If you’re conscious of the environment—or perhaps gas prices—or you enjoy exploring lakes that don’t allow gas-powered engines, think about choosing an electric boat or personal watercraft. If you choose electric, your neighbours will likely be pleased (and stay asleep) when you slip out of your dock silently for those early morning or late night rides. Many boat and PWC manufacturers are releasing fully electric models, with more to follow suit.
The sustainable electric Princecraft Brio 210-2S pontoon boat seats up to nine passengers. Photo credit: Princecraft
Brio
The Princecraft Brio 210-2S pontoon is a 21′ 7″ pontoon powered by a Torqeedo electric engine (available in 2.0 RL, 4.0 RL or 10.0 RL) and has room enough for up to nine passengers. The Brio line carries ultra-light lithium batteries and charges fast, and a fully charged battery will give you up to four hours of enjoyment on the water.
Starting at $30,419
The Bruce 22 can hit a top speed of 65.9 km/hr and is suitable for water sports. Photo credit: Vision Marine Technologies
Bruce 22
Bruce 22, made by Vision Marine Technologies, is able to hit a top speed of 65.9 km/h, allowing you to practice water sports with this all-electric model. Accommodates five to eight passengers, has a propulsion power of 5 hp, speed of 6 mph and is powered by a lithium-ion battery.
Starting at $73,995
Super Air Nautique’s GS22E fully electric wakeboard and ski boat will provide two to three hours of fun on the water per charge and has a ballast of 1,850 lbs. Photo credit: Marine Max
Super Air Nautique GS22E
Utilizing an Ingenity drive system, the GS22E is 100 per cent electric with zero emissions – its design contains 90 per cent fewer moving parts than the gas-combustion towboat in its class. The boat has instant torque and a very responsive drive system. This 22’ wakeboat delivers two to three hours of water sports, a ballast capacity of 1,850 lbs., and can be recharged in as little as 1.5 hours with a DC fast-charge system. The AC systems require a 12-hour charge.
Starting at US$292,711
Pure Watercraft’s 25’9” electric pontoon boat features a General Motors automotive battery pack and single or twin Pure Outboard motor. Photo credit: Pure Watercraft
Pure Watercraft Pontoon Boat
Pure Watercraft has designed a 25′9″ electric pontoon boat, created in collaboration with General Motors (GM). Powered by GM’s automotive battery pack and single or twin Pure Outboard motors, this pontoon boat carries up to 10 passengers. Pricing starts at US$45,000 for the single outboard model and US$65,000 for the twin outboard model. Currently taking pre-orders.
The Zin Z2R electric boat can go up to 56 km/hr and delivers a flat wake. Photo credit: Zin Boats
Zin Z2R
This Seattle-based start-up has created the Zin Z2R roundabout fully electric boat. It’s 20’ long and powered by a 55kW Torqueedo electric motor boasting a top speed of 56 km/hr. A full charge is reached after 5 hours on a traditional 120-volt circuit and has a range of up to 193 km. The battery has a 9-year warranty and can take about 10,000 cycles—or about 27 years. The Z2R’s instant torque makes it great for waterskiing. Because it take off like a bullet, the boat planes on the water quickly, delivering a flat wake. It’s also beach-able.
Starting at US$250,000
Taiga is dubbing its newly released Orca as “the world’s first electric personal watercraft.” Photo credit: Taiga
Taiga Orca
Taiga is dubbing its newly released Orca as “the world’s first electric personal watercraft.”
Photo credit: Taiga
Taiga Orca
Taiga Orca Personal Watercraft
Taiga Motors Corporation’s fully electric Orca is speedy and quiet, with up to 120kW (160 hp) and peak torque from zero RPM. Three model levels are available, including the Orca Carbon, which has a carbon fibre composite hull – Taiga says it’s hydrodynamically engineered for dynamic control on the water. Orca’s Level 1 charging connector can be plugged into a standard outlet.
Some wildlife species do best when left alone. Others need a helping hand, usually because their environment has changed too rapidly for them to keep up—thanks most often to extreme weather, predation, and human changes to their habitat. Even worse, some species, such as the Vancouver Island marmot, are endemic, or only found in specific spots, so extinction in that area means extinction from the planet. Check out eight current and past (and some controversial) programs helping Canadian wildlife thrive against their existential challenges.
Photo by Frank Fichtmueller/Shutterstock
Vancouver Island marmot
Facing a severe population decline, the Vancouver Island marmot faces extinction without dramatic intervention, according to biologists.
Photo courtesy Wildlife Preservation Canada
Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies
Down to just 15 wild butterflies remaining on Denman Island in 2005, the Taylor’s Checkerspot butterfly is beginning to make a tremendous comeback.
Photo by reptiles4all/Shutterstock
Western painted turtle
This turtle faces many threats including development, water pollution, erosion, and infilling. They are killed by cars, captured, or even poached for food.
