Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary

About

Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary is a nature reserve located in Saanich, British Columbia. The sanctuary includes a lake, adjacent marshy lowlands, and the Nature House, as well as a good part of the summit regions of Christmas Hill. The nature sanctuary consists of two physically and ecologically distinct areas: the low wetland area surrounding Swan Lake, and the rocky Garry oak-forested hilltop of Christmas Hill. The two areas are joined by a connecting corridor trail along the Nelthorpe Road allowance, crossing McKenzie Avenue at a pedestrian-controlled crosswalk. Portions of the corridor trail are on the roadside, and are identified by signs with a hiker symbol and arrow to indicate the direction. The sanctuary land surrounding the lake covers 43.4 hectares (107 acres) in addition to the 9.4-hectare (23-acre) lake. In the winter flooding stage, the lake can cover up to 32.4 hectares (80 acres) of the low-lying lands around the lake.

All of the nature sanctuary lands are owned by Saanich, except for the two parcels identified on the map (Swan lake map, below) as Nature Trust BC Lands, covering 2.4 hectares (5.9 acres). All of the lands are managed by the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary Society under the terms of a land management agreement between the society and the Municipality of Saanich.

- Lake surface area: 9.4 hectares (23 acres)

- Winter flood lake area: 32.4 hectares (80 acres)

- Land area excluding lake: 43.4 hectares (107 acres)

- Land area including lake: 53 hectares (130 acres) The Swan Lake portion of the nature sanctuary is bordered on the west by the Pat Bay Highway; on the east by Saanich Road; on the north by Ralph Street, Sevenoaks and Nelthorpe; and on the south by the Lockside Regional Trail. On the east side of Saanich Road, the vegetated area under the Lochside trestle is also part of the sanctuary lands. Blenkinsop Creek flows through this area on its way to Swan Lake.

The Christmas Hill portion of the nature sanctuary is bordered on the west by a community greenway trail linking Rainbow Street with Rogers Avenue and Rogers Elementary School, and on the south, east and north by mixed residential lands.

First Nations people have lived in coastal B.C. areas for at least 8–9,000 years, though the oldest documented archaeological sites in the Victoria area are about 4,150 years old.

Grant Keddie, Royal BC Museum archaeologist, describes Swan Lake as an important hunting and gathering area for the Songhees people. Over the years, a number of arrowheads and spear tips have been found in the fields and hillsides surrounding the lake, indicating a high level of hunting in the region.

Over a hundred species of plants were known and used by the Songhees for food, medicines and for numerous items used in food gathering and preparation, shelter and ceremony. Important food plants include the Camas lily, wild onion, western crab apple, chocolate lily bulbs, Oregon grape, salmonberry, elderberry, Pacific blackberry, red huckleberry, thimbleberry and fern rhizomes. A variety of cat-tails and swamp rushes were harvested from the lake shore and used in weaving shelters, mats, baskets and clothing.

The lake and streams would have provided a variety of fish, including salmon, rainbow trout, steelhead trout and perch, caught by trolling, jigging, spearing and the placement of wooden basket traps.

All varieties of large birds were hunted and their eggs collected, especially in the winter and during the spring migrations when bird populations soared. Remains of food found in ancient villages show that species of ducks and seagulls represent a large number of the birds consumed. Scoters, grebes, geese, swans, sandhill craness, loons and cormorants, grouse, pigeons, and predator birds such as eagles and hawks were consumed.

Pole nets would have been used extensively at Swan Lake to catch waterfowl. A net stretched between two tall poles would be suddenly raised into the flight path of ducks as they swooped towards the lake in the evening.

Bird parts were used for many things, often related to spiritual or ceremonial use. Women plucked waterfowl and mixed the down with twisted pieces of goose skin and stinging nettle fiber twine to make a textile used for shirts and robes. Bird down was stored in a bag made of swan skin. Feathers were used on masks, headdresses, clothing, and many small ritual objects. Bird skulls, beaks and wings were carried as charms associated with special spirit powers.

Deer would have been plentiful around the lake area, providing an important source of food. Clothing was made from deer hides, and a variety of tools were made from the antlers, including wedges, tool shafts, harpoon, spear and arrow points, awls, chisels, needles, blanket pins, combs, scrapers and fish hook barbs.

The rocky Garry Oak -forested slopes of Christmas hill would likely have been used by the Songhees for the cultivation of the Camas bulb, an important part of the First Nations people's diet. They practiced a wide variety of cultivation techniques, including prescribed burning, to preserve the open landscape favored by the Camas lily. It is thought that the predominance and persistence of Garry oak ecosystems across much of Greater Victoria prior to European settlement was a direct result of centuries of burning and harvesting Camas bulbs.

The Songhees people included a tribal group called the Sahsum, or Kosampson. Their village was centered around Craigflower Park and Admirals Road. By 1843, the Kosampson moved to the village of Kala on Esquimalt Harbour, which became part of the Esquimalt Indian Reserve in 1853.

In 1850, the title to the territory deemed to be owned by the Kosampson people was sold to James Douglas of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Origin of names – Swan Lake and Christmas Hill

The origin of Swan Lake's name is not clear. It is listed as such on a map of Victoria in 1885. There is speculation that it was named after James Gilchrist Swan, an American journalist, reservation schoolteacher, lawyer, judge, school superintendent, railroad promoter, natural historian, and ethnographer. Though based in Port Townsend, Swan visited on occasion in the early 1880s.