Archie Chenier
leads Timmins hikers to Archies' Rock
Len put up some great pictures too.
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Showing posts with label jack pine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jack pine. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Sunday, September 9, 2012
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
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Day after Early Earth Day 2012
Green House turns green
early in the new year.
CTV Jill Colton (@CTVJillColton ) and Mark check out the greenhouse before they leave for Sudbury after spending yesterday at Timmins Honda for Early Earth Day.
It is early April and already the green house is full of green conifer seedlings.
I just love coming in here when it is -30C outside and it is +25C inside. To watch the benches turn to green in a matter of days is just incredible!
Yes Jill, there are millions of tree seedlings here - and every one has a home!
These trees are the forests of tomorrow.
Most of the millions of trees do have a home, but some are still looking. If you want to buy a tree seedling, forestry size (small) or home owner size ( 6" pots) contact Millson Forestry Service and they can let you know what is available.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
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
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.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Wood Burning, Renewable Energy Source!
Warms the cool damp basement
Wood Warms Twice
at least
Pick up the wood, carry it to the truck - makes me warm
Carry the wood from the truck to the cut and split pile - makes me warm
Cut and split the wood and carry to the wood shed - makes me warm
Carry the wood from the wood shed to the basement - makes me warm
Finally, having a fire makes me and the whole family warm
Wood is a renewable resource, so is a great substitute for natural gas and electricity.
I burn white birch and dry jackpine.
Great BTU (heat) from both.
I am lucky to work in the forest around Timmins, Ontario for Millson Forestry Service.
The best deal on Cut and Split dry white birch wood is Millson's
What is great is you can buy a box full, pickup load or dump truck full.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Ecole Secondaire Theriault Class come to Learn
Future Environmentalist
Learn the IMPORTANCE of our Forest Resources
The grade 12 class from Ecole Secondaire Theriault came for a tour at the greenhouse complex to learn what we do at Millson Forestry Service.
École Secondaire Theriault
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Nature Deficit Disorder - have you been touched?
Are you Suffering?
Have you hugged a tree this week?
While driving into the forest the other day a story on CBC radio suggested we suffer from nature deficit disorder. We are are doing well as a species being taken out of the forests. They cited a study that proved young people did better if they were exposed to pine trees. I was driving past a Jack pine plantation with the window open at the time. Lucky me.
We are losing touch with nature, but more important we are losing contact. The smells and fell of the forest is important to human growth. The smell from the pines triggers something in our brains that just makes us more in-touch with our surroundings.
You need to plant a tree close to you, one every year. Why not plant a bonsai, then you can have a tree in your living space year-round. It is not hard. You can order a tree from Millson Forestry Service store in Timmins.
Nature Deficit Disorder links
Nature Canada - blog entry from 2008 describing the disorder
Best Health - What is nature deficit disorder?
PhD in Parenting - Cures for Nature Deficit Disorder? Help for our Planet?
Canadian Living - Quiz: Is your family suffering from nature deficit disorder?
Human Well Being and the Natural World - Just some facts
Canadian Institute of Forestry - Summer Outdoor Camps: The best remedy for nature deficit disorder
Child and Nature Alliance - Get outside!!
Evergreen.ca - they need contact with nature
Psychology Today - Exploring the natural world's psychological effects on human beings.
Education.com - The Critical Role of Environmental Education for your Child’s Future
An Interview with Robert Bateman - increasingly popular term among educators
Frogs are Green - definitely what the doctor ordered.
Oxygen Grows On Trees
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Osprey Nest North West of Timmins
Big sticks and tree top is typical of an
I went to visit this nest this week. It is not being used just yet, but spring is not too far away, I hope. I will have to watch this nest over the next month to see if a bird appears.
This is an Osprey nest, looks different then the nest I saw a couple of weeks ago - the black bear nest.
read more about the black bear nest
The tree this bird has chosen is an old jackpine tree. When I walked to the base of the tree I could tell the tree was very dead, and was surprised the tree is standing so strong. I wonder how much longer the tree will stand. The plantation this tree is standing in looks to be 10 to 12 years old.
