The Ingersoll District Nature Club invites one and all to join us this Saturday, March 7, 2015 for a Hike at Springwater… it’s Maple Syrup Season!  Join us for pancakes and real maple syrup, followed by a trail walk, at Springwater.  Mouth-watering good and beautiful trails!  Learn how maple syrup is made on site – great for kids.

For more information, call Meg at 519-485-4220.

For more information on the Maple Syrup Festival that begins this weekend at Springwater, visit http://www.catfishcreek.ca/pages/public-calendar-event?id=41

We will meet at the municipal parking lot between the Ingersoll Memorial Arena and Tim Horton’s. We will be  departing from Carpool Lot at 9:00 a.m. (See map below. Map courtesy of Google Maps.)

The Ingersoll District Nature Club has two exciting events coming up. We invite everyone to come join us…

Saturday, March 7, 2015 – Hike at Springwater… it’s Maple Syrup Season! Depart from Carpool Lot at 9:00 a.m.  Join us for pancakes and real maple syrup, followed by a trail walk, at Springwater.  Mouth-watering good and beautiful trails!  Learn how maple syrup is made on site – great for kids. We will meet at the municipal parking lot between the Ingersoll Memorial Arena and Tim Horton’s. For more information, call Meg at 519-485-4220.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015 – “Engaging Youth in Nature” with Bernie Solymar, Executive Director, Nature’s Calling Environmental Education – Ingersoll Public Library Meeting Room – 7:00 p.m.  Numerous studies are showing that children exposed to nature and the outdoors perform better in school, are healthier, and respond better to stress.  However, in today’s highly wired world children often get very little exposure to nature and the outdoors.  Learn about the ways that Nature’s Calling Environmental Education is addressing “nature deficit disorder” and how we reconnect families with the natural world.

Reminder: Join the Ingersoll District Nature Club TONIGHT (Tuesday, February 10, 2015) at 7:00 pm for a special presentation on “Low Impact Development (LID) in Ingersoll” with Guest Speaker Teresa Hollingsworth of the Upper Thames Conservation Authority at Ingersoll Public Library Meeting Room.

LID is a stormwater management approach, using small, simple designs and landscape features at the lot level, to infiltrate, filter, store, evaporate and detain runoff close to its source.  Come learn about simple solutions to reducing the rate and amount of water running off your property – which in turn lessens water runoff to storm sewers and reduces any negative impact on our water quality.  Rain gardens, bioswales, downspout redirects, and rain barrels are all part of the solutions.  Come hear more from Teresa on this interesting topic.

The Program for the 2015 Huron Fringe Birding Festival (May 22 – 25 & May 28 – 31, 2015) has been set and can be seen online at Friends of MacGregor Point Park Registration Website at http://friendsofmacgregor.org/page/huron-fringe-birding-festival.

The website says…

“Morning activities are filled with guided hikes concentrating not only on birds but wildflowers, butterflies and insects, in and outside the park.  Afternoons feature additional hikes, workshops on bird identification and nature photography, plus other natural interests.

Special events include a banquet with a special guest speaker.  Evening highlights include illustrated programs featuring excellent presenters and night hikes.”

You can find out more information and complete the online registration on their website.

Ingersoll District Nature Club’s Darwin Kent posted the following report about the “Ontario Badgers” presentation on the Your Voice Ingersoll Facebook page:

“22 members and guests of the Ingersoll District Nature Club attended the Ingersoll Library last night to listen to Josh Sayers from Ontario Badgers. Josh spoke on the lives of a Badger, their habitat, their travel and his work in tracking them. Very informative and interesting topic and speaker. Watch and like the Ingersoll District Nature Clubs Facebook page to see when our next speaker will be at the Ingersoll Library. Events are free and the public is welcome to attend. These meetings start at 7am and will end at approx 8:15. With this start and end time we are trying to accommodate any youth that attend.”

Looking for a fun activity? Try this Oxford Species at Risk Wordsearch.

Happy New Year from the Ingersoll District Nature Club!

Join us on Tuesday, January 13, 2015 for “The Ontario Badger” with guest speaker Josh Sayers of Ontario Badgers at the Ingersoll Public Library Meeting Room at 7:00 p.m.

Josh Sayers will share his research on Ontario Badgers. Southern Ontario is home to a small population of American Badgers (Taxidea taxus subspecies “jacksoni”). These rare, native carnivores are members of the weasel family and are among the most elusive animals in the province! They are mostly active by night, tend to avoid people, and wander over large areas. In fact a single badger’s territory can easily be several thousand acres! They are opportunistic carnivores, and feed on a variety of small animals, such as groundhogs (also known as woodchucks or gophers), rabbits, mice, chipmunks, frogs, turtle eggs, and insects. They hunt along the weedy and grassy edges of fields, forests, and meadows, and spend most of their days underground.

The Ingersoll District Nature Club is very proud to announce the success of Oxford County Pollination Awareness Week, which took place on November 25-27, held to raise awareness of the importance of pollinators to our community and the danger that neonicotinoids present to our environment.

Thanks to a generous donation from the Ingersoll Community Fund, the Club organized this event as an educational and community engagement opportunity, bringing in noted pollination experts George Scott of the Niagara Beeway and Patty Moss of the Niagara Park Butterfly Conservatory to lead educational sessions for local students and town halls for the community as a whole.

The Education Sessions, which included a PowerPoint presentation, Question & Answer period and gave students hands-on experience in creating wildflower seed balls and planting pollination gardens, took place at:

• Laurie Hawkins Public School in Ingersoll and Glendale High School in Tillsonburg on November 25
• Algonquin Public School, Springbank Public School and College Avenue Secondary School in Woodstock on November 26
• Roch Carrier French Immersion Public School in Woodstock on November 27

The Town Halls, which included a multi-media presentation and Question & Answer period, took place at:

• the Woodstock Unifor Hall on November 25 (7 pm)
• the Ingersoll Unifor Hall on November 26 (7 pm)

We would like to thank members of the local media for their coverage of the events, including:

The Woodstock Sentinel-Review: http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/2014/11/26/researcher-explains-dangers-of-neonicotinoids-to-bees

Heart FM: http://www.1047.ca/news/local-news/pollination-awareness-week/

Check out this article in the London Free Press: http://www.lfpress.com/2014/11/25/ontario-plans-to-cut-neonicotinoid-use-by-80