Several years ago, the CBC Nature of Things documentary ran a program on Coywolves and just recently they have been spotted around Toronto. As a result, I thought it would be interesting to run this article from 2013 again.
Coywolves are a hybrid breed of wolf and coyote. The term Coywolf is the unofficial name for a breed of Eastern coyote that has bred with wolves. The hybrid coyote/wolf has longer legs, bigger paws, larger jaws and brains, and a more wolf-like tail, with wolf-like traits like pack-hunting and shows more aggression than the original coyotes.

It’s thought that the hybrid animals first appeared around 1919 in Algonquin Park. It was probably happening earlier than that but it was about this time that sightings were reported. Some scientists still doubt that the Coywolf is a new species but evidence compiled for the past 100 years suggests the much smaller western coyote migrated from the Midwestern United States to eastern forests and farms where the wolf population was being killed off by humans. The coyote followed a path that took it through the Windsor area and the southwestern Ontario corridor, then north to Algonquin Park.
According to the documentary, Algonquin’s vast expanse of protected forest offered the animal a safe haven and a bountiful food source. It was there that wolves began to breed with coyotes, probably because available mates within the wolf population were in decline. Perhaps one third of the animals in Algonquin Park are now hybrids.

Coywolves have rapidly evolved and appear to have adapted to city life in a similar way that racoons have taken to big cities like Toronto. It used to be that only campers could hear the eerie howling and yipping of coyotes. Now, since the numbers of Coywolves have increased, you’re just as apt to hear them in and around cities. Their high intelligence has enabled them to survive, whether in natural surroundings or urban centres. They are so elusive that they seem to blend into parks, ravines and other green spaces in cities unnoticed for the most part. They can roam for miles at night routing through garbage and catching small animals such as squirrels, rabbits, woodchucks and cats or anything else that would make a quick meal.

There have been many sightings of coyotes in Toronto recently and people have been warned to keep their pets inside, especially at night. Last month, Toronto Police did shoot what is believed to be a Coywolf. The police had no way of knowing that the Coywolf they’d shot was a new father protecting his young. The animal and his mate had recently become parents which is likely why they appeared to be more aggressive.

While it may be unnerving to encounter a coyote in a park at night, there have actually been only two reports of fatal coyote attacks in North America in the past 500 years. The CBC documentary was filmed partly in the Cape Breton highlands where a fatal attack on a young Toronto woman took place a few years ago.

A hundred years ago, the odds were stacked against eastern wolves with deforestation and control programs, not to mention increasing urban development. Coyotes, however, were able to increase their numbers. This is when the two animals began to interbreed. Depending on their habitat and the availability of food, coyotes can adjust the number of young born. Young Coywolves strike out on their own much sooner than wolves or coyotes, leaving the den by the time they are two.

For more information on wolves and coyotes, in general, you can check out Steve Blight’s in-depth two-part article in the December 2008 online version of the Frontenac News.

We need to change the way we’re living — we need to sustain,” said St. Lawrence College’s Steve Lapp at the Power in the Climate Era workshop last Saturday at Wintergreen Studios on Canoe Lake Road. “Mother Nature will only sustain us to a certain extent.” After 20 years experience in fuel cells, renewable energy systems and supporting renewable energy options for rural communities in Lesotho and India, Lapp began teaching in 2005 with the newly created Energy Systems Engineering Technology (ESET) program at St. Lawrence’s Kingston campus.

Lapp said the ESET program is essentially about better building efficiency. “It’s one thing to say you want low-carbon buildings, but how do you do that?” he said. “The College saw the need for grads who understand green technology.” To that end, his program supplies graduates to places like Utilities Kingston, school boards and companies to manage retrofits of all kinds, even to the point of new thermostats and light bulbs. “Some of our grads go to solar farms as technicians,” he said. “It’s a great field to get into.” He said the professional life goal of his graduates is essentially to reduce carbon footprints, be that by solar power, more efficient heat pumps, heat exchangers, any and all methods available. “The province has a (carbon) reduction goal of 80 per cent by 2050,” he said. “The only way to achieve that right now is to be more efficient.” And, he said, there is a new job market for those who become proficient in such things. “Our guys aren’t installers, they’re analysts and designers,” he said. “They’re not licensed plumbers and electricians.” But he’s aware that large corporations are taking notice of what they do.

