Reginald and Alice Lohr and family immigrated from Tierra del Fuego, Chile. They moved to their little country house in 1914. The house was originally built in 1903. The Lohrs expanded the home adding two bedrooms.
The windmill that stands on the property was brought from an abandoned farm in Alberta. The windmill was transported by truck in three pieces and reconstructed on this site. It was used to water the gardens of the Hopkins family who purchased the home in 1964.
The house on Lohr Road is included in the Saanich “Prospect Lake: Heritage Walking Tour” pamphlet, item # 16. Please note: there are no sidewalks on this route; and all residences on the tour are privately owned. Please remain on public property during your tour and respect the privacy of residents.
The Lohr family has the honour of having a road named after their family in recognition of their military service. Three of Mrs. Alice Lohr’s sons served during World War I. The elder sons, Harold and Alfred, served overseas. Harold returned, suffering from the effects of mustard gas. Alfred died in action, and was buried in France.
Jan 7th, 2016:
Approaching Lohr Road on the right, driving south along Prospect Lake Road.
Note the pile of weeds FTCW have removed, in front of second rock from the left.
Lohr Road Plant list:
Forbs [a forb (sometimes spelled phorb) is a herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grasses, sedges and rushes).]
Yarrow Achillea millefolium
Pearly everlasting Anaphalis margaritacea
Red columbine Aquilegia formosa
Mountain sneezeweed Helenium autumnale ssp. grandiflorum
Cow parsnip Heracleum maximum
Self-heal Prunella vulgaris ssp. lanceolata
Hedge nettle Stachys chamissonis
Douglas’ aster Symphyotricum subspicatum
Graminoids [refers to a herbaceous plant with a grass-like morphology, i.e. elongated culms with long, blade-like leaves (grasses, sedges and rushes). They are contrasted to forbs, herbaceous plants without grass-like features.
California brome blue wildrye Bromus carinatus
Tufted hairgrass Deschampsia cespitosa
Tufted hairgrass Elymus glaucus
Shrubs [ a shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized woody plant. It is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 6 m tall.]
Red-osier dogwood Cornus stolonifera
Oceanspray Holodiscus discolor
Hairy honeysuckle Lonicera hispidula
Black twinberry Lonicera involucrata
Salmonberry Rubus spectabilis
Red elderberry Sambucus racemosa
Hardhack Spiraea douglasii
- Saanich Native Plants is a plant nursery specializing in locally-sourced plants and seeds native to southern Vancouver Island.
- Visit their web site at: http://www.saanichnativeplants.com
Notes from FTCW Monday mornings, see Whitehead Park notes also:
Nov 2015
23 November, 2015: Audrey and Mary checked out the work done of Saturday. Evergreen and friends planted everything they had, hardhack, ninebark, salmonberry and several Doug fir. It looks great. After checking that out and talking to a woman who may join us some time, we went down to Lohr Road. We have been dying to get at the thistles down there. When we got there we realized it will take several days to get the invasives out. There are blackberries as well as the thistles. The digging is mostly very easy due to the quantity of mulch that was spread before planting. We left a big pile which I will ask Saanich to pick up. It was so exciting we worked for almost 2 hours.
30 November, 2015: Left a note on our sandwich board at the park to say we were down at Lohr Road and carried on from where we were last Monday. We were glad we left the note because two Saanich Parks people saw it and came and joined us. As always that made a big difference. Saanich had taken last week’s invasives and Saanich Parks will take today’s. It is great to see all the natives planted a year ago flourishing in spite of the competition. They will spread even farther next year. Worked 2 hours with Saanich.
Dec 2015
7 December, 2015: Mary left the sign at Whitehead and we went to Lohr Road. We are working our way in sections from the road side to the creek. The black berries are well rooted at the top of the old retaining wall by the creek. We are probably not getting out the main root, but we are doing a good job of knocking them back and removing all the tip roots. It is fun to be working in such an exposed place as we chat with passersby. Mrs. Meek said she will join us sometime. Audrey and Mary 1 ½ hours.
14 December, 2015: Returned to Lohr Road to find our tarp gone and the contents dumped on the ground. That is very annoying as it makes things harder to pick up and leaves more seeds behind. Mary had asked Saanich to wait on the pick up as we will finish this week and it means only one pick up for them instead of two. Oh well. Audrey and Mary had a great time finishing up the weeding. We worked right to the edge of the raging creek and neither of us fell in. It is very satisfying to see the area cleared even though we know plenty of seeds will happily sprout in the spring. A very satisfying 2 hours in spite of the missing tarp. We decided to take the next two weeks off.
Summer 2016
Spring and summer have brought us success with many of the plants here, and across Prospect Lake Road, along the sidewalk, creekside. We have labelled many of the plants at these three sites, and have received comments and compliments regarding our success and our labels. Next time you walk by, enjoy our successful microgardens and see what grows best where.
Lohr Road 2018
Coho salmon released into Tod Creek, at Lohr Road site. 26th Jan 2018.
PIT tagging Coho [to be released March 15th at Lohr Road and the DND Land].
“Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags help scientists track individual organisms by providing a reliable lifetime ‘barcode’ for each individual [fish]…
Small device used to insert PIT tags.
A PIT tag consists of an integrated circuit chip, capacitor, and antenna coil encased in glass (Roussel et al. 2000). PIT tags vary in size and shape depending on the study animal. Generally, tags are cylindrical in shape, about 8-32 mm long, and 1-4 mm in diameter…
Essentially, PIT tags act as a lifetime barcode for an individual animal, analogous to a Social Security number and, provided they can be scanned, are as reliable as a fingerprint (Gibbons & Andrews 2004)…
To activate the tag, a low-frequency radio signal is emitted by a scanning device that generates a close-range electromagnetic field. The tag then sends a unique alpha-numeric code back to the reader (Keck 1994). Scanners are available as handheld, portable, battery-powered models and as stationary, automated models that are usually used for automated scanning…
they just need to pass by an automated reading system antenna.”
May 6th
Finishing up at Lohr Road for now. Roads crew were painting the bridge railings the other day. When asked about the mowing, they said that they need to do that for safety. I pointed out how we were working to maintain the native plants.
