Go Green Step by Step

Our planet’s natural environment is under unprecedented stress. The good news is that you can help protect our nature by reducing your environmental footprint and we have some simple ideas on how you can do that! We are running a series of 4 weekly blogs that will help you go #GreenStepByStep. You can follow along each week by visiting Ontario Nature’s website or by signing up for our blog notifications.

Learn How to Photograph Bumblebees for Conservation

Photographing Bumblebees for Identification is a set of video tutorials that teaches nature-lovers how to create high quality images of bumblebees using mobile devices. Topics covered include how to get close, what angles to capture and when to use auto/manual focus or video to capture images. These images can then be uploaded to any citizen science project for identification. There is also a handy printable pocket guide that includes the most important information and descriptions of Ontario’s three at-risk bumblebee species.

New Look for ON Nature Launches this Spring

ON Nature, our award-winning quarterly magazine, has a new look! But don’t worry; it still features the same great content. This spring, you can read about Ontario’s botanical carnivores, the growing crisis of plastics in the Great Lakes and the precarious recovery of white pelicans. For just $50 per year, you can receive a print copy of the magazine while helping fund Ontario Nature’s work protecting wild species and wild spaces. Or stay informed by signing up for digital magazine notifications. You won’t want to miss out!

Protected and Conserved Areas Report and Video

We are pleased to announce a new report and video from our May 2018 gathering on Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs). The gathering provided a unique forum for cross-cultural dialogue about shared governance, opportunities to advance IPCAs on Crown and private land, and the potential for partnerships and alliances. Our thanks to the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, The Sisters of St. Joseph, the Ontario Biodiversity Council, Parks Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada for their generous support of this initiative. 

Celebrate the Spring Migration at Point Pelee

Come out to Point Pelee this May for the Friends of Point Pelee’s annual Festival of Birds. Forty-two of North America’s 52 regularly occurring warblers can be spotted at this migration hotspot. The colourful songbirds are in full breeding plumage and can be heard throughout the park’s woods and fields. The Festival of Birds, which runs from May 1 to May 20, features guided hikes, lunch & learn sessions, the 100 Species Challenge and a wide range of services for birders of all ages and abilities.

Show the Government You Care About Protected Places

For the past year, we have been campaigning to get the governments of Ontario and Canada to meet an international commitment to protect at least 17 percent of our lands and inland waters by 2020. This is in accordance with a target set under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. So far, 140 organizations have endorsed the Protected Places Declaration and more than 6,500 individuals have signed it. Show your support by signing this declaration now to help us demonstrate unequivocally that Canadians care deeply about protected places. 

Events

• Unsettling the Garden: How Gardening Connects with Reconciliation and Restitution: A Non-Indigenous Gardener’s Reflections, Wednesday April 17 @ 7:30pm at Koffler House Multi-faith Centre, University of Toronto (569 Spadina Avenue) in Toronto; visit Eventbrite to register.
• Toronto Native Plant Sale, Saturday May 4 @ 9:30am at Toronto Botanical Gardens; visit www.nanps.org for more information.
• Riverwood Native Plant Sale, Sunday May 19 @ 12:00pm at 4150 Riverwood Park Lane in Mississauga; visit www.nanps.org for more information.
• Christie Pits Park Native Plant Sale, Sunday May 26 @ 12:00pm at 750 Bloor Street West in Toronto; visit www.nanps.org for more information.

• Annual General Meeting and Potluck, Friday April 26 @ 6:00pm at North West Barrie United Church (464 Ferndale Drive North) in Barrie; for more information contact Alex Mills at 705-739-1094.
• Outing to the Gables, Wednesday May 1 @ 6:00pm; meet at the Little Lake Parking Lot; for more information contact Phyllis Tremblay at 705-737-2580.
• Outing to Copeland Forest, Saturday May 4 @ 8:00am; meet at the Little Lake Parking Lot; for more information contact Dave Lord at 705-835-6642.
• Washago Wanderings to See Migratory Birds, Sunday May 5 @ 6:30am; meet at the Little Lake Parking Lot; for more information contact Alex Mills at 705-739-1094.
• Spring Migration at Tiny Marsh, Saturday May 11 @ 7:00am; meet at the Little Lake Parking Lot; for more information contact Don Scanlan at 705-726-6591.
• Birding and Wildflower Outing to the Little Lake Area, Wednesday May 15 @ 8:00am; meet at the Little Lake Parking Lot; for more information contact Phyllis Tremblay at 705-737-2580.
• Birding Barrie, Saturday May 25 @ 8:00am; meet at the Little Lake Parking Lot; for more information contact Jim Coey at 705-543-1866.
• Swift Night Out, Tuesday evenings in June, July and August; for more information contact Phyllis Tremblay at 705-737-2580.
• Flora and Fauna of the Oro Rail Trail, Sunday June 2 @ 8:30am; meet at the Little Lake Parking Lot; for more information contact Brian and Lynne Gibbon at 705-721-4599.
• Outing to the Eastern Bluebird Nest Box Trail at Barrie Hill Farms, Wednesday June 5 @ 7:00pm; meet at the mailbox parking lot at the corner of Seadon Road and Bill Road; for more information contact Dorothy McKeown at 705-817-9572.
• Matchedash Bay/Tiny Marsh BioBlitz, Friday June 21 @ 3:00pm to Saturday June 22 @ 3:00pm; for more information contact Kate Harries at 705-322-2545.
• Birding the Carden Alvar, Saturday June 8 @ 7:30am; for more information contact Brian Gibbon at 705-721-4599.