LINKS
Live nest cam waiting for the return of a pair of Osprey
When I see the bird return I will let you know, maybe I will get to use my video camera???
.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
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!!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
The Making of Muddy Mark
Mark walks in the forest most days. On one such walk a school group tagged along to learn more about the forest. Mark wears big high rubber boots and enjoys walking through the mud.
The kids would call "wait up Muddy Mark".
When the group returned to safe dry roadside they had seen seedlings, rocks, orchids, birds, squirrels, burls and mud.
A typical little boy who loved to ware his rubber boots as much as possible, camping was the norm for Muddy most summers. This sparked his interest of the forest.
At 10 he joined the Boy Scouts to expand his exposure and knowledge of the forest.
He helped his father fix cages and feed birds at the Roy Ivor Bird Sanctuary and this triggered his love of birds.
Muddy’s family was recycling before the term curbside was ever invented and he participated in the inaugural Pollution Probe litter pick as well as many more that would follow.
His first job was at The Camp of the Woodland Trails as a park warden. The next three summers he spent learning and educating campers. He developed a skill for photography and has had a camera close at hand ever since.
He spent three more summers at Sheridan Tree Nursery, doing everything from trimming, transplanting, digging and transporting seedlings.
He saw some of Canada with Katimavik. He got a much closer look at more of Canada when he hitch-hiked the scenic route from Vancouver British Columbia to Fortune Newfoundland via Dawson City, Yukon and Tok, Alaska.
Eventually he went to school in Sault Ste. Marie and studied forestry.
The Ministry of Natural Resources in Timmins saw his potential while he worked for them as a student. When he was finished school he was hired on to work with the Science and Technical Unit, the Fire Unit, the District office and Ontario Parks.
He bought a house, married a gal who would put up with him and started a family.
He enjoys his free time to be able to put more time into his community endeavors. These included the Timmins Naturalists, the Wintergreen Fund for Conservation, participating in a Local Citizens Committee and the Porcupine Watchful Eye, creating the Timmins Honour Roll of Trees, coaching for the Timmins Soccer Association, Timmins Select Basketball and the Timmins Minor Hockey League, he was a board member for the Timmins Public Library, lead the tree plants for local Scouts Canada and was chairman for the Public Liaison Committee for the Waste Management plan.
He left the MNR and did a two year stint with a mining company in their environmental program and photographed and documented species as he went about his work.
When gold lost it’s shine he went looking for a new employer so he could continue to support his growing family.
His wife told him to get a job and that’s when he met with Sue and Dave Millson to discuss possible employment options. They had worked together on tree plant projects when Muddy Mark was with the MNR. Muddy has been with Millson Forestry Service now for over 10 years.
At Millson Forestry Service it is Earth Day everyday. Muddy has been involved with many different aspects of trees. Seeding the next generation of forests in containers. Growing by watering, weeding and watching the seedlings. Site preparation to prepare a site for tree planting. Tree planting as part of the regeneration of crown forests and the reclamation of mining properties. Forest tending to ensure the health and vitality of the new forest. Road building, harvesting and product transportation completes the forest management cycle.
Muddy enjoys talking to private land owners that want to ensure the best use of their forested land. He is involved with mining companies that want to add trees as part of their progressive reclamation efforts.
He takes pictures, he gets dirty, he loves to walk in the forest with his best dog pal, Roll’n. He always loves to talk about trees!
He likes to GPS his finds and take digital pictures to share on his blog, Oxygen Grows On Trees . Oh and he does get work done too!
What do you remember? Leave a comment.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
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!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Timmins Hiking Day
A great success!!
It was a fantastic day, the weather was warm, the people a delight! A very good turnout.
There was all ages and some great discussions about trees. Everyone likes trees. It was strange that we did not even see one bird. We were a little loud walking on the trails, but little birds usually do not mind. Wonder what they were doing.
Our GPS friend left us with this information:
Total distance 3.74km
Total moving time 54 minutes
Total stopped time 19 minutes
Moving average speed 4.2 km/h
For those of you missed Ontario Hiking Day - start planning for next year.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
New addition to the Timmins Honour Roll of Trees
Jack Pine
and
Red Pine
Added to the Timmins Honour Roll of Trees. I have been promised pictures will follow.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Learning about Trees
It is wonderful to see so many people come out to learn about trees.
