The WoodsGlen Major Forest/Walker Woods Stewardship Committee’s newsletter

WINTER 2010-2011

The key to surviving our cold, long Canadian winters is to fi nd an enjoyable activity to do outside. The East Duffi ns Headwaters properties are a hub of activity in January and February, as many people experience how pleasurable it is to travel our trails on skis, snowshoes, or on foot.

Aesthetically, winter can be stunning on a bright sunny afternoon or as snow gently falls. It is surprising how diff erent the trails can look and feel in the winter without the leaves and head-high golden rod to restrict your view.

The secret to enjoyment is dressing comfortably in any temperature and carrying a small backpack with water, snacks, and layers of extra clothes that can be worn or

removed as necessary. Although night use of the forest is not permitted, it may be wise to carry a flashlight, just in case you are in the woods at dusk, and need some additional light to find your way out.

The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s focus switches from active maintenance to questions of policy. We are close to finishing our year-long Management Plan update. In this issue, we have information on some of the ways this will impact the properties and how you can give us your views. We try very hard to respond to all opinions, however we need to keep a balance of having the properties accessible to a wide range of uses, while maintaining them as a nature refuge.

Inside Intro to the winter edition 2010-2011 Trail Notes From ORTA Flying Squirrel Study in the EDH

Hooves - Winter Update The McCutcheon Environmental Weeks program

A warmer than usual winter is being predicted, which is good news for equestrians that aren’t lucky enough to have an arena to ride in! For some, winter marks the end of riding season. While horses, if left unblanketed, will grow a heavy winter coat, their riders won’t and sub

zero temperatures can take the fun out of a ride. On a serious note, ice and snow can make moving, with or without a rider, treacherous for horses. Their long, delicate legs were not designed to navigate across ice, and snow can ball up in their feet making it almost impossible to walk. Consequently, many horses and riders take the winter off .

Members of the Uxbridge Horsemen’s Association (UHA) will probably welcome the rest, as 2010 was a busy year. The UHA, with the help of its sponsors and many of its over 100 members, organizes events, clinics, trail rides as well as benefi ts for charitable causes throughout the year. The club has been in existence for over 30 years informing and

educating their members, who consist of english and western riders and enthusiasts from all disciplines and skill levels.

Among this year’s UHA happenings were May’s Everything Equine Exposition and Trade Show in Elgin Park that featured a full day of clinics, demonstrations, lecturers, vendors and all things horsey. The UHA was also involved with the Uxbridge Fall Fair, organizing the Team Penning competition, where teams of riders cut specifi c cows from a herd and pen them with a jackpot going to the fastest team’s charity of choice. The best time this year belonged to the Brandon Ford team who chose to donate their $1600.00 winnings to the Terry Fox Run. And, for the first time in the history of this annual event, there were more cyclists than horses at the Bike & Beast Equestrian and Mountain Bike Poker Run! As the name suggests, teams consisting of a cyclist and an equestrian compete to see who can put together the best poker hand. This year, more than 15 teams raised close to $450.00 through donations and pledges that will be donated to the Uxbridge Loaves and Fishes Food Bank. Happy Trails!

In the summer of 2010, Aurora District Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) staff continued a monitoring program for fl ying squirrels that was started in 2004. This year, Walker Woods was one of the locations that was surveyed.

Specifi cally, the monitoring program was started to determine the presence/absence of Southern Flying Squirrels, Glaucomys volans in the District. Because their range overlaps with the Northern Flying Squirrel, Glaucomys sabrinus, by default, both species would be monitored as the trapping methodology for both is the same.

Southern Flying Squirrels are cavity-nesters found in deciduous and mixed forests. They are more abundant in mature forests although some are found in younger forests (Stabb, 1988). The optimal habitat appears to be mixed Carolinian forests with a wide variety of mast (seed) producing tree species (e.g., hickories, oaks and beech). They have been found in forests as small as 2ha in size but usually the forest was connected by treed corridors with larger forest areas (Stabb, 1988).

The methodology used by Aurora District was adapted from the capture protocol used by a research scientist with the Wildlife Research and Development Section of the MNR. Twenty-two traps were put up in Walker Woods and they were left open for two nights (both species are nocturnal). Traps were baited and opened in the evening and were checked and closed the next morning, shortly after dawn. Bait consisted of a mixture of peanut butter, molasses and oats. A piece of apple was put in the trap for hydration and cotton balls for bedding. Trap locations were chosen based on having large diameter trees, proximity to cavity trees and a relatively open understory. Traps were placed on trees that were approximately 10 to 20 m apart and were placed approximately 3-4m up the tree. A coordinate was marked at each tree using a GPS.

Unfortunately, neither species was trapped this year in Walker Woods. One or both species is likely found there but for whatever reason, they did not go into the traps.

If you’re ever out for an evening stroll in the woods, keep your eyes up for fl ying squirrels gliding between trees.

ReferencesStabb, M. 1988. Status report on the southern flying squirrel, Glaucomys volans. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

Flying Squirrel Study in the EDH By Emma Follws, Ecologist, Ministry of Natural Resources

Hooves - Winter UpdateBy Joanne Michner, Hooves Sub-Committee Chair

Putting up a trap

Trap with a Northern

Flying Squirrel (from

a diff erent site)

showing cotton

balls and apple

in the forefront

and bait in the

background.

