The warmer weather means that EALT’s field season is officially underway! Staff and volunteers have been busy stewarding our conservation lands and preparing for the summer. Read on for a snapshot of what we’ve been up to this spring.
Carbyn Creek Wildlands Now Open
Our newest conservation land, the Carbyn Creek Wildlands, is officially open to the public! Located south of Cross Lake Provincial Park in Westlock County, the Carbyn Creek Wildlands protects forests, wetlands, and breeding, nesting, and staging areas for birds. We marked the occasion with a guided nature walk with the land donor, biologist Lu Carbyn. EALT would like to thank Lu Carbyn for his generous donation, and the Alberta Land Trust Grant Program and Environment and Climate Change Canada for financial support.
You can support the ongoing stewardship of this new conservation land by donating to our Action Amplified campaign.
Staff completed a one-day chainsaw basics course
With the summer drawing closer, many of our field visits have focused on trail maintenance. Trails at the Lu Carbyn Nature Sanctuary, Coates, and Boisvert’s Greenwoods have been trimmed back for easier access - thank you to the volunteers who joined staff on these maintenance days. Staff also completed a brief course on chainsaw use and safety. We will now be able to promptly remove fallen trees from across the trails. Thanks to Rick Douglas Safety for the training.
A killdeer at the Smith Blackburn Homestead pollinator garden keeps a close eye on staff
As the landscape greens up, invasive weeds become visible again. We are scouting many of our properties to create updated and improved maps for the distribution and density of invasive weeds. This will help staff and volunteers target and remove weed patches. The pollinator garden at Smith Blackburn Homestead will be getting a little extra attention this year to prevent the incursion of weeds into the garden. Staff transported mulch to Smith Blackburn but work on the garden was delayed by a killdeer pair that had nested in the garden! We left the duo their space, and they have since moved on.
Volunteers
We are pleased to welcome (and welcome back!) our Conservation Land Stewards and Citizen Scientists. Conservation Land Stewards complete vital stewardship work on their assigned lands, while Citizen Scientists collect important information about the wildlife on the properties including birds, bats, and amphibians. Training for our new volunteers has wrapped up, and we look forward to reports from the field! Give these volunteers a wave if you see them out on the land.
The volunteer-run Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) station is once again active. This field ornithology station, lead by a bander-in-charge at Bunchberry Meadows, is active for six days from June to August and collects crucial data on local breeding birds. The information collected at the station not only helps EALT but is also submitted to the Institute for Bird Populations and the Canadian Bird Banding Office where it may be accessed by researchers.
Our summer stewardship events are also underway. Volunteers helped clear the trails at Boisvert’s Greenwoods, keeping them in tip-top shape for visitors. Our volunteer events will now largely focus on removing invasive weeds, and volunteers have helped tackle the white cockle at Smith Blackburn Homestead and the burdock at Glory Hills. More events are planned for the summer – check here for upcoming opportunities.
Outreach
EALT staff attend an event for National Indigenous Peoples Day at Telus World of Science Edmonton.
EALT joined the World Migratory Bird Day Celebration at Lois Hole Provincial Park, hosted by Nature Alberta and Big Lake Environmental Support Society (BLESS). We were also invited to take part in Telus World of Science Edmonton’s National Indigenous Peoples Day events. Staff at this event ran a station featuring art made with natural dyes and paints.
In June, EALT co-hosted a Birding Bonanza with the George Pegg Botanic Garden. We featured an info booth and a birding walk at the Lu Carbyn Nature Sanctuary led by Lu Carbyn himself. The day also featured bird sound identification with Backyard Birds Nature Shop, a nesting wreath workshop with Clumsy Cat Birdhouses, a hotdog and Bannock lunch, and Boss the Swainson’s hawk, an education bird from the Alberta Society for Injured Birds of Prey. These events are great opportunities to raise awareness for EALT’s mission of nature conservation in the Edmonton area, connect with partners, and engage communities – and they’re also a lot of fun!
Attendees to the Birding Bonanza nature walk pose for a group photo.
We anticipate a busy and productive summer field season! Subscribe to our blog for more updates from the field later this year. Thanks to all EALT volunteers and supporters for making conservation in Edmonton and area possible.