Its Wildlife Week! And Canada Celebrates an Important Anniversary!!

Canada is celebrating a very important centenary this week! The year 2016 marks the 100^th anniversary of the signing of the Migratory Birds Convention between Canada and the United States. This treaty embraces the important need to conserve our wildlife, as well as their habitats, and focuses on all of the wonderfully winged birds (that is, if it does not include insects and bats who also have wings) that inhabit our skies. And it just so happens that the week of April 10^th is Wildlife Week!

This conservation work began with John Thomas Miner, also known as Jack Miner, or the ‘Father of North American Conservationism.’ Growing up in Ontario, Jack’s careful observation of the migratory bird path began when he noticed that Canada geese were stopping on ponds on his property in the spring on their way northward. From this, Miner had seven clipped, tame Canada geese and created ponds on his property in 1904 to attract more wild species of birds. By 1913, his entire property became a bird sanctuary for all creatures with wings. Three years later he pioneered the banding (the process of attaching a small metal or plastic band around a bird's leg in order to identify individual birds from the band's unique number) of migrating waterfowl. The data that was collected through this was instrumental in the establishment of the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1916 between the United States of America and Canada as no government banding programs had been in existence until that time.

Coming forward to today, gathering baseline data in aid of further understanding breeding birds is the mandate of the northern Alberta Boreal Centre for Bird Conservation (BCBC). The BCBC is the only educational and research facility in the world strategically located to study boreal birds on their breeding grounds. Located in Lesser Slave Lake, the BCBC also contributes to the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory.  This project monitors landbird migrations using daily mistnetting (capturing birds in nets using a procedure developed at the Manomet Bird Observatory), visible migration counts (recording every bird species observed within a defined space at set intervals) and casual observance.

The Peace River is an important stopping area
for many migratory birds in the boreal.
PRMA. 2008.082.013

Yet another organization in our area that is not only concerned with birds, but all wildlife in our boreal forest is the internationally acclaimed project called EMEND (Ecosystem Management Emulating Natural Disturbance). EMEND is a forest research centre located north of Dixonville dedicated to improving our understanding of how the western boreal forest ecosystem responds to disturbances, natural ones (such as fire or pest infestation) and human ones (such as harvesting).

Wildlife Week is celebrated each year around April 10^th, Jack Miner’s birthday, to honour Jack Miner and to celebrate conservation successes as well as bringing awareness to issues still challenging the survival of our wildlife.

If you want to learn more about EMEND, the museum is hosting EMEND 101, exploring how the research gathered through EMEND impacts our environmental stewardship.  We will see you on April 14^th 2016, 7pm at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre.

Artist of the Month - January - Mushroom Magic

A taste of some of the unique and interesting artwork by this artist on display
for the month of January at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre.

Valerie Jean Palmer is featured as the January Artist 2016.  With the new boreal forest exhibit showing in the Main Gallery, her collection of mushroom spore prints is particularly relevant. Val ventures out into the local boreal forest and surrounding fields to source mushrooms for her spore prints. This is time sensitive process as the spores drop their spores on to her paper anywhere from ten minutes to 36 hours later. Val arranges the various mushrooms she has collected that day or night, gills down, on to the paper to create her compositions. By gently laying a mushroom face down the spores eventually leave an impression of the mushroom itself.  Val works with the individualistic colours that each mushroom lends to the paper and sometimes incorporates other natural elements in the work, such as, grasses, leaves and flowers.

Her appreciation for natural world around her is obvious in these and other works of art. When you drop by to view her featured works this month, include a visit to the Main Gallery to view one of her drawings and a poem about the boreal forest, as a part of the When a Tree Falls in the Forest exhibit.

Born in England, Val emigrated to Canada in the late 1950s and has made her home with her husband Don in the hills overlooking the Peace River since 1977.

Our boreal forest – teller of tree tales - Part 2!

The Broad-winged Hawk is a small bird of prey about 42 centimetres (17 inches) long. Its most distinguishing feature is its broadly barred tail. In Alberta, the broad-winged hawk ranges in the parkland and southern boreal forest regions, preferring mixed-wood forests and groves of deciduous trees. For food, it likes chipmunks, large insects, mice and squirrels and when hunting it tends to stay in the confines of the woods. It is protected by the provincial Wildlife Act and classified as a non-game species.

