Helping Fish and Wildlife in our Community

Newsletter of Habitat Haldimand

(Fall / Winter 2011)                  Issue #32

 

 

Wetland Program:

We had to revisit two of our wetlands that were leaking and try to locate the cause and repair it. After excavating a deep trench parallel to one of the berms that was leaking, we discovered a seam of fine rock and sand just below the water line that ran under the berm and allowed the water to escape. We had the seam removed and replaced with clay. We won’t know until spring if this repair worked or not, but we have our fingers crossed. The other wetland turned out to have drainage tiles that were 15 to 20 feet deep running under the wetland and allowing the water to escape. We decided to plug the tile rather then dig it up and remove it.

Since we are working in partnership with Ducks Unlimited, we are not digging deep wetlands that will support fish but rather shallow wetlands that will attract ducks. If you think you have a potential wetland site on your property and want to participate in our Wetland Program just give Roy a call at 905-774 -7845 or Wade at 905-772-3706 after 5 P.M.

Taquanyah:

Mill Stream:

In our last newsletter we said that we had added an eight-foot section, with five hundred holes drilled in it, to the upstream end of the beaver baffle to allow more water to flow through it. Even this increase in water flow was not enough and the culvert continued to float too high in the water. Bill Christmas from Trout Unlimited which is the lead in this project found an article saying that the half inch holes were not large enough and the article suggested to drill two inch holes in the culvert instead of the half inch holes that we did the first time. The bigger holes would allow more water to enter the culvert making it heavier and able to stay lower in the water. Also a second advantage of the larger holes was that the Brook Trout would be able to swim up the culvert and through the holes to get to the other side of a beaver dam.

Update: We just finished changing the size of the holes to two inches in diameter and put the culvert back into the beaver baffle. It appears to be working fine right now but we don’t think that one culvert is going to be enough to handle the spring runoff so we will be adding a second culvert with two inch holes in the near future.

We are still having high levels of sediment run off downstream from the old reservoir on the Taquanyah property, and the Grand River Conservation Authority has done nothing to help reduce the soil sediment entering Mill Stream.

Where did all the water go?

The centre reopened for students in September for the outdoor education program and will remain open until the end of November.

Christine, a student from the University of Windsor has been monitoring the bird boxes on the Taquanyah property for the past two years and will be doing so again next year.  Christine checks the bird boxes every day or so in order to compile a tree swallow monitoring report. A big thank you to Christine. She tells us that every bird box was used this season and she was able to band 19 adult and 166 young birds this year. Christine gave us a complete report that was seven pages long and too large to cover in this newsletter.

The walk through at the main gate is always open to the public to use at anytime of the year.

“Kids’ Day” Workshop:

I am Looking For a New Home, Will You build one for Me?

This is what 250 Blue Bird Box kits look like.

Every fall members of Habitat Haldimand purchase 4 X 8 sheets of plywood and spend many hours cutting them into Blue Bird Box kits (250 kits this year) that are then distributed to the schools in Haldimand that want to participate in the program.

The students get to assemble the kits under the guidance of their teacher then they get to take the Blue Bird Box home with instructions on where to put it up and how to care for it. This program not only provides homes for our endangered Blue Birds, it also helps our young students develop their motor skills. Many thanks to Ed Couture who heads up this program for us every year.

We had our best turn out ever last year. So, YES, we are having the “Kids’ Day Workshop” again this year. It will be held on Sunday March 18^th 2012 at the Haldimand Agricultural Centre, 1084 Kohler Rd, Kohler. You will not want to miss this Workshop so be sure to mark it on your calendar.

We have held many different types of workshops over the past 12 years and we would like to hear from you. If you have a suggestion on the type of workshop you would like us to hold please let us know. Call Roy at 905-774-7845 or Wade at 905-772-3706 after 5PM

Our Annual “Great Tree Giveaway”:

These are some of the seedlings we dug up to put in our “Great Tree Giveaway”

Just think, it won’t be long till the snow is gone and spring is here. Are you ready to plant? We have been digging up our tree seedlings these last couple of weeks in preparation for our “Great Tree Giveaway” in the spring. This is my favorite event, I love to see the people come and receive their trees and shrubs. As I can’t wait till spring, I must be getting old wanting to see the winter go so fast.

Blue Bird Box Program: