Dear Friends of Kingston Inner Harbour!
Trust you are enjoying this wonderful summer.
In my opinion, there is no where better in the entire world to spend a summer than in south-eastern Ontario.
Thanks so much Carl Hanna for the picture of the summer night sky.
Night skies are just so wondrous! Hoping you all get a chance to be out there at night looking at the Perseid drama unfold (See #14)
And do check out Carl Hanna’s wonderful pictures on Facebook.
LOCAL SUMMER NEWS AND FUN
1. ABNA Investments 9 North St. Update
2. Launch/Lunch: With the Land: Claud 9 Eco-Art Exhibition, Sat, July 29
3. Sheep Dog Trials, Aug 11 – 13
4. Biodiverse Garden Tour of Seven Gardens + Workshops
5. Creative Kingston Walking Tours
6. Water Quality Concerns in Kingston
7. Bellevue House Update
8. Just Recovery Kingston Update
9. John Counter Pedestrian Bridge Update
FROM FAR AND WIDE
10. Ontario Supporting Local Projects to Protect the Great Lakes
11. More than 10,000 Vessels Face Being Scrapped after IMO Shipping Announcement
12. New Study Showing Importance of Great Lakes Shipping
13. What is the Economic Cost of Wildfire Smoke?
AWESOME STUFF AND SUMMER FUN FOR KIDS
14. Your Hair is Surprisingly Recyclable
15. Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks Aug 13 but is Happening Now!
16. Free Ontario Nature Resources on Species at Risk, Forest Foods, etc
17. Eco-Exercise
18. Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees
19. Great Kids’ Summer Craft Ideas from Little Pine Learners
LOCAL SUMMER NEWS AND FUN
1. ABNA Investments 9 North St. Update
Received from ABNA July 20, 2023
Work on the structural components of 9 North St. continues this summer. We hope to receive building permits this autumn in order to complete the project in 2024. The completed suites will contain custom kitchen and bathroom millwork, large windows, and high-end stainless steel appliances, yielding 8 luxury suites (four 1-bedroom suites and four 2-bedroom suites).
2. Launch/Lunch of With the Land: Cloud 9 Eco-Art Exhibition
What: WITH THE LAND: Cloud 9 Eco-Art Exhibition Launch / Lunch
When: Saturday July 29, 2023, 11:00 am with talks at 12:00 pm
Where: No.9 Gardens, 1516 Summers Road, Lyndhurst, ON
Added Extra: Complimentary lunch for first 100 guests made from fresh food grown at No.9 Gardens
Who: Exhibition is co-presented by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre and No.9 and curated by Sunny Kerr, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Agnes.
Works emerge in the lush outdoor trails, meandering riverbanks and wildflower fields, including those by Andy Berg, Elaine Chan-Dow, Chaka Chikodzi, Francisco Corbett, Sadiqa de Meijer, Elvira Hufschmid, Alvin Luong, Jill Price and the Along the Way Playgroup (Michelle Bunton, Sebastian De Line, Sadiqa de Meijer, Shelby Lisk, JP Longboat (lead artist), Marney McDiarmid, Andrei Pora, Clelia Scala and Sheldon Traviss).
NOTES: Exhibition is open free to public for self-guided tours.
Dates of exhibit: Saturdays and Sundays 10am-5pm July 29th to October 1st.
More Info?https://www.no9.ca/eco-art-exhibition
Tickets:https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/with-the-land-cloud-9-eco-art-exhibition-opening-tickets-676634761787
NOTE: Please register by July 27 to secure your complimentary lunch..
3. Sheep Dog Trials, Aug 11 – 13
Received from the Kingstonist June 20 – Jessica Foley
| Presented by Subaru of Kingston, the sheep dog trials run daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11 to Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023. According to a release from the City, festival attractions will be held over the course of the weekend and include a wide variety of activities and demonstrations, including: Dog Agility Shows with Absolute Agility: Three shows daily (times TBD)Horse-Carriage Racing on the Trial Field: Saturday only, at the lunch break (Approx. 12 p.m.)Sheep to Shawl demonstrations and Silent Auction – Demo timings TBD, the silent auction will take place on Sunday.Kingston Sheep Dog Trials tent with run sheets and lots of merchandise options.Market vendors from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day with various wares for both dogs and their owners.Local food vendors with great eats and sweet treats.Utilities Kingston water buggy – bring your refillable water bottle.ATM on-site.https://www.kingstonist.com/news/sheep-dog-trials-return-to-grass-creek-park-with-admission-by-donation/ |
4. Biodiverse Garden Tour and Workshops: Visit Seven Ecologically Focused Gardens
Received from 1000 Islands Master Gardeners, June, 2023
Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to connect with fellow gardeners, expand your knowledge of designing gardens inspired by the natural world and contribute to the preservation of our planet’s biodiversity. Mark your calendars and join us for the Biodiverse Garden Tour, Tallk and Workshops.