Just when you thought you were out of the woods – there’s more to explore.

Though it may be uncomfortable for some of us to think about, fire is nature’s way of recreating. Without fire, organic matter accumulates and inhibits the growth and establishment of many plant species. Cultural burning by indigenous people saw fires burned in different locations and times, which provided important opportunities for renewal and ecological biodiversity of plants and animals. The problem some of us may have, in this day and age, is with the Greek god of the northern wind, Boreas. His intervention, on occasion, has helped spread the fire and endanger life and limb.

This brings us to water, which we use to dissuader the spread of fire. For this reason and many others, we have a vital relationship with water – quality and quantity. We all have a responsibility to take care in what we put into our watershed. It is imperative we protect our natural resources – soil, water, air, plants, animals and even insects – our watershed, comprised of the Peace River and its tributaries, which emerged in the wake of our most recent ice age – 12,000 years ago. In doing so, it created the largest, in area, water basin in Alberta.

There are other inhabitants of our boreal forest, which may go unnoticed. Their habit is not to bite or annoy, but instead to provide all manner of assistance, depending on one’s bent. For some, it’s medicine, food or a photographic topic. Trees, in the mixed forest, have a special relationship with certain kinds of soil fungi – which help the tree collect water and minerals from the soil – did you know soils of the boreal forest are acidic and because of that, they are not favourable to nitrifying bacteria.



The short-eared owl is so named for the tufts of feathers on top of its head, so small they can only be seen at close range. Its real ears are hidden under the feathers at the side of its head. It likes open spaces, such as grasslands and marshes, and hunts primarily during the day seeking mice and voles. This medium-sized owl winters in warmer climes.

Some plants adapted ways to acquire nutrients (particularly nitrogen) from animal protein. These carnivorous plants, such as the Sarracenia picture plant, have evolved mechanisms to lure their prey into a pool of digestive enzymes. Once trapped in the liquid, these enzymes in the insect break down, resulting in the plant acquiring the nutrients.

Come, explore the Museum’s boreal forest exhibit.

Our boreal forest – teller of tree tales

Just a peek into a portion of the Museum’s boreal forest exhibit featuring diverse aspects of the forest – its birds, bugs, soils – its ecosystem.

 

George Berkley asked the question: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” It depends on how one interprets sound, don’t you think? It may have to do with another of our human senses – sight – whether  one can’t see the forest for the trees – where things are so obvious, they’re obscure. That certainly goes for many of us, who haven’t really seen the boreal forest so intimately, in our own backyard, or heard how important it is to our economy – our well-being – our quality of life – our sense of nature – flora and fauna – so much.

Vernon John Leger is a man of many talents – music is only one he actively shared with guests, Saturday evening, November 21, as they strolled through the opening of the Museum exhibit – When a Tree Falls in the Forest. However, examples of his diverse artwork were featured on the Museum’s art wall for all to see. “He [Vernon] has grown from generations of creativity: his parents and grandparents being thoughtful artists and musicians”.

The staff of the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre, with the help of so many supporters, is proud to offer some insight into our boreal forest in its current exhibit When a Tree Falls in the Forest and hopes you will be able to enter our boreal forest and learn about its inhabitants, just as the staff has over the months of preparation.

As you stroll through the Museum’s forest exhibit, you will sense the importance of this forest that extends from the Yukon and northern British Columbia in the west to Newfoundland and Labrador in the east – Canada’s largest vegetation zone, making up 55 per cent of the country’s land mass. It is home to more than 40 species of fish, 50 different types of mammals and numerous flora and vegetation species.

Although the zone has varied terrain, including lakes and wetlands, the majority of the region is dominated by trees. The forest houses a diversity of life, and is crucial to maintaining biological diversity, storing carbon, purifying air and water, and regulating the climate. While 2.5 million Canadians live in the boreal zone, the forest provides a global community with jobs and economic stability.

Come to the Museum and learn more about our boreal forest and hear and see the tales it tells Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission $2. Over Christmastime, the Museum will be closed Dec. 24, 25, 26 and Jan. 1.