Central Lake Ontario Conservation

Conservation Authorities are under fire by the provincial government and we need your help. Please join the call to urge the government to withdraw Schedule 6 from Bill 229. Schedule 6 proposes changes to the Conservation Authorities Act and Planning Act that will reduce our ability to protect sensitive natural areas, and keep people and property safe from natural hazards. Schedule 6 needs to be removed before Bill 229 is passed in the coming weeks, and voices like yours can make all the difference. We need our friends, allies and supporters to act today by emailing your MPP. Thank you for your support.

Technology is Our Friend and Yours And today it is getting much more friendly. In celebration of Global Information Systems (GIS) Awareness Week, our GIS staff would like to share with you a new tool they have created. Its an updated web based mapping application Conceptual Regulated Areas In the CLOCA Watershed. This is a public viewer using the latest technology available through ArcGIS Online. It’s easy to use, featuring a user-friendly design, straight-forward colour... symbols, and an option for you the user to create your own map using a print dialog button. Here is the link, check it out by simply plugging in your address to see what watershed you live in and of course the option to actually print a map of your watershed neighbourhood. Go ahead, it’s as easy as one, two, three. https://camaps.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html This application is even viewable on your smart phone. Thanks to our GIS Team who continue to be leaders in their field and creating the view of our watershed world.

Highway of Heroes and Remembrance Day At Central Lake Ontario Conservation, we continue to honour those who who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country, by helping our partners the Highway of Heroes Tribute and Forests Ontario planting 117,000 trees directly along the Highway of Heroes, between Trenton and Toronto. In addition to that number, over 1.8 million trees are being planted on private land in communities that line the 401 corridor in recognition of all Canadian...s who have served during times of war. The Highway of Heroes Tribute (HOH), in combination with Forests Ontario's 50 Million Tree Program, have created the Private Landowner Partnership Program which offers funding for planted native seedlings, each tree a part of the living tribute for our Canadian heroes. Landowners must have property within 30 kilometres of Highway 401, have 2.5 acres or more of open land for planting (1 acre plots will be considered), be willing to plant 700 to 900 trees per acre and sign a 15 year management agreement to protect the trees to ensure they become a forest. For more information about planting trees on your land to make remembrance day a year round acknowledgement, check out the Highway of Heroes website at https://www.hohtribute.ca/plp. If planting a forest is not in your future, then consider making a one time donation to plant one tree. With every $150 in donations, HOH will plant a tree as part of the Highway of Heroes Tree Campaign in the name of your loved one. For generations, those trees will stand as a memorial, not only to the heroic members of our Canadian Armed Forces, but as a living tribute to those who have been a hero in your life. Find out more about the program at https://www.hohtribute.ca/en/memorial-giving.

Now that things are settling into a routine, whether schooled from home or at school, most junior and intermediate students have likely heard family members talking about things they would like to do as part of their bucket list. Well here’s the thing, kids can have a bucket list too, but not something that focuses on their mortality, but rather things to do before they reach the age of 12. On the Generation Wild website link below, you can help them find the list and st...art a process of assessing what they have accomplished and what they would like to accomplish in the future. https://www.generationwild.com/the-list Ask your student to have a look at this list and check off the things they have done with an ‘x’ and the things they would like to do, before they are 12, with a checkmark. They can either post on the fridge, desk or keep on file, adding one thing to their monthly workplan over the school year. Check in with them monthly to inspire them to achieve their goals. Let us know if you would like to see more ideas to inspire your kids at home or in the classroom. Its not a bad idea for adults to take the challenge too, but setting some goals before that next milestone birthday. What are you waiting for?

Conservation Authorities are under fire and need your help. The provincial government proposes to reduce our ability to protect sensitive natural areas, and keep people and property safe from natural hazards - https://mailchi.mp//conservation-authorities-are-under-fir

Central Lake Ontario Conservation (CLOCA) is one of 36 conservation authorities across Ontario working with Conservation Ontario to provide input into the Province of Ontario’s review of the Conservation Authorities Act (CAA). The Conservation Authorities Act is a made-in-Ontario solution for managing renewable natural resources and protecting people and property through a prevention-first approach that is built around the management of watersheds. Changes were presented in ...the 2020 Ontario Budget on Thursday November 5th and have prompted Conservation Ontario to issue a Media Release identifying our collective concerns regarding the changes to our organization and our watershed management responsibilities. For more details on this and other concerns raised on our behalf by Conservation Ontario, please see the link below. https://conservationontario.ca//2020_Media_Release_Changes