How Much?
Garden Tour & two workshops & talk: $50
Garden Tour & talk: $25
Workshop & talk: $15 each
Talk only: $10
All tickets include the Friday night talk.
Talk: Lady Beetles: Friends of our Gardens and Ecosystems, Fri, Aug, 11, 7:00 pm, Zoom, $10
Guess how many native lady beetles there are in Ontario? We guarantee you’ll vastly underestimate the number of specialist lady beetles (including forest specialists). As gardeners, learning more about the biodiversity of the insects in our gardens helps us become better gardeners and reverse the decline of insects. This zoom talk is included in all ticket prices.
Garden Tour, Sat, Aug 12, 9 am – 3:30 pm
Embark on a fascinating journey through seven ecologically focused gardens lush with diverse plant species and teeming with wildlife. Ecosystem features you’ll see include: pollinator meadow, forest garden, food forest, pond, medicine garden, bubble fountain, ditch garden, rain garden, front yard vegetable garden including espalier fruit trees, native seed propagation and much more! Master Gardeners will be on hand at each garden to answer your questions on biodiverse and climate resilient gardening practices.
Workshops: Learn How to Design Ecologically focused Gardens
Grow your gardening for biodiversity skills with our interactive workshops where you’ll learn practical techniques for designing garden ecosystems inspired by the natural world. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, these workshops are designed to empower you to make a positive impact on biodiversity in your neighbourhood. Choose from three workshops: 1) designing a matrix meadow pollinator garden, 2) designing a food forest or 3) designing a Miyawaki inspired pocket forest with native species. Register early to ensure your choice of workshops.
Sunday August 13, $15 each
- Learning from a Red Oak Hickory Forest: A Walking Tour of Belle Island with Hilbert & Joyce
- Designing a pollinator matrix pollinator & seed garden with Nathan & Nancy
- Designing a fruit tree guild for a food forest with Joyce & Marie
- Designing a Miyawaki inspired pocket forest with native species with Astrid & Joanne
Register on Eventbrite.
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/biodiverse-garden-tour-talk-and-workshops-tickets-661931513977?aff=oddtdtcreator&mc_cid=52a95eb0e3&mc_eid=e8886d3dbd
More info and/or to get on her mailing list?
Joyce Hostyn joyce_hostyn@yahoo.com
5. Creative Kingston Walking Tours Received from City of Kingston, July 25, 2023 We’ve launched nine self-guided walking tours available in English and French! Explore Kingston’s rich music, literature, and film histories through archival images, video clips, behind-the-scenes stories, and a robust itinerary of local sites with these tours. Film Discover Kingston’s cinematic past and present by visiting recent film and television production locations while learning about the early history of cinemas and film productions in the city. LiteraryExplore Kingston connections of notable Canadian authors, from Robertson Davies to Bronwen Wallace, as you visit literary landmarks and the sites that continue to inspire the written word. Music Immerse yourself in the musical stories of Kingston, from rock to pop to classical. Visit the places where some of Canada’s most talented musicians got their start and explore Kingston’s vibrant live music scene. Literary Explore the Kingston connections of notable Canadian authors, from Robertson Davies to Bronwen Wallace as you visit literary landmarks and the sites that continue to inspire the written word. More Info? https://www.visitkingston.ca/ 6. Water Quality Concerns in Kingston https://www.swimdrinkfish.ca/kingston-water-issues 7. Bellevue House Update Received from the Whig Standard, July 19 – Elliot Ferguson A new site management plan for Kingston’s Bellevue House has been tabled in Parliament. The plan involves three strategic changes for the Centre Street home once occupied by former Canadian prime minister John A. Macdonald. The first would see the adoption of an “evolving understanding” of Macdonald’s legacy, a “commitment to leading an open and ongoing dialogue and presenting a range of perspectives surrounding the development of Canada and Macdonald’s role in it.” The second suggests the site become an “active community partner” with the goal of establishing new partnerships and stronger collaborations. Lastly, a “renewed heritage experience” would see experiences “modernized” and made more inclusive, while new programming is developed that would include “immersive activities.” Built in the 1840s, Bellevue House is a national historic site and, under the Parks