The 2009 tree planting season starts early. To ensure that tree orders can be filled Ferguson Forest Center likes to have are orders in the fall. The BRWP runs a 50/50 cost incentive program for qualified participants. Information on our program can be found at /category/programs/tree-planting/. Over the past couple years the BRWP has help many Bonnechere River Land owners plant thousands of trees! Our main goal is to “Green Up the Bonnechere” and keep it green for generations to come! If you are interested in applying to take part in this program please contact us.
You will notice in the side bar to the left that there is a new section with called Related Links. Val one of our Watershed residents has posted a couple pictures on the Rural Ramble website of the shores of the Bonnechere take a moment to check out these beautiful pictures! Thanks Val!
If any of you are Facebook users, the BRWP has a facebook group ‘Bonnechere River Watershed Project’. Everyone is welcome to join, add pictures, share stories, dicsuss issues or connect with others who are live in or are interested in the watershed. I’m still working on the site more info will be added.
-Amanda
The busy summer kept me from posting but I hope to be back posting regularly.
This week I will be focusing on tying up loose ends from the summer including writing up reports, applying for funding that I had trouble finding time for and catching up with some reading.
On Thursday I will be attending a session for Algonquin College which links local environmental organizations with groups of students who are looking to do group projects for credit. I hope to have a group work with the BRWP on either developing a landowner workshop series or looking more in depth into one of the projects we currently run to develop it more.
I’m looking for help with completing a couple stream assessments one specifically in Renfrew if anyone is willing to help out just let me know.
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Its been a busy week and next week seems even busier. On Monday and Tuesday I will be in Renfrew with the Earth Walkers. Monday we will be completing a stream clean up starting behind St. Joe’s High School. On Tuesday we will be working in the Nature Garden near M&R feeds and hopefully completing a stream assessment on Smith’s Creek.
Wednesday and Thursday I will be building Bat Boxes with the Stewardship Rangers (Wed) and the Earth Walkers (Thurs). This should be an adventure if anyone would like to help out let me know.
All Next week is Renfrew’s Old Home Week celebrating their 150th anniversary! Congrats Renfrew!
On Friday this week I will be heading out with the Stewardship Rangers to either complete some stream assessments or servicing some Bird Nest Boxes. It will be great to work with a small group as it will be easier to make sure everyone is completing the assessments properly.
Good news from last week is that I believe we have a guest speaker for the Naturalizing Shoreline Workshop. The speaker is either from Cambium Environmental Inc. or Green-Up Peterborough. This isn’t as local as I would have liked it but Cambium who I contacted directly does advertise for completing Environmental Engineering in the area. There is still some decision as to who it will be but they have guaranteed a speaker.
This week I plan on printing posters and starting to advertise for the event as well as possibly send out a email to our membership regarding the workshop. I will send the board a copy of the poster to share with others.
I hope everyone is enjoying a safe and happy holiday!
This week is odd due to some people taking the extra long weekend so correspondence is slower than normal. Last week I met with the crew leaders for the Stewardship Rangers and the Earth Walkers, to go over what we will be doing this summer. I wish I had known about programs like these when I was 17, they get to do such cool things. We will be completing various stream assessments, tending bird nest boxes, gardening, building beaver bafflers, building bat boxes among other fun things. If you are interested in coming out and helping out with any of these events please leave a comment below or email me.
I am organizing the workshop on Naturalizing Your Shoreline that will be held in August. I’m still looking for a guest speaker but have been given some great contacts, but due to the holiday I can’t contact them until Wednesday. If you have any idea’s for the workshop let me know.
On Thursday I spent the day with the grade 7/8 class at St. Mary’s school in Wilno. It poured rain all day so we were very thankful that we spent most of the day inside. We did however have the opportunity to make it out to a wetland for an hour after lunch and we only were rained on for about 10 mins. At the wetlands we used the plankton nets that we had made and took some samples. Back in the class room we spend some time using microscopes to look at the plankton and other creatures found in the water.
This week will be a busy week. The biggest highlight will be on Thursday which will be a day spent with the Grade 7/8 class at St.Mary’s in Wilno. On this day I will be giving a little talk on renewable and non-renewable resources. After that we will be building plankton nets together which we will be using after lunch at a wetland near by to catch some plankton. Back at the school we are going to take a look at the plankton under the microscope and make some drawing from that.
This week I will be spending time preparing for this day as well as planning the workshop that the BRWP is holding in August about Riparian planting.
On Friday I hope to spend a couple hours at the Stewart Park Garden. I will be placing stakes around the garden with some rope to outline the garden and prevent accidental cutting. I am also going to weed the garden and if there is enough time trim of the trees.
June has been a busy month so far. On the 12th I spent the day with the grade 4, 5 and 6 from St. Mary’s in Wilno. We had a whole day to explore a great wetland.
The students found many frogs, were bitten by many flies and almost everyone ended up sinking in over their boots at one time or another. With a couple with memories of sinking in up to their waists. These students were a lot of fun and recognized a lot of wildlife!
The morning was spent examining one wetland. We started with a scavenger hunt looking for various things that are normally found in a wetland. The students then went looking for various things living in the wetland including bugs, frogs and we even had an opportunity to touch a garter snake. We walked around a large pond and found many interesting things along the way including a trampoline… ok really it was a bog that had extended over water forming a thick mat that moved when jumped on. We also found some sundews, a turtle shell and some delicious wild strawberries.
In the afternoon we set off on a hike around another wetland but it ended up in a trail blazing expedition through a forest. We visited a beaver pond and were given an impromptu lesson on what poison ivy looks like. We found a lovely field full of wild mint which smelt wonderful! We finished the day off with watermelon which was generously provided by the wetland owners family!
This day went along with the Adopt-A-Class program run through Webfoot with Ducks Unlimited. Ducks Unlimited send out classroom materials for the teacher and the students to learn all about wetlands and their significance. The wetland trip allows hands on learning experience to go along with these materials.
The week before 2 other classes took part in the Adopt-A-Class program and had memorable field trips!
This space will be used to update the membership and the board of the BRWP of what is going on with the BRWP. I strive to update this space a couple times a week at least, hopefully daily but no promises on that. I will posting on what I have been working on, what I plan to work on and about the fun I have had.
There is an option for anyone to comment on what I have written in the comment section below each post. I will try moderate the comments as there is a problem with spam comments but some may slip through the cracks. Please feel free to comment giving me suggestions or offers to help out.
