Have you started thinking about Christmas, shopping local and supporting wildlife?
Maybe the hard to buy for person on your list would enjoy a Blue Bird Box or a Bat Box at the cottage. Easy to purchase through BASC Online store Pickup arrangements can be made in Bancroft. Bat Boxes $20.00 Blue Bird nest Boxes $10.00 .
HOW TO INSTALL – Instructions from Canadian Wildlife Federation
If you are planning to put up a bat house on your property, we have a few tips to make the house more attractive to bats. A good bat house should be:
· Big with multiple chambers.
· Made with untreated wood and painted with non-toxic (low to no VOC) paint/stain.
· Dark in colour.
· Receiving a minimum of eight hours of sun per day, facing south and not shaded.
· Installed three to six metres (10 to 20 feet) above the ground.
· Ideally within 300 metres of a water source.
· In an uncluttered location, no under/overhanging branches, bats need room to swoop in.
· In a dark location free from light pollution. Bats may hunt near a light source, but they will not roost near one. You can find a bat house design at HelpTheBats.ca.
What is Ice Watch?
LSPPOA has recorded Ice In – Ice Out data from 1980 thanks to the life long Lake St. Peter resident, Charlie Foster. We have charted this data and now the dates from December 1999 – April are entered into the www.naturewatch.ca/icewatch database.
You can help by registering as an IceWatch observer: https://www.naturewatch.ca/register/
As citizen scientists, IceWatch volunteers contribute to a scientific understanding of climate change. By analyzing citizen records, scientists have found that the freeze-thaw cycles of Northern water bodies are changing. However, since climate change is not consistent across the country and there are large gaps in the current monitoring network, scientists require critical data from many more regions. A citizen network of IceWatchers spread throughout Canada can help to supply that information.
The management of this program is now with Environment and Climate Change Canada in a transition phase at the moment. All of the programs are active, but need your help to re-gain momentum with input to the data. The NatureWatch website has lots of traffic for species identification (particularly Frogwatch) with many email questions this year as people are spending more time at home, the cottage and in local communities observing nature due to Covid19.
It would be great to have more lake association members entering data. This kind of long term information is really valuable as we track changes in regional climate conditions.
Ice events – the freeze and thaw dates of lakes and rivers – are easily recorded yearly changes that, with your assistance, can help us to monitor the effects of climate change on Canadian ecosystems. All observations provide essential information that can be used in the analysis of climate records. However, long-term ice data sets and records, from areas where we have little geographic coverage, are particularly valuable.
Why Monitor Ice?
IceWatch is part of the NatureWatch suite of national volunteer monitoring programs designed to help identify ecological changes that may be affecting our environment. IceWatch allows Canadians of all ages to participate in discovering how – and more importantly, why – our natural environment is changing.
Prepared by: Bonny McCleery Scanlan
LSPPOA – Environment Coordinator
Take care this winter to keep your homes and cottages fire safe.
Use this handy checklist to ensure everyone knows how to be safe.
Thank you! to all our LSPPOA members and community.
We are so thrilled to have nearly 90 members so far this year!
Haven't filled in your membership yet? Sign up online today.