The
AGM will be held in Peterborough at the Lion’s Club on Saturday September 12,
beginning at 5:00 p.m. Please join us
for an evening of good food, socializing, and entertainment. Enjoy a catered meal, cash bar, and a presentation
by Jeff Saarela from the Canadian Museum of Nature.
As
part of our AGM weekend event, we have organized a variety of field trips lead
by renowned botanists and naturalists in the Peterborough area. The trips showcase some of the area’s premier
conservation lands and botanical hot-spots.
Trip descriptions are included below.
Note that field trips are open to non-FBO members after priority has
been given to members. For non-members,
there is a surcharge of $5 per person per trip.
Please
print and fill out the registration form below, indicating your choice of field
trips and whether you will be attending the banquet/social on Saturday
evening.
Please
make your cheques payable to: “Field
Botanists of Ontario” and send your cheque and registration form to:
Dan Westerhof
244 Hunter St W.
Hamilton, ON L8P1S1
Your
cheque will be cashed following the AGM. Refunds
will be issued, provided cancellations are received 7 days prior to the AGM, at
the latest. No-shows will not be refunded.
For
those intending to stay overnight, there are a variety of accommodations
available in the Peterborough area.
For
the field trips, please arrive adequately supplied with food and drinks, and in
proper footwear and clothing. As per our
policies, personal collecting of plant material (whole specimens or parts,
seeds, etc.) is not permitted on trips unless stated otherwise. The trip leader
may take voucher specimens for deposition in recognized herbaria.
Field
Trips: Saturday September 12, 2015
Petroglyphs
Provincial Park
Leader:
Bill Crins (Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry)
10:15
am – 3:15 pm
Located
northeast of Peterborough, Petroglyphs Provincial Park is well-known for its First
Nations rock carvings; however, the approximately 1600 ha park also supports a
diversity of plant communities and flora characteristic of the Great Lake-St.
Lawrence Lowland Region. Habitats include rocky ridges and outcrops with thin
cover of herbs and grasses and scattered trees; conifer stands dominated by red
and white pine; mixed conifer-hardwood forests, and bottomland meadows and
swamps. Because the park is located on southern edge
of the Precambrian Shield, many of the plants are acidophiles, but there are
marble exposures which will support a few calciphiles.
We will be
hiking one of the trails in the park, which are 5-7 km in length. The distance covered will depend on
timing. If there is time left in the
afternoon, we may stop at McGinnis Lake (also inside the park), which is a
meromictic, marl-bottomed lake.
Mosquitoes
are likely to be present, and poison-ivy is present in some parts of the park,
particularly where there are marble outcrops. Long sleeves and pants are recommended.
The trails are relatively long, with irregular terrain. Pack a lunch, plenty of water, and sunscreen.
Meet at
the parking lot at the Learning Centre of the park (end of the road, 2-3 km in
from the park entrance) at 10:15 (park gates open at 10:00). The park entrance is at 2249 Northey’s Bay
Rd. Woodview, ON. Please note that there
is day use fee of a $14.50/vehicle (unless you have a seasonal park pass). Carpooling is encouraged.
Oak Heights Prairie
Leader:
Todd Farrell (The Nature Conservancy of Canada)
10:00
am - 3:00 pm
Explore
the eastern end of the Oak Ridges Moraine in the footsteps of the famous
Canadian botanist John Macoun, who lived and worked in the Castleton area and
explored the Oak Heights Prairie, which is part of the NCC Barr property.
This tour will explore that property, a restoration hot spot, and we will see
the tallgrass prairie and oak savanna plants, many of which will be easily
recognizable at this time of year, that make this one of the key NCC properties
within the Rice Lake Plains Natural Area.
Participants
may encounter poison ivy, mosquitos, and ticks, so please dress accordingly and
bring insect repellant. Comfortable
hiking shoes, long pants and shirt are recommended.
Pack a
lunch, plenty of water, and sunscreen.
Directions: From 401 at County Road 25 (exit 497), travel
north approximately 7.5 through Castleton. County Rd. 25 veers west and becomes
County Rd. 22. Follow this and turn north on Jakobi Road, which ends in about 3
km at Dunbar Road. Travel west on Dunbar Rd for 2.3 km to Russ Creek Road, park
along the road side. Access to the land is gained by walking north on Russ
Creek Road to the property sign on the east side of the road.
Field
Trips: Sunday September 13, 2015
Warsaw Caves
Conservation Area
Leader: Mike Oldham
(Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry)
10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Located
northeast of Peterborough, the Warsaw Caves Conservation Area and provincially
significant ANSI offers a diversity of karst landscape features, including limestone
plains, solution holes, underground channels, and limestone cliffs. Limestone
plains along the Indian River support upland coniferous and mixed successional
forests, which are representative of limestone plain upland forests in the
Central Region. An area of mature Sugar Maple forest (75-140 years old) dominates
the deeper soil deposits in the central portion of the area. Trip participants can expect to see a
variety of alvar and forest species, with a good diversity of ferns including
locally rare species such as Walking Fern and Maidenhair Spleenwort.
We may
encounter poison ivy, ticks, and chiggers. Hiking boots, long pants, long-sleeved shirt,
hat, sun screen, and insect repellent are recommended. Pack a lunch and plenty of water.
The park
entrance is located at 289 Caves Road, Warsaw, ON. Please note that a separate park entrance fee
may apply: $12.00/car or $4.50/walk-in.
Car-pooling is encouraged.
Alderville Black Oak
Savanna (ABOS)
Leaders: Rick Beaver
and Janine McLeod (ABOS)
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Located
southeast of Peterborough, the Alderville Black Oak Savanna (ABOS) is a 150
acre natural area managed by the Alderville First Nation. The area supports provincially rare tallgrass
prairie and savanna habitats as well as oak/pine woodland. A number of Species at Risk inhabit the site,
including Eastern Meadowlark, Bobolink, Wood Thrush, and Mottled Duskywing and
Monarch Butterflies. Visitors in
September will see Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Indian Grass, and many aster
species at their peak. A diversity of
other prairie and savanna plants may be seen, including: Prairie Buttercup, Prairie Lily, Slender
Wheatgrass, Bicknell’s Frostweed, Canada Rock Rose, Pointed-leaf Tick Trefoil,
Black Snakeroot, Tall Green Milkweed, Prairie Willow, Senega Snakeroot, Downy Arrow-wood
Viburnum, Prairie Cinquefoil, Hoary Vervain, Thin-leaved Sunflower, and Gray
Goldenrod.
The tour
will include areas of the site that are in different stages of restoration. Trip participants will learn about the
history of the site and how the area is being restored and managed to maintain
high quality prairie and savanna habitat.
Poison ivy
may be encountered by those who venture off the trails. The trails are mowed
and have a moderate slope in places.
Long pants, closed shoes, a hat, and sunscreen are recommended. Pack a lunch and water bottle. Coffee, tea, and cold drinks as well as
refills for your water bottles will be available on-site.
Meet at
the ABOS Ecology Centre located at 8467 County Road 18, Alderville, ON. Visit http://www.aldervillesavanna.ca/index.html
for more information.
Field Botanists of Ontario
Annual General Meeting and Dinner
Saturday September 12, 2015
Peterborough Lion’s Community Centre
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Following Saturday’s field trips, we will meet at the
Peterborough Lion’s Community Centre for our evening AGM program. The Community Centre is located at 347 Burnham Street in Peterborough.
AGM Program
5:00 – 6:00 Social hour: an opportunity to meet and
chat with fellow FBO members and enjoy some refreshments. A cash bar will be available.
6:00 – 7:00 Buffet Dinner
7:00 – 8:00 Feature Speaker: Jeff M. Saarela (Research Scientist,
Canadian Museum of Nature)
“From Spruce to Shore: Arctic Botany of the Coppermine
River, Nunavut”
In July 2014, Jeff and his colleagues explored the rich
flora of the Coppermine River valley, including spectacular Bloody Falls/Kugluk
Territorial Park and Kugluktuk in western Nunavut. In this botanically
underexplored area, the treeline reaches its northern limit in Nunavut, just 40
km south of the Arctic coast. Among more than 1000 collections of vascular
plants are many first records for Nunavut and numerous major and minor range
extensions for boreal and Arctic species. Detailed floristic knowledge of this
area provides solid baseline knowledge of plant biodiversity that may be useful
for tracking future change in the area due to climate change.
8:00 – 9:30 Annual General Meeting
Agenda
Ø
Call
to Order
Ø
Introduction
of FBO Executive and address of the President
Ø
Presentation
of Goldie Award
Ø
Approval
of Agenda
Ø
Approval
of the 2014 AGM Minutes
Ø
Treasurer’s
Report
Ø
Auditor’s
Report
Ø
Membership
Chairman’s Report
Ø
Nominating
Committee Report and election of officers
Ø
Suggestions
for future trips and location of 2016 AGM
Ø
General
discussion and other business
Ø
Adjournment
