BPEG Presents Northern Bruce Peninsula’s Climate Change Action Plan
Submitted by Brian McHattie
Everyone loves turtles (and pancakes and Hugh’s jokes, but in a very different way of course!). It was wonderful to see a good turnout at our June Men’s Breakfast in Tobermory to listen to our speaker, Tanya Markvart, Public Outreach Education Officer, Bruce Peninsula National Park and Fathom Five National Marine Park.
As always, we learned: this time about the Turtle Trackers citizen science project which is all about protecting Painted Turtles and Snapping Turtles on the Peninsula. Tanya highlighted the road mortality as the number one challenge turtles here and right across North America face.
In our case, Highway 6 and other roads serve as a barrier, but we were excited to hear of a joint project with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation installing larger culverts and eco-passages to facilitate turtle (and other species) movement under the busy road. Tanya’s inspiring videos showed hundreds of animals moving through eco-passages.
She then explained how a group of 15 or so keen volunteers check the park (and adjacent roads) for turtles nesting this time of year, inserting wooden nest boxes to protect the eggs from predators, followed by late August-September help to emerging hatchlings assisting them back into their wetland homes.
The next Men’s Breakfast is Saturday, July 16 at the Tobermory Community Centre. Our speakers are Rod Layman and Glen Estill from the Bruce Peninsula Environment Group on the new Northern Bruce Peninsula – Climate Change Action Plan: some are calling it the best rural strategy in the province.
For more information, please contact Brian at brian.mchattie@outlook.com. Breakfast is at 9, coffee ready at 8 a.m., bad (but improving) jokes usually around 9:15.