Canada Act, is required to have its management plan reviewed every 10 years. In developing the new management plan, Parks Canada consulted with the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte and the Mohawks of Akwesasne as well as Kingston’s Indigenous community. A community advisory committee, representing the region’s diversity, was also formed. “Sir John A. Macdonald is an integral part of Canada’s history and Bellevue House is a historic symbol of that story, however we need a more complete picture of the man’s legacy; a picture that includes everyone,” the Bellevue House Community Advisory Committee stated in a Parks Canada news release distributed Wednesday. “We will continue to support this management plan as Bellevue House National Historic Site strives to demonstrate a commitment to ensuring that all people from this diverse Canadian society may feel and know that their part in that history is accurately remembered and shared.” Additional stakeholders and partners also had input in the plan’s development, the release stated. “Through this management plan, Parks Canada will protect an important example of cultural heritage in Canada, engage and collaborate with Indigenous Peoples, and provide an opportunity for Canadians to experience and discover history in new and innovative ways,” the release read. For more information, go to parks.canada.ca and follow the links. |
8. Just Recovery Kingston Update
Received July 21, 2023 – Jeremy Milloy
It is a bittersweet feeling to be writing my last email as Just Recovery Kingston coordinator. I am sad to be leaving you but also so happy and proud about how JRK has grown over the last three years, the work we have done, and the wonderful people that we have connected to work for social and environmental justice.
I am very excited to share that Joan Jardin has agreed to become acting coordinator until the end of 2023. Joan has been a pivotal person in JRK for a long time now and we could not be in better hands. Aric McBay is joining our steering committee to replace Joan as treasurer.
Please join me in welcoming Joan and Aric to their new roles!
Secondly, our next JRK CONNECTIONS meeting is Wednesday, August 2,4:30-5:30, in Friendship Park: https://goo.gl/maps/VHNW2yGPMyYxLxC97
(rain location is 99 York St)
We plan to discuss the local impact of the wildfires currently raging, and the new “strong mayor” powers: how Mayor Paterson and staff have handled them, and what it means for our work and Just Recovery principles. If you would like to share an update at this meeting, please email justrecoverykingston@gmail.com
Our September meeting will be on September 6 at 4:30 PM – save the date!
Finally, the JRK tenant survey was written about in Kingstonist! Great work by JRK Housing to get this spread far and wide. Please help them out by completing and sharing the survey yourself!
https://www.kingstonist.com/news/kingston-tenants-asked-to-share-experiences-to-inform-local-advocate-group/
That’s all for me for now. Thanks again to all of you for working for a city where we take care of the land, air, water, and each other. I know JRK will only continue to grow and thrive as a force for justice in Kingston
!n solidarity
Jeremy for JRK
9. John Counter Pedestrian Bridge Update
Received from Danny Potts, Project Manager, Transportation Services, City of Kingston, July 25, 2023
Several potential alternative locations have been identified and the project team is currently screening the alternatives against the project objectives to determine which will be carried forward through the final review selection process and presented to the public. A public meeting is being planned for mid to late summer, details for which will be released shortly. A number of supporting studies are nearing completion, including a stage 1 archaeological assessment, cultural heritage checklist and environmental screening. Once finalized, a copy of the supporting studies will be available on the project Get Involved page, as well as the details for the public meeting.
John Counter Boulevard Pedestrian Bridge | Get Involved Kingston by Communications & Public Engagement (cityofkingston.ca)
FROM FAR AND WIDE
10. Ontario Supporting Local Projects to Protect the Great Lakes, Ontario Newsroom, July 17, 2023. The Ontario government is investing $6 million to support 30 multi-year projects to help protect, conserve and restore the Great Lakes. These investments will help reduce plastic litter, excess nutrients and road salt entering lakes, rivers and streams, advance climate resiliency, and make significant progress on restoring environmentally degraded areas of the Great Lakes.
