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Orono Weekly Times, Wednesday, December ?, 1988-11 The Federation of Ontario Naturalists FON Conservation Centre, Moatjiéld Park • . 355 Les/nill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, M3B 2W8 Phone: (4*6) 444-8419 'N Live and Let Live How many Golden Eagles have you seen? How many Canada Geese? I've seen a Golden Eagle once in my life. Last winter from a ridge in Petroglphs Provincial Park I watched an immature Golden Eagle soaring on great wings over the plain below. I expect it may be some time before I see another. The Atlas of Breeding Birds of Ontario notes that the species is a rare breeding bird in Ontario. Canada geese, on the other hand, graze all winter in the golf course near my home. Although there was a time when the Canada Goose population was so greatly reduced as to cause concern about their future, stricter hunting controls and réintroduction programs have raised raised numbers dramatically in the Mississippi flyway from 49,000 birds in 1950 to 1,127,500 birds in 1985 and the numbers continue to rise. The Mississippi fly way is the migration path of Canada Geese from the Great Lakes region. Both these species are protected under the Game and Fish Act. However,■'because there are so few of them in Ontario, the Golden Eagle has been given special protection protection under the Endangered Species Act which states that "No person shall wilfully kill, injure, interfere with" any species of flora or fauna protected under the Act. The Canada Goose, on the other hand, being no longer in danger of extirpation, receives no special protection protection outside the Game and Fish Act except in one place, the Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary. In 1936 the provincial government passed an act incorporating the Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary Sanctuary which gave Jack and his descendants leave to "shelter, feed, care for, protect and defend all migratory wild water fowl and all migratory insectivorous and song birds..." While we certainly owe Jack Miner a debt for giving impetus^ to the conservation movement in its early days, his idea of conservation was limited. Although we all have favourite creatures, most people would hesitate ' to divide God's creatures into "good guys" and. "bad guys." Jack Miner didn't hesitate. He made it plain that his conservation ethic did not include birds of prey, except to destroy them. To this end he shot them, trapped them and pioneered the use of the pole trap. In a pole trap a leghold trap is secured to the top of the pole by a chain. When a bird caught by the leg tries to escape it is pulled back to dangle at the end of the chain. Such traps do not discriminate. Small perching birds like Bluejays and Red-winged Blackbirds are frequent victims. Pole traps .are considered so inhumane and unselective in their target that the Ontario Trappers Trappers Association has worked to get a regulation under the Game and Fish Act making them illegal. This dark side of the Miner conservation conservation philosophy is not widely known. Jack Miner's descendants have adhered to this philosophy taking up his ruthless war against predators and continuing to use pole traps which are technically illegal, illegal, although no charges have ever been lajd. In the spring of 1988, an FON observer discovered that the perimeter of the Jack Miner Sanctuary Sanctuary was ringed with leghold traps, many of which had dead occupants, including a dog; several cats and skunks. Within the ground, pole traps were set near the ponds. Not a pretty picture of a "sanctuary." School Board to check drinking water However, the trapping incident which recently brought the sanctuary sanctuary into the limelight involved the trapping of a Golden Eagle in a muskrat trap at the Miner Sanctuary. Sanctuary. The Miners complained that the eagle had been hanging about spoiling the "airshow". This is a performance engineered by Jasper Miner in which he drives his red all- terrain vehicle near the geese, flushing them into flight. The eagle a predator, was doing what comes naturally, looking for an easy meal. As long as he was there the geese refused to perform, evidently thinking-discretion thinking-discretion the better part of valour. Therefore, the eagle was trapped and put in a cage. Eventually the Miner's were charged under the Endangered Species Act and the bird released. At the trail the Miners used as their defense the 1936 Jack Miner giving them the right to "protect and defend" defend" migratory water fowl, and were found not guilty. If this decision decision is allowed to stand it means that there is a special law for the Miner's which permits them to "manage" , the sanctuary without regard for the realities of species population. If this decision is allowed allowed to stand, it will send a message to the general public that conservation of one species at the expense of other species is endorsed by the Ontario Ontario Government. Ironically the species which has been the principle reason of. the Sanctuary, the Canada Goose, is now so numerous it is considered a nuisance by many southern Ontario municipalities, while the bird Jasper trapped, which few people in Ontario Ontario have ever seen, could have been turned into the sanctuary's star attraction. This treatment of the eagle would have meant the Miners really understood the word conservation. by Marion Strebig , Cat Story This is our cat's first anniversary. That is to say she has been with us for one year. When she arrived, she was a small, squirming, mewing bundle. Used to the company of a large extended family of barn cats, she clung in her new surroundings to the security of a piece of old blanket which was spread on a well- cushioned chair in the library. In those days her voice was so thin and reedy, it sounded like the elusive cricket that sings somewhere inside the house every fall. So she was called Cricket. Like many of us stuck with pet names which ill suit us in our grown state, her voice jias , matured with use so that Police Siren would be a more appropriate name. Her demanding mew is pitched pitched just above ihe comfort level and is impossible to ignore; her purr is thunderous. She is a rather pretty short-haired grey tabby, with dapples of fawn and cream. She has frown-marl^s on her face, and her eyes are rimmed with cream. However, it wasn't for her beauty, but for .her mother's and grandmothers prowess as mousers that we got her. The headquarters headquarters of the Federation of Ontario Ontario Naturalists is an old house to which mice seem to find ready access. access. Ever since our old cat, a great long-haired black and white tough, had gone "walkabout" the previous summer and failed to return, the mice had been unsupervised unsupervised and uncontrolled. All last wjnter as Cricket grew and- ate, and grew and ate, we kept waiting for her to show some sign that she was getting ready to put the School Water The Northumberland and Newcastle Board of Education today today began notifying all principals in its schools of new guidelines received received from the Ministry of Education concerning the recent CBC reports on lead levels in some school water. The guidelines will go into effect mice in their place. Some had become so bold that they ventured a dash in broad daylight across the kitchen floor. At night Cricket is left in charge of the house. However, we had all but given up hope that boredom, or self-esteem would drive her to do her duty. But one morning last spring spring we arrived to havoc. Wastebaskets had been overturned, piles of papers scattered and cups flipped tipsily on their sides. The cause of the mayhem was calmly grooming herself, one paw raised daintily, pink tongue flicking over her chest. Near her lay the remains of a mouse. Evidently sometime during that wild chase she had discovered the instinct to kill. With the coming of the warm weather, Cricket lived more and more out-of-doors. But aside from the house mice, she displayed a rather goofy belief in her ability to win friends, One warm even ing just at dusk I emerged from the back door in time to see Cricket running towards the corner of the small cabin which sits almost oh the edge of the ravine. A large shambling shape detached itself from the dark outline of the cabin. Cricket had stopped a foot away from a very large raccoon. They exchanged sniffs and then the raccoon ambled away. I believe she had intended to make friendly overtures. What might have happened had my presence not made the raccoon discrete we will never know. Later in the summer I did find her playing with a very small and very frightened young chipmunk. 1 distracted her attention, but the chipmunk had very little sense of survival and I believe she eventually killed it. But on the whole she is a mild and lazy cat, content to' live and let live. As we have about half a dozen well attended bird this is just as well. Aside from the occasional rush at the mourning doves gleaning millet on the ground, which sends them whinnying whinnying into the air, she largely ignores the birds. Although she goes put daily to make her rounds, she appears oblivious of the flocks of chickadees which loaf about in the forsythia between trips to I he window window sunflower feeder, and ignores the' scolding of the cardin al. The pair of downy woodpeckers who come to the suet suspended in a mesh onion bag, pay no attention to her as she strolls by. Granted her gait is sedate because over the year she has grown somewhat portly. She has acquired, through our fault, the North American disease of overeating. Brought up in a house where many people were concerned about her immediate welfare, she saw being fed as a way of getting attention. She learned fo pitch her mew so that it required steely self-discipline to ignore it. In a sense food has become her certainty in an uncertain uncertain world. Just as she used, the blanket for security when, she first arrived, she how uses food. We» without meaning to, have turned Cricket into a glutton. Although she occasionally exerts herself to keep the house mice in order, she offers no threat to the rest of our visiting wildlife. feeders on Monday, December 5th. According According to the memorandum from the Board's adminstration, custodial staff at all schools will run all sources of drinking water for five minutes before the start of the school day. Manager of Plant Operations John Stecyk said, "Five minutes of flushing has proven to be fully satisfactory in reducing concentration below the 50 parts per billion guideline level." Principals are also being asked to advise community groups using schools on the weekends to follow the same procedures. The Ministry of Education announced announced that it plans to test all schools in the province beginning with elementary schools built within the last five years, then all elementary schools, to be followed by elementary and secondary schools containing lead piping, and finishing with testing of all secondary secondary schools. The tests will be conducted conducted by the Ministry'of the Environment. Environment. Deputy Minister of Education Bernard Shapiro wrote in his letter to provincial boards, "I want to assure you that the province's Chief Medical Officer of Health has advised advised us that the levels of lead found in school drinking water are not health-threatening." New Chairperson Elected For the first time in its twenty year history, trustees with the Northumberland Northumberland and Newcastle Board of Education elected a chairperson from the south eastern area of the Board's jurisdiction, Diana Stewart, a former music consultant, and a trustee with the Board since 1985 who represents the Brighton area, began her duties at last night's inaugural Board meeting. In her acceptance speech, Stewart said she considers the overriding concerns the Board will face in the next few years are the funding of education, and student accommodation accommodation as the Board witnesses increasing increasing enrolments, declining pro- • vincial funding, and the need for new buildings and the renovation and repair of older ones. "At the same time," she said, "we must bear in mind the increasing demands on the local taxpayer." Other challenges Stewart outlines included the implementation of the provincial pay equity program and a new provincial law concerning the provision of day care spaces in new school buildings. In her concluding remarks,. Stewart, a resident of the Codr- ington area, said, "I ask too, that we never forget the most important part of the educational system, the individual in the classroom. Our responsibility is to educate these students so they can compete on an (Continued page 12) Affordable Dream Vacations. • Free Vacation Planning Services • Discount Cruises ® Airline Tickets ' Charter Vacations Honeymoon Packages Hotel and Car Reservations PERSONAL & CORPORATE TRAVEL SERVICES Travel Agents International We're with you all the way ' 68 KING ST. E., BOWMANVILLE Over 300 Agencies'in North America . 623-6600 CLOSURE of NEWCASTLE TRANSFER STATION The Newcastle Transfer Station (fçrmerly the Darlington Darlington Landfill Site) located north of Regional Road No. 20, will be closed permanently on December 31, 1988. Household refuse for disposal can be taken to the Cartwright Transfer Station. The hours of operation for this Transfer Station are: ' , Monday - 8:30 a'.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday - 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (May 1 - Qct. 31 8:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.) Wednesday - Closed Thursday - 8:30 a.m. to 4:30' p.m. Friday - 8:30 a.m. tg 4:30 p.m. Saturday - 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Cartwright Transfer Station is t located on the south side of GartWright Concession Road No. 4, east of Regional Road No. 57. t W.A. TWELVETREES; P.ENG. • , COMMISSIONER OF WORKS Dates of Publication: December 1988 December 14, 1988 ' January 4, 1989 '