“Almost every big company can reduce its energy costs by 1 per cent,” he said. “And they only have to reduce it by 1 per cent to justify the salary they pay to our grads.” He said right now the cost of putting in a solar system is about the same as buying energy from the grid, but improvements are being made all the time and they’re keeping up with all innovations. But there’s another aspect of the program Lapp is very aware of and keen to promote. “About a third of our students come right out of high school but there’s another third, in their 20s and 30s that are coming back to school,” he said. “Maybe they’ve gone through an apprentice program or the military and experienced an injury.

“But one thing many of our students have in common is that they’re generally very social conscious,” he said. “That’s part of why they’re attracted to a program like this in the first place. 

MALLA  (Malcolm and Ardoch Lakes Landowners Association) started up a Walleye spawning bed enhancement project on the two lakes back in 2008. Enhancements took place on Malcolm Lake between 2008 and 2010 but then the program was suspended. The Junior Rangers, who had helped with the physically demanding work of loading and unloading tons of washed river stone, were no longer available after the Junior Range program was cancelled, and project funding also became harder to find. Dan Weber, who chairs the fisheries committee at MALLA, wondered if plans to enhance two spawning beds on Ardoch Lake would ever come to fruition. Then, early this year things began to fall into place. The Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) had money available.

While MALLA does not have the legal status to accept federal grants, Watersheds Canada, a Perth-based Not For Profit that is active on the Mississippi and Rideau River Watersheds, offered to administer the grant as it did for 8 other projects. They worked with the DFO and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to get the project underway. Also, and a new Junior Rangers group, based out of Minden, was available to help out, and with the help of local volunteers the project was ready to roll in mid August.

Over two days (August 15 and 16) thirty five tons of River rock were loaded onto milk crates, brought over to specially selected shoals on Ardock Lake, and unloaded in place. 18 volunteers, including MALLA members, 4 Junior Rangers, Barbara King (Executive Director) and Melissa Dakers (Lake Stewardship Co-ordinator) from Watersheds Canada, and Pat Nobbs and Lauder Smith from Conservationists of Frontenac Addington, put their muscle power to work on the first day. 19 volunteers, including many from the first day and 9 Junior Rangers, worked on day 2 to get all the rock in place. Dan Weber said that MALLA has also been involved, since 2008, in monitoring the success of the shoal enhancement program. In the early spring, as soon as the ice goes out, they check the spawning beds to see if Walleye are spawning, and they do netting in the summer to evaluate the population as well. Now that two locations have been enhanced on Ardoch, Weber thinks Ardoch and Malcolm are done with bed enhancement.

“There are a lot of other lakes that can benefit from this,” he said “we’ve had our turn.” MALLA will continue to study the lake over time to see if the fish are thriving, partly as a way of evaluating the overall health of the two lakes.” Ardoch Lake has been in the news recently as the result of a proposal to create 24 waterfront lots and 6 back lots in the vicinity of one of the enhanced Walleye spawning beds. The location of the beds is one of the factors that the Frontenac County Planning Department will take into account when evaluating the proposal.

Butternut trees have been on the endangered species list in Ontario ever since the Endangered Species Act was enacted in 2008 and the list was created. Butternut’s are a medium sized deciduous tree that thrives in full sun. They can be found the limestone substrate regions of Frontenac and Lennox and Addington, and particularly in the borderline areas where the Limestone meets the Canadian Shield, roughly north of Tamworth and Verona and south of Hwy. 7.

