It is a time and place of hope- standing up for nature in Ontario.

 It is Turtle Walk time – Let’s help our slow friends come in first.

Turtles were here before the dinosaurs, have made it through 5 mass extinctions, but are now facing imminent threats to their survival. Although turtles can live a very long time (some biologists indicate they may live many hundreds of years), it actually takes at least 60 years for one snapping turtle to replace itself – and snappers are the most fecund (prolific egg-layers) of all turtles.

In 2017 The Land Between charity declared an emergency for turtle populations in Ontario because more than 10 times the amount of road mortalities were counted across the Highlands, representing a long-term and devastating loss to Ontario’s populations. Each year, turtles are killed on roads and these animals cannot rebound from these losses easily.

And turtles are essential to our well being. They are the foundation of our lake ecosystems and our health too.  This is because turtles are the best cleaning crew for our lakes and ponds. They scour lake bottoms eating all the decaying carcasses of dead fish, frogs and pollywogs, essentially removing harmful bacteria that would otherwise plague our water resources- Therefore, turtles keep us healthy, but they also help all the fish and wildlife that depend on freshwater too.

However, we continue to lose too many turtles to road mortality year after year. Meanwhile, these losses can be stopped. The Turtle Guardians is a program of 10 charities and groups that have banded together to save turtle populations in Ontario. The lead organization is The Land Between charity, an organization that represents cottage country, a place that is also known as The Land Between bioregion. This landscape sits between the Canadian Shield to the north and the Mixed Wood Plains to the south and it stretches from Georgian Bay to the Ottawa Valley. It is here, in The Land Between that the majority of lakes but also rock barrens in Ontario are found, and so it is a place where the majority of turtles call home! Therefore, The Land Between bioregion is a place of hope. It is here where we can reverse the losses to Ontario’s turtles and in doing so we can also help fish and wildlife, and support all the ecosystem services that benefit all of southern Ontario. And to make the necessary changes and recover the losses, now is the time.

The Land Between along with Scales Nature Park are working to quantify turtle populations, qualify turtle habitats, and identify potential turtle tunnel sites (where turtles can be directed under roads) and in partnership with sponsors, funders and municipalities, install them efficiently. The Turtle Guardians program also supports the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, home to the Ontario’s turtle hospital, so that injured turtles can be rehabilitated and returned to the wild.  The Trillium Lakelands District School Board are also partners of the project and are helping to deliver curriculum to kids about the natural world around them.

This is the second year of the Turtle Walks. Walks are hosted by the Turtle Guardians and are in communities across the region. Leora Berman, COO of The Land Between and Coordinator of Turtle Guardians says “It is a chance for people to support nature in their own backyards, in Ontario. In that way it is breaking new ground. It is really a first for this province and a new opportunity to contribute.” The walks take place during the first weekends in June corresponding to the peak nesting season for turtles, when turtles are travelling across or near roads and are at the highest risk for road injury. Walks are held on Saturday mornings from until noon and they help raise awareness and funding to save Ontario’s turtles.

Each year, the walk has a theme. 2019 is the year of the tartan turtle to honour the Highlands. People can dress up in turtle-y gear or themed gear. Live turtles and crafts are at the walks and local police and OPP generously donate their time to help too. Walks are free fun for the family.

This year walks will be held on June 1^st in Thousand Islands, on June 8^th in Haliburton, Bancroft, Peterborough, and Foxboro and June 15^th in Bracebridge, Fenelon Fall and Lindsay.

Win prizes for the best posters, costumes, answering skill-testing questions during the walk. People can also become online fundraisers for the cause.

Visit www.turtlewalk.ca for more details.  Help our slow friends come in first- Join a turtle walk!

The Land Between, through our Turtle Guardians program is happy to announce Turtle Guardian Camps!

Starting July 3rd, these three-day camps offer a unique experience for kids to learn about Ontario’s turtles, and how to help them. Kids will reconnect with nature and explore wetland and pond habitats, learn to identify bugs and grubs, butterflies and dragonflies, turtles and fishes too. Participate in crafts and take the turtle test to become a level 1 Guardian!

Camps $60/day for the 3-day week. ($20/day).

