| Monthly Meetings
2008 - 2009 |
| Date |
Topic |
Speaker |
| September 8, 2008 |
"Hamilton Conservation
Areas" |
Bruce Mackenzie
Hamilton Conservation Authority |
| |
"Using Wasps to
Find Emerald Ash Borer" |
Phillip Careless
|
Bruce Mackenzie, Manager of Customer
Service and Operations at the Hamilton Conservation Authority and long
time HNC member will provide an interesting update on Hamilton’s
nearby and natural conservation areas.
Phillip Careless, a Masters student at the University of Guelph currently
working for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will talk on the intriguing
subject of Using Wasps to find Emerald Ash Borer. The beetle-hunting
wasp Cerceris fumipennis, which is native to southern Ontario, provisions
its subterranean nests almost exclusively with adult metallic wood-boring
beetles (Buprestidae), including the destructive Emerald Ash Borer (EAB).
Distribution and unique behaviour renders C. fumipennis a potential
ally to our efforts to monitor EAB in Canada and the United States.
Current monitoring methods for EABs are costly, labour intensive and
at times destructive or impractical. So we are experimenting with a
novel solution for a complex monitoring problem: using a wasp to find
the beetle.
|
| October
6, 2008 |
"Falcon Watch Update" |
Barry Cherriere |
Annual General Meeting of the
Hamilton Naturalists’ Club PLUS Volunteer of the Year Award Presentations
after the meeting.
“FalconWatch Update” by
Barry Cherriere, renowned bird photographer. Come out to see more of
Barry’s stunning photographs. |
| November 3, 2008 |
"Ontario's
Caribou: On the Road to Extinction" |
Evan Ferrari |
| |
"More About HNC's Sanctuaries" |
Jennifer Baker |
Evan Ferrari
will be giving a presentation on "Ontario's Caribou: On the Road
to Extinction".
Caribou: The Untold Story:
Woodland caribou are canaries in the forest coal mine. Where
forests have been transformed through logging, mining, roads, and
other human activities, woodland caribou have steadily declined--or
disappeared altogether. They require large areas of undisturbed forest
both to avoid predators and to find the old-growth dependent lichens
that are the mainstay of their winter diet. Will Ontario’s recent
announcement to protect 50% of Ontario’s far north be enough
to stop this slow motion extinction?
Resource conservation has been part of Evan Ferrari's life since founding
a water-pumping windmill project in Tanzania in the 1970s. Since then
he has held managerial and leadership positions in the fields of waste
management, water conservation, energy conservation. Evan is the President
of the WindShare - owners of North America’s first urban windmill
at Toronto’s CNE and is the Director, Parks & Protected
Areas Program for the CPAWS - Wildlands League where he took the lead
in the creation of Ontario’s new Parks Act. In
1992 Evan received the Governor General’s Canada 125 award for
his work on environmental initiatives.
"More About HNC’s Sanctuaries”
by Jennifer Baker, HNC Land Trust Coordinator. This summer, three
field ecologists have been collecting data on species present in our
sanctuaries which will be used to draw up management plans for the
sanctuaries. Come out to hear Jen update us on some new and interesting
findings.
|
| December 8, 2008 |
"Community Based
Conservation and Education Programs in Costa Rica" |
Greg Mayne |
Caño Palma Biological
Station was established in 1991 by the Canadian Organization for Tropical
Education and Rainforest Conservation (COTERC). It is located north
of the village of Tortuguero on the northeast Caribbean coast of Costa
Rica. The station is surrounded by the Barra del Colorado Wildlife Refuge;
north of the famed Tortuguero National Park where tens of thousands
of sea turtles deposit their eggs. The coastal tropical wet forest receives
six metres of rain annually and is one of the most biologically diverse
regions in MesoAmerica.
Greg Mayne first worked with COTERC from 1991 to 1993 as the first
Station Manager. During this time, he developed the station, its monitoring
projects and hosted researchers, volunteers and university groups
in an effort to protect and better understand tropical rainforest
biodiversity. As Director of Site Services, he works closely with
other COTERC Directors and station management in Costa Rica to improve
station infrastructure. He also facilitates biological monitoring,
community-based conservation programs, and seeks funding for wildlife
monitoring and conservation programs. He is particularly interested
in seeing that research and monitoring information collected from
Caño Palma Biological Station is published and shared with
other conservation groups.
Greg Mayne currently works with Environment Canada’s Great
Lakes Management and Reporting Section where he collaborates with
government agencies, ENGOs, academia and community-based conservation
groups to identify strategies and projects which promote conservation
of Great Lakes water quality and biodiversity.
|
| January 12, 2009 |
"Controlled Burns
and Tallgrass Prairie Restoration at Bronte Creek Provincial Park" |
Sandy Dobbyn |
Ontario Parks recently completed
a vegetation management plan for Bronte Creek Provincial Park, which
will guide park managers in dealing with vegetation related issues for
many years to come. One of the key initiatives of the management plan
is the retirement of 100+ ha of active farm fields within the park and
converting them to ecologically appropriate natural habitats. Eventually
the park would like to see these areas forested, but an interim step
of tallgrass prairie has been chosen to allow for gradual reforestation
and control of non-native and invasive species. This presentation will
introduce the vegetation management plan and its many recommendations,
and will focus on the challenges of tallgrass creation and management
within the park including the need for prescribed burning.