The Hissing Folly What do art and the environment have in common. Lots, when a Canadian artist like Cole Swanson, examines biosystems in direct negotiation with human life at a time of unprecedented social, political and environmental change, says the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington. The Hissing Folly is a three dimensional representation of our local landscape and the impacts of colonization and settlement that resulted in the introduction of many invasive species. For ...Continue reading

Name that Plant We thought it would be kind of fun to end our week with a very special name that plant posting in honour of Saturday’s pending Halloween. Something to share with your goblins and ghosts. Below is an image of a native flowering shrub that grows in local woods and in the gardens of our main office in Oshawa. It typically reaches about 5 metres if conditions are ideal and is a lovely addition to the garden if you are looking for a small tree. What is so mag...ical and mysterious about it is that it flowers in the fall and the flowers persist throughout the winter. Our staff, especially the plant lovers, look forward to its gift of flowering branches by their office window or at the staff entrance. The flowers are bright yellow with four long thin yellow petals. In the shrub’s common name is a reference to a character which may be out and about tomorrow evening, looking for treats or playing tricks. It is thought that this name relates to the use of the branches of this tree as divining rods. The plant also offers many medicinal uses from leaf and bark extract, witch could also give you some clues to its' name. Do your homework and feel free to visit our office at 100 Whiting Avenue over the weekend to see them in all their glory. We will have the answer for you on Monday, but go ahead, take a guess. Have a safe and enjoyable weekend whatever you do to celebrate Halloween.

Clouds One of our go to places for all things environmental education is the weekly Childhood By Nature blog and activity postings. This week as per usual, they inspired our Education Instructor Cathy Grant with how to connect kids outside with those white fluffy things that we see in our skies every day; you guessed it, clouds. No textbook or tablet required for teachable moments. ... https://childhoodbynature.com/category/activity-finder/ This week they discuss the secrets children can discover in the clouds by sharing their clouds spotting starter guide and cloud meditation that we think will be especially valuable for many kids today during the Pandemic. You will also find out why the stick is the best all time toy in our conservation areas, local parks or even your backyard. And finally there are 10 of their favourite nature crafts that require 5 items or less. What are you waiting for? Its time to play, we should say, learn, outside.

Working from home has its advantages as you well know. Able to leave a door open for some fresh air on warm fall days is one of them, with no screen door, there is the odd fly or wasp that enters my office, but easily shuffled back outside. Then something a little larger than the usual, a Golden-crowned Kinglet, finds its way to my second story office window and wham, then things get exciting. A quick hand scoops him up and releases him back to the wild to continue his mi...Continue reading

John Russell Powell (Russ) is a posthumous 2020 Friend of the Greenbelt Recipient for his work and personal commitment to protecting the Oak Ridges Moraine. Russ was the CAO of Central Lake Ontario Conservation from 1995 to 2014 and a mentor and friend to us all. We were privileged to work with and for such a great man. For over 50 years, Russ was an influential and critical figure in natural resources. He was born in Strathroy, Ontario and grew up with his three younger... siblings in Watford. He graduated from the Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto in 1965 and received a diploma in Public Administration from the University of Western Ontario in 1984. He spent most of his career serving the people of Ontario through the Conservation Authorities program at both field and provincial levels, becoming the Inaugural Chair of the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation in 2004. Russ was known for his leadership, dedication, insight, passion and mentoring. He was a man of the land, ahead of his time, who steadfastly pursued his vision with a good dose of common sense and dry wit. In 2003, Russ and his wife, Dawn, donated a conservation easement from their land in Pontypool, Ontario to Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust to preserve and protect the property in perpetuity. It has always been a labour of love they shared. On Wednesday, October 23, 2019 a perfect fall day he died in his beautiful hardwood bush with only Mother Nature and perhaps a Great Horned Owl witnessing the event. The Link below contains a short video by Kim Gavine, General Manager of Conservation Ontario. A lovely tribute to Russ. https://www.greenbelt.ca/news_release_friend_of_the_greenbe

