Between Jericho Beach
on the west, and Trafalgar
Street on
the east, lies the only section of undeveloped beach within the city of Vancouver. Contrary to what some people believe, this whole
stretch of foreshore is public land, and is relatively easily reached from a
number of access points. These points are located at Jericho Beach,
Dunbar Street, Waterloo Street, Balaclava Street, Bayswater Street, Volunteer Park,
and Trafalgar
Street.
Other shoreline areas in the
city such as Stanley Park,
English Bay,
Kitsilano Beach
and False Creek are also public land, but all of them differ significantly from
a natural foreshore. They are dedicated to active recreation, and the natural
environment has been significantly altered. Between Jericho and Trafalgar, although the land has been converted
to residential properties, the beach itself remains little altered from what it
would have been like several centuries ago. There are many features and organisms
here to entice the curious naturalist. It also remains an area for passive
recreation, an oasis different from the frenetic pace of the other beaches.
Such places are now difficult to find within the city.
There is, however, pressure
to change this situation. A proposal has been made to build a seawall along the
beach. Such development would seriously impact this last remaining piece of
natural foreshore habitat. Contrary to some claims there are natural features
here worthy of preservation.
In this article, we will
take a walk along the beach from west to east, and look at these features.
Before starting, however, there are a few safety precautions. This is a natural
beach. For most of its length it lies at the base of a cliff. At high tide the
sea comes up to the cliff. Before you take your walk check the tide tables on
the Internet to make sure you can safely proceed. Also take note of the access
stairs which are located approximately every two blocks. These will take you up
to Point Grey
Road, so
you can explore the whole beach or just a portion of it. Where there is no sand
the rocks are covered by a biofilm of diatoms. We will get back to the
importance of diatoms later. Of immediate concern is the fact that this biofilm
is very slippery and you can take a bad fall. So be careful walking across it.
The information here is
gleaned from both my own knowledge of the beach, that I have acquired over
the years, and also from other members of Nature Vancouver with whom I have
visited the foreshore recently.
So let us begin with an
overview of what is here. When the tide is out and you look to the north, you
see a flat area stretching out to the water’s edge. Geologists call it a wave
cut platform. The present site of Vancouver was below sea level during glacial periods, being
pushed down by an ice sheet several kilometres thick. When the ice retreated,
11,000 years ago the land rebounded, and the cliffs which now lie at the back
of the beach were out at the edge of the platform. The action of millennia of
storms have cut away at them and left the platform which is now exposed at low
tide. At the base of the cliffs you can see an undercut zone, where the sea is
cutting into the present cliff.
Although the platform is
flat, you will notice that some of the rock strata on it, especially close to
the beach are inclined. They are steep on the north side, and slope gently on
the south side. The sea has not yet had time to completely level them. They are
tilted because of the North Shore Mountains. The sediments were originally laid down flat, but that
was long before the North Shore peaks existed. The original hills were worn away and
their components deposited in places like this. Continental drift is pushing
the Pacific Plate against North
America, and part of this
process has produced the local mountains. As the peaks have risen the rocks
here at the beach have been tilted, so that they slope slightly to the south.
Along the platform is the
biofilm of diatoms. This is the brownish slippery coating over the sediment and
rock surface. At a lower level than the sandy beach there is a coating of clay
and silt. This has been deposited both as silt brought from the Interior and
the Rockies by the Fraser River,
and by the action of the sea upon shale within the cliffs. The upper beach is
sand because the scour of the tides is stronger here and removes the finer
materials. It is upon the silt and exposed rock platform where the diatoms and
other micro-organisms can find a safe haven, and can establish themselves.
Diatoms are single celled algae, or short chains of such cells. They are
distantly related to brown seaweeds. Under the microscope they are very
beautiful, and are reminiscent of bivalve mollusks. They cover themselves with
two shells, but these shells are not calcium carbonate. They are made of
silica, and are transparent, like two halves of a petri dish. Diatoms may not
seem very important, but they, and other micro-organisms, are the beginning of
the food chain. They feed juvenile fish, or the crustacea that are eaten by
larger fish. Although, we are usually aware of the big organisms only,
biologists have estimated that half the weight of the biosphere is composed of
the microscopic ones.
Also very noticeable along
the edges of the beach are rafts of seaweeds. The tides have torn them from the
rocks and brought them ashore. As they decay they are eaten by crustaceans. The
ones that jump about are often called sand fleas, although they have little in
common with fleas, except that they are very good jumpers. They do not bite. If
you lift up some seaweed you may see hundreds of them. They are food for the
smaller fish, which in turn feed the larger fish such as salmon. There are two
main species of seaweeds here. Most common is the rockweed (Fucus gardneri).
This is the brown one which covers intertidal rocks. It has the floats which
dry out and go pop when you walk on them. The other is sea lettuce (Ulva
lactuca). These are the green sheets that look like thin lettuce. It is a
green alga, related to the ancestors of land plants.
The beach too, has a tale to
tell. Many of the pebbles here have been brought down by the Pleistocene ice
sheet from the North Shore Mountains and beyond. They were dumped in the ocean by the
advancing glaciers. The Point Grey Peninsula rose above sea level after the ice
left, as the glacier was no longer pushing it below sea level. The sea cut away
at the cliffs over the centuries, and the pebbles ended up on the beach. The
smaller pebbles are also significant for another reason. During the summer,
when the tide is in, smelt lay their eggs on them. The eggs hatch in a couple
of weeks and the larval fish swim out to sea, feeding on micro-organisms as
they migrate. Smelt are now a threatened species. They need all the help they can
get to re-build their population levels. Overhanging shrubs and trees along the
upper beach are also important for smelt spawning, as their shade cools the
beach when the tide is out. These spawning gravels along the beach may be
protected by fisheries legislation. During August, when I was in elementary
school, and the tide was full in the evening, I often came to the beach with my
smelting net.