For all camp dates and details download the poster. To register visit the events page at www.turtleguardians.com 

We are booking for this summer! Stay tuned for upcoming venues and dates. Our most popular workshops. Easy ways to be better stewards of your lakes, while enjoying gorgeous views. Custom designs with your needs in mind.

Do you want to host a Design Your Own Shoreline Garden Workshop in your community? Contact us to find out how

Thanks to a seed grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, The Land Between in partnership with Watersheds Canada will launch a pilot project to understand the benefits of a new eco-label. The Blue Lakes project delivers an eco-label that will be awarded to lakes that voluntarily undertake stewardship actions. This pilot project is being tailored, launched, and evaluated to see if we can transfer the model across Ontario and beyond. The project has a great team of supporters who are helping to design and implement the label of 20 lake associations, and Trent University and University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

If you want to be part of the pilot project, get in touch with us by emailing Leora at info@thelandbetween.ca

Also, find out more by visiting the project website: www.bluelakes.ca

 

Did you know the wrong kind of outdoor lighting can negatively affect your sleep and therefore your immune system, can harm wildlife and can reduce biodiversity by making habitats virtually un-usable for wildlife?

Here is a summary of facts and best practices:

1. Avoid white, blue and LED lights – because blue and white lighting keeps everyone (including your body) awake. White light and that in LED’s contain blue light components, and although your eye has three types of receptors for blue light, only 6% of  only one of these types of receptors contributes to a coloured image-so basically very little of the total receptivity is to blue light. This is because there is very little in nature that is blue that affects our survival. In fact you mainly see it in the sky during the day and at dusk. Therefore our bodies and those of animals believe it is day or evening when white and blue LED’s are on. When white and blue lights are around at night in sufficient quantity, your body may not reach deeper stages of sleep including REM sleep. During the deeper stages of sleep our bodies repair themselves. Without a deep sleep your immune system and metabolism in general are negatively affected. White and blue LED lights also make the dark seem even darker because the eye cannot flex quickly enough to see beyond the white/blue into the dark. This allows more hiding areas for both predators and thieves. Also white lights and LED’s around plants and over water perpetuate the growth cycle of plants resulting in more algae in a lake, and plants that don’t ever rest. This type of lighting also confuses and changes the mating cycles of amphibians and other wildlife. Because white and blue lights at night mimic dusk they attract predators but also mosquitoes! Finally, white and blue lights seem like stars to birds, other aerial flyers, and even turtles that navigate by them. Therefore these lights confuse and alter migration patterns putting these species at risk of exhaustion from disorientation.
2. If you have white lights, an orange or red filter (easily found at auto parts stores to repair car signal lights) will help reduce the harm caused by night lights to yourself and to wildlife…and they will also extend your view! But the best is to choose low wattage amber bulbs becasuse LED’s are hard to filter. Why orange and red? Because the eye does not have to flex and adjust as much from light to dark when the light is orange or red. Remember fog lights? The orange penetrates into the dark and the fog. The eye can see a greater distance at night with orange or red lighting- it is closer in hue to the dark and so the eye can adjust easily. Again,  your body, other wildlife and plants too, will not confuse orange or red lights with daylight, dusk, or with stars and the moon.
3. Use cut-off fixtures: these are fixtures that direct lighting to where it is needed (usually down to the ground) and do not let light escape or pollute the sky or your neighbour’s properties.
4. Use sensors or timers: easy fixes to get lighting only when it is needed.

Thanks to Dr. Robert Dick of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Guidelines for outdoor lighting have been published to assist us with getting enough REM sleep and rest, with stewarding and saving our wildlife, and also affording navigation and protection around our properties!

Also, watch Dr. Robert Dick explain how lighting affects us 

The building affectionately called The Donald Chemical, built in 1908, is an important antique building with national significance. For many years the building was left, by its owner, to deteriorate. In 2009 it was taken for tax sale, and that is when a collaborative of charities stepped in…While the charities’ cooperative venture made progress, and in only 3 short years the building received provincial attention and the efforts were sufficient to secure the building so that it could stand for another 100 years, a treasure hunt for blueprints began and search for new solutions to an ancient puzzle ensued. Yet what was most elusive may have simply been, patience …

See the project update as of August 31, 2018 on the main page of BuildingBetween.ca