Ottawa Urban Wild Tours 2011

Series of five summer Urban Wild Tours in Ottawa are complete!

What a great summer we had with attendance ranging from 15 to 80 people on various tours. The support people showed for the tours was incredible! We were so thrilled with the turnout (both families and individuals) and the interest that everyone had in the great tour topics.

It was a pleasure to work with Julie who had the inspiring idea and recruited others to bring about these tours. With her creativity, enthusiasm and talent these events were easy to organize and she showed such dedication to seeing them through. And her design and graphic work gave these events such a professional online presence.

Working with all five tour guides who volunteered their time was a thrill. It was wonderful for them to share their knowledge and their love for the urban wild and their individual focus on specific flora and fauna topics. We were so lucky to find such passionate and informative guides.

Thanks so everyone for a wonderful summer!

Ottawa Urban Wild Tours Blogspot

renaturalization of sand dunes by lake

amphibian habitat study (Ottawa)

The Geomatics and Landscape Ecology Research Laboratory at Carleton University has also done a conservation study on amphibians to determine the effect of road and land use around local ponds and the effect they have on frog and toad populations.

You can read more about the conclusions of their study and the recommendations in the following online brochure.

A short summary is: Terrestrial habitat of up to 2 kms around breeding sites (ponds, wetlands and wet forests) needs to be conserved along with networks between breeding sites (corridors). Reduced traffic along roads within these boundaries is key. Both forest and open space are important to have a diverse frog and toad population in urban/suburban areas.