Trail Notes From ORTA Brian Millage, Uxbridge Chapter Chair (the following 3 paragraphs are an excerpt from an article written by ORTA’s President, Peter Schaefer for our newsletter Trail Talk.)

Seven years ago, we had a vision to expand our 200 km trail across the whole length of the Oak Ridges Moraine, to a more attractive route, away from roads and road allowances. In order to achieve this, we developed the Oak Ridges Trail Strategy, and with funding help from the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation, we were able hire Harold Sellers, former ORTA president, as Executive Director. Today we are hiking on roughly 275km of the Oak Ridges Trail and on another 80km of its side trails. We are now connecting with the Bruce Trail in the west, near Mono Mills and extending east to Warkworth and Castleton. The Trail has gained tremendous recognition over the last few years and helped create awareness of the importance of the Oak Ridges Moraine. Certainly, the Adventure Relay has played a large role in this newly gained stature of our trail. We have completed our vision to expand the trail accross the whole length of the Moraine. In the future we must continue to find opportunities and means to move the trail towards the recognized optimal route and to further expand it with interesting side trails. We will be cooperating and working together with other Moraine partners and stakeholders, especially with the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust, to secure Moraine lands for the future and thus for our trails..... Let us all be proud of what we have accomplished with our trail to date.

Winter Hiking - as the weather turns colder and snow begins to appear it is even more important for our physical well-being to keep active, which for many of us will include hiking during all kinds of winter weather. ORTA hikes continue throughout the winter and we encourage hikers to use a variety of aids for safe walking. There is now a great variety of ‘icers’ footwear to prevent slips and falls. Walking poles for greater stability can also help prevent falls. The variety of light weight snowshoes continues to grow as well. All of these are easy to use and make the forest more accessible throughout the winter. Have you ever experienced the magic of a winter hike after a fresh snow fall? Would you like to greet the dawn with one of ORTA’s Saturday morning breakfast hikes? These are just a couple of the diff erent types of guided hikes ORTA off ers. Check our website for details www.oakridgestrail.org

5 Shoreham Drive, Downsview, Ontario M3N 1S4Phone: 416-661-6600 Fax: 416-661-6898 www.trca.on.ca

Published and printed by Toronto and Region Conservation. Photography © 2009 Toronto and Region Conservation, unless otherwise noted.

The McCutcheon Environmental Weeks program helps develop the next generation of conservation leadersBy Lindsay Bunce, TRCA Coordinator, Community Education Program

Signs of autumn are emerging all around us. Leaves are starting to change colour. The air is becoming cooler. School is back in session for another academic year. For thousands of students across the Greater Toronto Area, the arrival of autumn also means getting ready to gear up for a visit to one of Toronto and Region Conservation’s residential environmental education fi eld centres.

In addition to our conservation areas and day centres, Toronto and Region Conservation owns and operates three residential environmental education fi eld centers – Lake St. George Field Centre, in Richmond Hill, Albion Hills Field Centre, near Bolton, and Claremont Field Centre, just north of Ajax. The big diff erence between taking an overnight trip to a fi eld centre and visits to other environmentally-themed facilities is that students are immersed in “green living” while participating in learning activities that develop the skills and mindset vital to fostering sustainability-driven communities.

Toronto and Region Conservation and the John and Pat McCutcheon Charitable Foundation are pleased to announce the McCutcheon Environmental Weeks (MEW) program at the Claremont Field Centre. Through a partnership committed to developing the next generation of environmental leaders, the MEW program will provide an integrated environmental education experience for three Durham Region grade six classes that may not otherwise be able to participate in this type of program.

Based on an innovative integrated learning model, the generous funding provided by The John and Pat McCutcheon Charitable Foundation, will allow students to participate in a learning experience that engages students through four distinct-yet-linked phases. Unlike many traditional environmental education experiences that begin and end in one stand-alone session, students will be engaged multiple times, by multiple expert educators, with a “processing” time between. Student learning is extended even more as they take part in hands-on, experiential education that focuses on the three core pillars - community action, environmental leadership and ecological learning.

But what does it really look like “from a student’s eye-view”? A MEW experience begins with an in-class visit from TRCA’s fi eld centre staff . This visit provides the opportunity for students to ask questions about the program, provides teachers with in-class lesson plans, “sowing the seed” for an environmental action project in the near future.

In mid-December, students will be boarding a bus and arriving at the Claremont Field Centre for the immersive outdoor learning phase of the program. The programs delivered at the Claremont Field Centre are intensive and student-focused, creating mechanisms for individual and community leadership. While at Claremont students will be examining and refl ecting on their behaviour as it relates to energy conservation, food production, and waste minimization. As well, there is time to come together as a community, be mesmerized by the wildness, and just have FUN!

The third phase of the MEW program marks the arrival of Earth Rangers at the participating schools. Building on the knowledge and skills acquired during the first phases of the program, Earth Rangers will present a celebration of biodiversity with the help of their animal ambassadors. Participating students will demonstrate their leadership skills as the “hosts” to this school-wide event, using their own ideas and enthusiasm to engage other students.

The closing phase of the MEW program invites participating classes to use the tools, experience and momentum they have gained throughout the program to go beyond their school walls and into the community. As a group, they will be asked to participate in a facilitated community-based action project that addresses a local need or concern, further empowering them and showing them their contribution is important and they can make a diff erence!

The hope is that by providing lasting and comprehensive environmental education experiences for students today, we are laying the foundation for tomorrows sustainable communities.