Urban Streamwalk

a new sign explaining how we affect,
and how we can protect
our urban streams

Last night I attended the Streamwalk hosted by EcoSuperior and 

the Thunder Bay District Stewardship Council along McVicar Creek.

McVicar Creek 5 July 2011

When I used to walk the recreational trail that follows McVicar Creek between Hinton and Madeline everyday on my way to work, I would thank my lucky stars for the privilege of starting my day with such serenity. The evening walks home were no different. Even in the rain.

In the winter when even the roads aren't cleared for traffic, the path along the creek is, and it's clean. People acknowledge each other with a smile, almost always saying hi or commenting on how pretty it all is. ...and birds - for some reason people are always sharing sightings of birds, in fact I would bet that happens at least once each time I visit (especially when I have my camera in my hands). It happened yesterday.

I love this path and over the years have developed a sort of personal ownership of it, which I'm sure I'm not alone in doing - especially after talking to a few of the others last night. People around here feel a strong attachment to it, and care about the trees and the wildlife that make it what it is. I could never describe what it is here well enough, you just need to experience it for yourself. 

The Streamwalk was informative, and I'm so glad I went. Davis from the Stewardship Council hosted the walk and talked about the conservation of and cohabitation with our urban streams. He also explained the moving of the recreational trail, and the new trees. Someone from the City Parks / Planning department was there also explaining reasons for moving the path, and what was being done to replant the area. Both obviously care as much for the Creek as I do, ...which was nice to hear. Lucy taught us about some of the insects (and dragonfly larvae!) who inhabit the streams, and what they can tell us about their environment; and John, a 40 year veteran from the MNR fisheries was there in waders with jars of baby stealhead. 

new  Burr Oak, Maples, Poplar, and Willows along McVicar Creek

It's evident that people are reluctant to give up the old path route, but that's not too much of a problem. Over time the trees and shrubs will fill the space, flowers and grasses will naturalize, and it will likely end up a lot like the path along the McIntyre River behind the university - with the recreational trail at a safe distance, and small sandy paths tucked around the water. Every effort was made to preserve favourite accesses to the creek, which shows just how much thought was put into this creekside renovation.

the new Recreational Trail, and the old  route to the right

Emphasized also was a message to stream-side property owners about their role in preservation. Manicured lawns that reach the water have so little to offer in comparison to a buffer of life between house and stream. 

daylilies reflecting in somebody's not so manicured stream-side yard

We all have a roll to play in the quality of water that runs off our properties into streams and on to the lake. Five blocks from our house and garden is Lake Superior, ...it's something to think about.

OMAFRA factsheets

Why Farm Organically?

Factsheets from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs are a invaluable source of information. Though focused on commercial farming, the principles can be applied to any grower. The OMAFRA Vegetable Production Information page lists everything from soil science to seed companies, and homemade pesticides from Health Canada.

Season Extension Techniques for Vegetable Crops is a particularly relevant sheet to gardeners in our area.

Interim Report on Ontario's Biodiversity (a 66 page pdf document from the Ontario Biodiversity Council) discusses everything from native species, ecosystem diversity, sustainable use and Integrating Biodiversity Conservation into Land-Use Planning. The anecdotal (though fundamentally scientific) information in the document and links to further reading can keep a gardener well entertained on a rainy spring day.
The Ministry of Natural Resources extends to Ontario’s Biodiversity Strategy and "seeks to engage more Ontarians in our efforts to achieve the goals of protecting biodiversity and ensuring the sustainable use of our biological assets."

Interested to know What's current in crops?

Batty Bats

According to Bat Conservation International (BCI)

• A single insectivorous bat can eat hundreds of insects an hour, including mosquitoes and agricultural pests, reducing our dependence on pesticides.
• Frugivorous bats in the tropics are vital in seed dispersal and nectivorous bats pollinate plants when they feed on nectar.
• Although 70 percent of bats eat insects, many tropical species feed exclusively on fruit or nectar.

