How to tap a maple tree

This blog comes from Cathy Entwhistle, a Senior Park Interpreter at Bronte Creek Provincial Park

It’s that time of year again, when the sweet sounds of spring fill Bronte Creek: the twittering of returning songbirds, the laughter of visitors strolling through the woods, and the plink! plink! plink! of sugar maple sap dripping into a maple bucket.

A visit to the Maple Syrup Festival walks you through the full history and process of making Canada’s favourite sweet syrup. With a few simple steps and tools, you can bring that history home with you.

**Please do not tap trees within provincial parks. Removing any natural object from a park is prohibited, and you could face a fine.

Here’s how to make your own delicious maple syrup:

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Bronte Creek’s maple candy wars

Today’s blog post was written by Jessica Stillman, Discovery Program project coordinator and maple syrup aficionado at Bronte Creek Provincial Park.

Maple season is upon us!

Trees have been tapped, sap is boiling, and Bronte Creek’s annual Maple Syrup Festival is underway, which means the biggest annual debate has also begun…

…which is the better form of maple candy: taffy or sugar?

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6 reasons to visit the Bronte Creek Maple Syrup Festival this March

Ontario Parks has some pretty cool events every year and Bronte Creek Provincial Park’s legendary Maple Syrup Festival is right up there on the cool-o-meter.

Yes, folks: fresh Ontario maple syrup will be flowing over pancakes, bacon, and more as visitors get set to celebrate an annual spring tradition.

Fresh air, maple taffy, and loads of fun await visitors of all ages!

Here are 6 reasons to pull on your long johns and get sappy this March:

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Christmas Bird Count — keep the community science tradition going!

Today’s post comes from Cortney LeGros, the Healthy Parks Healthy People coordinator at Ontario Parks.

The holiday season is steeped in tradition.

No matter how you celebrate, there’s one scientific tradition that’s been around for over 120 years to help mark the holidays.

For me, the holidays would not be complete without participating in at least one Christmas Bird Count.

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Stars over Killarney 2023 recap: a marriage of culture, beauty, and science

Stars over Killarney is an annual festival celebrated at Killarney Provincial Park. The event’s 2023 theme — Colours in the Cosmos — was inspired by the parallels between the beauty and the colour in provincial parks and the beauty and colour of the skies above.

And beautiful colour was found everywhere at this year’s event!

The program took a very hands-on approach, so what was being presented could easily be seen and captured by paintbrush or smartphone.

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Community science with the Georgian Bay Mnidoo Gamii Biosphere

Today’s blog was written by Discovery Program Project Coordinator Jessica Stillman.

This summer, Grundy Lake Provincial Park, Killbear Provincial Park, and The Massasauga Provincial Park collaborated with the Georgian Bay Mnidoo Gamii Biosphere (GBB) to host bioblitzes within the world’s largest freshwater archipelago.

What is a bioblitz? In short, it is a community science event for recording different species within a certain location and time.

For these events, park visitors, Friends members, and staff from both Ontario Parks and GBB came together to inventory living things by uploading them to iNaturalist.

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It’s Take Me Outside Day!

Written by Discovery Program Project Coordinator Jessica Stillman.

Teachers, did you know you can help your students be more engaged and enthusiastic in all areas of their learning by taking them outside?

Studies show that students who experience nature as part of the educational process score higher on tests in reading, writing, and math and have demonstrated better listening skills.

Not that you need any more reasons to get outside, but here are four more reasons to take your class outside for Take Me Outside Day:

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