Guide to Greats #3: Phyl Munday Nature House
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Nature is recycling...here you see a fire-swept stump, overturned root ball and split and rotting trees.
This cache is placed by Lions Area Girl Guides, girls and women from Pemberton to Squamish, from the Sunshine Coast to Deep Cove, dedicated to FUN, ADVENTURE and SERVICE! Each cache is filled with Girl Guide related items. Please bring your own crests and pins, and trade fair. Have you ever wondered about the Phyl Munday House, that elderly looking building down near the light station in the Park? It is one of several built during the Second World War to house the Canadian Armed Forces when there was fear of an attack from the Pacific. After the war, the buildings were used at various times by Junior Forest Wardens, West Van Parks for an office and nature room, and occasionally by Girl Guide leaders. Phyl (Phyllis) Munday was a well known mountaineer, naturalist and leader in the Girl Guide movement since its foundation in 1910. During the 1960s and 70s she inspired hundreds of girls and leaders with her nature workshops in Lighthouse Park. One memorable seashore workshop changed into an absorbing day studying the life of a nurse log, because Phyl stopped to examine one on the way to the beach! In the early 1980s, when the Municipal Nature House closed because of lack of funds, a small group of Guiders was granted permission to use one of the buildings on a permanent basis for Girl Guide nature training. The building was leased to Guiding at a nominal rent in 1985, and Phyl was asked if it could be named in her honour. By this time she was 91, living in a seniors’ home in Nanaimo, and still conducting nature walks for residents. She was delighted to have her name used. Nature training for Guiders continued from their new home in the Phyl Munday Nature House, and many Guide meetings, events and nature workshops ensued. Summer Saturday walks in the Park were conducted for the public, as building’s way of thanking the Municipality for use of the building. Work began on the Nature Room for the benefit of the girls, as well as Boy Scouts and school groups who visit the Park. Upon completion in 1991, the nature room was opened to the public on Sunday afternoons from 2-4 p.m. A painted mural around the walls gives the feeling of a walk through the park. Hands-on displays interpret Lighthouse Park’s natural elements. Birdlife, plants, insects, seashore, geology and forest ecology are brought to life with a bird song machine, a web of life table, animal tracks in the sand, and a nurse log with insect dioramas. There is a stuffed owl, an eagle and a sharp shinned hawk—raptors which children may not get close to in the wild. It’s a great place to bring children, to stop a while to see if you can identify birds from their silhouettes, or forest scents, or local shells. Do you know what can live in salt spray, and which plants are poisonous, or have medicinal value? South of the building you can view over 40 varieties of native plants, all labelled in our Native Plant Garden. Visit the Nature Room on Sundays 2-4 p.m. Walk through the native garden anytime. from the LIGHTHOUSE PARK PRESERVATION SOCIETY NEWSLETTER, 2004 by Daphne Hales, Chair, Phyl Munday Nature House Committee
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