Inside Ontario Nature Spring 2008
Welcoming Anne Bell
Anne Bell is Ontario Nature’s new senior director of conservation
and education. Anne has acted as an environmental
researcher, educator and consultant for many government
and nongovernmental organizations, including Ontario
Parks, Natural Resources Canada, the National Round
Table on the Environment and the Economy, the Sierra Club
and Environmental Defence. In 2002 and 2003, she served as
interim executive director with CPAWS Wildlands League.
Anne’s academic background is in biological conservation
and her PhD in environmental studies from York University
focused on ecological restoration and environmental education.
Anne is an avid naturalist, an enthusiastic birder and a
most welcome addition to the organization.
OUR CLUBS
THE GUELPH FIELD NATURALISTS
In 1968, the Guelph Field Naturalists (GFN) – then a small
but dogged group of keen naturalists – joined Ontario
Nature. Forty productive years later, GFN has more
than 100 members, nearly 30 of whom are enrolled in
GFN’s Young Naturalists Program, a naturalist group for
children between the ages of six and 12. The program has
been so successful that the club recently received funding
from the Parks and People Program, an initiative of Parks
Canada and Nature Canada, and subsequently has expanded
its activities for youth with its Naturalists in Training
Program for teenagers between the ages of 13 and 16.
GFN also hosts guest speaker nights, enormously popular
events that are open to the public. This April, GFN’s
guest speaker is Bridget Stutchbury, author of Silence of the
Songbirds, a revelatory exploration of climate change and
the worldwide decline in songbird populations. Other
speakers have included Lyle Friesen of the Canadian Wildlife
Service, who discussed the effects of wind turbines
on birds and bats, and Dr. Ernesto Guzman, associate
professor of environmental biology at the University
of Guelph, who gave a talk on the precipitous decline of
honeybees worldwide.
And for especially keen birders, GFN recently introduced
the GFN Birder and Dragonfly Watchers Sightings
Explorer software, an innovative program that features
electronic location mapping capability, allowing birders
to map the exact location of their sightings and then share
their data using the online database. Nature photographer
and software creator Jon Brierley generously donated the
program to GFN. The software can be purchased through
a donation of $40 (or more) to GFN, for which you will
receive a charitable receipt.
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GFN is proud of its conservation record and continues
to be a tenacious defender of natural spaces. Through
letter-writing campaigns and participation in public
forums, GFN contributed to the fight to save Sanctuary
Woods, near Guelph, from a housing development and
became involved in the recent battle over Nestlé Waters
Canada’s water-taking privileges from the Aberfoyle subwatershed.
As development and urban sprawl continue
to threaten Guelph’s natural areas, GFN will expand its
efforts in kind.
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Ontario Nature Network is devoted to news and updates from Ontario
Nature member organizations. What’s your news? Please e-mail all the facts to
clarem@ontarionature.org
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First Class
This fall, Ontario Nature welcomed a class of about 40 students and four faculty
members from Sir Sandford Fleming College in Lindsay to our Altberg Wildlife
Sanctuary Nature Reserve. The enthusiastic students helped survey forest
monitoring plots in the nature reserve, while learning ecological monitoring
techniques that they will be able to apply in their future careers. A professor from
the college led a walk along the nature reserve trails, during which students were
taught how to identify the many ferns present on the property.
Participants gave this trip high marks and are interested in making the
outing an annual event. The college might use the nature reserve for other
course-related excursions. Activities such as this one illustrate the importance
of our nature reserves as venues for both education and ecological research.
Contact Ontario Nature if you are interested in conducting educational activities
on one of our properties.
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