Canadian Tree Tours

Only in Toronto -Coming to Timmins?

I think we have had our tour longer, first tree in the tour added in 2008.

We do not have a specific trail, but we do have a fancy map. The Timmins tour is more based on large trees in the Timmins Area.

Visit the Timmins Honour Roll of Trees. click here

Or go straight to the map. click here

Oxygen Grows On Trees

Art of Fire - Forest Fire Leaves Art

ART

in the eye of the beholder

Walking in the smoke all day, may make my photographic eye a bit foggy.

No, blame the camera, it just could not catch the interesting forms left after the fire moved through the area.

I also did not have time to stand around thinking about the shape, the background, the lighting.

Branch of the birch tree burned well into the truck of the tree.

This stump in the cutover was hollowed out, leaving the burned roots exposed.

This white pine seems to be well protected by the thick bark. This may be the white pines first fire, and it may not be the last one it sees. 

Usually the white cedar swamps do not burn. This fire the wind was high, the temperature was high and the relative humidity was low.  This swamp burned in the trees and the ground remained untouched in some places.

Looks like the fire burned fast over the ground. Some areas were missed and  it did not burn very deep.   Ferns continue grow, some even had the tips burn off and then just re-shoot.

This location was burned maybe a week before  I took this picture.  The little yellow needles on the ground are the dried needles off the tamarack.  When you walk the needles continuous fall.

 Fire a natural part of the forest ecosystem.

Trees and Water near Timmins today.

Tree Top

Water Rocks

Beaver Snacks

Today at work, which may look like play, but I am beat at the of the day!

Today marking boundary line and checking reserves.

A poplar top is very compact.

Looks great against the blue ski.

Water on rocks, with a map of where.

Looking up stream, the cedar are thick.

The beaver are hungry, they're eating birch.

Spring has the birch water over-flowing

nice day

oh turkey vulture flew overhead

and so did a red tailed hawk

Successful Winter Hiking Day

Winter Hiking Day in Timmins

A great Success!

A long hike and a shorter hike was the option. 

Hot chocolate and juice was available to all after the hike. 

Some got to go home with the checklist of the birds poster and 

others left with the Timmins Honour Roll of Trees flash card 

or the Observations Naturally flash card. 

These are still available at the Wintergreen Fund for Conservation office.

The Daily Press was there to record the event.

You can read the story online at

The Daily Press

Richard Moore was also on hand 

to provide excellent and knowledgeable information 

about birds seen at the feeders and on the rest of the hike. 

Richard can identify well over 150 birds by sound! 

Fresh Air

New Friends

Buzz about the birds

The pines really spruce up the forest

Little critters under the snow, tracks in the snow too.

First Flower on the Floor of the Forest

First Bloom in the Boreal

Finally, a colour other than white snow and green trees, now the subtle pink and purple of a flower. The first flower I have seen this season in the forest.

I took a picture, as you can see, but it is not great. The camera I use, Sony DSC-W350, is not the greatest camera I have ever used, but it is the smallest camera that can come with me everywhere. It is in my pocket in the rain, the snow, the 40 below.

The camera will fit in a plastic peanut butter jar. When we go kayaking the camera is in the jar, sealed and water proof. Need to take a picture? Let me just throw it at you. Soft landing in the water, you retrieve the camera and get a wonderful picture of me with the loon in the foreground.

Nice compact camera, but one day I would like to be able to afford a digital camera similar to the SLR I used to have.

This little flower, I am not sure what it is. My guess is Carolina Spring Beauty (Claytonia caroliniana), but if you have another suggest I am interested.

See more information at

eNature

Ontario Wildflowers

I'm looking Good!!

oxygen grows on trees Oxygen G.O.T.

Earth Day 2011 Planning Started

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Muddy Mark and Forester Moe 
Talking Earth Day 2011

It looks like again we will be doing our travelling road show for Earth Day.  At Millson Forestry Service - Earth Day is everyday!

CTV came to the greenhouse to get some film to make the 2011 commercial spots. The greenhouse is an excellent spot to film with tree seedlings as a background. The green house has some seedlings, but it is mostly full of tiny sprouting tree seedlings.

We will be in Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Sudbury and Timmins giving away free tree seedlings. Last year we gave away thousands of tree seedlings that increased the oxygen in Northern Ontario.  You can read more about last years events and see pictures in this blog.

You can see the Timmins Commercial go now or the Regional Commercial go now on youtube.

You can see last years PR and my other videos on my Youtube goforg channel

The 2 trees I have beside me came on the road with us last year. They will come with again. You can see behind me the greenhouse is just starting to turn green. Behind me are thousands of little tree seedlings just getting started.

Stay tuned for more information.

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Hiking Day in Timmins

What a great day.

Great turn out too!

Hiking Day at Hersey lake Conservation Area.

The trails offer smooth walking trails and signs to make sure you do not get lost. Distance at each sign means you can plan the distance you want to walk.

Great event, hope you can come out next year.

Porcupine in the Porcupine

Biggest Porcupine I Have Ever

Seen in the Porcupine

Roll'n just would not come when I called him. This only means one thing - he has found something he wants me to see.

I walked towards the occasional bark. He will not bark very much, so I stand and wait for him to come get me. I follow and away he goes. Had to wait again, since I lost him in the thick vegetation.

When I finally catch up to him, he is walking around a large poplar. Not far up the tree was a big porcupine. Roll'n was convinced I should be able to help with this creature up the tree.

He has encountered one porcupine before, the result was 4 quills in the face. Not bad, I have seen worse!

The forest is home to so many wonderful creatures, Roll'n will have to learn to leave some of them alone.

