The Vancouver Sun today has a report on poaching of lingcod and rockfish from Howe Sound waters. I think most of the poachers are probably not from Bowen Island - there are very few here that actually fish, and most of those that do are after salmon, prawns and crab - but it bears repeating that the fish resources of the inlet are pretty delicate to start with without having people haul them out illegally.

The good news, as the article points out, is that the lingcod population which is endangered around here, seems to be coming back. Lingcod are very tasty fish, which makes them susceptible to poaching, and like rockfish, they require several years to reach maturity before they can spawn. This summer, I plan on doing some snorkelling around the rocky parts of the island where the rockfish conservation areas are, and just checking out what I can see from the surface.

So if you're out on the water fishing, just remember that you can't use a hook and line anywhere from Miller's Landing north to Hood Point, and we'll work at keeping these magnificent local fish stocks healthy.

A group of folks on Bowen are openly musing about micro-hydro for the island. There is a thread at the Bowen Online Forum dedicated to this, and I'm linking here to keep this idea alive.

If you have experience with this stuff, let me know through a comment here or email, or posting at the forum. We're especially looking for engineers.

Wild plum

Here is the wild plum at Collins Hall. There are lots more little flowers out now. Periwinkles in the forest (an invasive but pretty groundcover), Oregon Grape and dandelions. The salmonberry bushes are getting their shoots now too and little green things are popping up all over.

It's been really windy the last week, strong southeasterlies, sometimes warm, sometimes cold, sometimes wet, sometimes dry.

After a winter of record setting consectuive rain days, spring is finally trying to get here.

Daffodil, from my friend Leah

Blossom report...

We are awash in crocuses at the moment and the daffodills have also arrived.

And, perhpas more importantly, the wild plum tree at the United Church is covered in small, snowy white, five petalled flowers.

March has come in like a...well...sitting next to Richard Goth here at The Snug, he says March came in like a lion because the wind was fierce last night, but there was no rain and it's really mild today. There is fresh snow on the mountains, but it's about 10 degrees at sea level here, very lamb like to my tender skin. Warm enough for a wool sweater only.

So it's hard to say...in fact we're still talking about it here five minutes later. Richard is convinced that it's a lion. He has just made a somewhat compelling argument that lions are warm and they don't like water and they do roar. Lambs are just meek. It wasn't meek this morning, so I guess Richard's right.

In like a lion then.

UPDATE: I've just gone through my blog archive and determined that this is the first year in Bowen's entire blogged history (dating all the way back to 2002) that March came in like a lion. A MEEK lion, but a lion nonetheless. Richard is suggesting that we go outside and shake some bones to restore the usual gentle rhythms of spring on the coast. I'm seeing it as a sign of climate change.

Cool report(.pdf) just released on the arts in small and rurual communities in Canada. CBC reports Bowen Island comes in fourth overall in terms of the percentage of residents employed in the arts. According to the report, 6.6% of our population are actively employed in the arts.

This is extremely significant, because I think that, of all the top communities, we are the only one that doesn't yet have a dedicated place to showcase the performing arts talent here.

It's coming though! We're working hard to raise the money and build the facility. Perhaps this report might give us some ammunition with other sources of funding apart from benefit CD sales and concerts.

For more on the arts on Bowen, go visit the Bowen Island Arts Council site.

Moving might be a huge hassle, but we welcome another blogger to our ranks: Ringo-Lo.

Kirsten has moved here just as spring has begun to arrive. The last couple of days have been beautiful and the wind has carried that soothing quality that takes the cold edge off it. When it rained the other night, Aine remarked that it was a spring rain.

There are lots of buds on the formerly dorman berry bushes, and the blackberries have started putting out new canes and trailers. Towhees and Winter Wrens are making their spring calls, both trilling in the forest.