Tag Archives: inaturalist.org

2017 Natural Heritage Planning Workshops

Posted on by Leave a comment

Earlier in 2017 there were a series of workshops held across southern Ontario to provide guidance on natural heritage system planning.  The goal of these workshops was to provide information to land use planners and others involved in land use planning as it relates to the identification, protection and management of natural heritage systems.

Workshops2017These workshops were held in Peterborough, Parry Sound, London and Toronto.  They were a joint effort of the Environment and Climate Change Canada – Canadian Wildlife Service and Ontario Nature delivered in partnership with the Ontario Professional Planners Institute , Skelton, Brumwell and Associates Inc. and Krystawyn.

Intro to Sessions MJW 2017-04-19 11-07-18Topics covered at the workshops included a natural heritage policy update and the Ontario Nature Natural Heritage Planning Best Practices Manual.  The Canadian Wildlife Service also provided information about their How Much Habitat is Enough? and How Much Development is Too Much? guidelines.  A highlight at the workshops was the release of the Canadian Wildlife Service Biodiversity Atlas.  The atlas products provide a geospatial representation of the Canadian Wildlife Service biodiversity portfolio: species richness, migratory bird densities, habitat extent & quality.  They were created to better see and understand the distribution of species and habitats, share information with others, and help facilitate the conservation of important natural places by provide guidance on places of high biodiversity value.

The workshops also featured presentations from the Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve and Kawarthas, Naturally Connected discussing local natural heritage program initiatives.

There was also a presentation highlighting the diversity of tools available to planners in the development of policies and programs to identify and protect natural heritage systems including a variety of citizen science applications to engage the public (e.g. Ontario Nature Citizen Science Directory, iNaturalist).

Information from the workshops and a copy of the presentations can be obtained from the following links:

Part 1 Natural Heritage Policy Update

Part 1 Policy

Part 1 Policy Parry Sound

Part 2 Natural Heritage Systems Planning Best Practices Guide

Part 2 The Manual

Download of the Manual

Ontario Nature Presentation – Natural Heritage Systems

Ontario Nature Presentation

Canadian Wildlife Service Presentations

How Much Habitat Is Enough? Presentation

How Much Disturbance is Too Much? Presentation

CWS Biodiversity Atlas Presentation

CWS Biodiversity Atlas Shield Presentation

How Much Disturbance is Too Much? Circulation Copy

LINK TO ATLAS FILES

Part 3 Other Tools

Part 3 Other Tools

Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve Presentation

Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve Presentation

Kawarthas, Naturally Connected Presentation

Kawarthas Naturally Connected Presentation

Getting Involved – Citizen Science – Ontario Mammals

Posted on by Leave a comment

Citizen science projects are a great way to get involved in nature and conservation.

There are a large variety of projects that you can join to add your observations to the knowledge base about species and their habitats.  The information collected in these projects helps various conservation oriented agencies and organizations to gather valuable data.  This data can assist in learning more about the distribution of species, changes in distribution and habitat, habitat use and animal behavior.

Not only do you get the opportunity to add to knowledge about ourPolar Bear environment, but you get to have fun doing it! Most citizen science projects let you set up a profile so that you can join and share with others having your same interest in nature. They often also allow you to track your own observations and choose how you share them.

In this post we are featuring a new project on the www.inaturalist.org site.  The Ontario Mammals project has been set up to increase our knowledge of the distribution of mammals in the Province of Ontario.  While there is a body of data on mammal distribution in Ontario, climate change, development and other factors affect the distribution of species over time.  The more information that is available about mammals, the more we will know about an important element of the biodiversity of terrestrial ecosystems and their health.

There is also a guide to Ontario’s mammal species (Ontario Mammals Guide) on the inaturalist site to help you identify mammals as well as learn more about them.

To participate in this project you need to sign up at www.inaturalist.org. Joining is free and there are apps for iPhones,Ipads, and Android devices.  By joining intauralist you will get access to a wide variety of resources.  As well as participating in this project you can participate in others; keep track of your own nature observations no matter where you are; learn more about wildlife of all sorts; and explore different places across the world.

Once you join, you can add Ontario Mammals to your list of projects and help build the data base on the mammals of Ontario!

Remember, your data is important!  Please try to be accurate in observations so that the data is as reliable is possible.  When observing species at risk please ensure that you either submit the data directly to a project, avoiding publicly posting the details, or use the tools on the site to generalize your observation location in a public posting.

Getting Involved – Citizen Science – Ontario Fish

Posted on by Leave a comment

Citizen science projects are a great way to get involved in nature and conservation.

There are a large variety of projects that you can join and add your observations to the knowledge base about species and their habitats.  The information collected in these projects helps various conservation oriented agencies and organizations to gather valuable data.  This data can assist in learning more about the distribution of species, changes in distribution and habitat, habitat use and animal behaviour.

Wildlife technologist sampling fish.

Not only do you get the opportunity to add to knowledge about our environment, but you get to have fun doing it! Most citizen science projects let you set up a profile so that you can join and share with others having your same interest in nature. They often also allow you to track your own observations and choose how you share them.

In this post we are featuring a new project on the www.inaturalist.org site.  The Ontario Fish project has been set up to increase our knowledge of the distribution of fish species in the Province of Ontario.  While there is a body of data on fish species distribution in Ontario, climate change, development and other factors affect the distribution of fish species over time.  The more information that is available about fish species, the more we will know about an important element of the biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems.

There is also a guide to Ontario’s fish species (Ontario Fish Guide) on the inaturalist site to help you identify fish as well as learn more about them.

Ontario Fish Project

To participate in this project you need to sign up at www.inaturalist.org. Joining is free and there are apps for iPhones,Ipads, and Android devices.  By joining intauralist you will get access to a wide variety of resources.  As well as participating in this project you can participate in others; keep track of your own nature observations no matter where you are; learn more about wildlife of all sorts; and explore different places across the world.

Once you join, you can add Ontario Fish to your list of projects and help build the data base on the fish species of Ontario!

Remember, your data is important!  Please try to be accurate in observations so that the data is as reliable is possible.  When observing species at risk please ensure that you either submit the data directly to a project, avoiding publicly posting the details, or use the tools on the site to generalize your observation location in a public posting.