• Doing the Dempster: Driving Dempster Highway from Dawson to the Arctic Ocean with Jessica Bayne, Monday May 13 @ 7:00pm at Royal Botanical Gardens Headquarters (680 Plains Road West) in Burlington; for more information contact Lou at lou.mitton628@gmail.com.

• Road Cleanup with Friends of Minesing Wetlands, Saturday April 27 @ 10:00am; meet at the Willow Creek Canoe Coral on George Johnson Road, just south of the Town of Minesing; for more information contact fomwevents@gmail.com.
• Spring Paddle in the Minesing Wetlands, Sunday April 28 & Saturday May 11; for more information contactfomwevents@gmail.com.

• Sights and Sounds Field Trips with Muriel Sinclair, Tuesday April 16 and Tuesday April 23 @ 6:30pm; for more information contact Muriel Sinclair at 705-325-7359.
• Annual General Meeting and Pot Luck Supper, Wednesday May 1 @ 6:00pm at the Orillia Museum of Art and History; for more information contact Barb Ryckman at 705-242-4026.
• Birding Outing to Cowan Trail with Ian Cook, Saturday May 25 @ 7:00am; meet at Zehrs to carpool; for more information contact Rob Henderson at 705-849-6022.
• Chimney Swift Night with Leanore Wiancko and Kay Prince, Tuesday May 28 @ 8:00am; meet in the Orillia Public Library parking lot; for more information contact Leanore Wiancko at 705-326-5261.
• Explore the Bruce Peninsula with Arni and Dianne Stinnisen, June 7-9 at Red Bay Lodge (462 Huron Road) on South Bruce Peninsula; for more information contact marilync0629@gmail.com.

• Junction Creek Community Shoreline Cleanup, Sunday April 28 @ 10:00am; meet at New Sudbury Centre southwest parking lot; for more information visit www.junctioncreek.com.
• Junction Creek Community Shoreline Cleanup, Saturday May 4 @ 10:00am; meet at Superstore parking lot on LaSalle Blvd.; for more information visit www.junctioncreek.com.
• Junction Creek Festival and Trout Release, Saturday May 11 @ 11:00am in Twin Forks Park; for more information visit www.junctioncreek.com.

• Outing to Wodehouse Karst, Saturday April 20 @ 10:00am; meet in Markdale across the street from the Fire and Ice Restaurant in the Old Fire Hall to carpool; for more information contact saugeenfieldnaturalists@yahoo.ca.
• Migrating Waterfowl and shorebirds on the Grimston Flats, Saturday April 27 @ 9:30am; meet at the Scone school house to carpool; for more information contact saugeenfieldnaturalists@yahoo.ca.

• Kingston Field Naturalists’ Annual BioBlitz, Friday June 14 @ 3:00pm to Saturday June 15 @ 3:00pm at Ontario Power Generation’s Lennox Generating Station (7263 Hwy 33) in Greater Napanee; for more information visit www.kingstonfieldnaturalists.org.
  

• Timberdoodles and Bogsuckers, Saturday April 20 @ 8:00pm at Scotsdale Farm; meet in the parking lot on the west side of 8th Line in Halton Hills north of 27 Sideroad; for more information contact Don Scallen at dscallen@cogeco.ca.
• Community Nature Walk and Cleanup, Saturday May 4 @ 1:00pm; for more information contact sustainability@haltonhills.ca.

Upcoming Deadlines

The next issue of the Nature Network News will be sent on May 15, 2019. The deadline for submissions is May 1, 2019. Submissions can be sent to naturenetwork@ontarionature.org. Please note that events can be listed up to two months in advance – allowing others to put it on their calendar well in advance.

Ontario Nature publishes the Ontario Nature Network News every month with contributions from its member groups and staff. Ontario Nature grants permission for use of the information above in member group newsletters. Please credit either Ontario Nature or the member group.