Photo courtesy Pourya Sardari and Wildlife Preservation Canada
Oregon spotted frog
The Oregon spotted frog is Canada’s most imperiled amphibian. Conservation breeding and reintroduction are necessary to bring this species back from the brink.
Photo courtesy Mike Kent and Wildlife Preservation Canada
Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake
An important component of our ecosystems, the massasauga is a relatively small, thick-bodied rattlesnake. As Ontario’s only remaining venomous reptile, the massasauga rattlesnake has faced widespread persecution, despite the fact that it poses little threat to public safety.
Photo by FotoRequest/Shutterstock
Wild turkey
Reintroduction efforts have successfully brought the eastern wild turkey back to southwestern Ontario.
Photo by Peter Kolejak/Shutterstock
American elk
Elk were extirpated from the province in the late 1800s due to pressures from human settlement, excessive agriculture, and shifts in climate. They have been successfully reintroduced to Ontario from populations in Alberta.
Photo courtesy C.Nisbet and Wildlife Preservation Canada
Eastern loggerhead shrike
Shrikes require short grassland habitat to hunt and raise their young, and this is unfortunately one of the most imperiled ecosystems in Canada, putting the shrike and other grassland birds in danger.
Vancouver Island marmot Controversy rating: low
The Vancouver Island marmot is critically endangered and only found on Vancouver Island in subalpine and alpine meadows, usually 1,000 metres above sea level with their family groups. It is one of the largest members of the squirrel family, and is about the size of a house cat. During the summer, the marmot’s favourite activity is lounging on a rock in the sun. They build colonies that range in size and purpose—from small burrows for a quick escape from predators, and larger burrows for hibernation.
Threats There are many obstacles facing its survival, including predators (wolves, cougars, and golden eagles), extreme weather in alpine and subalpine meadows, and avalanches that crush the marmot’s colonies (yikes!).
Reintroduction plan In 2003, the Marmot Recovery Foundation started working on a captive breeding program. “Releasing species born in captivity back to the wild means the best chance of survival,” says Adam Taylor, Executive Director of the Marmot Recovery Foundation of Wildlife Preservation Canada (WPC). Captive breeding and release, feeding programs, and habitat restoration are the best protection strategies. WPC and partner facilities build artificial habitats, which helps marmots adapt back to the wild and go about their natural behaviours including nesting, digging, gnawing, and watching for predators. Maintaining the use of these will help marmots build colonies for hibernation and preservation against predators.
What’s the upshot? Reintroduction efforts have been “successful and relatively non-controversial,” says Taylor. “There is a severe population decline and biologists agree that without dramatic intervention, the species will go extinct,” he says. Some biologists are concerned that the population is too small, and that captive populations won’t be able to live in the wild again. “It’s tricky because we want to keep the marmots alive, healthy, and breeding,” says Taylor. “At one point, caring for one marmot was caring for 10 percent of the captive population.”
Despite the challenges, the program continues to be successful. “There were less than 30 marmots and now the population has risen to 250. We have been able to reestablish a fairly large wild population. We had five colonies in 2003, which has now grown to 25 natural colonies,” says Taylor.
Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies Controversy rating: high
Threats Agricultural and urban development, invasive trees and plants, fire suppression, and drought are all threats to this butterfly, says Andrea Gielens, MSc, RPBio, Wildlife Biologist with WPC. Historically, meadow areas would face small, regular, and localized fires, leading to a steady supply of regrowth in the early stages of forest regeneration. The butterflies seek open meadows when their current one regrows into a forest. “This species would normally live in a habitat that’s regularly cleared by fire. Without this process, the meadows regrow and succeed back into the forest, leaving the butterflies to find another open meadow,” says Gielens.
Reintroduction plan To reintroduce this species, biologists focus on breeding larva, raising them into adult butterflies, and then using the butterflies to produce the next generation of larva. WPC only takes minimal larva from the wild population for the captive breeding program. “New generations are released into the wild, after larvae grow into full butterflies,” says Gielens.
What’s the upshot? Reintroduction efforts are controversial. Forest fires are necessary for this species’ habitat, but the public still remains concerned about urban development and tree removal. “Part of our job is education. We want to highlight the benefit of tree removal for this species’ survival,” says Gielens. “We must maintain the natural ecosystem’s balance and the natural landscape,” says Gielens.
It is important to preserve this butterfly because they are a “historical species on the landscape,” according to Gielens. “They do not migrate, like Monarchs, but live in one area for their entire lives,” she says. To date, WPC’s conservation program has produced 3,364 Taylor’s checkerspot caterpillars and butterflies for release back into the wild.
Western painted turtle Controversy rating: low
The Western painted turtle is the only native turtle species to British Columbia. It can live up to 50-years-old and is the largest painted turtle subspecies, with a shell reaching 25 cm in length.
They live in the shallow waters of lakes, marshes, slow-moving streams, and ponds. Female turtles sometimes lay their eggs on beaches in loose, warm, and well-drained soils.
Threats This turtle faces many threats including development, water pollution, erosion, and infilling. They are killed by cars, captured, or even poached for food. Non-human threats include raccoons, skunks, coyotes, parasites, and diseases.
Reintroduction plan WPC is working to educate the public on this species’ needs. “Since turtles nest in the night, it is important for people to not disrupt them,” says Gielens. People should know that, “taking turtles as pets is illegal and can harm a population for decades because taking a female turtle could risk removing hundreds of eggs. Every turtle is important for the growth of the population,” she says.
What’s the upshot? Education has been one of the most effective tools. Once people know more about the challenges facing turtles they are more willing to take action and protect the species. For example, pet owners, who understand how they are affecting the species, are less likely to let their dogs off leash. “Being able to rely on the public reduces individual damage, creates awareness in the community, and makes it a lot easier to preserve this species,” she says.
Not only is the Western painted turtle the only native turtle species to British Columbia, these turtles are especially important for nutrient cycling because they eat dead fish and plants, according to WPC.
The Oregon spotted frog only lives in the floodplain wetlands, side channels, and swamps, wetland grasses, and bushes of British Columbia’s Lower Fraser Valley. It’s an excellent swimmer and great at hide-and-seek.
Threats Loss of habitat due to development, agriculture land conversion, and resource extraction have threatened this frog species. They also face challenges with invasive species and pollution.
Reintroduction plan Captive breeding is the most effective tool for protecting these frogs. WPC uses “headstarting,” and cares for young frogs until they are grown. They also use conservation breeding by raising frogs in controlled environments, such as zoos. Furthermore, there are efforts to create dikes and water control structures, to maintain what is left of their habitat. “We need to find a way to make two systems work together,” says Gielens. For example, humans “must ensure that when maintaining and cleaning drainage ditches, they are doing so in a way that benefits humans and frogs,” says Gielens.
What’s the upshot? Efforts continue to develop in order to preserve this species. With only a few hundred Oregon spotted frogs left, it is critical for conservation action to continue.
WPC’s conservation breeding program has pioneered breeding techniques that are now producing a record number of young for release each year. Without the thousands of tadpoles and froglets that WPC has reintroduced back to the wild since 2010, this species would be that much closer to extinction in Canada.
Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake Controversy rating: high
The Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake is Ontario’s only remaining venomous snake, and poses a very small threat to the public. It’s “the medicine keeper” of the land, according to First Nations’ traditions, and cannot be confused with other snakes because of its rattle that has a distinct high-pitched buzzing noise. The snake is shy and avoids humans. They live in meadows, peat lands, shoreline habitats, wetlands, bedrock barrens, and coniferous forests. They often hang out by the water (they are generally found within 50 km of the Great Lakes) and thrive in sunny open patches of land.
Threats This snake faces many threats including habitat loss, being hit by cars, intentional killing, and illegal collection for pet trade.
Reintroduction plan Reintroduction for snakes is fairly new, but necessary, says Jonathan D. Choquette, Lead Biologist at the Ojibway Prairie Reptile Recovery at the WPC. The reintroduction efforts were first introduced in 2006, where a group of snakes were rescued from a development site. No snakes survived the winter trial, leading to a further population decline.
What’s the upshot? Choquette and his team are delving into understanding why the first winter trial failed, and will integrate their findings in the long-term reintroduction program. New efforts include, “mapping suitable winter hibernation habitats, designing a novel artificial hibernation feature, testing these with a surrogate species, for the the first time last fall, artificially hibernating Massasauga at planned reintroduction at Ojibway Prairie,” says Choquette.
This snake is important for our ecosystems, but has very small populations of only one to three dozen adults in the Carolinian Region.
Wild Turkey Controversy rating: low
The eastern wild turkey spends its days foraging for leaf litter, chasing bugs, and milling for seeds and is a great flyer (in short distances).This species is important to Ontario ecosystems and is native to southern Ontario forests. Prior to 1909, the wild turkey lived north of Lake Simcoe and eastward between Toronto and Trenton. It was extirpated—extinct in a local area but present in other locations—from Ontario for 80 years. Reintroduction efforts have successfully brought the eastern wild turkey back to southwestern Ontario.
Threats “The eastern wild turkey was extirpated from Ontario by the early 1900’s due to unregulated harvest and rapid loss of forest habitat for agriculture within their historic range,” according to Patrick Hubert, Senior Wildlife Biologist–Policy Advisor with the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources & Forestry. These threats led to the emergence of wildlife management. “This set the stage for successful eastern wild turkey restoration in Ontario,” says Hubert.
Reintroduction plan Reintroduction began in the 1980’s, in collaboration between the ministry and stakeholders like Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters and Federation of Ontario Naturalists. The American government and the National Wild Turkey Federation from the United States also supported the project. Restoration of the eastern wild turkey to the province was supported for the ecological, social and economic benefits.
What’s the upshot? Reintroduction efforts have been successful. These efforts led to 4,400 turkeys being released to over 275 sites. The turkey population grew to 70,000 in 2007.“From an ecological perspective, the re-introduction was necessary,” says Hubert. “The wild turkey is an important prey species for predators like coyote, red fox, and bobcat (where their ranges overlap). The role of the wild turkey in renewing forest understory has been discussed and debated, but since the eastern wild turkey is well adapted to deciduous forest we can assume there are mutual benefits for turkeys and other species in this ecosystem,” he says.
The American Elk Controversy rating: medium
The American elk is the largest member of the deer family and is only one of four members who lives in Ontario. They are social creatures and are rarely seen alone. They can live in many different areas, and thrive in open country, parks, and forest regions.
Threats According to Biologist Bruce Ranta, “they were extirpated from the province in the late 1800s due to pressures from human settlement, excessive agriculture, and shifts in climate.”
Reintroduction plan Ranta was part of the Ministry of Natural Resources team that started to reintroduce these elk in the late 1990’s. Elk were reintroduced in Lake of the Woods, Lake Huron North Shore, the Nipissing and French River area, and around Bancroft and North Hastings.
What’s the upshot? Despite successful efforts, there was controversy around reintroduction because of agricultural development and traffic concerns. “It actually may get the Ministry of Transportation to do some forward thinking that seems to be lacking in Ontario. We are lacking in comparison to some jurisdictions who use fencing, overpasses, and underpasses to facilitate the movement of animals across natural barriers,” says Ranta.
There are many reasons why elk are crucial to Ontario wildlife populations, but Ranta emphasizes that “elk are important for enhancing biodiversity.” They also support the hunting and viewing industries, and provide economic benefits through tourism.
Eastern Loggerhead Shrike
Controversy rating: medium
The Eastern Loggerhead Shrike is one of the most imperilled birds in Canada, with a small Ontario population of 24 breeding partners last year. They live in small pockets of grassland in Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba, the persistence of habitat loss has restricted its areas. In Ontario, you can only find the shrike near the greater Toronto area, in the plains of Carden and Napanee.
Threats Since this songbird thrives in grasslands, its main threats are residential and agricultural developers, and solar farms (because solar panels can look like a smooth body of water, resulting in a collision when the shrike attempts to land. This is known as the “lake effect.”). Predators include black-billed magpies, crows, bull snakes, feral cats, and prairie long-tailed weasels. Motor vehicles also do a number on the birds, which perch on fences and utility lines, and sometimes collide with passing cars.
Reintroduction Plan Efforts to preserve this species of shrike started in 1991, in response to a rapidly declining population. Since 2003, WPC has been monitoring the existing eastern loggerhead shrike population and created a captive breeding program to bolster the existing wild population. “We are trying to keep them as wild as possible,” says Hazel Wheeler, Lead Biologist of Eastern Loggerhead Shrike Recovery program. Although they are in zoos, the shrikes are not an exhibition. “We don’t want them to be acclimated to humans,” she says. To maintain a natural-like environment, the team developed a set of standards to maintain similarity to its natural environment, including cages large enough for the birds to fly around in. The enclosures also include “tools”’ that the shrikes can use to mimic their wild habits: nicknamed “the butcher bird” for a reason, they “impale their prey from perches, or barbed wire, and use their talons to rip bite-sized pieces off their prey,” says Wheeler.
What’s the upshot? Reintroduction efforts continue, but not without controversy. Since the population in Ontario is so small, some have questioned the importance of the conservation efforts. “I find this question interesting: what can they do for us? Yes, you can make the argument that they are a predatory songbird who helps to maintain certain populations such as mice, which has an overall impact on biodiversity—but, I like to push back. Why does any animal need to have direct value to us? I would argue that shrikes have just as much right to exist as we do.” Wheeler continues, “if we lose a shrike, then we lose something else. Then we lose something else,” she says. “And the cycle just keeps continuing.”
Since 2003, WPC has been breeding and reintroducing loggerhead shrikes back to alvar grasslands in Ontario to bolster dwindling wild populations. The eastern loggerhead shrike is WPC’s longest running conservation breeding program, demonstrating the time and effort required to save a species from extinction.
In November 2021, Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault declared an emergency order that put an immediate halt on a residential development in Longueuil, Que., to protect the critical habitat of one of Canada’s threatened amphibian species—the western chorus frog.
While this was one of the few cases where the federal government applied the Species at Risk Act to cease development on private land, the Canadian Shield’s population of western chorus frog—in addition to many other closely related species—has declined over the past 60 years and continues to be an issue in Canada.
It was recently announced that the proposed route of Highway 413 in Ontario will impact the habitat of 11 species at risk, including the western chorus frog. The recent disappearance of this frog and its habitat—specially in portions of Ontario and Québec—has caused substantial concern and controversy.
As a behavioural ecologist specializing in acoustics and a reproductive endocrinologist who invented an injectable hormone mixture that induces frog breeding, we believe hope still exists. Habitat protection and restoration, advanced reproductive technologies and reintroduction procedures are all at our fingertips. This multifaceted approach could help slow further declines of chorus frogs and other amphibians.
Global and local threats
Despite its small size—measuring only two to three centimetres in length and often weighing less than two grams—the western chorus frog produces a loud, clear trill that is reminiscent of running a thumb across a plastic comb.
An adult female western chorus frog (Pseudacris triseriata). (Chris Callaghan), Author provided
Amphibians, including the western chorus frog and other frogs, toads and salamanders, play critical ecological roles in the environment. They are vital pieces in the local food chain. They are also economically important, as they provide free pest control in residential areas by consuming insect species, such as mosquitoes and blackflies, without the need of pesticides that are potentially harmful to wildlife.
Across the world, these amphibian species are rapidly disappearing due to habitat loss, disease, pollution, harvesting, invasive species and climate change. Over 40 per cent of species are threatened with extinction. Amphibian declines are part of the sixth mass extinction event on Earth, on a scale that is approaching the loss of dinosaurs.
Captive breeding can aid reintroduction of frogs
One strategy for conserving declining species is to collect individuals from the wild and breed them in laboratory or captive settings.
This allows the offspring to grow without being threatened by predators, contaminants or other disturbances. The healthy offspring can then be released to boost numbers in the natural environment.
Along with Marc Mazerolle’s team at Laval University, we implemented this strategy through a recent collaborative effort with the Montreal Biodome and Sépaq (Société des établissements de plein air du Québec), with the goal of increasing the number of healthy individuals that can be released into appropriate restored natural sites to the benefit of all.
Two years into the project, adult chorus frogs have been successfully bred in captivity. Hundreds of tadpoles have been reared to froglets and released in constructed wetlands for the species. Some of the introduced individuals survived their first winter and adult males could be heard calling for females this past spring. These methods can be applied to species around the world.
The critical role of awareness and conservation
The first step is to spread awareness to emphasize the importance of amphibians and the speed at which species are declining. There are several resources and citizen science projects dedicate to the protection of amphibians, such as Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation and Amphibian Survival Alliance.
Protection of wetlands from destruction and pollution is one of the best ways to help. Wetlands are critical to the survival of amphibians. During the construction of housing developments and infrastructure—such as the proposed Highway 413—wetlands are often drained or filled in. Wetlands host many beautiful bird and plant species, not only amphibians, and they act as the earth’s filter to increase water quality.
Wetlands act as typical habitats for western chorus frogs and other amphibians. (Jeffrey P. Ethier), Author provided
Being careful while walking or driving near wetlands is another way to help on an individual level. Avoid disturbing breeding amphibians. Leave the tadpoles in the water. Observe and enjoy watching them grow legs and climb out of the water for the first time! Protecting the local ponds near your home can also contribute to this conservation.
You can also participate in public forums and let your community know that you support sustainable and responsible land use that keeps wetland habitats connected and protects critical areas for threatened species. Form volunteer groups to help protect frogs as they migrate over roads in the spring breeding season, as seen in other countries. We all have the power to make a positive difference in the protection of amphibians.
During my lake association’s fireworks show over the last long weekend, I heard loons calling back and forth. Were they reacting to the noise of the fireworks?—Duke McGilliam
Yes. “Loons don’t like them,” says Doug Tozer of Birds Canada. “The calls they give are likely stress/alarm calls in response. They do the same thing to any other loud noise, like incoming float planes and big boats.” Loud noise affects their ability to hear properly, and it probably scares them. Okay, so fireworks aren’t good for loons (or other birds, or other wildlife). Obviously. But…just how bad are they?
When it comes to loons, “fireworks are not likely to cause a population level impact,” says Kathy Jones, also with Birds Canada and the volunteer manager for the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey. “But there are growing concerns about the individual pair impact.” For example, do fireworks frighten adult loons enough to make them abandon their chicks? “We don’t know,” admits Jones. “But one would think that the risk does exist, depending on how close the parents and chicks are to the fireworks.”
Now you’re probably feeling torn. You love a good fireworks display. But you also love loons. If your lake association’s on board, there are alternatives to traditional fireworks. Light shows, for example, “have the same brilliance but do not create noise or put pollutants and chemicals into the environment,” says Jones. You could also investigate “quiet fireworks.” Certain communities in Canada—Banff, Canmore, and Halifax, for example—have started using them. (Keep in mind, these fireworks aren’t silent—they’re just not nearly as loud.) Some U.S. organizations have started to use a series of drones outfitted with LED lights as a fireworks alternative.
One straightforward (and inexpensive) way a community—or an individual cottager—can reduce the impact of fireworks on wildlife is to limit how frequently they celebrate with fireworks. Ask yourself: “How often should fireworks be used at a lake?” says Jones. Every day of the holiday weekend? Only certain holiday weekends? Once a year, on Canada Day, ringing in Victoria Day and the New Year with only glow sticks and sparklers?
As with any situation where you’re weighing human interests against environmental impact, “careful thought should be taken with fireworks,” says Jones.
Got a question to Cottage Q&A? Send it to answers@cottagelife.com.
Our property has become a favourite egg-laying destination for turtles. Unfortunately, the eggs are being dug up and devoured as a midnight snack by raccoons. Is there anything I can do to protect the eggs and increase their chances of survival?—Dan Bedard, Big Rideau Lake, Ont.
There sure is! You can build a nest protector. The folks at the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre recommend a simple 2-by-2-foot frame covered in mesh and staked to the ground. (If your DIY skills are worse than zero, you can also buy one ready-made from the OTCC.) You’ll need to include escape holes for the hatchlings—roughly one by two inches on all four sides of the frame.
The key is using the right mesh—the OTCC recommends hardware cloth. It lets in the right amount of light. Too much shade, and the cold temperatures that result can make the eggs infertile, says Sue Carstairs, the OTCC’s executive and medical director. “And that would defeat the purpose of protecting the nest.”
The hardest part of protecting a turtle nest is “knowing if you’re protecting the right area,” says Carstairs. Mama-to-be turtles are very choosy about where to dig and will sometimes make test holes. A female may start to dig (very…slowly…) then give up after a while; find another spot, dig a little, give up again; find a third spot, dig, give up. Then—plot twist!—come back to that spot and keep digging. Make up your mind, lady.
“It could take a whole day of observation,” says Carstairs. And it won’t be exciting. (Someone should probably replace the expression, “It’s like watching grass grow” with, “It’s like watching a turtle dig a hole.”)
Once Mom lays her eggs, covers them, and leaves, you can install the nest protector. Monitor it over the next several weeks, and remove any vegetation that could block the exit holes
Turtle eggs—they’re laid in June—typically hatch around August. “You’ll know,” says Carstairs. “There will be a little hole in the dirt.” If the summer comes to an end and no turtles have emerged, don’t dig up the nest. “People think, ‘Something’s wrong, we must rescue them,’ ” says Carstairs. But that’s a mistake. (It’s also illegal.) Some species overwinter in the nest and don’t come out until spring; the timing of turtle hatching is variable, says Carstairs.
Regardless of when the babies enter the world, “it is legal to help them to the nearest water body,” says Carstairs. If Mother Turtle chose her nest correctly, that should be somewhere marshy, not a rushing river.
Place the hatchlings in a Tupperware container and carry them to the water. Your work is done. No, really, it’s done—no matter how badly you want to take these wee babies to a turtle rescue centre. That would be interfering. And it’s not necessary. “They have to be babies at some point,” says Carstairs. For more info on protecting turtle nests, and tips on how to make your property turtle-friendly, visit ontarioturtle.ca.
Got a question for Cottage Q&A? Send it to answers@cottagelife.com.
This article was originally published in the June/July 2022 issue of Cottage Life magazine.
Have you noticed fewer bees buzzing around this spring? Bee populations are still declining, which is endangering our food supply and pushing Canadian farmers to rent hives to keep their crops alive.
What’s to blame? Mites, viruses, unpredictable weather, herbicides, and pesticides.
“Bees just have too many problems to deal with at onetime,” says Paul Kelly, the research and apiary manager at the Honey Bee Research Centre at the University of Guelph. Before 2007, he says, “we’d lose, on average, 10 to 15 per cent of our colonies over the winter.” Now, in Ontario, bees face colony loss of about 35 per cent each winter. “The pattern is pretty similar throughout North America,” he says.
Five years ago, Kelly says, bees lost 58 per cent of their colonies to the winter, and this year, the numbers are getting close.“Climate change isn’t good for anything in nature.”
Bees can tolerate fairly warm weather, “but what doesn’t work well for them is unseasonable weather,” says Kelly. Bees cannot thrive in unseasonably hot or cold weather, or conditions that are too wet or dry.
Shorter winters, like winter 2020/2021, are both good and bad for the bees, Kelly adds. While shorter winters mean smaller colony loss (the late spring and autumn bees can survive through the winter), the longer spring and summer means a long season alongside the Varroa destructor mite.
These mites, originally from Asia, enter hives and reproduce where bee pupae grow. The young mites then feed on the pupae, and later, feed on adult bees’ blood and protein, introducing viruses into their bloodstreams.
North American bees did not co-evolve with the Varroa destructor, Kelly says. “They have no natural resistance to it.” This invasive species has been a threat to North American bees since 1990.
Because of tough conditions, Canadian farmers have resorted to renting hives from local beekeepers to pollinate their food crops this year. Luckily, “we’re able to manage and move [honeybees] around,” Kelly says. A honeybee hive can be home to up to 60,000 bees.
So what can homeowners and cottagers do to help? Grow some flowers and make a bee-friendly garden!“Honeybees tend to go where flowers are massed together,” Kelly says. “It’s more efficient for them.”When honeybees are foraging, he says, they only forageon one species of flower at a time. Native, non-honeybees, will go to individual flowers, “and they don’t go very far from home either.”
It’s good to have a variety of different flowers. This is called successive blooming, when a garden has flowers blooming throughout the season.
