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CHANGED YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS?CLICK HERE AND SIGN UP
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Dear
Kathy,
"Over
increasingly large areas..spring now comes unheralded by the return of
the birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they
were filled with the beauty of bird
song." Rachel Carson
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OLTA BOARD
RETREAT
On the Agenda - Assessing our organization and
peenting with the Woodcocks
 The Board of Governors retreated to Cedar Glen for two
days to:
1) AYO "walk the talk" - in February,
Sylvia Bates of LTA-US ran a training day on how to
facilitate "Assessing Your Organization". Two
individuals trained that day, Nathan Garber (www.garberconsulting.com) and Michelle Albanese
(Orland Conservation) assisted the OLTA board of
governors to benchmark our performance for standards one
through seven.
Ministry
of Natural Resources are partnering with OLTA: Our
new $49,000 funding agreement is to build the capacity of
land trusts in Ontario by delivering organizational assessments
- together with CLTA, we'll be working hard to design this
pilot program in the next months.
2)
Organizational Plan for 2007-2008
- there is so much to do..but what to do first. Taking the time to
revisit our mission and plan is so important - and so hard to do.
Over 50% of
OLTA members completed the first annual member survey providing
your governors with valuable direction for the development of current
and new member programs and services. As a result of your
feedback, OLTA will continue to deliver the great programs
our members have repeatedly told us they appreciate - 1) OLTAP
grant program, 2) government relations, 3) training and education
and member networking.
Next year,
we'll be hiring a new staff person and launching the new
"Assessing Your Organization" program. We'll be
exploring ways to promote private donations of natural heritage
lands across Ontario. Also new next year, we'll be expanding
our membership by inviting conservation authorities across the province
to join our alliance. Local land trusts have been successfully
partnering with local CA's over the past decade. OLTA will be
presenting to the General Managers and Chairs of the 37 CA's
across the province at the June 25th Conservation Ontario meeting.
This strategic direction will strengthen the complementary
aspects of our shared mandates while maintaining the
healthy diversity of our approaches to Ontario conservation
lands.
One of the
highlights of our retreat was ducking the dive bombing male woodcock as
Lionel played the taped Tory Peterson call. Yes, your governors
all witnessed the courtship behaviouir of the male woodcock -
ask us to peent next time we meet!
OLTA
Board of Governors: L-R Back Row: Peter
Hannah, Bill Salter, Joanne Rzadki, Chris Baines, Lionel Normand, April
Mathes. Front Row: Al Ernest, Kathy Allan (staff) Melissa Watkins,
Angus McLeod. Missing: Lisa McLaughlin, Katie Zwick-Goldberg, Joan
Eaglesham, Wally King.
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Couchiching Protects The Church Woods
and don't miss the Carden Nature Festival June 15-17
A mature woodlot nestled among the houses of Shanty Bay,
just north of Barrie may be small in size - only 25 acres - but big in
value at $750,000. Saving The Church Woods became a tremendous
community project. The family selling the property agreed to a
partial donation, the municipality granted $60,000, and a neighbours
committee personally visited over 400 homes to raise over $500,000 in
personal donations. This project had all kinds of twists and
turns, including 9 owners in a family trust and an incredibly complex
division of cash and donation receipts, but the transfer has now
closed. For more info, check out www.couchconservancy.ca.
Carden
Nature Festival scheduled for June 15-17
The Carden Alvar
is well-known for its rare plant communities and birds, but most
visitors come only for the day. To build more community benefits
from those visits, The Couchiching Conservancy and other partners have
developed the Carden Nature Festival, with over 30 outings, workshops,
and activities over the course of a June weekend. Program and
registration details can be found on www.CardenGuide.com/Festival.
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Free Mapping Tool Workshop
April 27, 2007 in Ottawa
The Stewardship Project Tracking System workshop
(described below) scheduled for Wednesday, March 7, 2007 in Kingston
has been rescheduled to Tuesday, April 24, 2007 in Ottawa because:
1. Lessons learned from the workshops in London and Newmarket
will be used to significantly refine the system.
2. Host the workshop at a location with internet access and
computer workstations to fully test the prototype live.
3. Move the workshop further east to reflect the location of
organizations that have shown an interest in attending.
Please register for the April 24th workshop
with Pam Jeff (pam.jeff@ontario.ca or 705 755 3256) at the Ministry of Natural
Resources. The workshop will be held at the computer classroom's
of CTC Train Canada (Suite 220, 350 Sparks Street, Delta Office Tower,
Ottawa). Our apologies to those who have signed up for March 7
and who cannot attend the April 24th session.
