Camp Barnard has been approved by Thrifty Foods for participation in their Smile Card program. I am sure you all know how it works. We can earn up to $1500 between now and April 2019 provided we can get enough of the cards into regular use. If you would like a card, please contact me and I will get one to you. If you can sign up any other friends or family members that is all good too. Thank you Thrifty Foods!!

Great food at camp is essential! Though we're not sure about the green pancakes! What's your favourite food at camp?

10th Garry Oak Beaver Scouts and Cub Scouts off to enjoy a winter ramble at Camp Barnard.

Continuing our efforts to preserve the natural environment at Camp Barnard, we are installing split-rail fences to restrict traffic to established roads and parking areas. Might seem like a small thing, but this will allow the underbrush to thrive and provide further habitat and keep the "wild" at Camp Barnard. All this work is being done by volunteers.

This annual fundraiser for Camp Barnard has a fascinating topic of "Canada and the Rapidly Changing Arctic Ocean: A Personal Perspective". Speaker Eddy C. Carmack is a Senior Research Scientist Emeritus for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans at the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, British Columbia, who first ventured into Canada’s Arctic in 1969. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the 2007 Massey medallist of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society, the 2010 Tully medalist for the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, and served as Sydney Chapman Chair at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, from 2006 to 2016. He was Chief Canadian scientist for co-operative studies of the subarctic North Pacific with Russia, for the 1994 Canada/US expedition to the North Pole, for recent international studies in the Northwest Passage and Canada Basin, and the ‘Canada’s Three Oceans’ project for the International Polar Year. Consider two facts. 1st, Canada is an Arctic Nation. We know that. 2nd, the Arctic is warming faster than any region on Earth, with sea ice loss and an accelerating hydrological system being the leading signals of change. We know that too. Taken together, we see that the world has been given a time machine, and it is called Canada. The non-linear future has indeed arrived on our northern shores, and this presents Canada with both a potential crisis and a potential opportunity. The ways in which we adopt and experiment with new policies to turn crisis into opportunity reflects on our wisdom as a caring society and our true – not token – concern for future generations. If we succeed in these experiments the world will pay attention. In this brief presentation I would like to look back on five decades of change, and then speculate five decades ahead on what may lie ahead. My conclusion is simple: Be Prepared; a lesson I was taught over 60 years ago.

Adult Leadership course making use of the newly renovated Keego Kitchen. Looks like everyone had a great time!

We’re working with biologists from Habitat Acquisition Trust in an effort to turn around the rapid decline in the Western Screech Owl population. The number of Screech Owls in the Greater Victoria region has fallen by 90 percent over the last 10 years! We’ve installed a number of nesting boxes and will be watching them closely – hoping some nesting pairs might discover that Camp Barnard has everything they need!

The 2018 Camp Barnard badges are here! This badge is a nod to the work being done by the Camp Barnard conservation team and Habitat Acquisition Trust. New nesting boxes have been installed around the camp to provide habitat for the Western Screech Owl. More information on this special resident of Camp Barnard at http://www.hat.bc.ca/western-screech-owls

New rates are now posted to our website. Be sure to check them out if you are budgeting for an upcoming camp. Space is booking fast especially for the summer, so book early to ensure you don't miss out.

Thanks to everyone who supported our Polar Bear Swim Fundraiser.