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Ostrander Point Appeal Fund

 

Preserving critical natural habitats

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Nine wind turbines have been approved for Ostrander Point in Prince Edward County,  “one of the worst possible places to construct a wind farm” (Ontario Nature). Help us appeal the approval to save critical natural habitat from destruction and protect the endangered species, species at risk and rare ecosystems at Ostrander Point.

To learn more about Ostrander Point, click here

Help Raise Funds by renting a Prince Edward County Cottage to Save Ostrander Point!!

As we go into the last week of the PECFN appeal the 6 little old ladies that are the active participants on behalf of the Field Naturalists are starting to think about the second phase of our fund raising and have we got a deal for you!  Proceeds from the rental of either of these two cottages will go in full to support the Ostrander Point Appeal Fund.

Prinyer’s Cove Cottage

Anna Sand has donated a week in June at her lovely cottage at Prinyers Cove to the Save Ostrander Point Appeal.  In June, Sand Box Cottage rents for $800 a week.  Dates available are: June 1-8; June 8-15; Jun 15-22; and June 22-29.  If you book one of those weeks the fee will be donated in full to Save Ostrander Point.  This is a very generous offer.  If you have family visiting why not take advantage of it.  The cottage and surroundings are described at http://www.thesandboxcottage.ca/

 

 

 Cardinal Cottage – 10 minutes Walk to Sandbanks Park

More information can be found by clicking here and here or by contacting:

Contact: Gordon Laurie
e-mail: star7nth@kos.net
Phone: 613-476-5310
Mail: 10 Cowan Rd, RR1, Cherry Valley
Ontario, K0K 1P0

Laurie Cottage

 

 

                                                                                                                                                      Radar Image of Migrating Birds Flying Over PEC South Shore

radar image

Birds pour into Prince Edward County from the east, while others are just beginning to cross Lake Ontario from New York state, in this radar image from May 2012. More migrating birds fly over Prince Edward County’s south shore than anywhere else on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario.

 

Monarch Butterflies

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monarch butterfly
This year, Monarch Butterfly numbers are down by a shocking 59%.
All the more reason to ensure that the International Monarch
Butterfly Reserve on the South Shore of Prince Edward County is
preserved in its entirety.
If the Gilead industrial wind factory goes ahead,
roads and turbine-related construction would devastate 50 hectares
of the habitat which the butterflies need to rest and feed during migration.
Monarch Butterflies are at grave risk. They need help –
not another nail in their coffin.
Photos courtesy www.Monarch-Butterfly.com

Bats:  Farmers’ Best Friends

Bat with White-nose


A bat with white-nose syndrome. Photo courtesy New York
Department of Environmental Conservation
When the environmental assessment was done for Ostrander Point, North America’s bat populations were healthy. In the past two years, bat populations have collapsed as drastically and suddenly as honey bee colonies. For bats, the problem is a fungus, white-nose syndrome, which disrupts hibernation, exhausting the bats’ food reserves before they can feed in the spring. Five and a half million bats have already died in eastern North America. Even the Little Brown Bat, once our most common bat, is now listed as endangered.
Bats provide pest-control services to farms, eating beetles and other insects that feed on crops. In Ontario alone, bats save farmers between $100 million and $1.6 billion per year. The loss of the bats will cost Canada between $1.1 and $15.3 billion dollars, according to Statistics Canada.
We need to do everything we can to preserve bats, according to Dr. Robert Barclay, who testified recently at the Environmental Review Tribunal. The allowable limit of seven bats killed per turbine is far too high. With wind turbines proliferating across North America and white nose syndrome spreading unchecked, the wind turbine deaths, combined with the fungus, will affect overall bat populations. He said there are so many turbines planned for eastern Lake Ontario that the allowable kill rate was simply unacceptable.

What the Heck are Alvars?

We’ve heard a lot about alvars this week at the Environmental Review Tribunal. Most people don’t know what alvars are and that’s not surprising – they’re very rare. In North America, alvars are found only around the Great Lakes – and 90% of Great Lake area alvars have been already been destroyed.
An alvar is an ecosystem that has evolved on the thin soil over limestone bedrock. Wet in the spring, bone-dry in summer, alvars are challenging places to call home. The plants and insects which live on alvars have adapted to the tough conditions over centuries – some can be found only on alvars. Needless to say, these alvar-dwellers are also rare.
Gilead proposes to grind up the alvar limestone for use in construction. A Swedish study showed that some alvars which had been turned into farm fields still hadn’t reverted back to alvars after 50 years.
butterfly

A black swallowtail butterfly on the south shore of Prince Edward County

 

Migrating Raptors at Blade Sweep Height in Ostrander Point Area
Fall 2009

Ostrander 2009 Migrating Raptors

We call Ostrander Point a “migratory stopover”, but the birds don’t just stop. They feed, rest and move around, sometime for weeks, waiting for favourable winds. This diagram shows the movement of migrating fall raptors at Ostrander Point in 2009.

arrow colors Lime green arrows are based on 350 observations; 21% – 50% of the hawks were at blade sweep height. Dark green: 131 – 350 observations, with 50% of birds at blade height. Gray: 50 – 150 observations with 20% at blade height. If the turbines had been built when this survey was done, there could be as many as 380 dead raptors.

 

A project of Prince Edward County Field Naturalists

Endorsed by Nature Canada, Ontario Nature, Kingston Field Naturalists, Quinte Field Naturalists, the Audubon Society (New York State and United States) the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (United Kingdom) and  Ontario Road Ecology Group





SAVE OSTRANDER POINT

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