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A visit to the Richmond Nature Park is akin to stepping back in time. And it's often described this way by park interpreters.

But, better, the park represents a period continuum--an environment emerging from the last ice age 25,000 years ago meizitang strong version that--affected by ever-changing ecology, has evolved into what exists today.

Relaxing in her office within the 200-acre park, geographically almost exactly in the centre of the island, co-ordinator Kristine Bauder is encompassed by a unique blend of nature that has largely disappeared from a lot of the rest of Richmond.

"Up to half of Richmond used to be bog, a peculiar sort of wet land that is typically present in much colder regions," she says. "It's also known as an arctic remnant."

Bog began to spawn on Lulu Island about 8,000 years ago, following a development of the delta that formed because the ice began retreating. It took too long for the delta lands to rise sufficient to create the stage of early plant growth and some deposition of soil and organic matter.

"Lulu Island didn't exist prior to the last (ice) age," says Bauder. "The plate we're sitting on was actually pushed down by ice weight and where Richmond has become was actually underneath the ocean. As the ice melted the weight was lifted and also the land began to rise again, and the sentiments from the retreating glacier washed down stream. It's why we have Lulu Island in the mouth of the Fraser River in which the fresh and brine merged."

The first stuff that would have grown around the emerging islands would likely have been much like what you might find today around the outer edges of Richmond, still affected by the ocean tide. Bauder says the soft soil conditions and wave action would have gone on thousands of years before enough sediment accumulated, together with increasingly drier conditions, to set happens for an additional community of plants to tolerate the changing conditions. Eventually enough water--that wasn't being washed away through the tide--accumulated in the centre of the island that a keystone species inside a bog began springing up. Sphagnum moss typically grows only in colder areas, such as those found today in the Yukon, with an average temperature Ten to fifteen degrees Celsius cooler compared to the low Mainland.

A spongy, extremely slow-growing plant, sphagnum doesn't seem like much but Bauder says it greatly influences its immediate community producing an acidic-like environment (dead sphagnum, also referred to as peat) which is well suited for growing cranberries and blueberries for which Richmond well known. Even though it is still not unusual at the nature park, its presence is rapidly diminishing.

"We're seeing some real alterations in the bog within the last 20 years, and we're losing some altogether," says Bauder. "We haven't seen seen any sun dew in three years, a result of many factors together with a dropping level."

Where bog is typical inside a cold environment such as the Yukon and Northwest Territories, says Bauder, this far south it's rare. But as it began to warm here following the ice age, the wet, squishy-like conditions where water pooled and remained undisturbed for centuries, proved to be a perfect breeding ground.

"We have wonderful peat soils in Richmond due to the fact this area was once largely bog," says Bauder. "But, as a result of a mix of things, regretfully I believe we're going to lose a lot of the bogs, not only on Lulu Island but through the Fraser River low lands.

"Richmond is being heavily affected by human activity, and we are the only city in Canada that has a dyke around its entire circumference. To have a thriving bog you need a very high water table, and throughout Richmond that's being reduced."

As humans, we have a huge desire to want to preserve things because they were, which Bauder says in part explains the attraction towards the bog habitat that can help to define the character park. She credits the vision and resolution of a passionate group of people in the early 1960s for the nature park's existence. In 1962 the citizens encouraged the town to think about acquiring 217 acres of federal land for park use. It took until 1968, however, when Will Paulik, secretary from the Richmond Rod & Gun Club, co-authored and submitted an offer for the utilisation of the land that plans finally started to take shape for that nature park. Today, the Richmond Nature Park is among only two such centres--the other being the Lynn Valley Ecology Centre in North Vancouver--in the Lower Mainland.

"With the value of land and it is insufficient availability, to possess a big piece of land such as this is important," says Bauder, who with colleagues is resolved to continue to help make the nature park relevant to residents and future generations.

Bauder says the park averages about 80,000 visits per year, with many of these including a visit to the character zi xiu tang slimming capsule house interpretation centre. She says besides a well-established and popular series of education programs, and lots of visits from elementary school classes, a lot more individuals are visiting the park after school hours.

"It's becoming the backyard for a lot of people and that is a brand new new angle for us to explore," she says. "We're looking to perhaps change our play area making it more welcoming for families, and to provide even more for children to do--encouraging them to explore after that."