Canada allegedly contains exactly one lonely desert, or maybe none at all. It depends on who you consult. They’ve also coined various names for the anomaly known colloquially as “Canada’s Pocket Desert” including Okanagan, Osoyoos and Nk’mip. Whatever the designation, it’s located adjacent to the Town of Osoyoos in southern British Columbia. So it sits just north of the United States border.
The Claim
Some of it might be marketing hype. Osoyoos (map) registered a trademark for its motto, Canada’s Warmest Welcome® in 2008. It stated via press release that it “was a play on the fact that Osoyoos has the country’s warmest climate and lake”. Also, the town tourism website made the claim. It alleged “Canada’s only true desert” and noted “very little rain or snow (12 inches or 30.5 cm a year).”
A Choice of Centres
The area even included two distinct Desert Centres. The nonprofit Osoyoos Desert Society operated its Osoyoos Desert Centre on the western side.
“The South Okanagan is home to one of the highest concentrations of rare and at-risk species in all of Canada. Through its conservation, restoration and education efforts, the Society strives to generate public knowledge, respect and active concern for these fragile and endangered ecosystems.”
The Osoyoos Desert Society seemed to take a solidly consistent position that they were protecting a true desert.
The Osoyoos Indian Band of the Okanagan Nation operated its Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre on the eastern side. However, this First Nations tribe hedged its bets about the status of the desert.
“Expecting to see tall cactus and sand dunes? Although we share the same dry conditions as Phoenix Arizona, and many desert dwellers such as prickly-pear cactus, scorpions, rattlesnakes and Canyon Wrens live on our site, the jury is still out about whether we are a true desert. What is a desert— low rainfall, hot weather, cactus? Osoyoos does have years with precipitation below 10 inches but we often have rainy and snowy spells which support areas of lush vegetation.”
So What Is It?
Whether its a true desert, semi-desert, shrub-steppe, Upper Sonoran — all terms used to describe the area by various sources — a more official designation might be Osoyoos Arid Biotic Zone. Desert or not, it’s quite small, quite rare and quite endangered.
I never concluded my thoughts about the controversy. It’s an interesting feature whether it’s an actual desert or not (and certainly more of a desert than England’s “Desert”). That’s when I spotted the nearby Anarchist Protected Area and lost interest.
Anarchists?
Anarchist Protected Area? Did Canadian anarchists require their own protected area? As it turned out, no they did not. Officials named the Anarchist Protected Area for nearby Anarchist Mountain (map).
British Columbia’s GeoBC cited two sources in its origin notes and history for Anarchist Mountain, including “BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC’s Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office”:
“Anarchist Mountain and Sidley were both named after Richard G. Sidley, an early settler and first postmaster at Sidley (1895), who, because he showed some brilliance, was appointed Justice of the Peace and Customs Officer (dates not cited). He held, for his time, somewhat advanced political views; he was often called an anarchist, and this plateau became known locally as ‘the anarchist’s mountain’. Local officialdom eventually relieved him of his posts.”
I loved that little throwaway comment at the end — “Local officialdom eventually relieved him of his posts” — like the settlers tolerated him for awhile until he finally got on their nerves. At least he still had his mountain.
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