Please help NS Nature Trust to protect Frederick Lake Peninsula

Spectacular oak drumlin on the Frederick Lake property

A nice surprise arrived a couple of days ago – an announcement by NS Nature Trust that a Frederick Lake property ( the “Frederick Lake Peninsula” in WRWEO jargon) had been added to their Lasting Landscapes campaign; it came with an appeal to contribute by April 5, 2019, as any donations will be matched 4:1 from a federal program.

“The other new site is a 100 acre property, just outside of Halifax, with extensive shoreline on Frederick Lake. The land is surrounded by the Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area, a vast, wild landscape of rugged, rocky barrens, unique forests and lakes, home to Endangered Mainland Moose and rare plants, birds and lichens…

“All donations will be matched 4 to 1, but only until the April 5 deadline. Please help us save even more land through our Lasting Landscapes Campaign – now up to 17 sites – by donating today!”

The property boasts a spectacular oak drumlin, a large fen, patches of barrens and a black spruce swamp; bears had been very active feeding on large sweeps of wild raisin when I (David P) visited the area in the fall of 2018.

Click here to learn more about the special features of the Frederick Lake property

SAVE THE DATE! WRWEO’s AGM is coming up on April 1, 2019 from 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm. Location will be Keshen Goodman Library.

We’ve had a lot of interesting research and discoveries in 2018 so the theme is “The Science of Stewardship”

Included in these studies are continued research on the impact of dogs in wilderness areas, micro plastics, erosion control and sediment traps, and of course we have the new kingdom that was discovered in the wilderness area. If any of this research tickles your fancy come out and learn some more.

An image of the life form identified on The Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail.
We’ll also be checking up on the efforts of the Bluff Trail Stewardship Program and all the amazing work that’s been done over the past year!

 

 

New this year we have a photo contest! Send us your favourite pictures, we’ll have them rolling throughout the AGM and at the end the favourite photo by audience applause will win one of our amazing all natural coaster sets!

 

If you’re interested in helping direct the work on the trail, or want to get involved with research on the trail or greater wilderness area please come out to a stewardship day or join our board!
Contact us at info@wrweo.ca.

Become a citizen scientist with iNaturalist

Did you know that, armed with nothing more than your cell phone or camera, you can contribute meaningfully to science by uploading photos you’ve taken of living things while out enjoying nature? You can join the tens of thousands in Canada who in 2018 uploaded nearly half a million observations to iNaturalist! That’s a significant contribution to the 15 million global observations submitted for the year. Once uploaded, members of the iNaturalist community help identify whatever you’ve observed. Those observations that can be confidently identified become “research grade”, and then can then be used by scientists to help understand & protect the areas we enjoy so much.

WRWEO’s awareness of & use of the iNaturalist platform on the Bluff Trail started with participation in the HaliBlitz 2017 event hosted by the Ecology Action Centre and the Canadian Wildlife Federation. At this event, we had the pleasure of learning from expert hike leaders & helping as volunteers. Judging by the great turnout and enthusiasm of everyone we met, Halifax has an appetite for learning more about life in our area, and is willing to lend a hand to help advance the scientific study of the ecosystems in which we live.

Encouraged by this experience, and having board members who have used the platform over the last year, we made it even easier to see which species have been observed on our own trail by defining an  iNaturalist place for the Bluff Trail in late 2018. Every observation you make and submit to iNaturalist will now appear on this page. If you’d like to get involved, all you have to do is join iNaturalist and start uploading your observations. Those of us already signed up will be able to see your contributions as they are submitted, will help ID those contributions, and help you acquire the skills you need to improve your observations & your identifying skills.

In fact, even photos from past visits can be uploaded, so you don’t even need to wait until your next visit to the trail! Just upload your photos (it can be one or more photos) for each observation, check they have a date, time, approximate coordinates, accuracy expressed in metres, and submit. If you are confident you know what it is, you can include that, or else you can wait for help from the community to determine what it is you observed.

So don’t be intimidated. Join up, take lots of photos, upload, and have fun learning while you explore! We look forward to seeing what you’ve found and you will be contributing to the knowledge of the living things in and around The Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail. Here is a brief getting started guide from the iNaturalist site to help orient you.


P.S. We’re sure most of you know this already, but if you are a new observer, do respect the wildlife while you’re observing it. Please don’t pick or otherwise stress out your photographic subjects, and stay on the trail to minimize your impact to their environment.

Burned Screening – Wednesday Nov. 28, 2018

The SMBSA, FBWHT, WRWEO, and Transition Bay St. Margarets are co-hosting what we hope will become a series of climate change evening action workshops.   With the working title “eco-rallies” the first of these events will be Wed., Nov 28th at 7:30PM at St Luke’s United in Upper Tantallon.  A pay-what-you-can screening of the biomass exposé “Burned”, the film and the discussion afterwards will be hosted by the EAC’s Ray Plourde.

Please mark the date in your calendars and PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!! Attached please find the evening’s poster. Please send it around widely, put it on FB, your website, etc. We seriously want a big crowd. It’s an excellent movie, an important topic, and will be a stimulating evening guaranteed.