11. More than 10,000 vessels face being scrapped within three years after ‘pivotal’ IMO shipping announcement, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide, July 19, 2023. Shipowners face an ultimatum this year – upgrade their Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) technology to comply with new laws or scrap their vessel. CII data from the previous year must have been calculated and reported to the Data Collection System (DCS) verifier and sent by March 21, 2024 and 30% of ships simply don’t have the technology onboard to do it. The move comes as the International Marine Organization (IMO) this month announced new carbon targets, which include a 20% reduction in emissions by 2030, a 70% reduction by 2040 (compared to 2008 levels), and the ultimate goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
12. Buttigieg, Canadian officials unveil new study showing importance of Great Lakes shipping, Michigan Advance, July 21, 2023. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined Canadian Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra and leaders from the maritime shipping industry on Friday in announcing a new economic study that underscores the significance of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system in North American supply chain efficiency. The announcement event, hosted by the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation and its Canadian counterpart, featured analysis of statistics relating to cargo shipping, job creation and binational collaboration to exhibit the role of the Seaway in both American and Canadian commerce.
13. What is the Economic Cost of Wildfire Smoke?
Received from CBC What on Earth, July 13 – Benjamin Shingler
| When tallying the economic toll of climate change, flooding tops the list in Canada. But the wildfire smoke that has blanketed many parts of North America this summer also comes with a financial cost. Wildfires release fine particulate matter known as PM2.5, which is made up of tiny particles 2.5 microns in diameter or less (that’s roughly 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair). Those particles can enter the lungs and bloodstream and are particularly harmful for those with pre-existing conditions. At the height of the haze in June, baseball games and Broadway shows were cancelled, schools closed and flights postponed. A growing body of research is trying to put a dollar figure on the larger economic fallout. A forthcoming paper in the Review of Economics and Statistics estimates that between 2007 and 2019, U.S. earnings were reduced by an average of $125 billion a year because of wildfires. “Air quality matters for more than just health outcomes,” David Molitor, the study’s co-author and an associate professor of finance and economics at the University of Illinois, said in an interview. “It shows up in the statistics for economic productivity. The researchers found smoke exposure can decrease income across a range of sectors, from manufacturing to farming to real estate, and that older workers and people of colour were disproportionately affected. The paper drew on satellite imagery of wildfire smoke, air quality records and labour market data in the U.S. “One of the things that really surprised me about wildfire smoke is that in the United States, the geography of wildfire smoke is very different from the geography of fires,” said Molitor. “It turns out that the Midwest U.S. experiences, on average, some of the highest number of days of smoke per year. We don’t have a lot of fires there, but just a lot of smoke.” Another study, published last month in the journal Science of the Total Environment, concluded smoke particulates from wildfires could ultimately lead to between 4,000 and 9,000 premature deaths in the U.S. and cost a staggering $36 billion to $82 billion a year in health care. Shuai Pan, the lead author, had previously looked at the effects of pollution from the transportation sector, but became interested in the consequences of wildfire smoke while doing his doctoral work in the U.S. Epidemiological research suggests exposure to wildfire smoke is associated with increased mortality and certain common respiratory diseases, Pan said. “It’s not news that wildfire causes air pollution that has an impact on human health, but we really wanted to provide some numbers,” said Pan, a postdoctoral researcher at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology in China. For the study, Pan and his fellow researchers used satellite wildfire emission and air quality data gathered from 2012 to 2014 to create a model estimating how smoke from wildfires could impact human health and economies. For instance, Los Angeles — downwind from many of the fires in the western U.S. — may see 119 premature deaths annually, and $1.07 billion in financial burden, the study said. Those numbers would be far higher if the research had drawn on this summer’s smoky air, Pan said. In the midst of Canada’s record wildfire season this year, Dave Sawyer, an environmental economist at the Climate Institute of Canada, tried to calculate the health cost of smoke in this country. He figured that during a particularly smoky stretch from June 4 to 8, the estimated price tag of smoke-related health care alone was $1.28 billion. Sawyer said the economic toll of wildfire smoke is yet another reason to act on climate change. In the meantime, Molitor said more research is needed on the most effective ways to reduce harmful exposure. “I think that’s where behavioural adjustments and adaptations have the potential to play a big role,” he said. “Putting air filtration in your home … or in offices or in public schools may go a long way to helping to reduce the effects.” |
AWESOME STUFF AND SUMMER FUN FOR KIDS
14. Your Hair is Surprisingly Recyclable
Received from the National Geographic, June 28, 2023 – Sandy Ong,
Nanako Hama gets a lot of mail. Mostly from strangers who live in her home city of Tokyo, but many packages also arrive from further afield in Japan. In lightly padded envelopes, they send locks of their hair—long, short, dyed, relaxed, permed—hoping to recycle it.
