ECOS UPDATE

BY MIKE LASCELLES, CO-CHAIR, ECOS

UPCOMING EVENTS

JUNE 1+3 - BRUCE DI LABIO OLD OTTAWA SOUTH BIRDING TOUR

ome and learn about the birds living in our area from Bruce Di Labio, world-renowned birding expert who just won the Great Texas Birding Classic and has thrice won the World Series of Birding at Cape May, New Jersey.

ECOS plans to have Bruce Di Labio offer an eight-hour bird watching course in Windsor, Brewer and Vincent Massey Parks as well as along the south bank of the Rideau between Main Street and Bronson. You will be provided with a checklist as well as a short report on what we discover. Don't forget your binoculars! The course costs $20. Registration will be limited to 15 people, so call Mike Lascelles at 737-6480 by May 22 to enroll.

JUNE 12 - RIDEAU RIVER ROUNDTABLE ON BIODIVERSITY

ECOS has spent many hours over the past two years helping to create this Roundtable, which is being sponsored by the Canadian Museum of Nature, the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority, the City of Ottawa, the Millennium Bureau of Canada and the RMOC.

The Roundtable includes more than twenty-five communities along the Rideau from Ottawa City Hall to Smiths Falls that are working together to conserve the biodiversity of their areas to make the Rideau River healthier.

The Canadian Biodiversity Institute is lining up continued funding from a number of potential sources, such as the Trillium Foundation. Read future issues of OSCAR for reports on the Roundtable and its plans to restore the Rideau River.

JUNE 22, 7:30PM - OPENING OF ECOS INTERPRETIVE CENTRE.

We will unveil the Interpretive Centre, created by John Wright and designed by Ian Gregory and Claudette Fortin, after the food and music at the OSCA Community BBQ at Brewer Park. Come and see the plaques and interpretive trail ECOS has created as part of its Millennium Bureau of Canada funded projects.

Find out about the bridge the Scouts built, marvel at the fish embayment nearby, learn about the small urban forest we've sowed and nurtured, survey the pond from the lookout we constructed, see the artwork of students at Westboro Academy and read about the history of the Brewer Pond area John and Siobhan Bond have recorded for us.

You can also see the plaque on Water Quality that the RMOC (special thanks to Mary Trudeau) sponsored to inspire us to do more to make the water in the Rideau River healthier.

JUNE 23-24 - WETLANDS FESTIVALS

ECOS is offering bioblitzes at Brewer and Windsor Parks, Carleton University, Brantwood Park and beyond, so that we can find out what plants and animals live along the Rideau. This RMOC-funded project is staged in partnership with the Canadian Biodiversity Institute. Read the June issue of OSCAR to learn more about the bioblitzes and to find out how you can work with scientists to discover the diverse nature in our midst.

VOLUNTEERS TAKE NOTE

Hedrik Wachelka plans to finish the fish embayment at Brewer this spring and we need hearty volunteers to help him sow the aquatic plants. If you can help, call Hedrik at 730-0651.

ECOS ON THE WEB

Thanks to RMOC funding, we have a website under construction. You can visit us at www.sitesunseen-icu.com/clients/ecos/ to see what David Kennedy is creating for us. Colin Whittaker will be converting the balance of the ECOS Action Kit so we can include it on the website Whittaker Computers will host for us. If you have comments on what's been constructed so far, or want to learn more, contact David Kennedy at sitesunseen@home.com or 730-1676. We plan to have the website up and running by this fall.