Sandy Dobbyn is the zone ecologist with Ontario Parks, Southwest
Zone and was one of the members of the planning team for the Bronte
Creek Vegetation Management Plan. Sandy has been a biologist/ecologist
for almost 20 years and worked with Ontario Nature, Bird Studies Canada,
the Canadian Wildlife Service and as a private consultant before coming
to Ontario Parks. He is actively involved in the prescribed burn program
in Rondeau, Pinery, Turkey Point and Ojibway Prairie, and is a low
complexity prescribed burn boss. |
| February 9, 2009 |
"Nature Deficit
Disorder" |
Steven Bede Scharper |
| Stephen Bede Scharper is Associate Professor of environmental
ethics, Centre for Environment, University of Toronto, and the Department
of Anthropology (UTM). A widely published essayist and popular lecturer,
he is Faith and Ethics columnist for the Toronto Star, and author of
Redeeming the Time: A Political Theology of the Environment. |
| March 9, 2009 |
"The Influence
of Contaminant Exposure on Aggressive Behaviours in Round Gobies in
the Hamilton Harbour" |
Natalie Sopinka |
Natalie Sopinka is a 4th year Honours Biology & Psychology
student at McMaster University completing her thesis under the supervision
of Dr. Sigal Balshine in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience
and Behaviour.
For her thesis, she has been investigating the effects of naturally
occurring combinations of organic contaminants on aggressive behaviours
in round gobies (Neogobius melanostomus), an invasive species to the
Great Lakes. She has explored the influence of contaminant exposure
on aggressive behaviours by initiating resource competitions between
male gobies from contaminated and relatively clean sites in Hamilton
Harbour.
|
| April 6,
2009 |
Bird Studies
Canada and the Projects Around the Long Point Area |
Jody Allair |
Jody will be speaking on the regional and national work
being done by Bird Studies Canada and projects around the Long Point
area.
Jody Allair - Project Biologist and Outreach Coordinator
Jody Allair holds an Honours Bachelor of Outdoor Recreation and a Bachelor
of Science degree from Lakehead University. His dual interests in ornithology
and environmental education are also reflected in his position at Bird
Studies Canada, where as the Project Biologist and Outreach Coordinator,
he conducts various educational activities in addition to his research
and fieldwork responsibilities. His key projects at BSC include the
Southern Ontario Bald Eagle Monitoring Program, Hooded Warbler research
in St. Williams Forest, and the organization of the Ontario Nocturnal
Owl Survey.
Jody has been birding and banding since his teens when he
began volunteering at the Long Point Bird Observatory. Since then he
has worked on numerous bird-related projects throughout Ontario such
as the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas and Project Peregrine. He also spent
two years as the Landbird Program Coordinator for the Long Point Bird
Observatory. From 2004-06, he worked as a Nature Educator at Calgary's
Inglewood Bird Sanctuary and as a Science Educator at the Royal Tyrrell
Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta. |
| May
11, 2009 |
Rick Ludkin's Arctic
Research |
|
Rick started the bird banding program at Ruthven Park National Historic Site in Cayuga in 1995 and co-founded the Haldimand Bird Observatory with John Miles in 1996. For the past 5 Summers he has travelled to the Canadian Arctic to spend 1-2 months per year assisting Canadian Wildlife Service projects studying a variety of bird species, including: Northern Fulmars, Common Eiders, Herring Gulls, and Snow Buntings. His travels have taken him to Devon Island in the High Arctic and to Southampton Island in the Low Arctic. His talk will outline both the science and the way that this science is conducted in the difficult conditions of the far North.
Rick Ludkin is the chief bander at the Ruthven Park National Historic Site banding station. He started birding in a serious way when he joined the Hamilton Junior Naturalists' Club in the late 50's/early 60's. His banding "career" started in the early 80's when, after seeing a banding demonstration by Bob Stamp, he started as a trainee at Long Point Bird Observatory. As a subpermit holder under Martin McNichol in the late 80's and early 90's, he banded in the forests around his hometown of York (just outside of Cayuga) giving special attention to Golden-winged Warblers. When he received his Master Banding Permit, he started the banding program at Ruthven Park in the Fall of 1995 and in 1996 he collaborated with the late John Miles to form the Haldimand Bird Observatory. The banding program at Ruthven park is part of the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network and runs daily in both Spring and Fall. For the past 3 years there has been a MAPS banding effort in the Summer. Since 2004, Rick has spent part of his Summers working on Canadian Wildlife Service projects in the Canadian Arctic studying and banding Northern Fulmars, Common Eiders, and Snow Buntings.
In his "day job" he works for Woodview Children's Mental Health and Autism Services where he is the Director of Autism Services Development. He is married with 2 sons (neither of whom is into birds or birding).
|
The automated parking machines have been removed from the RBG headquarters parking lot and parking is now free in this lot all year.
