Galiano Conservancy

Volunteer Thursdays in the Food Forest
2025-05-22 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-05-15 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-05-08 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-05-01 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-04-24 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-04-17 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-04-10 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-04-03 10:00 - 14:00 (Asia/Shanghai) and 9 more dates | Millard Learning Centre, Galiano Island, 10825 Porlier Pass road, Galiano Island, British Columbia, V0N1P0, Canada
Every Thursday, you have the opportunity to join our Sustainable Food Systems coordinator Cedana Bourne, and our dedicated team of interns and volunteers in the GCA’s Food Forest. These 4-hour sessions will help you learn about all aspects of plant care, in the company of like-minded individuals who care about the environment, collaboration and creating a healthier world. You will get hands-on experience with soil building, composting, watering, harvesting, propagating, potting, etc. within a small nursery setting. Please bring sun protection, water and food, and dress appropriately. We hope you join us!

Volunteer Second & Third Fridays - Ecological Restoration
2025-05-16 09:30 - 15:30, 2025-05-09 09:30 - 15:30, 2025-04-18 09:30 - 15:30, 2025-04-11 09:30 - 15:30 (America/Vancouver) | Millard Learning Centre, Galiano Island, 10825 Porlier Pass road, Galiano Island, British Columbia, V0N1P0, Canada
On the Second & Third Fridays of the month, join us for hands on Ecological Restoration projects! This is a great opportunity to learn more about our ongoing restoration work from our knowledgeable staff while learning more about the GCA owned and managed properties on Galiano.

Please get in touch to let us know you’ll be joining us! The morning volunteer session is from 9:30 am to noon; the afternoon session is from 1 pm to 3:30 pm. Feel free to join us for either or both.

Medicine Walk with Penelakut Elder, Augie Sylvester
2025-05-03 13:00 - 14:30 (America/Vancouver) | Millard Learning Centre, Galiano Island, 10825 Porlier Pass road, Galiano Island, British Columbia, V0N1P0, Canada
Important Event Update:
Over the weekend, Augie Sylvester was diagnosed with a respiratory infection, and will unfortunately be unable to lead the medicine walk on May 3. We wish him a full recovery and look forward to organizing a public walk with him in the near future!
In Augie’s place, Richard Jim has stepped forward to co-lead the medicine walk alongside the GCA’s Sustainable Food Systems coordinator Cedana Bourne. Richard is Augie’s nephew and son of the late Karen Charlie, who along with Augie planted the seeds for the Nuts’a’maat Forage Forest a decade ago, and will share traditional plant knowledge and stories carried within his family. Members of Augie’s family will be drumming and sharing stories and his vision for the revitalization of traditional knowledge of healing plants on Penelakut Island and beyond.
We hope you will still plan on joining us for an afternoon in this unique forest garden! If you no longer wish to attend, please let us know so we can offer your spot to another community member. We are committed to continuing to create opportunities for sharing knowledge, medicine, and food in the Nuts’a’maat Forage Forest as part of our new Restoring the Balance program.

As part of our new Restoring the Balance project, we are honoured to invite you to a special Medicine Walk led by Penelakut Elder and cultural knowledge-holder Augie Sylvester. This guided experience offers a rare chance to explore the Nuts’a’maat Forage Forest—the Indigenous plant garden at the Millard Learning Centre—through the lens of traditional plant medicine and long-held Indigenous cultural teachings.
Whether you’re just beginning to explore plant medicine or continuing a long-standing interest, this event offers meaningful insight into the rich relationship between people and plants in Coast Salish territory.
Space is limited to 32 participants, and due to very high interest, we encourage you to reserve your spot early. Tickets are by donation, and proceeds will directly support the continued sharing of traditional medicinal knowledge within the Penelakut Island community.

Reserve your ticket here!

If you’re unable to join this time, not to worry—we plan to offer more Medicine Walks in the near future as part of our commitment to honouring and learning from Indigenous knowledge systems. You can sign up for the waitlist on the ticketing platform to be notified the next time the workshop is offered.
Thanks to the Gencon Foundation and the Ecclesiastical Community Impact Grant for making this special event possible!

Volunteer First Friday - Nuts'a'maat Forage Forest
2025-05-02 09:30 - 15:30, 2025-04-04 09:30 - 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Millard Learning Centre, Galiano Island, 10825 Porlier Pass road, Galiano Island, British Columbia, V0N1P0, Canada
Every First Friday of the month, join us in the Nuts’a’maat Forage Forest to help tend to this unique ecocultural restoration garden. Activities include planting, weeding, harvesting, trail maintenance, and ecological monitoring. This is a great opportunity to learn more about traditional edible, medicinal, and fiber plants from our knowledgeable staff while contributing to the growth and development of a native forest garden.
Please get in touch to let us know you’ll be joining us! The morning volunteer session is from 9:30 am to noon; the afternoon session is from 1 pm to 3:30 pm. Feel free to join us for either or both.
This site is easily accessible from the parking area of the classroom facility at the Millard Learning Centre, so it’s a great place to get an introduction to our restoration program.

Volunteer Fourth Fridays - Trail Building
2025-04-25 09:30 - 15:30 (America/Vancouver) | British Columbia
On the Fourth Friday of the month, join us for trail building, across different GCA properties! This is a great opportunity to learn more about trail building techniques from our knowledgeable staff while helping to build and maintain the network of hiking trails.

Please get in touch to let us know you’ll be joining us! The morning volunteer session is from 9:30 am to noon; the afternoon session is from 1 pm to 3:30 pm. Feel free to join us for either or both.

