The Ontario Parks Discovery team is hard at work coming up with creative ways to connect visitors with the special stories and values protected in our parks.
If you visit any of the parks offering Discovery programming, you may connect with Discovery staff along a trail, as they rove through the campground, at a drop-in program, in a Visitor Centre, or at a scheduled program.
In honour of Pride Month, Park Naturalist Jared Sanders takes us through some of the species that aren’t afraid to stand out in Pinery Provincial Park.
Every time I go for a hike at Pinery, whether alone or with visitors, I fall back in love with the scenic nature.
In the winter, the chilly blues and whites freeze the trees in a hauntingly beautiful sight. The deep viridian of cedars and pines serve as a reminder of just how much life is hiding away.
Spring heralds the sight of fresh growth. Starting with the mosses amongst the brown leaf litter, quickly followed by the vibrant greens of the ephemerals and new leaves.
Summer continues with visions of beachy days. The desert-like beige of the sand is only tamed by cool, refreshing cerulean from the lake or the emerald leaves above giving solace from the warm haze of the sun.
Fall lights the trees ablaze with hues of red, orange, and yellow. A warm goodbye to most of our wildlife as they prepare to hunker down or head south as things continue to cool.
“The living edge.” It sounds more like a Bond film than a trail name, until you follow it through the woods.
The Living Edge Trail in Six Mile Lake Provincial Park is only a kilometre long, but it crosses such a variety of landscapes and habitats that it seems much longer.
It also spans time, giving visitors a close look at how the glaciers impacted the land thousands of years ago. Six Mile Lake Provincial Park is small on the outside, but big on the inside.
In today’s post, Discovery Leader Olivia Bennett discusses turtles’ impact on Grundy Lake Provincial Park — and vice versa!
When I first started working at Grundy Lake, I was talking turtles with our park superintendent when someone asked, “Why do you care so much about turtles here?”
The answer is simple: while the park boasts a healthy turtle population and quality habitat, other areas are not so lucky.
This is only the beginning of why we should all care about turtles.
Today’s post was written by Emma Fuller, a Discovery guide at Bon Echo Provincial Park.
A lot is left to chance when you’re planning a summer camping trip. You can’t always ensure sunny weather, quiet car rides, or calm paddling waters.
However one thing is certain if you’re heading into the outdoors, you’re definitely going to encounter the pesky buzz of Ontario’s biting insects!
When we think of bees, we often picture honey bees. We imagine a swarm buzzing around a honeycomb hive.
But honey bees are just one of 400 different types of bees in Ontario (and we’re discovering new bee species all the time!).
And honey bees aren’t even a native species.
In fact, honey bees are relatively new to Ontario. They were an agricultural import, brought to North America for honey production and crop pollination. Before honey bees crossed the ocean, Ontario’s major pollinators were native bees, whose behaviour is often very different from the stereotypical honey bees.
Here are five other types of bees buzzing around our parks:
Continue reading Guess how many types of bee call Ontario home?
“Stars over Killarney” is an annual festival celebrating the connection between the natural heritage of Killarney Provincial Park and astronomical knowledge.
This year’s theme is “Colours in the cosmos: a celebration through paint and pixels of the beauty that surrounds us.”
Continue reading Stars over Killarney 2023: colours in the cosmos
Today’s post comes from marketing specialist and birding enthusiast Tanya Berkers.
When Ontario Parks signed on as a supporter of the third Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas, I eagerly volunteered on one of the organizing committees.
I love birding, and the Atlas is an important volunteer-dependent project that supports conservation and environmental policy across the entire province.
I wanted to contribute to the Atlas both behind the scenes and as an active data collector.
There is just one problem: I am not a strong birder, and have lots of gaps in my knowledge!
Did you know our parks, moths, and Discovery staff were featured in an episode of TVOKids Leo’s Pollinators Explorer Club?
The series was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Children’s or Youth Non-Fiction Program or Series!
These awards are the Canadian equivalent to the Emmy Awards.
We caught up with our three Ontario Parks stars featured in this episode for an exclusive interview to learn more about their experience:
Continue reading Ontario Parks featured in CSA-nominated videos!
In today’s blog, Helen McConnell, a marketing and communications specialist at Algonquin Provincial Park, explains what “SNOW” is and how SNOW data is used to protect our parks and the species that live here.
On a chilly Monday in March, I found myself snowshoeing with our park biologist, loudly crunching through the snow as we followed a “snow course” through through the hardwood forest.
