Hosts Jacoline & Lance welcome you to Gabriola and to their B&B set on 6 acres of natural habitat, and views to the south, east and west that'll knock your socks off. Stunning! Sun rises and sun sets. Two beautifully appointed guest rooms are privately accessible. You'll feel you've left it all behind as relaxation and being with nature enfolds and refreshes you.

Ted Ramey, Ramey Systems, certified electrician on Gabriola completed work on my house, today. Thanks Ted & Wendy, for scheduling me into your days, being prompt and pleasant, making my ideas work, and even cleaning up. Work in the attic, and in the crawl space, up and around the house seemed no problem. Wow! I couldn't be happier.

Call Ted Ramey at 250-325-1919.

Currently we are in 10th position with 1100 votes yesterday!

As you may already know the proposed Gabriola Medical Clinic had reached the semi finals in a contest to receive up to $200,000 toward it's construction. All we need to do is keep it among the top 25 projects until voting ends on December 16 and our funding request will be considered by a panel of judges.

You can help! Please go Aviva Community Fund site
http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf3958 and cast your vote on a daily basis.

Please forward this message to all of your family & friends around the world, and to get them to vote!

They may also send a request for a "direct daily reminder and update list" from the Gabriola Health Care Foundation. email: nevamore@shaw.ca

Vote! Daily! Health Care Matters!

Jeff Rietkerk is an I.S.A. certified arborist on Gabriola Island and can be reached at arborist@telus.net.

Q: Can climbing vines, like English Ivy, harm trees?

A: English Ivy (Hedera helix and H. hibernica) is a common garden plant used as a ground cover and a sometimes as a climbing vine. Encouraged or on its own, ivy can climb high into a tree’s canopy, and grow year round for many years.

If left on its own under favorable conditions, such as our pacific northwest climate, it can take over a garden, or forest understory, and climb and cover a tree’s canopy until the tree can no longer photosynthesize.

Rarely does it reach this extreme ; stress from the sheer weight of the ivy and the increased wind profile it creates on a tree usually causes tree failure before this point.

Other climbing vines, such as Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa), can also reach high into tree canopies, and have been known to strangle and girdle young trees. It differs from ivy however, in that it does drop its leaves and die back slightly in winter. It is also a native plant, and doesn’t spread as uncontrolled as ivy.

Neither of these vines, or others suck as Virginia Creeper or Wisteria, will actually root into the tree, and draw from its flow of sap and nutrients, as is often suspected. Some will however, opportunistically root into decayed wood in the root zone of the host tree or along the trunk where the vine roots can find water and nutrients. This can often compound the decay in the tree.

The ivy will attach itself to the trunk of the tree with root like ‘suckers’ that form a tight bond with the bark. Often when the ivy is removed from the tree, even after the ivy is dead, it will rip the bark tissue off in the process.

English Ivy is considered an invasive plant with the Invasive Plant Council of B.C., and is considered by many to be an ecological nightmare in the pacific north west. Rapidly outcompeting native shrubs and ground covers, it can change soil characteristics and drainage for a garden and forest, and for a tree’s roots.

Ivy will spread rapidly on the ground, and as it climbs enters into another life phase, where the leaves change shape slightly, and the plant will flower and fruit. The fruit and seeds are eaten by birds, and the plant is spread far beyond the tree or structure the vine is climbing on.

Think twice about planting English Ivy in your garden, and letting it grow into your trees. It can harm your trees and forests.

Calling all voters, for a new Gabriola Health Care Clinic!

Our Health Care Society is about to build a permanent Heath Care Clinic on Gabriola Island. We have an opportunity for a sizable grant to help us with this. It takes just a daily click to vote.

Tell your friends. Vote daily. Let's get our permanent facility a'happening.

Just a daily vote to get support for a chance at the grant.

Let's make it happen.