Quadra Hill Forest Fest - POSTPONED
2025-04-19 10:30 - 16:00 (America/Vancouver) | Quadra Hill Nature Reserve, 1000 Melissa Road, Galiano Island, British Columbia, V0N 1P0, Canada
This event has been postponed, and will be rescheduled to the weekend of June 7-8th, to coincide with Make a Difference Week, in support of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Save the Date, we will be in touch soon with more details!
Please join us for our Community Friendly event hosted at the newly acquired property, Quadra Hill. The GCA and partners are excited to showcase the results of the forest restoration work that we completed in 2024. We will be touring examples of mature forest, unrestored plantation forest, and restored plantation forest. We’ll also be offering will be a Tree-Pulling workshop and a workshop on Assembling Nurse Logs, (see Wolftreeforesty.com to learn more). There will be fun activities for children, as well as snacks and hot drinks around the biochar kilns.
There will also be information on the preservation of healthy forests and fuel reduction on your land.

Reimagining Displaced Species - Multigenerational Crafting and Dialogue Workshop
2025-04-05 12:30 - 15:30 (America/Vancouver) | Millard Learning Centre, Galiano Island, 10825 Porlier Pass road, Galiano Island, British Columbia, V0N1P0, Canada
About the event

Join us for a creative afternoon at Reimagining Displaced Species, an intergenerational crafting and dialogue event on Saturday, April 5th, from 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM at the Millard Learning Centre. (10825 Porlier Pass Rd)
In collaboration with The Yellowhouse, we’ll transform introduced plant species into beautiful, handcrafted keychains—while exploring the deeper story of these species and their impact on our ecosystems.
This is a unique opportunity to blend art, ecology, and community in a hands-on, meaningful way. Spaces are limited—register now to secure your spot!
Joshua Ralph, the artist in residence in Yellowhouse, will be facilitating the crafting.
Joshua is an uninvited settler-occupier on the stolen and shared lands of the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, and Musqueam Nations. He is a community-engaged media and eco-artist interested in changed and changing ecologies, advocating for collaboration on the intersections between art-making and varied understandings of the “natural” world.
With a focus on digital compositing, his animated works have screened in dozens of venues internationally, including Ottawa International Animation Festival, Innsbruck Nature Film Festival, and Vaasa Wildlife Festival. He currently works professionally in the animation field and can often be found in the bushes partaking in environmental restoration volunteering or logging a cool bug on iNaturalist. https://joshuaralphart.com
This event is being held on the unceded, asserted & shared traditional territories of Penelakut, Lamalcha, Hwlitsum and other Hul’qumi’num and SENĆOŦEN speaking peoples, Coast Salish Peoples of Galiano, as well as the ceded territories of Tsawwassen First Nation, on what is now known as Galiano Island.
You can reserve your FREE ticket for this unique event HERE.

Galiano Volunteer Fair
2025-03-29 15:00 - 17:00 (America/Vancouver) | Galiano Community Hall (South End), 141 Sturdies Bay Rd, Galiano Island, British Columbia, V0N 1P0, Canada
Curious about volunteer & casual employment opportunities on Galiano? Stop by the Volunteer & Casual Employment Fair to chat and mingle with Galiano non-profit organizations! Refreshments will be provided, all are welcome!

Growing Old Growth - Free Evening Seminar
2025-03-26 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Vancouver) | Millard Learning Centre, Galiano Island, 10825 Porlier Pass road, Galiano Island, British Columbia, V0N1P0, Canada
About the event

Join Tal Engel of Wolftree Integrated Forest Rehabilitation as he shares methods he has developed to help dense young forests recover from a century of industrial forestry.
Wednesday, March 26th, beginning at 7:00 PM at the Millard Learning Centre. (10825 Porlier Pass Rd)
It is often said that “time heals all wounds.” But what if, for our second and third-growth Douglas-fir forests, time alone may not be enough?
What does it actually take to “grow” a healthy old-growth forest? In this talk, Tal Engel of WolfTree Integrative Forest Rehabilitation will share methods he has developed to help dense young forests recover from over a century of industrial forestry, and make the case for why the time for action is now.
Tal will deliver a 1 hour presentation, followed by a half-hour Q&A. GCA Restoration Coordinator Adam Huggins will join for the Q&A to answer questions about the GCA’s forest restoration projects. Light refreshments will be provided.
This event is being held on the shared, asserted, unceded and traditional territories of the Hul’qumi’num-speaking First Nations Peoples and those who hold traditional rights, responsibilities, and Indigenous rights and title in and around what is now known as Galiano Island.
About Tal
Tal is a forest restoration practitioner and regenerative farmer who lives in the Comox Valley, British Columbia. On his family’s farm, Honey Grove, he researches and develops forest restoration methods and models that his organization, WolfTree Integrative Forest Rehabilitation, applies throughout Eastern Vancouver Island. Tal is currently working on his master’s thesis in restoration ecology.

Millard Learning Centre - Closed to the Public
2025-03-07 08:00 - 2025-03-10 09:00 (America/Vancouver) | Millard Learning Centre, Galiano Island, 10825 Porlier Pass road, Galiano Island, British Columbia, V0N1P0, Canada
The Millard Learning Centre is *closed* to the public this Friday March 7 through Sunday May 9 while Penelakut hunters harvest deer on the property. It will re-open on Monday.
Want to learn more? Check out our website! https://galianoconservancy.ca/conservation/deer/
