In celebration of Ontario Parks’ 125th Anniversary, Sandbanks Provincial Park is working with local students to rehabilitate one of its most important namesake features — the dunes!
Category: Ecological Integrity
Earth Day tree planting at Rondeau Provincial Park
To help celebrate our 125th anniversary, Ontario Parks has organized a series of stewardship programs. These events are happening throughout the year and across the province to help protect biodiversity in provincial parks.
Stewardship programs have included BioBlitz events, invasive species removal, and native species plantings.
On Earth Day, park staff and an eager group of volunteers at Rondeau Provincial Park helped to restore the natural habitat in the park by planting native trees and shrubs.
Continue reading Earth Day tree planting at Rondeau Provincial Park
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.
Does the darkness need our protection?
Today’s post comes from our Natural Heritage Education Coordinator Brad Steinberg.
Not many researchers like being kept in the dark…
…except, that is, for scotobiologists!
Scotobiology is the science of darkness, a research topic that is growing in importance. Many birds, amphibians, insects and plants (and us!) have evolved to rely on uninterrupted periods of darkness during the night.
IBAs of Ontario Parks: tundra swans and spring songbirds
This installment of our 2017 blog series IBAs in provincial parks — brought to you by Ontario IBA Coordinator Amanda Bichel of Bird Studies Canada —focuses on the spring migrations at two of our southwestern parks.
On my recent trip to Rondeau Provincial Park / IBA for the Wings of Spring festival and the Port Franks Forested Dunes IBA (close to Pinery Provincial Park), one thing was clear…
…tundra swans make a big impression.
Continue reading IBAs of Ontario Parks: tundra swans and spring songbirds
Protected: Forever Protected: why Polar Bear belongs
Wetland restoration wins big at John E. Pearce Provincial Park!
2017 was a remarkable year at John E. Pearce Provincial Park. Not only did the park celebrate its 60th anniversary, but it was also the grand opening of a multi-year wetland restoration project and Wetland “Storey” Trail.
Continue reading Wetland restoration wins big at John E. Pearce Provincial Park!
The IBAs of Polar Bear Provincial Park
This installment of our 2017 blog series IBAs in provincial parks — brought to you by Ontario IBA Coordinator Amanda Bichel of Bird Studies Canada — is very “cool.”
Welcome to our year-long blog series! For our inaugural spotlight, we are staying in the winter spirit and focusing on Ontario’s far north. That’s right: our worlds collide up there in a big way.
Introducing our newest provincial park: Brockville Long Swamp Fen
World Wetlands Day is the perfect opportunity to introduce our newest provincial park: Brockville Long Swamp Fen!
Continue reading Introducing our newest provincial park: Brockville Long Swamp Fen
What’s in a weir?
Neys Provincial Park recently removed an obsolete weir as part of its work to restore and maintain ecological integrity. Superintendent Allison Dennis has the story…
The term “weir” piqued my curiosity following my first review of the Neys Provincial Park Management Plan.
Turns out that a weir is a barrier constructed across the width of a river or stream which raises the water level on the upstream side to a specified height. Unlike a dam, which redirects excess water using spillways, a weir allows excess water to flow over the top of the structure and continue downstream.
So what does this have to do with a provincial park?