Kelly recommends swapping pollen-poor sunflowers for pollen-rich plants like colourful and fragrant lavender or late-blooming goldenrod. Trees and shrubs are great pollen sources too. Try linden and maple trees.
“In my own garden, I have squash beespollinating my squash plants…I have bumblebees pollinating my tomatoes and peppers,” Kelly says. “Theyall have their specialties.”
The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) promotes native gardening too, encouraging those with outdoor spaces to include pollinatorsplanting local flowering plants and grasses on small (or large) parts of their lawns.“Every act we do can have a knock-on effect,” says Jensen Edwards, from the NCC.
You can also support honeybees and the pollination that they provide by purchasing honey from a localbeekeeper, Kelly says. “It’s not easy to make a livingbeekeeping.”
We love boating—but we know noisy boats can be disruptive to both cottagers and aquatic life. While current legislation mandates all power-driven boats to have a muffler, noise emissions have no specific performance limits. Transport Canada is proposing five policy options to avoid unnecessary noise disturbances.
What is Transport Canada proposing?
The first policy option will make no changes to existing regulations, and the second will modernize existing regulations. The third option introduces performance measures for manufacturers, while another introduces performance measures for boaters.
The last option is the most comprehensive, introducing new regulations for both manufacturers and boaters. According to Transport Canada, this policy option would ensure that new and existing boats don’t exceed noise emission limits, will allow police to use a tool to measure decibel limits, and will require operators to modify their boats to meet new standards.
So many options. What do the people want?
Rob Bosomworth, chair of the Decibel Coalition, is passionate about keeping Canada’s lakes quiet and safe. He supports policy option five. “We need to put decibel limits on both manufacturers and operators to regulate manufacturing importers and to ensure all boats are compliant,” says Bosomworth. “This would not be an overly difficult job for Transport Canada because they already have safety standards and environmental measures for boat manufacturers.”
Bosomworth also believes that option five would address the larger part of noise emission issues: boaters who do not comply with current regulations. “By increasing performance measures for operators, we manage the largest portion of the problem,” he says. “This would address the outliers whose boats have no mufflers and make an extreme amount of noise.”
The fifth policy proposal would make waves in the movement, not accomplished by previous strategies. For example, municipalities have tried passing by-laws but have been unsuccessful because they do not have jurisdiction. There has also been an increase in public support. Safe Quiet Lakes’ 2021 survey, consisting of almost 6,000 participants, indicated a strong correlation between enjoyment on the lake and noise limits.
The Decibel Coalition is in frequent talks with Transport Canada and are encouraging supporters to write to their MPs.
Is option five best for everyone? Let’s dive in further.
Sara Anghel, president of National Marine Manufacturers Association of Canada (NMMA), supports policy option four. According to Anghel, it would support “building to the standard that would meet the limits that Transport Canada may wish to impose,” while meeting the best interests of all stakeholders.
The association is concerned that introducing stricter performance measures for manufacturers will make it more difficult for people to enjoy boating. “As an industry, we support people getting into boating and believe that of all the critical priorities that the government should be addressing, boat noise is not at the top of the list,” she says. ”There are more pressing issues, such as improving boating safety, modernizing the pleasure craft licensing system, and supporting the boating community through opportunities to expand recreational boating.”
While the NMMA doesn’t believe that noise is of top priority, Anghel acknowledges that, “there’s a small number of boaters that pose a nuisance on the Canadian waterways, and we don’t want to promote that kind of boating.” Anghel says the larger issue resides with boaters who use outdated engines or add aftermarket modifications.
How about the ones who have to enforce the policy? What do they have to say?
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) support option four and five, with concerns rooted in officer and boater safety. According to Sergeant Dave Moffatt, the provincial marine coordinator of the Highway Safety Division under the OPP, these options would allow police to use an instrument to determine decibel limits, similar to the one used when assessing impaired driving.
Currently, it can be difficult for officers to determine decibel noises or check if there is a muffler present. “This instrument would give us a quantitative result like a pass or fail,” says Sergeant Moffatt. “This will also assess noise emissions for boats that have a muffler and comply with current regulation, but are still loud.”
Sergeant Moffatt says that noise emission issues are limited to small pockets of the country, yet the OPP receives many complaints about loud boats. “Everyone deserves the right to enjoy the water,” says Sergeant Moffatt.
Transport Canada is currently analyzing the comments received through public consultation. They will provide updates during the next meeting of the Canadian Marine Advisory Council in fall 2022.
Multiple trends go viral every year, and Twitter wants to ensure its users know what lies ahead.
The social media giant analyzed billions of tweets over two years and believes three trends surrounding the environment, digital fans, and finance “are about to go big” in Canada this year.
The Great Restoration
The past two years spent under the dark cloud of COVID-19 have shifted the way people talk about the planet. Burnout has led people to focus on wellness differently, prioritizing reclaiming green space and building connections that improve their health and the people around them.
“Instead of obsessing with everything wrong with the world, “the planet will restore when we do” is an attitude shift that no one saw coming,” the analysis notes.