Take a look at the cliffs
when you have a chance and you will see that they are composed of two different
types of rocks - sandstone and shale. These deposits are remnants of the
ancient history of the British Columbia coast. They originated 40 million years ago, during the Eocene Epoch,
and were laid down as sediments along the channels of rivers that have long
ceased to exist. These rivers flowed westwards from a range of low mountains
that fronted the coast millions of years before our North Shore mountains were uplifted. The sandstone was formed
where the currents were flowing strongly, and the shales from fine clay in
gently moving backwaters. If you go down to the Fraser delta and look at the
estuarine plants along the edge you will see evidence of a similar process.
These plants are covered by a gray coating. This is fine silt carried by the
river from the interior of the province.
In some spots there are
sandstone layers that actually show how the river was flowing, possibly on
individual days, so many millions of years ago. Within the layers of sand are
occasional thin black deposits of organic material. These stand out from the
lighter colored sand layers. You will see that some of them are tilted slightly
from others, indicating how the currents were changing their course.
As we walk eastward from Jericho we will stop at various features of interest. The
first of these is along the sand near the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. At this
site you will see what a natural, undisturbed deep sand beach looks like. There
are two robust grassy plants here. On the right, shoreward side is the dune
grass (Leymus mollis). This is a very large grass that can grow up to
two metres tall. Notice how thick and tough the wide blades are. This is an
adaptation to the harsh conditions posed by growing in sand. These blades
resist the abrasion of wind blown sand and also retard water loss. Upper layers
of sand can be very dry, plus the fact that the water which does occur at lower
levels is often salty, and not easily absorbed by plants. The dune grass also
has a gray coating to retard water loss. It has deep roots which penetrate down
to the water table, and stabilize the plant in this shifting unstable
environment.
To the left, the seaward
direction is a plant with shiny grass-like leaves. This is a grass relative,
but not actually a grass. It is a sedge, the big-headed sedge (Carex
macrocephala). The leaves are smaller than the dune grass and are a bright
green color. It grows close to the sand in little tufts. These tufts are
sometimes in straight lines as they are often not single plants but shoots
attached at intervals along long, horizontal, underground stems. The most
noticeable feature of big-headed sedge are the compact clusters of dark brown
seed heads. The seeds themselves are contained within seed cases that possess
two sharp points. This sedge is now reported as a rare plant in Washington State.
The next point of interest
is just down the beach, where the sandstone cliff begins. Projecting from the
cliff as well as upon the beach are large rounded sandstone boulders. This is
the only site along the entire foreshore where these strange boulders are
found. They are called concretions, and they consist of sandstone which has
been cemented together by calcium carbonate, deposited within them by water.
They stand out because they are harder than the surrounding rock, and are,
therefore, more resistant to weathering. How this lime material was deposited,
why it is here and not in other parts of the cliffs, and how old it is, are all
unknown. One of the geological mysteries of the Kitsilano foreshore, and one
which is worthy of protection.
One of the mysterious concretions
at Jericho Beach
The next feature is just
east of the Dunbar
Street
access steps. It is right at the base of the cliff, where the force of the
waves is cutting into the rock. It is at the cliff base where the energy of
storms is at its greatest. Basically what they are doing is gradually extending
the wave cut platform landwards. At this particular undercut there is a layer
of shale with black coatings on it. If you look closely you will see the
impressions of leaves. These are fossils of leaves from deciduous trees which
once grew along the river banks 40 million years ago. When you look at one of
these leaves you are looking at something that happened one autumn of one year,
so many eons ago. These were deciduous trees. They shed their leaves during the
fall the same as our trees do. The leaves fell into the river, were carried
down stream until they became waterlogged, fell to the riverbed and were
covered by silt which accumulated above them for century after century, metre
upon metre.
One of the fossils from the cliff near Dunbar Street
Photo by Rosemary Taylor
About a block east of the Waterloo Street stairs is a strange looking rock formation
projecting northwards from the shore. Most people just see it as an impediment
that must be climbed over and makes them wait until the tide is low enough for
them to proceed. This, however, is another structure worthy of protection.
Notice that the central part of it is darker and harder rock that that on
either side. It is a volcanic dyke. It is the only one along the entire beach.
A similar dyke in Stanley Park has been dated at 32 million years, so this is
likely to be of a comparable age. The dark central part is basalt or a related
volcanic rock and it was pushed upwards from a magma chamber below it. These
structures are the roots of volcanoes or lava flows. So, 30 million years ago
there may have been a Kitsilano volcano, or a lava flow like the Columbia
Plateau. Note that sandstone occurs on either side of the dyke. When the lava
erupted it roasted the sandstone through which it was extruded. The sediments
on either side are, therefore, harder and more resistant to erosion than the
surrounding rock and we now have this long three layered stone sandwich.
When you reach Bayswater Street, if it is a low tide, look out along the exposed
flats. You will see there is a smooth area without rocks. This is a piece of
local history. Over a century ago the rocks were cleared away and the English
Bay Cannery was built here. Although this salmon cannery is long gone, the
smooth surface bears witness to its existence.
As Trafalgar Street is approached, look carefully at the cliff face. At
one spot there are a couple of coal exposures. Again, these are the remains of
the ancient trees that once grew here.
The above features are some
of the highlights along the Kitsilano foreshore. They contribute to making this
beach unique within the city of Vancouver. Construction of a seawall would destroy this
uniqueness and eliminate the last un-impacted beach within the city.