A Glance at Ruckle Provincial park

At the heart of Salt Spring Island, overlooking the Swanson Channel, Ruckle Provincial Park offers 529 hectares of idyllic recreation, conservation and cultural values.

Ruckle Provincial Parks features eight vehicle accessible campsites, as well as 78 unique and picturesque walk-in or bike-in campsites, many situated right on the ocean's edge. The park is popular with both locals and visitors to Salt Spring Island, receiving over 100,000 visitors per year. The mixture of forest, field and shore habitat make wildlife viewing in the park very productive. Visitors can catch sight of sea lions and orca frolicking in the ocean, and mink and river otter cavorting along the shore. In addition, tidal pools offer a window into the brightly coloured world of crab, mussel, limpet, oyster, sculpin, starfish and more.

For scuba divers, the park is a paradise of marine life. Castle-like staghorn bryozoans and caves are ideal for underwater exploring, while the ocean floor is host to a profusion of Plumose and Dahlia anemones, sponges, nudibranches, octopus, seastars and giant barnacles. On shore, birders can view cormorants, grebes, guillemots, eagles, grouse or quail.

In addition to its natural beauty, Ruckle Park is an area rich in cultural history. Ruckle park is within the territory of Chemainus First Nation, Cowichan Tribes, Halalt First Nation, Lake Cowichan First Nation, Lyackson First Nation and Penelakut First Nation (all members of the Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group); the Pauquaachin First Nations, Tsartlip Indian Band, Tsawout First Nations and Tseycum Indian Band (all members of the North Saanich Bands); Malahat Indian Band; and the Tsawwassen First Nation. The area was traditionally used for such purposes as shellfish gathering, camas harvesting and even settlement. There are 16 archaeological sites on record within Ruckle Provincial Park.

The area also has a proud family history, one which explains how the park was named. In 1872, Irish immigrant Henry Ruckle first built his homestead here and in 1877, he married Ella Anna Christensen in 1877. Their descendants are still farming here. In 1973, 491 hectares of land was purchased from the Ruckle family and established as a Class "A" provincial park in 1974. Ruckle Provincial Park bears the family name as a tribute. A life tenancy over the working farm section of the park was granted to the Ruckle family at the time of park establishment. They still raise sheep on the private land at the entrance to the campground, and family members still oversee the private buildings for their own use. The Ruckle Farm is the oldest continually operating farm in British Columbia.

These days, Ruckle Park is one of the largest provincial parks in the Gulf Islands and protects a mosaic of wetlands, flowering Garry oak meadows, old forest, and shoreline habitats. Strong tidal currents create the environment for rich kelp forests offshore. Kelp forests are important feeding areas for fish and attract many birds and mammals. Endangered and threatened species on land include Macoun's meadowfoam, Nutall's quillwort, sedges and the western screech owl. Habitation for the rare brittle prickly-pear cactus and northern alligator lizard is also protected.