They have been hit by a canker, and the population throughout the US and Canada have been devastated. A Butternut recovery program, which has been mainly volunteer driven, has been responsible for planting seeds of trees that have shown resistance to the canker in order to re-establish a population of healthy trees as infected trees die off.
Even with the canker damaging trees, many trees in the local region have been able to survive, although not thriving, for a number of years.
Doug Lee, currently of Enterprise, has been a fan of the Butternut for a quarter of a century, ever since the canker first began to have an impact on trees in Ontario. It was identified in the United States decades earlier but did not venture north until later. He has identified Butternuts throughout the Verona-Godfrey-Tamworth region over the years and regularly checks on the progress of the trees, paying particular attention to trees that appear to have few or no symptoms of canker infestation.

At the end of the summer, he visits different locations where he has seen Butternuts over the years to see how they are doing and to find out if they have put out any seed this year, in the form of Butternuts.
“I’ve never seen this many butternuts in one year in the 25 years I’ve been collecting them,” he said earlier this week. I have collected about 3,000 butternuts over the last week, including 195 pounds of nuts off one tree, over 2,000 butternuts,” he said, in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
To put this year’s haul in context, back in 2010, working with the Butternut recovery program, the News did a story with Doug Lee. At a property in South Frontenac, about 200 butternuts, one and a half buckets full, were collected and it was considered a very good haul.

While Lee is preparing all of the Butternuts he has harvested for planting, most of them are not viable for the Butternut recovery program, which only collects seed from trees that are considered canker free.
“I think there are about 3 or 4 trees that I have seen this year that are of that calibre,” said Lee.
He will be reporting those to the recovery program for them to evaluate later in the fall.
Meanwhile he still intends to plant all the seed that he has collected, and is making them available for others who would like to try their luck. He does use bleach on his seed to try and kill any of the canker that is carried by the seed, but the chances of success for seed from infected trees is less than ideal.
“I have had some success,” said Lee, “and I keep trying.”

For information about the Butternut Recover Program, how to identify Butternut Trees by their distinctive leaf structure, and how to identify infected and uninfected trees, you can contact Rose Fleguel, Butternut Recovery Technician with Rideau Valley conservation at 613-858-3678 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Steve Pitt at 613-532-0701. Anyone who is interested in contacting Doug Lee to receive some of his record haul of nuts can call 613-328-9599

The general public will have a unique opportunity to visit Rose Hill Nature Reserve on Saturday, August 19th to explore the new trails and learn about the rich biodiversity found there. Rose Hill is a 358-acre wilderness property in the rugged, hilly landscape north east of Denbigh in Addington Highlands.

In the spring of 2017, the Mississippi Madawaska Land Trust (MMLT) engaged a professional ecologist to prepare a scientific report describing the natural history and ecological features of the Nature Reserve, as well as conduct fieldwork to inventory the species on the property. At our August 19th event, visitors will hear about some of the discoveries of the field study and learn about the ecological significance of Rose Hill.

An initial field study was conducted in 2012 when the first 100-acre parcel was acquired by the Land Trust. That first report stated that one of the most remarkable aspects of this property is its lack of invasive plant species which gives a pretty good indication of its relatively untouched, wild condition. This year’s study will provide MMLT with the necessary information to prepare a long-term management plan for the Nature Reserve. Land trusts are mandated to protect the properties in their care forever, which in legal terms means a 999 year commitment, renewable.

Over the past year, area volunteers have extended the trail network by opening up a long-unused trail around Fufflemucker Pond. Visitors will be guided along the trail from and to the lovely picnic spot beside the pond where we’ll gather to hear Cathy Keddy, the Chair of MMLT’s Ecological Stewardship Committee, share the findings of the field study to date. After lunch, you can meander along the trail around the perimeter of the pond looking for the rare species described.

Registration for the nature walk is at 10:30 a.m. at the Brodey Trail entrance on Rose Hill Rd. Admission is $10. Bring along a picnic lunch to enjoy beside Fufflemucker Pond. Don’t forget your camera – the scenery is beautiful and you may catch a shot of something special.

Directions to Rose Hill Nature Reserve are provided below:

From Kaladar at the junction of Hwy 7 and Hwy 41, travel north for 65.4 km to Rose Hill Rd. and turn right.
Area residents from the east can take Buckshot Lake Rd. from Plevna to Hwy 41.
Follow Rose Hill Rd. for about 1.6 km to the Brodey Trail entrance (marked) to climb to Fufflemucker Pond. Parking is at the road side.

I have strong childhood memories of gathering bluish hairy caterpillars and keeping them in jars until I became bored with that pursuit and my mother quietly released my captives.  My attention span at the time wasn’t long enough to see what they would have become if I had looked after them longer.

It turns out they were forest tent caterpillars.  If I had had more patience and watched them until they changed into adults, I would have been rewarded with a rather dull, medium-sized, reddish-brown moth.  In retrospect, it wouldn’t have been much of a reward, so having plenty of other things to do with my precious summer probably saved me considerable disappointment.

We have two species of tent caterpillars in our area – the eastern tent caterpillar and the forest tent caterpillar.  Both of these native insects hatch in early spring, feed intensively on leaves for several weeks, spin their wooly cocoons, emerge as adult moths in mid-July to mate, lay eggs and die.  Although few birds prey on tent caterpillars, the two species of cuckoos we have in our area are hairy caterpillar specialists, and are known to be more common in areas where tent caterpillars are plentiful.  For more information on cuckoos, see the August 13, 2009 Outdoors in the Land O’Lakes column on these interesting birds.

Only the eastern tent caterpillar builds an actual tent.  Generally found on plants in the rose family, it is most often seen on various types of cherries and apples.  The newly hatched caterpillars initiate the construction of a silk tent soon after emerging. They generally live together at the tent site for the whole of their larval life, expanding the tent each day to accommodate their increasing size. The full-grown larva is 40-50 mm (about 2 inches) in length, hairy and brownish black with blue spots along the body and a white stripe running the length of the back.  

Forest tent caterpillars do not build tents, but instead gather together on silken mats that they spin on leaves or the bark of a tree. The full-grown larva is also about 40-50 in length, hairy and brownish black but with blue and orange longitudinal stripes and a row of pale, key-hole shaped spots along the centre of its back.  This species will travel some distance in search of food, and mass migrations during outbreaks are common.

Both species are subject to periodic outbreaks, when populations may rise to incredible numbers.  This is particularly true for forest tent caterpillars, where outbreaks occur every decade or so.  This year seems to be an outbreak year in parts of our area.  For example, in 2016 there were quite a few of the caterpillars around our house near Sharbot Lake, but this year the numbers are truly astounding. I recall one year in the early 1990s at our cottage on Bobs Lake when by mid June every leaf on every tree had been consumed.  With sunlight streaming through the trees again, it felt more like late April than June.  However, by early July the trees had valiantly put out a second crop of new, albeit smaller leaves.

I was worried that many trees would not survive the attack, but the following year there didn’t seem to be any increase in tree mortality.  Fortunately tree mortality is usually low during an outbreak unless it lasts for several years in a row or happens during a severe drought.  In our case, there wasn’t a single tent caterpillar to be seen anywhere the year after the population explosion – problem solved.

Tent caterpillar outbreaks are natural occurrences and controlling them is rarely either necessary or advised as outbreaks usually collapse on their own.  However, limited protection of landscape trees from forest tent caterpillars can sometimes be achieved by gathering up and physically destroying large numbers of caterpillars when they are clustered together on tree trunks.  Eastern tent caterpillars on fruit trees can be managed by pruning out the entire branch and sealing it in a black plastic garbage bag left out in the sun.

It will be interesting to see how many caterpillars we have next year – I’m hoping the outbreak will collapse after this year, but we’ll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, I’ll have to be content with cheering on the cuckoos to enjoy as much of this year’s all-you-can-eat caterpillar buffet as they can possibly manage!

Perhaps the busiest place in Frontenac County was Wintergreen Studios on Canoe Lake Road as the wilderness retreat played host to Land Art BioBlitz 2017, a five-day series of workshops and species count featuring a variety of activities and visiting instructors.

