About The Friends of Uplands Park (FOUP)

Friends of Uplands Park Mission Statement:
To create opportunities for stewardship, education and inspiration.

Friends of Uplands Park Mandate:
a. Support initiatives for protecting the ecosystems of Uplands Park.
b. Educate our community on the natural and cultural history of Uplands Park.
c. Celebrate the creativity inspired by Uplands Park.
d. Facilitate research/documentation focusing on Uplands Park
e. Seek out local knowledge about Uplands Park.

Origins:
The idea of a Friends of Uplands Park (FOUP) was realized by a chance meeting between Margaret Lidkea and Kathleen Matthews, in Uplands Park, on November 8, 2009, during Oak Bay’s Annual Tree Appreciation Day event.

Margaret is well known for her work, as far back as 1993, in organizing Broom Bashes at Uplands Park with the Girl Guides, and, for her ongoing work with local schools where she shares her knowledge of the rare Garry Oak ecosystem found in Uplands Park.

With an equivalent long time passion for Uplands Park, Kathleen has enjoyed Uplands Park in so many ways, walking her dog, learning about the Uplands Park Garry Oak Meadows in the context of both the cultural and geological history, and, capturing the beauty and changing seasons with her camera.

By the time of our chance meeting, the desire to form a Friends of Uplands Park had been incubating independently, for a long time, with both Margaret and Kathleen. In 2009, Margaret was newly retired from her work with Swan Lake, and, Kathleen was one of the Directors in the Community Association of Oak Bay (CAOB) and held the portfolio responsible for environmental initiatives. The timing was opportune.

The formation of the Friends of Uplands Park has enjoyed the full support of the Community Association of Oak Bay. Friends of Uplands Park events have been announced on CAOB’s website.  FOUP has also been afforded the opportunity to contribute articles to the print edition of The Oak Bay Connector, CAOB’s newsletter that is published, 3-4 times a year, as an insert in the Oak Bay News. (The Oak Bay Connector is also available online as PDFs, with Uplands Park and FOUP event articles in: 1st edition; 4th edition; 6th edition; 7th edition).

Past Events (2009-2011):
FOUP, with support from CAOB, hosted the (first ever) Celebration of Uplands Park in April 2010.

In April 2011, FOUP and CAOB collaborated to host the (first ever) Oak Bay Earth Day Celebration, and the event was held at Uplands Park.

In addition to carrying on the tradition of the annual (October) Uplands Park Broom Bash, the Friends of Uplands Park have also hosted three Public Meetings.

In the fall of 2010, Dr. Brenda Beckwith (UVic) gave a presentation on the Garry Oak Meadow Ecosystem.

In February 2011, Darcy Mathews, a professional archaeologist and UVic PHD candidate (Anthropology) spoke about the First Nations Burial Cairns in Uplands Park.

In September 2011, a panel of 8 experts, including members from the Oak Bay Parks Department,  spoke about Uplands Park Now & in the Future.

Note from Kathleen Matthews, September 28-2015: This website/blog was created, on her own initiative, by Kathleen Matthews, Co-Founder of the Friends of Uplands Park. This website/blog was compiled and maintained, and edited/authored by Kathleen, during her time, as Co-Chair of the Friends of Uplands Park. Event posters were created by Margaret Lidkea, or partner organizations, and submitted to Kathleen for posting. Post event write-ups, were authored by Kathleen. Birding announcements were prepared by David Newell and submitted to Kathleen for posting. Most of the photos posted to this website/blog were taken by either Kathleen or Wayne Matthews, or otherwise attributed. The design and compilation of this website/blog is one of Kathleen’s personal volunteer contributions intended to honour and celebrate the work and accomplishments of all the volunteers involved with the Friends of Uplands Park and to share the knowledge and special nature of Uplands Park through photos and text. Kathleen stepped down as a Friends of Uplands Park Co-Chair, during the of Summer 2015, but will continue to curate this website/blog to ensure the history of the Friends of Uplands Park, and Uplands Park, during the period from 2009 through until September 2015, is available for the historical record. This website/blog, as a historical compilation, remains the responsibility of Kathleen Matthews. It is anticipated that a new Friends of Uplands Park website will continue to document and celebrate the activities of FOUP volunteers from October 2015 into the future. The forwarding link of the new FOUP website will be posted to this website/blog.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.