Hike in Juniper on Scott Road
Kamloops Naturalist Club Juniper Ridge Outing on Saturday June 7th, 2025
Field Trip Report by Tom Dickinson
On Saturday June 10th about twenty people, including 11 non-cub members, met at the junction of Rosehill Road and Scott Road for an outing to the property above Juniper Ridge recently acquired by the BC. Parks Foundation.
Tom Dickinson acted as the trip leader and provided background about the property. The 517 acre property consists of old pastures and hayfields with patches of undeveloped grassland at the interface with the Douglas-Fir forest. The area is aptly named because it contains a large number of old Rocky Mountain Junipers on the north side, which borders the Juniper Ridge neighbourhood.
The weather was lovely, with temperatures in the mid-teens and a cloudless sky. The goal was to get to know more about the natural history of the area. Silky lupine blanketed many of the fields and there were patches of various native shrubs, including rabbitbrush, pasture sage, snowberry, wax currant, along with lots of blanket flower. We had sightings of Red-tailed and Swainson’s hawks, Mountain Bluebirds and Tree Swallows, Western Meadowlarks, Vesper, Savannah and Clay-colored Sparrows in the grass and Warbling Vireos and Western Tanagers in the aspen stands. In places where past disturbance had been extensive, noxious weeds, especially spotted knapweed, were abundant
How the property should be managed was discussed, with a consensus reached that KNC should be part of the ongoing work!