I spent the weekend at Kettle Lake Provincial Park and had the opportunity to invite campers on a hike to talk about trees and birds in the park. We did not see many birds, but we did stop and look at a large ant hill that had been disturbed by a bear.
Picture 1 : poster showing the areas planted and areas burned.
Picture 2 : I walk and talk with the group
Picture 3 : We had a little guy keep us on track with a GPS unit. Total walk 2.25km
Scotch Pine Provenance Test
I think this is the oldest trial ever installed in the Timmins District. The test is also just another wonderful story about trees in the park. Where is it - map
Much of Kettle Lakes Provincial Park was planted after being harvested and burned. A very unique method of tree planting was used for a large area - machine planting. A machine is pulled behind a tractor, a furrow is created, the tree is placed in the furrow while it is filled back in - the tree is planted!
One of the early tree planting efforts in the park was a scotch pine provenance test. A provenance test compares trees from different locations. In this case trees seedlings, or maybe the seeds and seedlings grown here, came from many different location in Europe.
The scotch pine, also known as scots pine, is doing just fine in the park. The trees are a little deformed, but are becoming spread thoughout the park. This makes me wonder - when a tree species that is not native begins to spread in a provincial park - when does it become an invasive species?
Everything you always waanted to know about scotch pine is here
I have been taking visitors to see the scotch pine for many years. I have had visitors from Finland and Sweden that have been very interested in seeing trees that came from their country.
Represented are: Cevennes, Auvergne, Adirondack, W. Europe, Finland, Sweden, L. Austria, E. Baltic, Haute Loire, S. Finland, and W. Baltic.
I am not sure where some of these places are, well except for Finland, I got that one.
Picture 1: A scotch pine
Picture 2: corner marker, made to last
Picture 3: corner marker, made to last
Kettle Lakes - Trees for Canada
The Boy Scouts of Canada had a program called Trees for Canada, that changed maybe 10 years ago to a program called Scoutrees.
The very first Trees for Canada in the Timmins area was planted inside Kettle Lakes Provincial Park. The records indicate that a total of 11000 white spruce and jack pine were planted near Irrigation Lake.
The white spruce have been growing slower then the jack pine, which is common. White spruce can handle the shade created by taller trees. When the taller trees die out and allow more sunlight to reach the ground the white spruce will take off.
It is just another wonderful story about trees in the park.
I was not around Timmins in 1980, but I was involved in every plant from 1986 to 2003. I do not know if the Scouts have planted since then. The first plant I attended in 1986 was just south of the Deloro landfill. The container type was 408 paper pot. The container was made of paper and pulled apart from the other tree seedlings. Many trees were planted a little too high and left a little bit of paper showing. Crows from the landfill came over and pulled out hundreds of the trees.
It looked like someone had come the day after the plant and just pulled out every tree. Some were sitting up on stumps and some were even sitting in the trees. Those curious birds!
Picture : Line of planted white spruce trees, first Boy Scout Tree Plant in the Timmins District.
Taken : August 03, 2009
Location : map
Year Township Number and Species
1980 German (KLP) 11 000 White spruce and Jack pine
1981 Massey 10 000 Jack pine
1982 Carscallen 10 000 Jack pine
1983 Denton 8 525 White spruce
1984 Carscallen 5 000 Jack pine
1985 Murphy 5 000 Jack pine
1986 Murphy 5 000 Jack pine
1987 Deloro 5 000 Jack pine
1988 Deloro 5 000 Jack pine
1989 Evelyn 5 000 Jack pine
1990 Little 6 150 Jack pine
1991 Macklem 5 000 Jack pine
1992 Macklem 5 150 Jack pine
1993 Macklem 4 400 Jack pine
1994 Evelyn 2 500 Jack pine
1995 Evelyn 4 500 Jack pine
1996 German 3 500 Jack pine
**********100 725 seedling to date!***********
1997 German? 3000 jackpine
1998 German? 3000 jackpine
1999 German? 3000 jackpine
2000 German? 2500 jackpine
2001 Tisdale 2000 Jack pine
2002 Tisdale 2000 Jack pine
2003 Tisdale 1 600 White spruce and 100 White pine
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Is Potting Tree Planting
The last couple of days I have been working in the greenhouse potting tree seedlings. I like to think of it as tree planting! I am just planting them first, before some else will plant them.