Plenty of Fish...In McLaughlin Bay No this is not a dating site, but if you are a fish, it could be. Since 2010, Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority has worked with other members of the McLaughlin Bay Steering Committee to better understand and apply restoration science to improving overall health of this Provincially Significant Wetland. As part of the Durham Region Coastal Wetland Monitoring Program and CLOCA’s Integrated Watershed Monitoring Program, the data our... staff were collecting on water quality, water levels, birds, fish and amphibian habitat, indicated very degraded conditions. Fast forward to 2015, with the completion of environmental and historical studies, continued data collection on the above indicators and the completion of the McLaughlin Bay Restoration Plan, CLOCA staff were able to secure funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada, to begin restoration efforts. The first project was specifically about plenty of fish. We built 16 fish cribs on ice during the winter, using logs, woody debris and rock to provide structure in the wetland which was definitely lacking. The cribs sunk into place when the ice melted and have proved very popular with resident fish. As part of our ongoing monitoring, we have not noted anything out of the ordinary in terms of fish specie, but of the 208 fish collected this year as part of our monitoring activities, 130 of the fish came from areas associated with the fish cribs. That’s a significant response to the structures and tells us they are doing what we expected them to do. Because the Marsh is an important part of Darlington Provincial Park, recreational boating and angling is a desirable activity in McLaughlin Bay. In order to support this activity and our own ongoing monitoring, we placed floating markers on each crib. It’s no surprise that we had to replace these markers, but 2020 proved to be the perfect time to do that. The opening in the barrier beach that separates McLaughlin Bay from Lake Ontario breached an opening this year, the first time in 15 years, lowering water levels in the Marsh. This allowed CLOCA staff, Jackie Scott and Dan Moore an opportunity to actually access the crib and install new markers. The photos below give our readers an up close and personal view of McLaughlin Bay on a calm October day.

To All The Bat Lovers in our Watershed Hello? Hello? Its CLOCA calling on our bat phone to tell you how you can help bats in our watershed. Sorry, back to our Facebook Post. First of all we want you to not be afraid of bats. They are amazing creatures and contrary to popular myth, do not get caught in your hair when flying about. In fact, bats are such astute flyers they may appear to come close to you, but their ability to locate pray and objects in their way allow the...m to maneuver quite skillfully. Bats like dolphins and owls use a technique scientists refer to as echolocation. They use that to determine the locations of objects based on the reflection of sound from that object. This allows bats to move around in pitch darkness, so they can navigate, hunt, identify friends and enemies, and avoid obstacles. Your hair is definitely going to be avoided. So step one to becoming a Bat Lover, teach all kids, yours, theirs and others, that bats are beneficial and share with them this Bats on the Brink Song. Mr. G, Latin Grammy award winner and children’s author and song writer has just launched a great song about bats. Check it out here. https://mistergsongs.com/bats/ We included a photo in our post today, one that we are quite proud of as Bat Lovers. You might recognize it from a previous post of two baby Hoary Bats our education staff found during one of their programs. You see sometimes bats, like the Hoary Bat roost in trees. After a very windy night these twin Hoary Bats literally lost their grip and were found on the forest floor, less than a week old. Our Bat experts recommended we rescue them so we took them to Soper Creek Wildlife Rescue where they were taken care of and re-released. Not all bats roost in trees. Some like Little Brown and Big Brown Bats will literally hang out in a human made bat box. Although there are different opinions out there on the success of bat boxes, we thought this story below might be of interest. So to all the naysayers who say bat houses do not work check out the research by Bat Conservation International which might motivate you to re-think the importance of putting up a bat box. Check out the article about what a bat needs to call a place home and find a plan below to make your own bat house. https://www.batcon.org/a/bat-houses-the-secrets-of-success/

Warmer, Wetter and Wilder Weather That is what Durham Region's Climate Change Adaptation Plan (2016) has been telling us about what to expect in the Central Lake Ontario Conservation watershed in the coming years. If you want to find out more, we recommend joining the climate change and emergency preparedness experts for the next webinar in the Climate Change: Protecting You & Your Home series on extreme weather snow, hail, ice, and wind. Plus, learn about some cost-eff...ective actions you can take to limit its impact and keep your family and home safe during extreme weather events. Other topics planned for 2021 include nature based solutions, food security and extreme heat. Date: Monday, November 16, 2020 Time: 7:30 - 9:00 PM Expert panel: Climate change in Durham Region (Ian McVey, Region of Durham) How to prepare for any emergency (Caitlin Rochon, Region of Durham) Severe weather types and how to protect your home (Glenn McGillivray, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction) Electricity concerns for homeowners in a storm (Moranne McDonnell, Elexicon Energy) Register for free online at bit.ly/37TdQyK If you missed the first webinar as part of this series, the recording can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22YI5cA9uZw&t=210s

