The “Get Outdoors” club—junior members of the Fort Frances Sportsmen’s Club—were very active this fall.
They built extra birdhouses for bluebirds, tree swallows, wrens, and woodducks.
These bird boxes will be used to replace—or add to—the 41 “lines” which have been placed throughout the district for the past 17 years.
Not only do they construct birdhouses, club members also monitor them, record occupancy, and then clean them out.
This has been a successful program. Hundreds of nestlings have been fledged.
Another conservation effort has been constructing beaver bafflers to lower water, which had been flooding land owners’ gardens, hayfields, or pastures, while leaving enough habitat for aquatic animals which live there.
Meanwhile, attempting to combat purple loosestrife has required much time and effort.
Club members have monitored the effects that galerucella beetles had on these invasive plants, which tend to crowd out native plants.
It was found the beetles did, over a period of several years, destroy most of the loosestrife in the study area, but did not eliminate it!
To try to slow down the spread of this weed, they dug the plants out of several ditches in La Vallee Township.
Although conservation is the main objective of the “Get Outdoors” club, members also participated in several outdoor activities. On hikes they learned some bush survival techniques, studied some plants, and found out how to estimate tree populations.
How to handle and shoot bows and firearms safely was an important aspect of the club’s program they enjoyed.
The kids are looking forward to new challenges this winter.
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