Rainy River Valley Field Naturalists
Meeting #118 – September 24, 2018 – 7:00 PM Alberton Hall
Present: Ahlan Johansen, Henry Miller, Mike Hammond, Terry Kawulia, Pat Basaraba, John Pohanka, Gaby Emond, Pat Donohue, Wolfgang Bielefeld, Bob Saunders, Henry Van Ael
A – Call to order
Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM
B – Amendments and approval of minutes and agenda
1. a) It was moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the meeting of August 28, 2018. The motion carried.
- b) It was moved and carried to amend the 9/24 agenda to include a Boardwalk update by Gaby and discussion of a suggestion by Ahlen to add crushed rock on the entrance to the Bog walk trail.
C – Treasurer’s Report
Ahlan reported the current balance in the account to be $658.88. This amount did not reflect membership dues collected at this meeting. Ahlan reported that the membership in Ontario Nature had not been kept up due to the uncertainty of RRVFN continuing on. A discussion followed: Terry stated that it would be a good idea to maintain standing with ON as he will be staying on at RRVFN for the next several months. Bob concurred that it would be good to keep this up and the motion was seconded and carried. Terry will contact them and renew.
D – Business
1 – Correspondence
- Neonicotinoids – There is concern that the legislation to regulate/ban the neonics is not happening quickly enough to protect the pollinators and other affected species. The Suzuki Foundation has a website which gives links to send letters urging the government to speed the process. It was decided that Pat would write a letter of support. MNR – There was an invitation to participate in cross-road and how to get involved in discussion of the spraying of glyphosphates. It was decided to table this and to add this to next month’s agenda.
- . Thunder Bay Field Naturalists – Discussion on whether and how to interact with this org. It was suggested that we give them an update of our bog walk once it is completed. Decision was made to bring this to the next meeting to discuss.
- Heart of the Continent is asking for donations – no action taken.
2 – Report on RRSC meeting
Gaby attended the stewardship meeting and she reported to them that the extension on the boardwalk had been done. The check for $2000 was issued and will be coming soon. The stewardship had several questions regarding the RRVFN – starting with “what is the vision for the boardwalk?” There was discussion as to the final goal – there is already 900’ up to the Lookout Station. The Stewardship wanted to know if there is a visual for the next 1000’.
The question was raised as to ongoing maintenance of the boardwalk. It was suggested that the Stewardship Rangers could take on the maintenance, yet they are not able to operate power tools. The weed-eating must be done every two weeks. The Stewardship would need more direction for volunteering.
The question of liability was also raised. The liability is carried by Alberton until next year, and Mike stated that the liability can probably continue through Alberton.
3 – TD criteria fulfillment was raised.
Terry suggested that a video be made of the actual building of the boardwalk on Saturday, 9/29. Individuals who committed to working on the 29th were Bob, Mike, Gaby, Marty, Terry, Pat and Wolf.
4 – Facebook page
More efforts are needed to raise awareness and the following suggestions were made: putting a letter in the paper, putting more info up on Facebook, making use of Bob’s newsletter page on Yahoo. The Newsletter can be found by going to Rainy River Valley Field Naturalists. Wolf suggested that the paper be contacted to cover the building of the addition to the Boardwalk and Gaby said she would stop in to the paper and tell them of the Saturday project.
5 – Bio blitz or Field outing
Terry suggested a fungus outing and will try to get hold of Rick Nielson. Ahlan suggested that Mrs. Fisher come and give a talk on birds. Bob recommended going on line to E-bird to see how the bird migrations are tracked.
The Christmas Bird Count – to prepare for the Bird count the members will bring their bird books to the November meeting to go over the species they’ve seen. The Christmas Bird count will be sometime between December 14 and January 5.
6 – November Meeting
Scheduled for 7:00 on October 29 at the Alberton Municipal Building.
E – Tales from the Wild side
Gaby reported that the fawns she has been seeing have lost their spots. She also saw a timber wolf cross her land but said the wolf didn’t appear to notice the deer.
Ahlan spotted an adult deer with three young ones.
Terry’s squirrel invasion continues – the possibility of having to re-locate the squirrels some distance away may not work out.
John brought an article about the Gray Jay which is now the Canada Jay.
Bob mentioned that the ornithology field is always re-designating species. The group discussed some of the pros and cons of tagging different species to study them.
John reported seeing hundreds of geese gathered about a week ago.
F – The meeting adjourned at 8:40