It is amazing just how hot those concrete-covered heat islands get, both at and above ground level. A comparison study was available at this weekend's Bowker Creek Brush-Up in Oak Bay: artists with tables set up in the sun were sweltering, while those only a few feet away in the shade of trees were putting on their sweaters. That's how powerful the effects of mature shade trees are on the liveability of a place, for wildlife as well as for humans. Imagine how the town would feel in summer with none of those trees.
The gulls seem to like the heat-radiating roofs but the denizens of Bowker Creek wouldn't like them at all: art lovers strolling along the creek were treated to dispays of mother ducks squawking loudly when two otters swam near the half-grown young, before slipping out of the water and nipping into the grassy undergrowth behind the creekbank. We're so lucky still to have vestiges of wildlife in the city, and to have folks like the Bowker Creek Initiative who work to keep the creek healthy.