People generate a staggering amount of hair waste—salons in the U.S. and Canada toss out some 31.5 tons a day, and that figure is sevenfold higher in Europe. Nearly all of that waste ends up in landfills and incinerators, where it can release harmful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
But hair, proponents say, possesses so many useful properties that it’s a shame to simply toss it out. Which is why people all around the world, like Hama, have been collecting hair and finding innovative ways to recycle it, from weaving it into mats for mopping up oil spills to liquidizing it for use as a fertilizer.
“When you have hair on your head, it’s really important. But when it falls or you cut it, it suddenly becomes garbage,” says Hama. “Hair can be transformed into something really valuable.”
A magnet for oil
Hama is part of the San Francisco-headquartered nonprofit Matter of Trust (MoT). Members work at more than 60 hubs dotted across 17 countries, using machines to felt hair donated from local salons and individuals into inch-thick square mats roughly 33 inches across. The mats are then used to clean up oil slicks.
Hair is particularly well-suited for this, says MoT cofounder Lisa Gautier. “That’s because its rough sort of scaly outer layer lets oil cling to it.”
More specifically, hair is made of 95 percent keratin, and it’s this fibrous protein that mediates hydrophobic interactions—in other words, “oily stuff sticking together,” says Glenn Johnson, a materials scientist with the U.S. Air Force, who works with MoT to help develop and test the mats.
“Plus, hair has a large surface area,” says Megan Murray, an environmental scientist at the University of Technology Sydney, in Australia. In a 2018 study, Murray found that buffers made of recycled human hair could adsorb 0.84 grams of crude oil onto its surface for every gram of hair—significantly more than polypropylene, a type of plastic that’s typically used to clean up oil slicks.
MoT’s mats have been used in major oil spills, including the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and 2007 Cosco Busan incidents. Later this year, Hama’s team will deploy their mats in Niigata City, some four hours north of Tokyo, where more than 300 leaky wells remain in an abandoned oil field that once boasted the country’s largest oil production.
The Air Force, on the other hand, uses hair mats to clean up water that gets contaminated with liquid fuels and foam following firefighting training.
“In addition to oily surfactants, foam also sticks to hair,” says Johnson. Testing is ongoing, but he says the mats “show promise” of being deployed at an operational scale cleaning up the more than two million liters of dirty water produced by this training every year.
Recycled hair also has more common everyday applications—in buffers placed around drains to prevent motor oil from polluting stormwater runoff—and by extension, water bodies— as well as biodegradable grease traps to soak up cooking oil. Hama’s mats, for instance, will be used to filter wastewater next month at Japan’s biggest outdoor music event, the Fuji Rock Festival.
A helping hand for plants
Recycled hair is also useful as fertilizer and mulch material.
“Hair contains a lot of protein, which has a relatively high nitrogen content,” explains Stuart Weiss, a conservation ecologist at Creekside Science, an independent laboratory in California.
Nitrogen is crucial for plant growth, and each strand of hair is made of roughly 16 percent of this essential nutrient. By contrast, a pile of cow manure typically has between 0.6 to three percent nitrogen.
Hair also releases nutrients more slowly than the equivalent amount of commercial fertilizer, which is important for preventing excess nitrogen from leaching into waterways, says Weiss.
A series of experiments conducted in the early 2000s demonstrated that uncomposted hair was useful for growing herbs such as basil, sage, and peppermint; horticultural crops like lettuce; as well as marigold, foxglove, and other ornamental plants.
More recently, entrepreneur David Denis has found success with his startup, CutOff Recycle, which sold more than 560 gallons of liquid fertilizer made from human hair to farmers northern Tanzania last year.
The feedback from the farmers, who mainly grow tomatoes and leafy vegetables like spinach and amaranth, has been very encouraging, says Denis, who cofounded the firm in 2020.
“The weight of their tomatoes has increased by 25 percent, and the increased yield is very visible from the larger leaves of the leafy vegetables,” he says.
Agriculture experiments halfway across the world—in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the driest place on the planet—have yielded similarly promising results. Last year, MoT worked with local farmers to see if hair could help reduce water lost as it evaporates from olive, avocado, and lemon trees.
“If you use our hair mats on top of the soil, you use 48 percent less water,” says MoT’s Chile head Mattia Carenini of the study findings.
The hair mulch also helped increase nitrogen, improve soil health, and boosted fruit yield by 32 percent.
