A number of well-loved plants have been salvaged from grounds at Castlegar's Twin Rivers Park – in an area earmarked for a water park-type development.
Local area residents got the word from Eva Johansson on behalf of the Kootenay CAMAS Project, part of the West Kootenay Native Plant Study Group (WKNPSG).
"The Kootenay Camas Project has just been granted a unique opportunity to salvage camas in a camas site that will soon be lost to development at Twin Rivers Park, Castlegar," Johansson told the group via email on June 26. "Do a good deed for camas and go home with camas bulbs to replant!"
That they did, showing up about 20-strong and going on a work bee in ideal, overcast conditions and completing the task they set out to accomplish.
The camas is described in WKNPSG literature as a culturally and ecologically significant species, "a "dietary staple for many indigenous peoples and has been called a 'cultural keystone species.'"
It is also stated in the group's brochure that "The explorer David Thompson traded for camas in his travels down the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers, recording it simply as 'root' in his journals."
“With the help of local residents we have found camas in places we were hoping to see it and totally unexpected places. People have reported camas in suburban gardens, along trails and rivers and in back woods areas. Citizen scientists have been able to cover a large area and help us with valuable information.” says project coordinator Eva Johansson.
