James Island is one of the Southern Gulf Islands, lying in Haro Strait about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) off the coast of Vancouver Island and 12 miles (19 km) north of Victoria, British Columbia. In 1858 Captain George Henry Richards, aboard HMS Plumper, named the island for Sir James Douglas, a Hudson’s Bay Company fur trader and colonial administrator who became the first governor of the Colony of British Columbia. The island lies within the traditional territory of the Tsawout First Nation, whose residents were forcibly removed by the colonial government in 1904.

James Island lies within the coastal Douglas fir climate subzone, characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters. Its native vegetation has been considerably disturbed by land clearing for development, logging, and grazing by fallow deer. The island’s fallow deer descend from about 50 animals introduced in 1907 from the Chatsworth Estate in England. Since then the population has fluctuated sharply, particularly after severe winters, but density remains around one deer per acre (four per hectare).

James Spit is a recurved depositional feature in Cordova Channel, one of a series of narrow passages linking the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the Strait of Georgia. Substantial estuarine circulation occurs in this area, driven by runoff from several rivers, the largest being the Fraser River. Strong tidal flow in the channel drives the vertical and horizontal mixing that influences sediment erosion and transport, shaping depositional landforms such as James Spit. Read more here and here. Explore more of James Spit and Cordova Channel here: