This one is going to be particularly fun folks

9 am to Noon this Sunday

Meet at the entrance to the RBG parking lot Old Guelph Road

See Green Arrow  http://goo.gl/maps/td47x

4 Televisions, a mattress, a couch, many buckets, lots of smaller items.  I could talk about the 41 tires but we got those out last week

Sadly this area has been used in the past as a dumping ground.  We have proven time and again that garbage attracts more garbage.  May have taken 20 years for this mess to accumulate.

So we'll get it clean and assign a steward to keep it clean.  In an era where you no longer have to pay when you discard tires, bulk pickup is done by the city for free, and people in general care more about the environment -  this may well be enough.  

But we're about comprehensive long-term solutions which is another way of saying "stewardship" - so if it's not enough we will not hesitate to up our efforts up to and including survelliance cameras in order to make sure that the Corner Brook Valley is treated with respect.

Come help us effect change.

As always gloves ad great people to work with are provided.  If you don't have proper boots let me know and I can bring some for you.

Cheers Alan

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Comment by FixOurWorld on March 30, 2013 at 9:17pm

The Bald Eagle Project

It has been decades since bald eagles nested on the Great Lakes. In fact, by the early 1980s, mostly as a result of widespread use of the pesticide DDT, there were only four active nests in all of the Great Lakes. That equals approximately 15 surviving birds. The species was all but locally extinct.

Nowadays, with the effects of DDT behind us — it was banned in the early 1970s — and with serious conservation efforts, the bald eagle has made a comeback. There are now 31 active nests on the Great Lakes, and another 30 on lakes north of 49th parallel. But not a single nest on Lake Ontario. Until now, we hope.

Several bald eagles have overwintered in Cootes Paradise at Royal Botanical Gardens in the last few years. In 2008 a pair stayed for the entire summer — which leads conservation staff to believe that the time is right for a pair to settle in and call Cootes their own. This means they’ll find a nest, lay eggs, raise young and become a highly visible and inspirational symbol of why we need to think green and save the environment for generations to come.

Royal Botanical Gardens has the perfect environment to convince the bald eagles to settle in and become the first pair on Lake Ontario. bald eagles need at least 100 hectares of forest to nest and roost, plus an adjacent 50 hectares of wetlands to allow them to catch fish. We have it all right here.

Comment by FixOurWorld on March 30, 2013 at 8:48pm

Little did we know that at the same time our 146 volunteers were pulling out 201 bags worth of garbage out of Cootes Paradise that the second of two Bald Eaglets was hatching – its sibling having hatched the day before.

The real credit though goes to the RBG and specifically Tys Theysmeyer and his team in Natural Lands. Successes like these are a testament to the RBG’s Project Paradise which has been a tireless effort to create the conditions where Nature itself could return this type of magnificent bio-diversity to Cootes. The fact that given all of Lake Ontario, breeding Bald Eagles have chosen to successfully re-established themselves at Cootes Paradise first, should serve as a realization for the entire community of just how special Cootes Paradise is

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Check out this CBC story
http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2013/03/27/hamilton-baby-eagl...

This picture is of the Cootes Paradise Bald Eagles in 2012 before parenthood

Cheers Alan

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2013/03/27/hamilton-baby-eagl..." width="843" height="403" />

Comment by FixOurWorld on March 12, 2013 at 9:08am

Hi All,

To promote our big clean up of Cootes on Sunday March 1st, we took all except 50 of the 250 tires that were pulled out of Cootes and Grindstone watersheds last year to make our own tire pyramid. 

Barry Gray of the Spectator came down and shot this great video. 

Tys Theysmeyer, Head of Natural Lands for RBG was in the thick of it all and provided some insightful commentary.  Tys says that about 1000 tires have been pulled out in the last seven years which is a unarguably a great accomplishment.  

But putting this number in perspective, this only represents the half-way point as there are still 1,000 out there!  Lots of work to be done.

Please share and lets get a great turn out on the 24th!

 

<iframe width='400' height='380' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' src='http://www.thespec.com/embed/videozone/900999--video-restoring-coot...'></iframe>

 

Cheers Alan

Comment by Mark chewter on February 18, 2013 at 12:03pm

When I was a kid in the naturalist club, John Miles and company ran a bird banding station on the North shore for the FON. I spent a couple of summers banding with John.Hamilton is blessed having such a beautiful natural area like Cootes lets look after it.I see there is a Cucumber Magnolia planted and dedcated to George North ,Hamilton's Greatest Birder of that Era the good ol'e days.

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