By Holly Rowland

Beacon Hill Park is the jewel of James Bay. Protected, green and beautiful, it remains a peaceful, charming miniature world where Mother Nature reigns supreme. No wonder James Bayites are such a happy breed! Fred Hook, city parks environmental technician is one of the six people who keep Beacon Hill Park that way.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Hook and asking him a myriad of questions, but space is at a premium so I will just tell you a few things I learned about our small piece of Eden. After a degree in Visual Arts and Sculpture, teaching High School Arts through Cultural Resource Management, and Heritage Landscape Restoration and other Arts and Gardening etc., etc, he literally fell into a job at the Parks Department and has never looked back. He is also responsible for the environmental systems of all Victoria parks. Now Beacon Hill Park has only six gardeners instead of the former twelve, and native plants and ferns are replacing many of the time-consuming flowers and shrubs.

Early last November “Tree Appreciation Day” was celebrated in the Park when 100-150 trees were planted, funded by “Green Heart Fund Raiser,” which was held to replace trees lost in last winter’s devastating storms. Fast-growing trees to help shelter our herons, and slow-growing Douglas firs. Besides our famed Henry, there are three herons nesting on the island in Goodacre Lake, but Fred Hook told me that he believes them to be bachelors. Perhaps they will find some beautiful brides and bring them home to Beacon Hill Park. Fred has high hopes that the herons will return when the new trees are big enough, perhaps in ten years.

The marauding bald eagle who terrorized the herons into leaving their nests has been seen with a young male and Hook thinks that they will be setting up housekeeping together, plus three more. The eagles protect their own nests and in a strange way this also helps the herons. I am not quite sure how, but ask one of the gardeners next time you are going for a walk in Beacon Hill Park. The man who waves his green hand over the park, helping it to adapt to less maintenance by using more native plants is Bernard Hopcraft. Next year he will also be responsible for Victoria’s famous hanging baskets. There are three principal gardeners: Margaret Marsden, Brian Turner and Mike Ball. The Park is huge and over 40 homeless men live in it, contributing to 2 ½ truckloads of detritus that have to be removed daily! Sadly, there is a constant danger to the Dallas Road cliffs as some of these men try to burrow into them to make their dens.

The sky outside my window is silent. The flypast by the Canadian Geese is over. Happily now, there are people walking safely along Beacon Hill Park’s pathway. The bigger Eastern birds along with our resident population were hastily evicted by an amazing woman and her Belgium sheepdogs. There are leaves to pick up and pack down to compost , a never-ending job that carries on until after Christmas. Volunteers are welcomed for the Saturday “Ivy Pull” , hard work but so worth while. Beacon Hill Park, so close and so dear to our hearts, kept beautiful by so many beautiful people.

Finally, something wonderful that happened to my husband and me on Remembrance Day. We wore our blazers and our medals for that special day and the three Franciscan Friars, who are also Veterans, their brown robes sans medals. After Mass we had lunch at the JBI, and a strange man came up to us, and said, “You are Veterans. Thank you,” and shook both our hands. We were touched. This had never happened before ! Maybe it’s because we live in James Bay.