Project
Info: http://www.stewardshipcentre.on.ca/stewardshipcanada/mi_scnONFeaturedInitiatives/mi_scnONFeaturedInitiatives.asp?s=scnON&l=en
Mark Rowsell
Geographer
Eastern Ontario
Model Forest
10 Campus Drive
Kemptville, ON K0G 1J0
Tel. 613-258-8400
Fax. 613-258-8363
www.eomf.on.ca
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PM announces
support for national land conservation campaign
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Prime
Minister Stephen Harper and Environment Minister John Baird today
announced that Canada's New Government plans to invest in a national
campaign to acquire and preserve ecologically sensitive land in
partnership with the private sector.
"This investment will result in the long-term protection of
Canada's natural treasures," said the Prime Minister. "It
builds on the action we took in last year's budget to fully exempt from
capital gains tax private donations of lands to conservation groups."
The Government's lead partner in the campaign is the Nature Conservancy
of Canada. The Nature Conservancy of Canada will work with recognized
conservation groups including Ducks Unlimited Canada and members of the
Canadian Land Trust Alliance. They will identify ecologically valuable
land and seek donation, purchase or preservation agreements with
landowners. The government's new tax policy is expected to stimulate
land donations. Where land purchases are involved, the Nature
Conservancy of Canada and its partners will seek to raise funds at
least matching the government's contributions. The federal contribution
will be $225 million.
"Our Government is taking concrete action to protect species at
risk and secure habitat on ecologically sensitive lands," said
Minister Baird. "Thanks to thousands of individual
volunteers and donors, we are well on our way to reverse the worrisome
decline in wildlife populations of the last decades."
"This initiative demonstrates the power of private-public
partnerships in addressing Canada's urgent conservation needs,"
said John Lounds, President and CEO of the Nature Conservancy of
Canada. "By working together, we will ensure that our country's
ecological treasures are conserved for all Canadians, today and
tomorrow."
The campaign will focus on lands that have national or provincial
ecological significance, that provide habitat for species at risk or
migratory birds, or that connect to existing protected areas such as
National Parks. The announcement took place near the Happy Valley Forest
in the heart of the Oak Ridges Moraine. Targeted for preservation by
the Nature Conservancy, it is one of southern Ontario's few mature
forests and is critical to the health of the regional ecosystem.
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Breeding Bird Atlas
Order Yours Today
The second Atlas
of the Breeding Birds of Ontario is on schedule for
publication in September 2007. In fact, as you read this, staff and
volunteers are busily reviewing species accounts, writing other
chapters for the book, preparing maps and tables, selecting
photographs, and designing the book - to name just a few of the
remaining tasks before the printing presses start running next summer.
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Major Increase in
Tree Planting to Occur in Southern Ontario
$2 million in funding announced in Ontario Budget
John Cary, Chair of the
Trees Ontario Foundation, said this money represents an important
opportunity to build on the work TOF and its partners are doing to
reforest our urban and rural spaces in southern Ontario.
For
more information, contact: Michael Scott, President and CEO,
Trees Ontario Foundation, (416) 506-1694
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Public Tours
of Joany's Woods:
Take a tour of Joany's Woods and bring your family and friends.
Come and see what all the excitement is about.
Joany's Woods
fieldtrip#1
Sunday, May
13, 2007 1:30 to 4 pm
As part of TTLT's fundraising campaign to secure this 400-acre
conservation tract, join with us a guided tour of Joany's Woods with
members of the McIlwraith Field Naturalists of London and Lambton
Wildlife Inc. of Sarnia. We plan to meet outside the Sylvan
Bookstore at the junction of Elginfield Rd and Sylvan Rd at 1:30 pm
before moving on to Joany's Woods nearby. Two different hikes are
planned, one a short leisurely hike of an hour or so at the north end
of the woods (off Boot Hill Road), the other a more demanding 2 hr hike
starting at the south end (off Vernon Road). Call 519-472-6103 if more
information is needed.
Joany's
Woods fieldtrip#2
Sunday, May 27, 2007 1:30 to 4 pm.
Joany's
Woods fieldtrip#3
Sunday, June 10, 2007 1:30 to 4 pm.
Joany's
Woods fieldtrip#4
Sunday, June 24, 2007 1:30 to 4 pm.
For further
details on each hike and directions · please visit
Joany's Woods
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"If a
child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift
from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who
can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of
the world we live in"
Rachel Carson
Hoping you all
had a great spring break!
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Kathy Allan
Ontario Land Trust Alliance
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