Long
Beach Wildlife
Situated
along the Pacific Flyway, the beaches offer an
opportunity for exceptional bird watching.
Mergansers, mallards and other ducks reside in
the park year-round, along with bald eagles,
great blue herons, Brandt's and pelagic
cormorants, common loons, and many other
waterbirds. Other seabirds are seasonal
visitors, including the black turnstone, common
goldeneye and horned grebe (winter), and rufous
hummingbirds, western flycatchers,
orange-crowned and Townsend's warblers, and
marbled murrelet (summer). Many transients stop
in the park on their way, north and
south.
Other
wildlife includes bears, cougars and smaller
mammals of the non-threatening kind, including
bog animals. Gray whales migrate along the
beaches, moving north from mid-February on their
journey to the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean.
In late December, the grays are seen heading
south to their breeding grounds in the lagoons
of Baja California. Whale-watching excursions
are available in Tofino and Ucluelet. While most
whales are transients, as many as 40 to 50 great
gray whales stay along the Vancouver island
coast during the summer; a few regularly stay
here year-round. The optimum time for whale
watching is from late February to early June.
The waters off the park have been designated the
Pacific Rim National Preserve. The increase in
gray whale numbers over the past 50 years
followed the near-decimation of the species.
Vancouver Island had whaling stations, and as
far back as the 18th century, commercial
whalers, starting with the Russians, hunted the
great gray along this part of the Pacific. But
the height of the whaling industry was in the
late 19th century. In only 18 years of whaling,
the Pacific population of gray whales was almost
annihilated. Today, the 18,000 or more eastern
Pacific herd of whales proves the resilience of
animal species. This is the largest population
of gray whales remaining in the world. A small
number of gray whales (180 total each year) are
permitted to be caught by native peoples, mainly
in Alaska and Siberia.
The
intertidal zone, particularly west of the
headlands, provides a rich exhibit of seashells
(mussels, finger limpets, barnacles), sea worms,
anemones, hermit crabs, and several species of
small fish, including tidepool sculpins. At low
tide, the shoreline is crawling with life, in
and out of the rocky pools. Purple shore crabs
drag their bodies across the sand, leaving
"tire" marks. Plants including the sea sac and
sea palm are found at the water's edge.
Behind
the beaches and headlands lies a remarkable
procession of greenery zones. With a growing
season of nine months and snow rarely falling,
you will not see remarkable changes in the color
of the vegetation as the annual cycle
progresses. However, the shades of green are
varied within the six plant zones in the park.
Considering that the average width of the park
is about one mile, this shows a remarkable
diversity in plant life.
Just
above the pounding waves is the spruce fringe,
populated by stunted Sitka spruce -- barely
hanging on in the sandy soil and strong winds --
with salal underneath. The fall berries of this
thick, wiry groundcover provided a staple food
for the local Nootka Indians, and still are
treasured by the park's hungry bears, although
bears are infrequently seen along the shoreline.
Behind the small, stunted Sitka spruce, taller
stands of spruce grow, accompanied by the
smaller Pacific crabapple.
Just
in from the beaches are several fine bogs,
irrigated by the 118 inches of rain which fall
here each year. The bogs lie in lowland areas
behind Long Beach. These are peat bogs, built up
over hundreds of years, filled with spongy
spaghnum moss. There are few trees in the boggy
areas, although one tree, the shorepine
(lodgepole pine) thrives in this stagnant,
soaked environment. In such a wet area, this
tree is exceptionally stunted, but sometimes
reaches to your shoulders. Labrador tea is a
resident, exhibiting white flowers during June
and July. You'll also see bog laurel, which has
pink clusters of flowers in the spring.
Several
streams bring water from the eastern hills,
flowing across the beaches and into the ocean.
Red alder is the primary tree in this streamside
zone, flanked by willows in a shrub shape. The
unusual small tree with groups of large oval
leaves is the cascara, Under the alders,
salmonberry and thimbleberry grow, with pink and
white flowers respectively, followed by
delicious berries. The salmonberry is rounded,
varying in color from yellow to red. The red
thimbleberry is shaped like a thimble, like its
relatives, the raspberry and blackberry. It has
large maple-shaped leaves.
Inland,
along the hills, is the typical Vancouver Island
cedar-hemlock forest. The western red cedar has
long been used by the Natives of the region for
many purposes. Spruce is also found among the
other conifers. There is so much rain here that
the trunks of many of these trees are covered
with moss.
Closer
to the beaches are prime examples of the climax
rain forest, old-growth trees including the
amabilis fir, a member of the balsam family and
considered to be a true fir. It is seen with the
western yew, a smaller tree with thin bark,
usually covered with moss. The understory is
typical for the temperate rain forest: mainly
salal, with false azalea and huckleberry, all
three members of the heather family. Blueberry
bushes also grow in this environment. You'll
also see western white pine in smaller
quantities within the park boundaries.
Much
of the eastern property now included in the park
was extensively logged before the park was
created in the 1970s. While much of Vancouver
Island is covered with Douglas-fir, there are
few specimens in the park. Too much rain is the
cause. Instead, the logged areas have been
re-planted with Sitka spruce, red cedar and
western hemlock, the trees which were previously
logged. There are clear-cut swaths which still
are covered with fireweed, waiting for the new
forest to grow.
