Isn’t it nice to find a cool shady spot under our majestic oaks during these warm summer days? Oak Harbor Garry Oak Society met with the film crew from Whidbey Telecom in July under the shade of Smith Parks oaks to shoot film for a show called The Curious Islander. The Curious Islander segment will focus exclusively on our native Garry oaks, and we are so excited to see this show air on TV, hopefully by late September. This 8-10-minute video will serve to highlight some of the ecological, cultural and historical aspects of Garry oaks, but also their plight and what the audience can do to help with Garry oak conservation.

Besides keeping up with watering baby oaks during the dry spell, we have been made great strides with our first legislative victory! Since 2016 Oak Harbor Garry Oak Society has been advocating for a more robust Garry Oak Tree Protection Code. City Council just passed the revised Oak Tree Protection Code which provides clear directions for protection of oaks during building and construction, as well as prohibiting needless Garry oak deaths from invasive English ivy.

At our July meeting we worked on one part of the Legacy Garry Oak Project, the one which will provide books to all schools in Oak Harbor. Using money from the Island Thrift grant our group purchased books for school children about oaks. At our July meeting we placed stickers in the front of the books stating who they were from. These books will be delivered to schools sometime in October 2018. Stay tuned for updates on this exciting educational project!