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OLTA Annual Gathering

24/10/2016

4 Comments

 
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Ontario Land Trust Alliance Annual Gathering, located at Geneva Park on Lake Couchiching, near Orillia, ON.  This gathering is an annual training, skills development and networking conference bringing together land trust and other conservation professionals from across Ontario and Canada. 

The first event of the gathering was an optional hike on the Nature Conservancy of Canada's Prairie Smoke Alvar, a 274 hectare property located on the Carden Alvar.  In case you don't know what an alvar is, you can learn more here!  This hike was definitely my favourite part of the gathering.  We walked along an ATV right-of-way that ran through the property and got to see many interesting things.  There was an osprey nest on top of an old windmill, fresh bear tracks and scat, fossils in the exposed limestone and a DeKay's brownsnake.  The snake was especially cool because I didn't even know they existed, let alone ever seen one before, as we're out of its range here in Desbarats.  After the hike, we made our way to Geneva Park for the rest of the gathering.

I attended six different sessions in total throughout the gathering.  I learned more about BioBlitzes, including effective ways to set up, promote and run them.  So if you're in the area next summer, make sure you come to the TKC BioBlitz as it's going to be the best one yet!  There was a very informative session on invasive species, mainly focusing on dog-strangling vine.  I'm very thankful that we haven't had problems with it on our properties, as it's takes and lot of time and energy to manage it successfully.  Another great session was about how all land trusts are also water trusts.  Dan Kraus, from the Nature Conservancy of Canada, explained how all land trusts are critical in protecting water, even if there is no wetlands, streams, rivers, lakes or ponds on the property as they can still absorb tons of water and store it in the ground, protecting it for the future.

I also learned about the challenges of conservation easements, species at risk in Ontario and the Natural Heritage Database, a new tool being developed which land trusts can use to catalog species more effectively.  In between all of these sessions was plenty of time for networking with other conservation professionals.  Over breakfast one morning, I was talking with a gentleman who worked out in Alberta for the Western Sky Land Trust.  He explained how he would go to properties where there were dinosaur bones sticking out of the ground and nobody batted an eye as they were common.  Imagine I found a dinosaur bone on TKC property?  There were many other wonderful people that I met who are doing great things across Ontario and Canada for conservation.

I'm hoping I have an opportunity to go back again next year and learn even more!     
4 Comments
Terry
24/10/2016 01:29:52 pm

Nice report! Glad you attended!

Reply
David Hofmann
24/10/2016 05:03:32 pm

Great write up, Carter! Sounds like your first OLTA conference was a great experience; I'm so glad you could attend with Tanna. I'm looking forward to next year's Bio Blitz!

Reply
Jake Dann
24/10/2016 09:18:45 pm

Carter,
Thanks for sharing your land trust gathering with other conservation professionals and excursion to the Carden alvar. We have our own alvar on Campment d'Ours Island, a favorite place to hike. Above the Wulsin camp is a high meadow, an alvar grassland on thin soil over limestone that caps the sandstone plateau. The limestone also caps the sandstone plateau on the TKC Phelps property, but the glacial deposit is thick enough to support the hardwood forest. The limestone is rubbly, so fossil hunting is limited. As for water storage, this summer I was impressed by how the high plateaus hold water even with the drought--very little water runs off the Island. The only stream continuously running is spring fed.

Reply
Dick Warren link
25/10/2016 02:24:35 pm

HI Carter. Nice report. We actually have very old fossil shells that have been gathered from Gravel Point. Not dinosaurs, but I think pre-Cambrian". Jake may know more about them. We have a write-up about them at our camp, details of which I vaguely recall. They were taken to one of the "Ivy League" schools and studied/examined. I'll try to dig up the report next year if I remember....

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