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Showing posts from March, 2014

Salamander Safety!

http://www.insidehalton.com/news-story/4430337-city-closing-king-road-for-salamanders-starting-march-27/ King Road will close from the base of the Niagara Escarpment to Mountain Brow Road from March 27-April 17 to allow the endangered Jefferson salamander safe passage during its annual migration to lay eggs. Beginning in 2012, the City of Burlington has closed the same section of road completely for a three-week period. “The closure is a significant conservation measure because the annual migration puts salamanders at risk,” said Bruce Zvaniga, the city’s director of transportation services, in a press release. “There is good evidence that the effort has allowed the Jefferson salamanders to travel safely across King Road, helping preserve a unique part of Burlington’s biodiversity.” The Jefferson salamander is a protected species and is nationally and provincially endangered. In Canada, the Jefferson salamander is found in Southern Ontario in select areas of deciduous forest, mostly al

beaver at canal

Hamilton has easy access to nature minutes from downtown (or even the "dark satanic mills" where of course an environmental nightmare of coal sludge remains at the bottom of the Bay) - here is a beaver lodge (and beaver) at the canal between the Hamilton Harbour and Cootes Paradise marsh, right alongside the multi-use trail. More nature please.

Cold Spring Creek gets moved west

Not sure about the resolution on these scans, but if you look closely you can see the former creek bed east (to the right) of the re-aligned Cold Spring Creek (Ancaster Creek), in preparation for McMaster paving the former Coldspring Valley Nature Sanctuary for parking lots. The survey is from 1963, the year McMaster managed to buy the valued property from the reluctant Royal Botanical Gardens.