Open House

Photo of The Root Seller - MICS Offic on 2nd Floor

The Conservancy's office is upstairs at the Root Seller
Photo credit: Toby Snelgrove
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The Conservancy's staff the moved in to their space on the second floor of the Root Seller early in January. This was a lengthy process of "centralising" various assets acquired over the years from several locations on the island. At last! A place to store tools, supplies and display materials as well as space for three or more staff to work.

In addition to office and storage the second floor of the old bed & breakfast location allows the Conservancy to make available a resource library to the community. The "Mary Jeffrey Room" houses an extensive collection of printed materials, artifacts and exhibits on conservation themes relevant to the Southern Gulf Islands. Visitors will also find lots of information on all the Conservancy's current projects & activities. We are generally open three days a week but the room is available any time staff are on site. Give us a call at (250) 539-5168 before dropping over just to be sure that we are there.

Open House 2012

On Saturday April 21st from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm MICS' office on the second floor of the Root Seller was open to the community. Many of our supporters came by and had healthy snack and talked to the Conservancy's staff and directors about our projects and programs and they had a good look around the Mary Jeffery Room's resource collection, so named in honour of the late Mary Jeffery

Mary was born in North Vancouver and spent her teaching career in the interior of BC, sometimes in remote communities, retiring to Mayne from Salmon Arm in 1970. Her property on Maple Drive, overlooking Active Pass, was filled with flowers and birds. Mary was a keen naturalist, photographer and international traveler. In her later years, she took part in many Elderhostel programs, traveling all over the world. When she returned to Mayne, she would always have a slide show of exotic landscapes, beautiful flora and interesting new birds to show to her friends.

Mary Jeffery died on March 12, 1997. She remains greatly missed by her friends and, most particularly, by Joan Drummond who is owner of the Conservancy's new home at the Root Seller. Marie Elliott, who was Mary's neighbour, wrote an obituary published in the MayneLiner of April of that year, which reads in part:

"By kind words and good deeds most of us hope to leave this world a better place than we found it. Mary has taken this ideal one step further by purchasing and donating 43 acres on Mayne [part of Mount Parke]...The land is densely forested and shelters many of the birds that she loved to identify on island walks."