Qualla: Qualicum National Wildlife Area

Qualicum National Wildlife Area: Introduction

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit FinnJackart, CC BY-SA 4.0. The name Qualicum means "where the dog salmon run." For generations, the Coast Salish people, specifically the Qualicum First Nation, gathered here each fall to harvest chum salmon from the rivers flowing through what is now the Nanaimo lowland. They also harvested abalone, oysters, geoducks, and horse and butter clams from the rich estuarine waters. When the Canadian government established the Qualicum National Wildlife Area in 1977, it was recognizing what Indigenous peoples had known for millennia: this narrow strip of lowland between the Jordan River and the Johnstone Strait is one of Vancouver Island's most biologically productive landscapes.

Image: FinnJackart | CC BY-SA 4.0

Qualicum National Wildlife Area: The Last Oak Ecosystem

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit FinnJackart, CC BY-SA 4.0. Among the wildlife area's most remarkable features is its Garry oak ecosystem, centered on the only oak species native to British Columbia. These gnarled, drought-resistant trees anchor communities of extraordinary diversity, with upwards of a hundred plant and animal species dep...

Image: FinnJackart | CC BY-SA 4.0

Qualicum National Wildlife Area: Herons, Salmon, and the Salish Sea

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit FinnJackart, CC BY-SA 4.0. More than 60 species of water birds inhabit or pass through the Qualicum NWA, including the great blue heron, a species listed as endangered in British Columbia. The herons nest in woodlands adjacent to estuaries, stalking the shallows with mechanical patience, but they are exqui...

Image: FinnJackart | CC BY-SA 4.0

Qualicum National Wildlife Area: Invaders at the Gate

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit FinnJackart, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not everything thriving in the Qualicum NWA belongs here. Reed canary grass, originally from temperate Europe and Asia and likely introduced to British Columbia as a cultivar in the 1800s, has spread through the area's wet soils and riverbanks, crowding out native ground cover an...

Image: FinnJackart | CC BY-SA 4.0

Qualicum National Wildlife Area: Whose Land, Whose Plan

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit FinnJackart, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Qualicum NWA sits on the traditional territory of the Coast Salish First Nations, yet two BC Parks management plans related to the area, the Little Qualicum Falls Park plan of 1989 and the Rosewall Creek Park plan of 2003, made little or no mention of consultation with Indige...

Image: FinnJackart | CC BY-SA 4.0