This porcupine was west of Timmins map

Ontario Honour Roll of Trees

Ontario Honour Roll of Trees - Updated!

For the longest time the Ontario Honour Role of trees has been a broken link. The Ontario Forestry Association has updated their site and the honour roll is once again front and center.

Take a look at the Ontario Honour Roll.

Take a look at the Timmins Honour Roll.

The Timmins Honour Roll needs your help to be completed. If you can fill in a blank with a big tree please let me know. Maybe we even have the biggest in Ontario!!

Spring is just around the corner

Spring is just around the corner.

I am thinking about all the new life I am going to be seeing very soon. Also thinking of visiting some old friends too, namely the biggest White Pine in the area.

We have some trees on the Timmins Homour Roll of Trees, but we still need you to find us find some giants of other species.

We have

Eastern White Cedar

Eastern White Pine

Red Pine

Jack Pine

Tamarack

White Spruce

Black Ash

Aspen

Yellow Birch

We need examples of

Black Spruce

Balsam Fir

Red Maple

Balsam Poplar

White Birch

A very big Burr Oak was pointed out to me this winter during the Christmas Bird Count. I will get the diameter this spring. A big blue spruce was also pointed out to me on the front lawn of a house.

I will get a picture with the owner of the tree this spring and post it here.

keep on the look out for honour trees, and let me know when you find one!

Timmins Honour Roll of Trees

Timmins Naturalists

Beaver Busy Before Winter

Beaver love aspen trees, more commonly called a poplar. Bark, buds and branches of the aspen tree are favorite.

This very large aspen tree is showing the strength of wood. The top of the tree is very branchy and heavy, yet less then a third of the truck is left.

When the beaver returns it will have to be very careful to move away as the tree falls. It is going to fall right on to a road as another one had done maybe a week before.

Hinterlands Who's Who The beaver

Adopt-A-Pond The beaver

Borealforest.org The Aspen tree

Timmins Honour Roll of Trees Largest Aspen Tree

Bird and Bud

Today I watched a bird and I saw some buds. You just got'a love spring.

I have been watching the growth of a honey suckle for about 07 years now. I noticed it growing in a white spruce plantation that had plenty of poplar competition when I was in the block doing some tending.

I have tried to start cuttings from it, but have not been successful.  How do I regenerate the honeysuckle? If you know - tell me.

The poplar are not yet bursting their buds, but the honeysuckle already have leaves starting to show.  I just love the way the honeysuckle wrap around the poplar, twisting around itself and the poplar stem and branches.

Humming birds enjoy the sweet nectar the flowers produce.

The white spruce are doing very well. 

On the way out of the bush I watched a bird fly across the road. It was a woodpecker, but not one of the small ones. I watched the bird for awhile and figured it must be a black backed woodpecker.

It is a little bigger then the downy and the hairy woodpeckers, with a very black back. The woodpecker was not alone because like Canada Geese  they mate for life. The pair moved around the forest with ease landing on trees that would provide some food.

I took the picture of the woodpecker with my camera-binoculars.  Too bad the picture does not turn out as good as what I see through the binoculars.

Forest Research Partnership in Timmins

The Forest Research Partnership has a project here in Timmins, just 24km down Pine street south.

Highlights for me include the discovery of 400 year old white cedar and bird study part of the project.

The block also has the biggest white pine in the area. (see the Honour Roll of Timmins Trees)

Three different orchids - I will have to follow up on what those three are when I am in the same place as my notes.

A wonderful yellow birch stand was discovered in the block and management techniques were used to continue the health of the stand. This is the only yellow birch managed stand in the north, since yellow birch is at the northern edge of their range.

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The project team is working to merge high-tech inventory with leading-edge forest modeling and silvicultural science with operational practice, to set the standard for the credible implementation of enhanced forest productivity. Specifically, integrated harvest-to-harvest sequences of best practices are being implemented that include components such as:

1. State of the art spatial modeling to aid in prime site selection.

2. Enhanced forest inventory to optimize operational planning, including block and road engineering.

3. Careful, high-utilization logging

4. Thorough mechanical and/or chemical site preparation

5. Timely planting or high quality stock, including the best genetics available and species matched to microsite.

6. Timely and effective vegetation management.

7. Density regulation defined by long-term crop plans.

Within each of these components, new knowledge and tools are being fully implemented to operationally test and validate their integrity.

See the newest report and past reports.

Biofuel created by a wood hog near Timmins Ontario

See the video Mulcher Wood Hog Timmins Ontario. You can take a look at how the slash left over from a harvest operation is turned into a fuel that will be burned to create electricity.

This harvest operation is what we call mechanical. Fellerbuncher fells the trees, then a grapple skidder pulls the bunches of trees roadside. Once roadside the tree is either processed or delimbed, sometimes both.

What is left behind from that process is the tops, branches and leaves. It is this biomass that is placed in the mulcher to create a material that can be fed into power plants.

The Centre for Energy is just one of the very many Canadian site on the topic, but it has a very good general overview of the bio energy sector.

The material from this block is destine for facilities operated by Northland Power. One facility is the Kirkland Lake Generating Station, the other facility is the Cochrane Generating Station.

muddy mark webpage

New Addition to Timmins Honour Role of Trees

Don Buck from OMNR has found the biggest Aspen and Tamarack trees. They have been added to the Honour Roll. These trees are the first of each species to be added, but Don and I agree the record will not stand for long.
I am sure this summer a bigger Aspen will be found.
Just a note about Poplar and Aspen. Typically, in this area, Aspen (specifically Trembling Aspen) is called Poplar, while Balsam poplar is also called Poplar (sometimes called black poplar or just Bam).

Timmins Honour Role of Trees