very rewarding to see it at the stage it’s at.”
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Birds to look for in Blaine Marine Park
Spring/fall
caspian tern, western sandpiper, kingfisher,
red-winged blackbird, cormorant, mallard duck, bufflehead,
wood duck, mourning dove, stellar jay, barn swallow, robin,
gold finch, rufus-sided towhee, common bush tit, house finch,
hummingbird, whimbrel, dunlin
wildflowers
bull thistle, himalayan blackberry, western
buttercup, perennial pea, Queen anne’s lace, common
vetch
Fall
American widgeon, shoveler, American goldeneye,
Barrow’s goldeneye, old squaw, green-winged teal, ruddy
duck, pintail
Year-round
bald eagle, giant blue heron, common loon,
Canada geese, herring gull, american crow, marbled godwit,
osprey, glacous-winged gull, mew gull, California gull,
common merganser, eared grebe, red-necked grebe, western
grebe, horned grebe.
Other Critters
squirrel, rabbit, bat, garter snake, chipmunk,
skunk, fox, mole, vole, coyote, harbor seal
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