I was planting black spruce and jack pine. In a little more then a month the seedling should be pot bound enough to be planted outside. One day one of these trees may end up on the Timmins Honour Role of Trees as the largest example in the area.
"Pot bound" is when the roots take up enough of the pot that it holds all the soil into a compact ball of roots. When you flip the pot over and remove the pot you can see healthy white root tips, the tree is ready for planting.
White pine were also potted recently, but I was not the one doing it. They look great. Who
ever buys these white pine will be buying the Provincial tree on Ontario. The Arboreal Emblemof Ontario.
Another activity going on in the greenhouse, while I was tree planting, is thinning. In the picture below Annie is thinning. When the seeding machine drops seed into the container sometimes more then one seed lands and germinates. It is important that every container only has one tree seedling. The doubles are removed while the seedlings are still tiny. It is easier to do it before the roots get tangled.
The seedling will grow and become root bound in the container, same as a potted plant only on a smaller scale. The seedling will be removed from the container, with soil encased in roots, to later be planted. In some cases the entire container will go to the field and the tree planter will remove the trees, pack them into their bags and plant them.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tree Plant on Tailings, Walking on Rock.
We met on the Carium road to visit the Coniaurum tailings rehabilitation area (map). While we were there we had a tree plant. We planted Jack pine, White spruce, Red pine and White pine.
In the picture we have Larry just finishing up planting a perfect tree - green side up! We also have Larry and Sylvie (Timmins Naturalists Members) plant with Laszlo adding a layer of mulch to help reduce grass competition around the tree. In total another 20 trees have been added to the rehabilitation effort this evening.
These tailing are covered with bio-waste from the Abitibi paper mill, then seeded to grasses, sedges and clovers and I guess what ever else blows in. There is wide variety of plant life greening the landscape.
A little fox is searching the tall grass for little critters to nibble on. No bears this evening. We also visit the site of soon to be bee hives. Last year the bee hives produced honey from the nectar found in the plants on the tailing. The honey turned out great, I am told. I have seen it but not tasted the sweet liquid.
The bears are kept at bay from the honey with the help of a solar powered electric fence. Poor bears.
We leave our little trees in their new home and head for the Simpson Lake trail (map). It is a trail in progress that will follow a path up waste rock to provide the traveler with a great vantage point.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Tree Planting Today
A perfect day for a tree plant. It was raining, but warm.The Delta Class from THVS set up a tour with Goldcorp to see some of the reclamation that has been going on. Part of the our included planting a tree. This was a great opportunity for me to finish the tour I had started at the greenhouse. We did not get to plant a tree during that visit. More on the greenhouse visit.
The rain stopped long enough for us to plant. Each student planted a tree. The area they were planting in had been tailings covered with a biosolid, a waste product produced at the Iroquois Falls paper mill. It grows grass great.
The seedling had some sawdust placed around the tree to help keep the weeds down while they establish.
The seedlings were also a bigger stock with good root growth filling the 6inch pot they have been growing in.
This summer Goldcorp expects to plant over 200 jack pine and white spruce seedlings with the help of those taking the tours arranged by the Chamber of Commerce.
You can buy your own local seed source trees now, or wait for the the Arbor Week special at Millson Forestry Service.
The best time to plant a tree was 50 years ago, the second best time is now! Get into the habit of planting a tree every year. If you do not have a place to plant your tree I am sure I can point you in the right direction where trees are needed.
Oh yes. One lad asked about the foot print in the mud. What had made the print. While we were all talking at a story board I could see far in the distance the animal that had made the mark coming closer. The class was distracted from the discussion while the large sandhill crane flew over the group.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Green in the Greenhouse
I just love it when the everything is green.
The smell of spring is strong, and the snow is still melting outside.
Mindy is taking care of her young charges. She has given each a name, jack pine 01, jack pine 02 . . . jack pine 231,348 . . . jack pine
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