Saanich Peninsula
Encyclopedia
The Saanich Peninsula is located north of Victoria, British Columbia
, Canada
. It is bounded by the Saanich Inlet
on the west, and various straits of the Gulf of Georgia on the east, chiefly Haro Strait
The exact southern boundary of what is referred to as the "Saanich Peninsula" is somewhat fluid in local parlance.
Lying in the rain shadow
of both the Vancouver Island Ranges
and the Olympic Mountains
, the Saanich Peninsula is the driest part of Vancouver Island
. The driest recording station in the provincial capital city of Victoria averages only 635 millimeters of precipitation annually. Precipitation increases from east to west, and from south to north.
Many different kinds of bedrock
underlie the peninsula. Sandstone
is common at the northern end. Granodiorite
crops out in many northern and central areas. Amphibolite
, diorite
, gabbro
and quartz diorite
are common in the south. Smaller areas of andesite
, basalt
, chert
, dacite
and limestone
are also found.
The region is the historical homeland of the Coast Salish
people. Several First Nations
reserves
are located on the peninsula, predominantly along the shore of Saanich Inlet. Early European settlers arrived in the mid-nineteenth century, pursuing mainly resource-based economic activities such as logging
, fishing
, and — most notably — agriculture
. The peninsula is home to the oldest agricultural exhibition in western Canada, the Saanich Fair, sponsored by the North and South Saanich Agricultural Society. In more recent decades, residential and commercial development has become widespread on the peninsula, although provincial law protects much of the region's farmland from rezoning
. The peninsula is also home to many wilderness parks.
The natural flora
of the region include mixed forests of Douglas-fir
, western red cedar, hemlock
, arbutus
, Garry oak
, and manzanita
. The ground cover includes snowberry, Oregon-grape
, salal
, sword fern, trillium
, and fawn lily
. The peninsula is characterised by rolling hills and numerous freshwater ponds and lakes. Notable natural features of the Saanich Peninsula include Elk Lake, Beaver Lake, Mount Newton, Bear Hill, Tod Inlet, Mount Finlayson, Prospect Lake, Durrance Lake, and Mount Work. Many of these features are protected in regional and municipal parks. The peninsula is also the location of the Swartz Bay
terminal of the BC Ferry Corporation
, the Victoria International Airport
, the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory
, and the Butchart Gardens
.
The following municipalities are located on the peninsula of Greater Victoria/Capital Regional District/(CRD):
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It is bounded by the Saanich Inlet
Saanich Inlet
Saanich Inlet is a body of salt water that lies between the Saanich Peninsula and the Malahat highlands of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Located just northwest of Victoria, the inlet is 24 km long , has a surface area of 65 km2 , and its maximum depth is 225 m . Great...
on the west, and various straits of the Gulf of Georgia on the east, chiefly Haro Strait
Haro Strait
Haro Strait, often referred to as the Haro Straits because it is really a series of straits, is one of the main channels connecting the Strait of Georgia to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, separating Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands in British Columbia, Canada from the San Juan Islands of...
The exact southern boundary of what is referred to as the "Saanich Peninsula" is somewhat fluid in local parlance.
Lying in the rain shadow
Rain shadow
A rain shadow is a dry area on the lee side of a mountainous area. The mountains block the passage of rain-producing weather systems, casting a "shadow" of dryness behind them. As shown by the diagram to the right, the warm moist air is "pulled" by the prevailing winds over a mountain...
of both the Vancouver Island Ranges
Vancouver Island Ranges
The Vancouver Island Ranges, formerly called the Vancouver Island Mountains, is a mountain range extending along the length of Vancouver Island which has an area of 31,788 km² . The Vancouver Island Ranges comprise the central and largest part of the island...
and the Olympic Mountains
Olympic Mountains
The Olympic Mountains is a mountain range on the Olympic Peninsula of western Washington in the United States. The mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are not especially high - Mount Olympus is the highest at - but the western slopes of the Olympics rise directly out of the Pacific...
, the Saanich Peninsula is the driest part of Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
. The driest recording station in the provincial capital city of Victoria averages only 635 millimeters of precipitation annually. Precipitation increases from east to west, and from south to north.
