Coastal Vesper Sparrow, oil on panel, 12" diameter, 2025.

Coastal Vesper Sparrow, oil on panel, 12″ diameter, 2025.

Coastal Vesper Sparrow
The Coastal Vesper Sparrow is a rare subspecies of the Vesper Sparrow, listed as endangered in Canada since 2006. Its remaining habitat is limited to coastal grasslands in southwestern British Columbia and the U.S. Pacific Northwest—areas shrinking under development, invasive plants, and the loss of Garry oak ecosystems. These sparrows nest on the ground and rely on open grasslands with a few taller trees to perch for singing and defending territory. One of the last known breeding sites in Canada is at the Nanaimo Airport (Environment Canada, 2014), emphasizing how precarious their habitat has become. Surveyors often mark lot lines, trees for removal, or proposed subdivisions with pink ribbons—early signals that more changes to these landscapes may be on the way.

The painting invites us to think about what emerges when habitats are altered, fragmented, or rebuilt. Rather than taxonomies of traditional species, it considers the creation of new species of what is left over—forms that result from disturbance, construction debris, plastics, altered soils, invasive growth, and other remnants of human activity. These “afterlives” of materials and ecologies offer a way to see how land continues to evolve, even under pressure, becoming layered with traces of both natural and human-made forces.

When we place the endangered sparrow within this framework, its story becomes part of a larger question about the future of shared habitats: what disappears, what adapts, and what entirely new forms might take shape. The bird’s vulnerability reveals not only what we risk losing but also how our decisions today shape the kinds of multispecies futures—whether diminished, regenerative, or unexpected—that will emerge from the landscapes we alter.
On exhibition at:
Deck the Walls XVI
December 13-23, 2025
Madrona Gallery
606 View Street