Tag: ecosystems

The fascinating world of dragonflies and their importance to ecosystems

Today’s blog comes to us from Park Naturalist Sarah Lamond at Algonquin Provincial Park.

Picture it: a warm July day at Algonquin.

You’re basking in the day’s rays and exploring an interpretive trail.

It’s all picture perfect until you hear that telltale buzz and feel an all-too-familiar pain on your scalp.

The Deer Flies have arrived.

Swatting at the growing swarm, you look to the sky and wonder: will there be no relief?

And then they arrive. The prehistoric predator. The Deer Fly devourer. The people’s champion.

Dragonflies.

Continue reading The fascinating world of dragonflies and their importance to ecosystems

Forever protected

We all know Ontario’s provincial parks aim to protect our natural landscapes and species.

But did you know that each individual park is protected for its own (often very specific) reasons?

Our parks work together as a network of biodiversity and protection.

Whether an immense wilderness or a small urban nature reserve, every park plays a critical role in the protection of our biodiversity, including representative ecosystems, species, and cultural heritage.

Continue reading Forever protected

Your purchase helps parks: revitalizing Killarney’s aquatic ecosystems

Did you buy something from our online holiday store last year? In today’s post, Ontario Parks staff talk about some of the vital protection work your purchase helped fund!

Ontario Parks — as part of a bigger provincial effort — has been working hard to assess and repair ecological integrity in many of our inland lake habitats, protecting different species throughout Killarney and other provincial parks.

Continue reading Your purchase helps parks: revitalizing Killarney’s aquatic ecosystems

So you want to be an Ontario Parks ecologist

Exploring remote forests, searching for rare species. Trekking through fields in hot, heavy gear to eradicate invasive ones. Using technology to monitor the ecosystems in parks and conservation reserves, and communicating conservation science to Ontario’s decision-makers.

Working as a biologist for Ontario Parks is sometimes action-packed and always rewarding.

Are you dreaming of spending your days working to protect and enhance ecological integrity in protected areas?

Well, here are five top tips from Ontario Parks ecologists to help make your dream a reality:

Continue reading So you want to be an Ontario Parks ecologist

Forever protected: why MacGregor Point belongs

Our “Forever Protected” series shares why each and every park belongs in Ontario Parks. In today’s post, Kathleen Houlahan Chayer tells us MacGregor Point’s story. 

I worked as the Discovery Leader at MacGregor Point Provincial Park for four years, but it wasn’t really until I started working at Pinery (another park that I’m glad is forever protected) that I fully appreciated why MacGregor Point belongs in the Ontario Parks system.

Continue reading Forever protected: why MacGregor Point belongs

My 50 trees challenge

Today’s post comes from Sheila Wiebe, a Marketing and Development Specialist at Bronte Creek Provincial Park.

I recently celebrated the halfway point in my life. The milestone of 50 years on this Earth, half a century.

As I usually do around my birthday I reflected on the past year: the accomplishments, the challenges, and everything in between.

I felt like I needed to do something to commemorate the occasion. Continue reading My 50 trees challenge

Dynamic dunes at Pinery

Today’s post comes from Alistair MacKenzie, our Supervisor of Natural Heritage Education and Resource Management at Pinery Provincial Park.

In a province dominated by the rock of the Canadian Shield, sand is rare. If we combined all of Ontario’s coastal sand dunes together, they would only make up less than 0.5% of our province’s land.

We can thank a simple fact of nature for the creation of Pinery Provincial Park and its rare dunes: namely, that differences in temperature between the air over Lake Huron and the adjacent landmass create an on-shore breeze.

Continue reading Dynamic dunes at Pinery

Ecosystems and music

Not sure exactly what “ecological integrity” means? Today’s post from Park Biologist Shannon McGaffey explains how ecological integrity is like music.

Synergy: the creation of a whole that is bigger than the sum of the individual parts

If you are listening to a symphony, you are not listening to two violins, one piano, three flutes, etc. You are listening to music, an art that breaches the realms of spirituality. Music naturally generates measurable energy, but also produces energy beyond that, an energy that humans can feel, but just can’t quite grasp and understand.

Continue reading Ecosystems and music