Many different kinds of bedrock
Bedrock
In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...
underlie the peninsula. Sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
is common at the northern end. Granodiorite
Granodiorite
Granodiorite is an intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase than orthoclase-type feldspar. Officially, it is defined as a phaneritic igneous rock with greater than 20% quartz by volume where at least 65% of the feldspar is plagioclase. It usually contains abundant...
crops out in many northern and central areas. Amphibolite
Amphibolite
Amphibolite is the name given to a rock consisting mainly of hornblende amphibole, the use of the term being restricted, however, to metamorphic rocks. The modern terminology for a holocrystalline plutonic igneous rocks composed primarily of hornblende amphibole is a hornblendite, which are...
, diorite
Diorite
Diorite is a grey to dark grey intermediate intrusive igneous rock composed principally of plagioclase feldspar , biotite, hornblende, and/or pyroxene. It may contain small amounts of quartz, microcline and olivine. Zircon, apatite, sphene, magnetite, ilmenite and sulfides occur as accessory...
, gabbro
Gabbro
Gabbro refers to a large group of dark, coarse-grained, intrusive mafic igneous rocks chemically equivalent to basalt. The rocks are plutonic, formed when molten magma is trapped beneath the Earth's surface and cools into a crystalline mass....
and quartz diorite
Quartz diorite
Quartz diorite is an igneous, plutonic rock, of felsic composition, with phaneritic texture. Feldspar is present as plagioclase with 10% or less potassium feldspar. Quartz is present at between 5 to 20% of the rock. Biotite, amphiboles and pyroxenes are common dark accessory...
are common in the south. Smaller areas of andesite
Andesite
Andesite is an extrusive igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between basalt and dacite. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende. Magnetite,...
, basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
, chert
Chert
Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline, cryptocrystalline or microfibrous sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. It varies greatly in color , but most often manifests as gray, brown, grayish brown and light green to rusty red; its color is an expression of trace elements...
, dacite
Dacite
Dacite is an igneous, volcanic rock. It has an aphanitic to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. The relative proportions of feldspars and quartz in dacite, and in many other volcanic rocks, are illustrated in the QAPF diagram...
and limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
are also found.
The region is the historical homeland of the Coast Salish
Coast Salish
Coast Salish languages are a subgroup of the Salishan language family. These languages are spoken by First Nations or Native American peoples inhabiting the territory that is now the southwest coast of British Columbia around the Strait of Georgia and Washington state around Puget Sound...
people. Several First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
reserves
Indian reserve
In Canada, an Indian reserve is specified by the Indian Act as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." The Act also specifies that land reserved for the use and benefit of a band which is not...
are located on the peninsula, predominantly along the shore of Saanich Inlet. Early European settlers arrived in the mid-nineteenth century, pursuing mainly resource-based economic activities such as logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
, fishing
Fishery
Generally, a fishery is an entity engaged in raising or harvesting fish which is determined by some authority to be a fishery. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats,...
, and — most notably — agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
. The peninsula is home to the oldest agricultural exhibition in western Canada, the Saanich Fair, sponsored by the North and South Saanich Agricultural Society. In more recent decades, residential and commercial development has become widespread on the peninsula, although provincial law protects much of the region's farmland from rezoning
Zoning
Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...
. The peninsula is also home to many wilderness parks.
The natural flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
of the region include mixed forests of Douglas-fir
Douglas-fir
Douglas-fir is one of the English common names for evergreen coniferous trees of the genus Pseudotsuga in the family Pinaceae. Other common names include Douglas tree, and Oregon pine. There are five species, two in western North America, one in Mexico, and two in eastern Asia...
, western red cedar, hemlock
Tsuga
Tsuga is a genus of conifers in the family Pinaceae. The common name hemlock is derived from a perceived similarity in the smell of its crushed foliage to that of the unrelated plant poison hemlock....
, arbutus
Arbutus
Arbutus is a genus of at least 14 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to warm temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, and North America.-Description:...
, Garry oak
Garry Oak
Quercus garryana, the Garry Oak, Oregon White Oak or Oregon Oak, has a range from southern California to extreme southwestern British Columbia, particularly southeastern Vancouver Island and the adjacent Gulf Islands. It grows from sea level to 210 m altitude in the northern part of its range, and...
