Nature PEI

Join Nature PEI for their next monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 6^th at 7:30 pm in Charlottetown. The meeting will feature guest speaker, Hannah Gehrels, PEI Wild Child Projects Coordinator with the Sierra Club Canada Foundation’s Wild Child Program. Hannah will be sharing some of their most treasured and inspiring moments from their work to connect Island children and families back to nature.

Hannah hails from Thunder Bay, Ontario. They hold a BSc in Biology from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and an MSc in Biology from UPEI, where their research focused on invasive green crabs. Hannah has an extensive background in delivering nature- and science-focused education programs, having worked as a Marine Sciences Educator at Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre on Vancouver Island, and been a Coordinator of the Let’s Talk Science Program at UPEI. Hannah founded the PEI Wild Child Forest School Program in 2017 and has grown the program in the years since then.

‘Wild Child’ is a recreational Forest and Nature School program of the Sierra Club Canada Foundation. There are Wild Child programs active in three provinces across Canada, including Alberta, Nova Scotia, and PEI. The PEI Wild Child Program was established in 2017 with the mission to provide child-led, play-based learning through repeated exposure to nature. helping to foster a lasting relationship with the natural world. Since starting in PEI, the Wild Child Program has expanded to offer programming for 3-15-year olds through afterschool programs, preschool programs, PD day programs, family programs, programs for homeschoolers, and summer day camps.

“I have learnt so much about myself, children, what it means to be inclusive while running this program”, says Hannah Gehrels, PEI Wild Child Projects Coordinator, “and I have also deepened my understanding, trust, and relationship with the natural world. The land always provides the teachings, the joy, the challenges, and it is an absolute privilege to be in the position to connect children to the natural world through play and watch how their attitudes, behaviours, and comfort level being outside transforms over time.”

The meeting starts at 7:30pm at Beaconsfield Carriage House, corner of West and Kent St., in Charlottetown. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend!

The Natural History Society of Prince Edward Island invites you to join a field trip with Prehistoric Island Tours with Laura MacNeil, at Cherrycliff Park, in Earnscliffe, PEI, on Monday, May 22^nd, 2023.

The 1.5 hour field trip will be rain or shine, so dress for the weather and wear sturdy shoes. (If very rainy and windy, it’ll be cancelled and we will contact you.)

The cost is $15 per person, payable in cash at the event.

More information on Prehistoric Island Tours can be found here under “Book a Tour” and “Inclement Weather”:

https://www.prehistoricislandtours.ca/

To carpool, meet at the Indigo parking lot in Charlottetown at 3:15PM; or meet at Cherrycliff Park by 4PM.

Please register at chris@naturepei.ca

The Hillsborough River Association’s 2022-23 Annual General Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 17th at Stratford Town Hall’s Southport Room starting at 7:00 PM. Bob Harding will be our guest speaker with his presentation “Who Knew? Recent natural history discoveries in the Hillsborough River Watershed”.

       We will also be presenting a photo essay on the work we’ve done in the past year as well as a brief photo essay on the forest damage from post-tropical storm Fiona. In addition, the Mermaid Women’s Institute will have a display on its recently launched Mermaid Moments by Donna Gallant. It will be available for sale at $25.

        For our AGM, we will offer Zoom access via Zoom Meeting ID: 891 9030 4056. The online Zoom Link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89190304056 For Zoom participants, please pre-register via pisquidwatershed@gmail.com.

        Our first public field trip of the season, the John Andrew Memorial Fishing Derby on June 3rd, is be a joint venture with between the Hillsborough River Association and the Wright’s Creek Watershed Environmental Committee.

For those who are taking the 4-lectures and one field trip “Introduction to Birding on PEI Course” put on by Nature PEI, the third and fourth lectures will be June 1st and 8th. For this month, some birding suggestions are:

• Review your notes from the previous lectures
• Watch the first lecture on the Nature PEI Facebook page https://fb.watch/kkNOnLE2Ln/ — unfortunately, the second one was not recorded.
• Check out the Bird Resources on this website (see “Birds of PEI” page, above) and go through the links
• Download and Print out a copy of the Field Checklist of Birds (2014), produced by the PEI Government, and limited print copies still available: https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/sites/default/files/publications/2014_pei_birdchecklist-english.pdf

• Enjoy looking at birding photos at the Birding on PEI Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/680033993829506

• and the Very Common Birds of PEI guide:

Note that there is space to attend the final lectures. Please register at chris@naturepei.ca. Happy May and enjoying the birds!

See the “Recent Posts” at the right for details on Greater Charlottetown Area and Greater Summerside Area details!

from left: Yellow Nodding Ladies Tresses, Russet Cottongrass, Virginia Chainfern, and photo of Iain Crowell (photos by Iain Crowell)

Join Nature PEI for their next monthly meeting on Tuesday, May 2^nd at 7:30 pm in Charlottetown. The meeting will feature guest speaker, Iain Crowell, Botanist and Lichenologist with the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre (AC CDC). Iain will take us into the wilds of PEI and share photos and stories from his experience over the last field season documenting rare plants in the province.

Iain grew up in Charlottetown and has a degree in Environmental Science from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. Since graduating, Iain has worked with Island Nature Trust in Charlottetown and the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia, before joining the team at the AC CDC in 2022. In his work with the AC CDC, Iain explores important habitats across Atlantic Canada documenting rare species.

The AC CDC was established in 1997 with a mission to provide data and expertise about species and ecosystems of conservation concern, and to conduct biological inventories to support decision-making, research, and education in Atlantic Canada. The AC CDC is part of a network of conservation data centres across the country that gather, maintain, and update spatially accurate occurrence data for species and ecological communities of conservation concern.

“The AC CDC had a fantastic field season collecting new rare species records for PEI, and I can’t wait to share some stories from the field at the upcoming Nature PEI meeting!”, says Iain Crowell.

The meeting starts at 7:30pm at Beaconsfield Carriage House, corner of West and Kent St., in Charlottetown. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend!