5th Edition of Vascular Plant List Bruce & Grey Book Launches
Submitted by John Dickson,
OSFN Programming
The following is an excerpt from the Owen Sound Field Naturalists February and March columns.
The Owen Sound Field Naturalists (OSFN) Members’ Night was held on Thursday, March 9 at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre. This popular annual event featured several speakers with a variety of Nature topics to share.
The meeting included a Book Launch and Sale of Vascular Plant List Bruce & Grey, 5th Edition as well as a brief presentation by the compiler, Tyler Miller, who will talk about the process of revising the Vascular Plant List Bruce & Grey, including his detailed dataset for the Vascular Plant List Bruce & Grey: Compendium version.”
The 5th Edition of the Vascular Plant List Bruce & Grey is a keystone publication of the Owen Sound Field Naturalists. If you want to sustain wildlife with native plants, this book will give you all the native plants, shrubs and trees for Bruce & Grey. It is an essential reference for naturalists, botanists, life science inventory specialists, land use planners, resource management agencies, and consultants who are working within Bruce and Grey Counties.
The OSFN approached and contracted Tyler Miller, Field Ecologist to digitize and revise the list; over the past two years he has totally updated our 5th Edition. It includes 1611 taxa (species, subspecies and hybrids) for 131 families, which are listed including all locally and provincially rare plants found in the counties. If you have an old copy of the Vascular Plant List, you will definitely want to order this new release; available in spiral bound print format, PDF and for the serious botanist, the Vascular Plant List Bruce & Grey: Compendium – a fully annotated digital version with dataset.
All three versions will be available this spring through owensoundfieldnaturalists.ca
The evening also featured a second launch – of ticket sales for OSFN’s 8th annual Celebrate Earth Day Keynote Speaker event featuring Lenore Keeshig, aboard the Chi Cheemaun at 2pm Sunday April 23, and sponsored by Caframo.
Renowned storyteller, poet, author and naturalist Lenore Keeshig’s presentation is entitled “Good of the Earth” and in Lenore’s words: “In celebration of Earth Day, I want to share through stories, my understanding of Anishinaabe relationship to the land beginning with the name we call ourselves and where we come from. These stories will highlight various facets of Anishinaabe connection to the land and water, from a barren landscape to the food we eat and where we stand today in this era of Truth and Reconciliation.”
To learn more about OSFN, Young Naturalists, upcoming Speakers and Field Trips, etc., please visit www.osfn.ca
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Congratulations to the Huron Fringe Birding Festival, on their 25th anniversary season, May 26 – 29 and June 1 – 4, 2023. celebrating birds, birding and nature! The Festival is based out of beautiful MacGregor Point Provincial Park, where events explore the rich niches of the Park, and also venture throughout the ‘Huron Fringe’ of land along Lake Huron’s shore, up the bountiful Bruce Peninsula, and to many significant natural areas of Bruce and Grey Counties.
The Festival offers an incredible 90+ events over two 4-day weekends in late May and early June! This time of year captures both the end of migration and the beginning of the nesting season, ensuring an abundance of birds. Morning, afternoon, all-day and evening events are offered daily. You can choose to attend one, some, or pick a full-Festival package! All events are led by top local, provincial and global tour leaders.
Whether your interest is strictly ‘for the birds’, or if you wish to delve into botany, photography, geology, cultural history and more, you will be sure to find interesting, informative and fun events. But sign up early as many events fill within the first few days of registration. This is one popular Festival!
I recommend you visit the website at https://huronfringebirdingfestival.ca and check out this year’s lineup so that you can select your preferred items when the HFBF registration opens March 17 at 6am.