Despite their notoriety, vampire bats make up only a small portion of all bats (there are only three species), and they live only in Latin America. With the exception of three species of nectar-feeding bats that live along the Mexican border of Arizona and Texas, all bats in the United States and Canada are insectivorous.

• Fruit bats bring us over 450 commercial products, including 80 medicines. 
• The seed dispersal and pollination activities of fruit and nectar eating bats are vital to the survival of rain forests. 
• Seeds dropped by tropical bats account for up to 95% of forest re-growth on cleared land. 

Night blooming plants and trees depend on nectar eating bats for pollination.

Bats are such unique mammals that they have been placed in a group of their own, the Chiroptera, which means hand-wing. Bats are of the grand order, Archonta, grouped together with monkeys and flying lemurs. All living bat species fit into one of two major groups, the Microchiroptera or the Megachiroptera.

Linnaeus was so impressed by the similarities between bats and primates (lemurs, monkeys, apes, and humans) that he originally put them into the same taxonomic group.

Most agree that bats are far more closely related to primates than to the rodents with which they often are linked in the public mind.

• Only three out of more than 1,100 species of bats worldwide feed on blood, and they are all in Latin America. 
• As for spreading rabies, BCI states that fewer than half of one percent of bats contract rabies, and rabid bats usually are not aggressive.

Bats are among the cleanest of animals and are also exceptionally resistant to disease.

Guano is the collective term used for bat or bird droppings or feces. For many years, people all over the world have been using guano to fertilize their crops.

Canadian Bat Houses, Inc. manufactures the only 

BCI Bat Certified bat house in Canada.

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♥Our garden will be brimming with a wide range of plants to attract insects of all kinds, encouraging diversity from spring to autumn. There are enough old growth, trees, flowering and fruiting plants nearby. I'd like to add a few more native plants, which support far more species of insect than hybrids, both front and back. Compositae (Daises), mallow, forget-me-not's(front), yarrow in pots(back), along with Bergamot, Rosemary, Thyme ~ and revive Rohan's lovely Lavendar. Of course, different plants attract different types of insects, florets for those with short tongues, and for those with long tongues, honeysuckle. Also, pale flowers that attract insects at dusk, moon garden flowers, and annual fragrant tobacco and night jasmine.

Plants for Bats

Aubretia (spring to early summer)

Candytuft

Cornflower

Corn marigold

Echinacea

English Bluebell (spring)

Evening primrose (summer to autumn)

Ice plant ‘Pink lady’ (early autumn)

Knapweed (summer to autumn)

Mallow (summer to autumn)

Mexican aster (summer to autumn)

Michaelmas daisy (summer to autumn)

Night-scented stock (summer)

Ox-eye daisy (summer)

Phacelia (summer to autumn)

Primrose (spring)

Red campion (spring)

Scabious (summer)

St John’s wort (spring)

Sweet William (summer)

Tobacco plant

Verbena (summer to autumn)

Woodland forget-me-not (spring)

Yarrow (early summer)

Angelica

Bergamot (summer to early autumn)

Borage (spring to early autumn)

Coriander (summer)

English marigolds

Fennel (summer to early autumn)

Feverfew (summer to autumn)

Hyssop (summer to early autumn)

Lavenders

Lemon balm

Marjoram (summer)

Rosemary (spring)

Sweet Cicely (spring to early summer)

Thyme (summer)

Bramble (climber)

Buddleia (shrub)

Dog rose (climber)

Elder (small)

Gorse (shrub)

Hawthorn (suitable for coppicing)

Hazel (suitable for coppicing)

Honeysuckle (native honeysuckle)

Jasmine (night-scented)

Pussy willow

Rowan

Silver birch

Creeping Jenny (spring to summer)

Flag iris

Lady’s smock (spring to summer)

Marsh mallow

Marsh marigold (spring)

Marsh woundwort

Meadowsweet (summer to early autumn)