Fan-Built Worlds
“Fans no longer just follow, they’re calling the shots,” Twitter notes in its analysis. Fans have morphed from being dedicated to a person, cause, or group, to being part of the process. The analysis showed that the term “stanning,” or being an overzealous fan, decreased by 53 percent.
“This is an epic shift in power,” the analysis notes. People are no longer waving from the sidelines; they’re a part of the process of collaboration that puts them in the (shared) owner’s seat.
Finance Goes Social
Older generations would build wealth by buying property. Today, property ownership is not something a lot of people can afford. Young people have shifted the way they’re building wealth, focusing on virtual means instead, and it’s easy to do so. Gatekeeping financial information was left behind with the older generation as experts now freely share their finance knowledge with all. Tweets on finance have increased by 173 percent yearly among users who aren’t financial experts.
The Government of Canada has launched a challenge to offer small- and medium-sized Canadian businesses with funding for developers who tackle wildlife hazards.
Through its Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) program, the government is tasking innovators to design solutions to aid communities that may be at risk for wildfires. Specifically, Natural Resources Canada is challenging businesses to develop software that can produce high-resolution vegetation mapping data, which can help predict, assess and mitigate fires. The government notes that there aren’t enough tools at present to process wildfire fuel attributes in a quick and cost-effective manner.
Businesses that win the challenge may receive up to $150,000 for research and development purchases. Those accepted into Phase 2 of the program, meanwhile, will be awarded up to $1 million to create a working prototype. The government says it will then work with these businesses to commercialize their work.
2021 was one of Canada’s most damaging fire seasons in years due to 6.224 fires and a total area burned of 4.18 million hectares. Therefore, the government is hoping that innovators can help prevent such incidents.
Zoom in and explore the northern boreal forests of western Canada on Google Earth and you’ll see long straight lines making their way through the forest. These lines are cleared trails through the forest to extract resources, creating roads for forestry and seismic lines searching for underground oil and gas deposits.
Now picture yourself faced with the task of moving across this landscape: Will you push your way through dense trees and underbrush, or will you choose to walk on the trails?
Like humans, wolves often choose the path of least resistance, moving faster and farther on human-created trails through the forest. Increased wolf movement is believed to play an important role in the decline of the threatened boreal woodland caribou—an iconic species in Canada (just look at the quarter in your pocket).
We tracked 142 wolves using GPS collars across British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan—spanning over 500,000 square kilometres. The tracked wolves spanned areas with low to high prey density (measured using a metric of habitat productivity, or how much vegetation there is for species like moose), and had varying access to human-created trails.
Wolves living in areas with high densities of human-created trails took up an area roughly 20 times smaller than wolves without trails, but only when they lived in areas with low habitat productivity. Comparatively, trails didn’t change the area needed for wolves when they lived in areas with high habitat productivity.
Think about picking berries. If the berries are hard to find, you have to go looking far and wide to get enough to fill up your basket. But if something makes it easier for you to find the berries, then you don’t have to look around as much. You can just grab all the ones that you see close to you. The advantage of being able to easily find berries would be less important if there are a lot because you can skip over a few without noticing. But it becomes more important when there are few to begin with, and every last berry counts.
This is exactly what we are seeing with wolves: Instead of choosing to travel far and wide, wolves with access to lots of trails stay close to home and get by with what they have.
The space animals use to carry out their lives is called a home range, or if defended from conspecifics like in the case of wolves, a territory. If animals have smaller home ranges, that means more animals can crowd into a given space, increasing the density of that species. It is well documented that animals need less space when there is an abundance of food around—and now we know that easier access to that food can also decrease home range size. We found that increasing a wolf’s access to their prey, through things like cleared trails through the forest, can decrease their home range size, likely increasing the regional density of wolves.
Habitat restoration
But why do we care about how big wolf home ranges are? One of the biggest conservation challenges in Canada is that of woodland caribou. Caribou live across large areas, overlapping places where the energy and forestry sectors are actively extracting natural resources like oil, gas and timber.
A remote camera capture of caribou in the boreal forest. Changes in wolf-hunting patterns are threatening the already endangered caribou. (Melanie Dickie/Caribou Monitoring Unit), Author provided
Habitat restoration is imminently needed, but is expensive and time consuming. Prioritizing habitat restoration in areas where it will be most beneficial to caribou as soon as possible is necessary for effective caribou management.
Habitat restoration has two main goals: to reduce wolf hunting efficiency by limiting their use of trails and slow their movement when on them and to return the forest to caribou habitat. But now we have reason to believe that slowing wolves down can also reduce wolf density on the landscape — forcing individual wolves to take up more space and push others out—especially in low-productivity peatlands, where the effect on home ranges is stronger.
Effective habitat restoration is going to be important for moving away from other management actions like wolf management in the long term. But, we have a lot of work ahead of us. There are hundreds of thousands of kilometres of these cleared trails that need to be restored. Our study points us towards prioritizing low-productivity areas to see the biggest effects sooner.