Reduce Your Waste We have to say we have trouble keeping up with all the national and international days dedicated to one thing or another. Unfortunately, we missed Waste Reduction Week October 19th to 25th, but like the fact that this is a year round campaign. So, I guess we did not miss it. Check out their website at www.wrwcanada.com for some great ideas about how to recycle textiles, swap and repair and curbside giveaways. We think if every community took the time to ...implement or participate in just one out of the ordinary effort to reduce waste once a year or once a month, the world would be a better place. With Halloween just around the proverbial corner, let’s take some time to see if we can help you reduce the celebratory, over-indulging which often leads to waste, but doesn’t have to. If you already bought new costumes for the kids, then consider this for next year, make your own costume. And make sure those store bought costumes get to your local reuse it clothing location for next year's trick or treaters. So do it yourself costume. First check out your closet and those of your friends and family as they are likely loaded with ideas ready to modify or wear as is. If you have not bought your pumpkin, what about purchasing a cooking pumpkin or edible gourds for carving or just decoration. After the big day, they can be thrown into a pot for soup or made into pumpkin muffins. That sounds yummy. If you already have your pumpkins, let them compost in your garden after the big day. You will be surprised how quickly they deflate and maybe the odd seed might sprout come spring and become your pumpkin for next year. Don’t have a garden, then take it to a local farm or zoo, the animals will love it. As for treats if you dare, look for those in recyclable boxes instead of plastic bags, and candies wrapped in foil, which is recyclable. Got other ideas, please feel free to post so other readers can benefit from your wisdom aka reduce, reuse and recycle.

In less than 24 hours it will officially be Bat Week, an international, annual celebration designed to raise awareness about the need for bat conservation. Bats are amazing creatures, vital to the health of our natural world and economy. Although we may not always see them, bats are hard at work all around the world each and every night, eating tons of insects, pollinating flowers and spreading seeds that can grow new plants and trees. Called creepy, scary, and spooky, we ...think bats get a bad rap, so we are setting the record straight so you learn to love them as much as we do. So, go batty with today's post and some more we weill share with you next week to celebrate all things bats. Check out our blog for 10 interesting facts about bats to help you celebrate them at this spooktacular time of year. https://www.cloca.com//it-s-just-batty-that-bats-get-a-bad And check out our friendly silver-haired bat, aptly named for the line of silver fur down its back. Check out the tiny hands and feet at the apex of each wing. We found this bat on a sunny morning in September at Enniskillen Education Centre, likely migrating to a warmer place for the winter months. Talk to you next week. We will call you on our bat phone, just kidding. Will post some more interesting things about bats.

We are challenging childhood to take a different course. We know many of our kids prefer the virtual to the actual. They can name superheroes and Pokemon characters, but not common backyard bird species or the names of flowers that are critical to pollinators. We at Central Lake Ontario Conservation have a solution and we think it might even be the answer to many of the world’s problems. It’s 2 words; GET OUTSIDE! Say it again, out loud this time. Today is Tuesday Oct...ober 21st 2020, not just an ordinary day but the 10th anniversary of Take Me Outside Day. You can join educators and learners across the country to help raise awareness about the importance of regular outdoor time. Here is a link to https://takemeoutside.ca/tmoday/. To celebrate this milestone, there are a number of special activities as well as some prizes to be had, so make sure to sign up and be in the loop. So let's pretend every day is Take Me Outside Day. We are living in some strange times, but we do have some amazing opportunities, literally in our back yards or local parks and conservation areas. Some you can even walk too. Our Watershed Heroes at Childhood By Nature, have lots of resources and ideas to get you into this new groove. Their research says, by the age of 8 years, a child will have spent 1 year of 24 hour days on screens. And that 25 percent of our children have never climbed a tree. Think back to your own childhood memories, the good ones of course, and they likely took place outside, around a beach, in a forest, on a secret path or collecting things like rocks, leaves or even looking through a magnifying glass at a grass hopper or finding a feather. So, parents, teachers and other earthlings, after you take someone special outside today, if you are looking for inspiration, we highly recommend subscribing to the Childhood by Nature, one of many resources on our Kids Conservation page. https://www.cloca.com/conservation-kids They have ideas for making art, how to experience nature and reduce the stress for your child and yourself. It is all hands-on and no need for a trip to Michaels for supplies, Mother nature has looked after that one for us already.

Happy World Food Day Today is World Food Day and we wanted to share with you a feature blog post from a volunteer at the Ontario Farmland Trust. https://ontariofarmlandtrust.ca/happy-world-food-day/ The theme of this year’s #WorldFoodDay is Grow, nourish, sustain. Together. Our actions are our future. ... The Ontario Farmland Trust tells us that everyone across the food chain has a role to play to become a local food hero. It makes sense for Central Lake Ontario Conservation as a leader in sustaining healthy watersheds, that taking action to support local farmers, farmer’s markets and protecting the land that grows our food, will serve us well in the future. Enjoy the blog post and maybe make a trip to a local farm or market this weekend. We are sure you will taste the difference.