Council of Community Organizations (CoCO) meeting

Hope you can join us Tuesday, November 13th at 7 p.m. to share news and information with your local community organizations at our Council of Community Organizations (CoCO) meeting. Mike Marriott, President of the Safety-Minded ATV Association will act as Chair.  This is a wonderful way to make new connections, introduce new volunteers and share project news with others from around the Bay.
Everyone is welcome. If you are unable to attend, please feel free to share this invite with another person who can represent your organization.  This is an informal round table discussion focused on sharing and learning.
Tuesday, November 13 from 7 to 9 pm
St. Margaret’s Bay Community Enterprise Centre
5229 St. Margaret’s Bay Road, Upper Tantallon (Beside Home Hardware)
Board Room
For info contact:
Joanne Ellis

FBWHT Communications
Tel: 902 826 9512
Cel: 902 223 0179

Bluff Trail Steward Orientation Session and Volunteer Work Day

October 20, 2018 @ 9:30 am3:30 pm
The Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail (parking lot), 2890 St Margarets Bay Rd, Timberlea, NS B3T 1H4, Canada

Please contact info@wrweo.ca to register – there are a limited number of spots.

Would you like to learn how to give back to the trail and to reduce your ecological impact whilst using it? If so, you should consider becoming a designated Bluff Trail Steward. The trail needs your help!

We invite you to attend this volunteer work day and training session to become a designated Bluff Trail Steward or to contribute to our trail infrastructure and impact reduction work on the trail.

At the core of the Bluff Trail Stewardship Program are the volunteer ‘Bluff Trail Stewards’; those who have been equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to help advise other trail users in aspects of best-practice trail stewardship and to work on the trail to re-mediate human harms.

To learn more about the Bluff Trail Stewardship Program follow this link: https://wrweo.ca/wp/the-bluff-trail/the-bluff-trail-stewardship-program/

As you may have heard, WRWEO has teamed up with the St. Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association to create “The Bluff Trail Stewardship Program”! In our second year of the program, we will work even harder to look after the trail our goals of reducing the harmful human impacts that are currently affecting the trail at an unsustainable rate. This goal will largely be achieved through user engagement and education through volunteer Trail Stewards.

If you are interested in becoming a Bluff Trail Steward then contact us at info@wrweo.ca to book your spot! Spots are limited so please respond as quickly as you can to ensure you get booked in.

New study of Woodens Watershed now available

Students at NSCC examined samples from several areas in the Woodens River Watershed and examined the link between microplastics and macroinvertebrates (animals that lack a spine and can be seen with the naked eye, e.g. bugs).

Their study hypothesises that the more microplastics detected then the fewer will be the macroinvertebrates that are not of the heartiest sort.

Laura Struthers and Logan Hunter wrote the report and kindly gave us permission to put it up on our web site: SEDIMENT ANALYSIS OF THE WOODENS RIVER WATERSHED: Microplastic Pollution and Macroinvertebrate Health 

 

WRWEO’s 2018 AGM – March 29, 2018, Invite and Documents

Hello WRWEO members and friends ,

You are cordially invited to our 2018 annual general meeting.  It will be held in the BMO community room on the second floor of the Halifax Central Library on March 29th, 2018. Registration will begin at 5:30pm, the meeting starts at 6:00pm and will conclude at 8:30pm.

 

Our theme this year is “It Takes a Village to Steward a Forest,” so along with electing this year’s board and doing an overview of WRWEO’s activities we will also be covering the highlights of the Bluff Trail Stewardship Program. You will notice we chose to say “Forest” instead of “Trail,” at WRWEO we aim to create a sustainable balance between community and ecology. With that in mind a major focus of the BTSP is to reduce the human impacts on the forest ecology so that we, the community, can continue to enjoy the Bluff trail for generations.

 

The BTSP still has a ways to go before it is a self sustaining program so if you would like to know more come on out the the AGM.

 

We also advise that you eat dinner first but not dessert because there will be snacks!

 

AGM 2018 DRAFT Agenda

AGM 2017 Minutes to be approved

Full Bluff Trail Stewardship Report, 2017

2018 AGM Co-Chair’s report

WRWEO Financial Statements 2017

Bluff Trail Stewardship Program work day and training – Sunday Feb 25, 2018 at 9:30 AM

On Sunday, February 25th we will be hosting our monthly Volunteer Work Day and Trail Steward Training Session.

Would you like to learn how to give back to the trail and to reduce your ecological impact whilst using it? If so, you should consider becoming a designated Bluff Trail Steward. The trail needs your help!

We invite you to attend this volunteer work day and training session to become a designated Bluff Trail Steward or to contribute to our trail infrastructure and impact reduction work on the trail.

At the core of the Bluff Trail Stewardship Program are the volunteer ‘Bluff Trail Stewards’; those who have been equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to help advise other trail users in aspects of best-practice trail stewardship and to work on the trail to re-mediate human harms.

To learn more about the Bluff Trail Stewardship Program follow this link: https://wrweo.ca/…/the…/the-bluff-trail-stewardship-program/

As you may have heard, WRWEO has teamed up with the St. Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association to create “The Bluff Trail Stewardship Program”! In our second year of the program, we will work even harder to look after the trail our goals of reducing the harmful human impacts that are currently affecting the trail at an unsustainable rate. This goal will largely be achieved through user engagement and education through volunteer Trail Stewards.

If you are interested in becoming a Bluff Trail Steward then contact info@wrweo.ca.

Or check out our event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/190126415071585/?active_tab=discussion

See you on-trail!