, and manzanita
Manzanita
Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus Arctostaphylos. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from southern British Columbia, Washington to California, Arizona and New Mexico in the United States, and...
. The ground cover includes snowberry, Oregon-grape
Oregon-grape
Oregon-grape is an evergreen shrub related to the barberry. Some authors place Mahonia in the barberry genus, Berberis...
, salal
Salal
Gaultheria shallon is a leathery-leaved shrub in the heather family , native to western North America. In English it is known as salal, shallon, or in Britain simply Gaultheria.-Ecology:...
, sword fern, trillium
Trillium
Trillium is a genus of about 40–50 species of spring ephemeral perennials, native to temperate regions of North America and Asia....
, and fawn lily
Erythronium
Erythronium is a genus of 20-30 species of spring-flowering perennial plants with long, tooth-like bulbs and attractive pendant flowers, native to forest and meadow in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.-Species:-Uses:The bulb is edible as a root vegetable, cooked or dried, and can be...
. The peninsula is characterised by rolling hills and numerous freshwater ponds and lakes. Notable natural features of the Saanich Peninsula include Elk Lake, Beaver Lake, Mount Newton, Bear Hill, Tod Inlet, Mount Finlayson, Prospect Lake, Durrance Lake, and Mount Work. Many of these features are protected in regional and municipal parks. The peninsula is also the location of the Swartz Bay
Swartz Bay, British Columbia
Swartz Bay, located on the north end of the Saanich Peninsula on Vancouver Island, is primarily known for being the location of one of BC Ferries' main terminals, the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal. Swartz Bay was named after a man named Swart - i.e. it was meant to be Swart's Bay.-External links:...
terminal of the BC Ferry Corporation
BC Ferries
British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. or BC Ferries is a de facto Crown Corporation that provides all major passenger and vehicle ferry services for coastal and island communities in the Canadian province of British Columbia...
, the Victoria International Airport
Victoria International Airport
Victoria International Airport serves Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It is north northwest of the city, in North Saanich, quite close to the town of Sidney on the Saanich Peninsula...
, the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory
Dominion Astrophysical Observatory
The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, located on Observatory Hill, in Saanich, British Columbia, was completed in 1918 by the Canadian government. Proposed and designed by John S...
, and the Butchart Gardens
Butchart Gardens
The Butchart Gardens is a group of floral display gardens in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, Canada, located near Victoria on Vancouver Island. The gardens receive more than a million visitors each year...
.
The following municipalities are located on the peninsula of Greater Victoria/Capital Regional District/(CRD):
- Central SaanichCentral Saanich, British ColumbiaCentral Saanich is a district municipality in Greater Victoria and a member municipality of the Capital Regional District. It is located on the Saanich Peninsula. The district began as a farming community, and many hobby farms, along with a handful of small working farms and vineyards, still exist...
(containing the villages of Brentwood BayBrentwood Bay, British ColumbiaBrentwood Bay, is a small neighbourhood in the municipality of Central Saanich, on the Saanich Peninsula. It lies north of the city of Victoria and south of Sidney on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Situated on the Saanich Inlet, it includes the Butchart Gardens, the Victoria Butterfly...
and SaanichtonSaanichton, British ColumbiaSaanichton, British Columbia is a village, in the municipality of Central Saanich, located between Victoria and the BC Ferry Terminal, west of the Pat Bay Highway , at the junction of Mount Newton Cross Road and East Saanich Road.-Climate:...
) - Highlands (the northern and eastern portions)
- North SaanichNorth Saanich, British ColumbiaNorth Saanich is located on the Saanich Peninsula, approximately 25 km north of Victoria, British Columbia on southern Vancouver Island...
- SaanichSaanich, British ColumbiaThe District of Saanich is a municipality on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. It is located north of the provincial capital, Victoria. It has a population of 108,265 people, making it the most populous municipality on Vancouver Island, and the seventh most populous in the province...
(the northern portions) - SidneySidney, British ColumbiaSidney is a town located at the northern end of the Saanich Peninsula, on Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of the 13 Greater Victoria municipalities. It has a population of approximately 11,300. Sidney is located just east of Victoria International Airport,...