Monitoring our watershed helps us understand the impacts of a variety of environmental stressors and guides development, restoration and management efforts. Sometimes that involves our aquatic biologists entering the water using chest waders to collect aquatic invertebrate (bugs) samples or using a canoe or an electrofishing boat when we assess plant and fish communities in our coastal wetlands. Those pieces of equipment, the waders and boats, are considered by scientists a...s a vector, that could contribute to the spread of invasive species. Eggs, plants, plant seeds and other invasive aquatic organisms easily attach to our equipment when we travel in creeks and other waterbodies. Then, the next day, we use that same equipment to enter another body of water and could easily transfer invasive species. To stop the spread, our monitoring staff follow something called the Clean Equipment Protocol for Industry. It is a guideline which is woven into CLOCA’s staff training and standard operation procedures to support a low impact approach to our field work. After using equipment, we review a standard check list which includes visual inspections, removal of plants, debris and mud by brushing, rinsing, scrubbing or power washing. These cleaning activities typically take place on a paved surface, a minimum of 30 metres away and down slope from the watercourse or wetland in which we were working. That way, potentially invasive organisms do not survive and arrive at our next monitoring site. So next time you enter a body of water for recreational activities, think of what you can do to remove potential invasive plants and animals to help stop the spread Check out Invasive Aquatic Plant Species Quick Reference Guide on our website to learn how to identify these invaders yourself. https://03879a07-372c-443e-997e-ae65078d7559.filesusr.com/

We have good news and bad news about the threat of Asian Carp here in the CLOCA watershed and our neighbouring Great Lakes. There are four invasive additional carp species found in the United States, which we need to be aware of, Bighead, Grass, Black and Silver. These four species are part of the cyprinid family and are related to several varieties of minnows. They are all native to the rivers, reservoirs and lakes of China and southern Russia. Asian carps were introduced... to the Southern United States in the late 1960’s and 1970’s for use as biological control in aquaculture facilities based on their specific diets. Flooding events allowed at least three of the four species (Bighead, Silver, and Black carps) to escape these facilities and eventually make their way into the Mississippi River Basin. The spread of Grass Carp has largely been the result of stocking for the purposes of aquatic vegetation control. Unfortunately, they are now well established in waterways with a direct connection to the Canadian waters of the Great Lakes. That's the first of the bad news. More bad news is there have been 25 Grass Carp captured in Canadian waters since 2012 in three of the five Great Lakes, (Huron, Erie and Ontario). The good news, we know how can there be good news when it comes to invasive species, is they were sterile, ie not able to reproduce future generations. Regardless they are still a significant threat, as reproduction is a possibility and they are highly invasive and threaten native ecosystems into which they are introduced. Here in Canada the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has taken on a proactive role with a focus on early detection. The Asian Carp Program crew visits 34 locations throughout the Great Lakes, conducting early detection surveillance sampling. The locations sampled are based on predictive models which indicate those locations offer suitable habitats for Asian Carp species. Want to learn more about Asian Carp and the threat they pose in your favourite Great Lake? Check out the Asian Carp Canada website at www.asiancarp.ca. If you want to become part of the solution, there is an Asian Carp Information Session on Wednesday October 21st, 2020 at 7pm. Click below to register and don’t wait, space is limited. https://asiancarp.ca/information-session/ To find out more about what CLOCA does to prevent the introduction of aquatic invasive species across our jurisdiction, check out our FB posting tomorrow with some highlights of our monitoring program and our Invasive Species Management Strategy.

There is a list of raptor species observed at Cranberry Marsh on the Toronto Ornithological Club’s website, www.torontobirding.ca. The species include American Kestrel, Bald Eagle, Broad-winged Hawk, Coopers Hawk, Golden Eagle, Merlin, Northern Goshawk, Northern Harrier, Osprey, Peregrine Falcon, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk and finally the Turkey Vulture we told you about yesterday. Sometimes the birds are so difficult to cou...nt, see and identify that the volunteers even have a category of unidentified raptors. You can tell a hawk by the size of its wings and tail, the shape it holds its wings, how it hovers and flies, the wing and body markings and feather colours. Even if you know nothing of these birds, rest assured, the Raptor Watch volunteers are keen to share their knowledge and help you see the many raptors moving through. October is a good time to see Sharp-shinned and Red-tailed Hawks and maybe the odd Bald or Golden Eagle. Check out the Audubon Organizations website for a very cool raptor puzzle to identify raptors in flight. https://www.audubon.org/news/identify-raptors-flight

Sorry, we meant to include a photo of the every popular visitor at the Raptor Watch, the turkey vulture. If you are wondering why their numbers are so high, its likely because in Ontario there are so many roads crisscrossing our landscape, that there is no shortage of road kill, the turkey vultures number one food choice. Easy pickins.