Sowing seeds of hope
Recycled hair is also playing a role in restoring degraded land and seascapes. The Scottish-based charity Seawilding, for instance, is currently trialing hair as a medium for sowing seagrass. The U.K. is estimated to have lost 44 percent of its seagrass meadows—a vital marine habitat and massive carbon sink—since 1936.
On land, recycled hair is being applied in the grasslands of the Presidio, a national park overlooking San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. In the past year, Weiss has helped MoT seed purple needlegrass (Stipa pulchra) and meadow barley (Hordeum brachyantherum) under felted hair balls on compacted soil that was once a parking lot.
Although currently only midway through the experiment, the results “are just spectacular,” he says. “You look at it and can totally tell which box had the hair treatment.” On average, native grass cover in plots with hair was 75 percent full versus under 10 percent in the control plots containing straw.
“It’s just a great way to use hair in a productive way,” says Weiss. But he cautions that further testing is needed to figure out how to scale experiments.
Gautier, however, firmly believes that our crowning glories don’t have to lose their luster once they’re lopped off our heads.
“Hair is an answer literally hanging in front of our eyes—for oil, soil, and seas,” she says.
15. Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks Aug 13 but is Happening Now!
https://weather.com/science/space/video/dont-miss-the-upcoming-perseid-meteor-shower?cm_ven=dnt_social_facebook&sf180248968=1
16. Free Ontario Nature Resources: Brochures about Species at Risk, Forest Foods, etc.
Received from Ontario Nature, July 20
For hiking, canoeing and other adventures, our Nature of the North Guide is the perfect resource for travelers. You can find information about the plants and animals of northern Ontario in our two other newly updated guides – one on species at risk and another on forest foraging. Originally published in 2017, the revised guides include newly listed species at risk and additional forest foods that can be found in the north.
Ontario Nature’s popular online nature guides provide an excellent (and free) resource to learn about Ontario’s charismatic wildlife and habitats.
In our nature guides, explore Ontario’s vast biodiversity by reading about:
Backyard Habitats
Learn how to turn your backyard into a thriving ecosystem for diverse species. Read on
Northern Forest Foraging Guide
For those who like to forage, our guide stresses best practices for safe and sustainable harvesting. Read on
A Traveler’s Guide to Nature in Northern Ontario
Hot off the press, this guide is intended to be a starting point for learning more about the natural history of northern Ontario. It provides a brief overview of amazing landscapes, plants and animals. Read on
Species at Risk in Northern Ontario
Many species in Ontario are in trouble. This guide provides information about species at risk which live, at least part of the year, in northern Ontario. Since publishing the first edition of this guidebook in 2017, 10 new species have been listed as “at risk” in the northern parts of the province. Read on
Bat Guide
Ontario has 8 species of bats. They’re beneficial to humans, including consuming pests. Read on
Butterfly and Moth Guide
An entertaining guide to identifying Ontario’s beautiful butterflies and moths. Read on
Reptiles and Amphibians Guides
From turtles to snakes, frogs and salamanders, Ontario’s reptiles and amphibians are fascinating species. Read on
Summer months are great time to refamiliarize yourself with Ontario’s wild side by checking out our nature guides.
Yours for nature,
– The Ontario Nature Team
P.S. You can also subscribe to our award-winning magazine published quarterly.
17. Eco-Exercise
Received from National Geographic, July 23, 2023
We have Sweden to thank for the green sport called plogging. From the Swedish term plocka upp (pick up), it combines jogging and picking up trash. The activity has been adopted around the world—and adapted: Consider going pliking or plalking where you live, to get fit as you pick up litter.
18. Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees
Editor’s Note: Such a wonderful video. Worth re-watching
https://www.tvo.org/video/documentaries/call-of-the-forest-the-forgotten-wisdom-of-trees?utm_source=TVO&utm_campaign=5602548903-TVO-Today-Newsletter-MON_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_eadf6a4c78-5602548903-61349601
| 19. Great Kids’ Craft Ideas from Little Pine Learners Received from Little Pine Learners, July 24, 2023 DIY Pressed Flower Lampshades and Fun Summer Scavenger Hunts littlepinelearners@littlepinelearners.com How to make rocks shiny without a tumbler: post and video https://littlepinelearners.com/how-to-make-rocks-shiny/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cusr210tmh7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D So that’s it for August. Cheers, Mary Farrar, President, Friends of Kingston Inner Harbour |