Battle of the Wye Marsh
Posted by Bill Molesworth
Jamie Hunter welcomed Laurie Schutt back to the Club and congratulated her for being the director of the last major attraction in town that hasn't had a fire.
Laurie said it was good to be back. She said the government made its first quarterly site visit in 3 years last November and noted the expanded bird program and other activities that they said were not in compliance with the National Wildlife Area Act and threatened legal action.
The Act was passed in 1979 to minimize human impact on Wildlife Areas but at that time the Marsh was owned by the government and as they did not make it an exception, as they did with a similar operation in Quebec, they were in contravention of themselves for years.
Laurie said their demands were unreasonable and it would force the closing of the Marsh to which they responded - We don't care.
Laurie and one or two staff missed Christmas and New Year's filling out reams of paperwork and submitted a 55 page document. They have been inspected again and passed everything with accolades but they have not received permits yet.
Laurie said it was good to be back. She said the government made its first quarterly site visit in 3 years last November and noted the expanded bird program and other activities that they said were not in compliance with the National Wildlife Area Act and threatened legal action.
The Act was passed in 1979 to minimize human impact on Wildlife Areas but at that time the Marsh was owned by the government and as they did not make it an exception, as they did with a similar operation in Quebec, they were in contravention of themselves for years.
Laurie said their demands were unreasonable and it would force the closing of the Marsh to which they responded - We don't care.
Laurie and one or two staff missed Christmas and New Year's filling out reams of paperwork and submitted a 55 page document. They have been inspected again and passed everything with accolades but they have not received permits yet.
It has made the press - she gave an interview to the CBC and commented that it was all just typical bureaucracy (which she now thinks she could have phrased better) and there was good coverage in the paper. Bruce Stanton has been very involved.
Part of the problem is it's jointly owned, there's little precedent and they are trying to dictate small details like what should be on the web site and what the store should stock. Another part is that over the years all the people who had field experience have moved on and now the Marsh is dealing with office staff who don't understand.
The Friends manage the Marsh and are responding in different ways. They have bought property on Old Fort Road and are planning on moving the bird program there.
Laurie is proud of this program. They have hawks, owls, falcons and eagles. There are weekly shows and school visits. They had hoped to set up breeding sites with cameras so people could follow events on the net but Environment Canada objected.
The Act says they can't breed birds even though you can with turtles snakes and frogs. She hasn't got an answer yet as to why.
The bird operation needs two people and because of the uncertainty they didn't feel they could hire anybody so Laurie took on another responsibility - assisting the falconer. The birds are artificially inseminated, which is a process. She has to go through a 'courting ritual' with them and, as you cannot tell a bird when to lay an egg, it may be that she is called on at any time of the day.
Parents are given one to raise and the rest are imprinted to humans - one session saw Laurie feeding 7 newborns different types of food every 3 hours for 4 days. Not much rest.
Last year they raised 3 barn owls of which two are now in a zoo in St. Catharine's. The Marsh is becoming a resource for other institutions.
They recently took in a 12 day old eagle owl, the largest owl, which eats a rat 4 times a day. So they are raising rats, mice and quail because the ones raised commercially have hormones in them.
She said there are 3 breeding pair of bald eagles in the area and golden eagles have been seen.
As well as all this, the Marsh is installing 2 small wind turbines - about 2 kwh each - as educational tools. The power will be fed to the grid but mostly they are to show how people could use them at their places. Tay Township has been very generous with staff time. And they have mounted two scopes in vandal proof mounts, from which you can see a blue heron rookery in Wyebridge.
The Marsh is also pleased to report 6 pairs of sandhill cranes in residence this spring.
Jen Barry offered the thanks of the Club for the talk and for the work Laurie has been doing.
Part of the problem is it's jointly owned, there's little precedent and they are trying to dictate small details like what should be on the web site and what the store should stock. Another part is that over the years all the people who had field experience have moved on and now the Marsh is dealing with office staff who don't understand.
The Friends manage the Marsh and are responding in different ways. They have bought property on Old Fort Road and are planning on moving the bird program there.
Laurie is proud of this program. They have hawks, owls, falcons and eagles. There are weekly shows and school visits. They had hoped to set up breeding sites with cameras so people could follow events on the net but Environment Canada objected.
The Act says they can't breed birds even though you can with turtles snakes and frogs. She hasn't got an answer yet as to why.
The bird operation needs two people and because of the uncertainty they didn't feel they could hire anybody so Laurie took on another responsibility - assisting the falconer. The birds are artificially inseminated, which is a process. She has to go through a 'courting ritual' with them and, as you cannot tell a bird when to lay an egg, it may be that she is called on at any time of the day.
Parents are given one to raise and the rest are imprinted to humans - one session saw Laurie feeding 7 newborns different types of food every 3 hours for 4 days. Not much rest.
Last year they raised 3 barn owls of which two are now in a zoo in St. Catharine's. The Marsh is becoming a resource for other institutions.
They recently took in a 12 day old eagle owl, the largest owl, which eats a rat 4 times a day. So they are raising rats, mice and quail because the ones raised commercially have hormones in them.
She said there are 3 breeding pair of bald eagles in the area and golden eagles have been seen.
As well as all this, the Marsh is installing 2 small wind turbines - about 2 kwh each - as educational tools. The power will be fed to the grid but mostly they are to show how people could use them at their places. Tay Township has been very generous with staff time. And they have mounted two scopes in vandal proof mounts, from which you can see a blue heron rookery in Wyebridge.
The Marsh is also pleased to report 6 pairs of sandhill cranes in residence this spring.
Jen Barry offered the thanks of the Club for the talk and for the work Laurie has been doing.