Looking back, in 2024, at 70-years I was 25, alternating between stints of attending university and living on hippie farms, when I left North Carolina, where I’d grown up. Travelling in a 1969 Chevy II, I headed west, then north, and stopped in BC’s Northern Rocky Mountains. There, I stayed for 10-years living a bush-life, being married, and having kids. In 1990, foot loose again, I moved south, re-entered university, and as a graduate student spent 8 summers doing lake research in the western Arctic. With a Ph.D. in limnology (the study of inland waters), I had a mid-life career in aquatic science research that took me to lakes all over Canada. About fifteen years ago, I visited Salt Spring Island by sailboat, and soon after bought a small home on a hill with a glimpse of the sea through the forest. At 70, my rhythm is gardening, cycling, and swimming through Salt Spring summers, and skiing, swimming, and hanging out with daughters, grandsons, add a granddaughter through northern winters.
In the Salt Spring Library, you will find my science papers on local lakes, and a memoir about life in the north:
- A booklet Summary of Six Reports Gulf Island Lakes: New Work 2014-20 On Salt Spring’s St. Mary, Cusheon, & Blackburn and Cortes’ Hague & Gunflint, British Columbia, Canada by Maggie Squires, Ph.D. & Drew Bodaly, Ph.D.
- A collection of six full-length papers Gulf Island Lakes: New Work 2014-20 On Salt Spring’s St. Mary, Cusheon, & Blackburn and Cortes’ Hague & Gunflint, British Columbia, Canada by Maggie Squires and Drew Bodaly. The collection of reports is housed in the library’s reference collection.
- A memoir A Wild Life and a Dog Called Brown is a 30,000-word memoir set in the remote mountains of northern BC and southern Yukon that shows how a dog taught my fiercely independent daughter Rose about interdependence and kinship. The book is a tribute to a puppy, adopted with hesitation, who became a faithful, loving, supportive companion to Rose and ‘his’ people—a group of strong, independent ‘sisters’ bonded by a love of the mountains, rugged living, and Brown.
Coming next: A Nature Guide for the Liard River Hotsprings with Stories About Living in BC’s Liard River Valley.