Workshops featured Matt Ellerbeck, the Salamander Man, professional naturalist Richard Aaron, composer and Carleton University music professor Jesse Stewart, naturalist Bronwyn Harkness and organic vegetable farmer/environmental activist Marie Bencze.

This was Wintergreen’s third BioBlitz, however it was the first to be held over five days. The first two were one-day events.

“This year is very different,” said program director Monica Capovilla. “Instead of being a race to identifying as many organisms as possible in a 24-hour period, the idea is to mirror and honour the Slow Food movement, giving everyone a chance to form a deeper connection with the natural world.

“This is more than just species identification, it’s all about learning what’s out there and creating a better understanding of why biodiversity is so important.”

To that end, there was a steady stream of buses coming in bringing a range of classrooms from public schools in Verona and Kingston.

“For many of these kids, this is a very different space from what they’re used to,” said Capovilla, a teacher herself. “It’s about teaching them a greater respect for insects, animals, trees — and to give them a better understanding for where they fit in with it all.”

She said they hope there will be a “ripple effect” from this event resulting in more people getting interested

‘Travelling BioBlitzer’ Jason Crockwell from Pittsfield, Mass. said he made a special effort to come this year.

“Even though I’ve been living in my Jeep, and I’ve never been out of the U.S. before, I wanted something different and this certainly is it,” he said.

BioBlitz 2017 was free to the public because the support of TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, Capovilla said.

They’re already planning next year’s BioBlitz on a similar theme and it’s tentatively scheduled for the last weekend in May/first weekend in June.

Wintergreen Studios is a year-round, off-grid, art/wilderness/education retreat on a 204-acre property with mixed habitats.

They have a number of events scheduled for the summer with the next one being a medicine walk/salve-making forum with Mary Ann Spencer. See their website for details.

Phragmites (say 'frag-might-ees') or European Common Reed is that huge plant with the flag of seeds on top that you are seeing more and more along roads in our area. It was probably imported from Eurasia mid-1800's in straw packing materials and first seen growing in Canada in Nova Scotia in 1910. For about 40 years it was unremarkable. But lately its spread is truly remarkable. It is so common in southern Ontario that locals call it simply "phrag". Predictions are that the great marsh (over 3000 hectares or 7500 acres) at Long Point on Lake Erie will be completely taken over by Phragmites in about five years.

Elimination of a marsh by phrag happens because the reed grows so densely and its stalks are so sturdy that animals such as turtles can't push through it. The roots deposit toxins in the soil (allelopathic), preventing growth of native plants and the dense reed growth shades out any that try to grow there.

Phrag spreads by underground rhizomes and surface runners as well as windblown seed. The most important mechanism of spread is by road construction and maintenance machines. Pieces of rhizomes and runners are carried on machines and in soil that is moved take root to start new colonies.

As with many other invasives, we gave phrag little attention when it first showed up. But when it produces larger colonies, as in the Long Point marsh, the citizens soon want "government to get on board". Locally, Central Frontenac has several small colonies. One is slowly expanding in the southwest corner of the Frontenac Road and Highway 7. Further east, there is a much larger colony behind the Smoke Shop on the south side of Highway 7 at Silver Lake.

Phragmites is largely absent from North Frontenac but there is a small 'starter' colony along the Ardoch Road in front of the North of Seven. There is another larger patch just over the boundary into Central Frontenac. This could be the source of seeds and rhizomes to spread phrag into North Frontenac. But we could stop that process by removing these small colonies before they can start that invasion. Just mowing won't do it! Information on control is available at the link cited below.

Small colonies escape detection at first because we don't recognize the plant, we don't know how damaging it will be when invasion progresses, and we don't recognize that these small starter colonies will be the source of stock to allow Phragmites to expand until it is damaging. Then, when phrag has captured all our roadsides and also our wetlands, we ask for control and, at that stage, it is unbelievably expensive.

The best control method is prevention of early establishment. The only control method that has worked consistently after colonies are established is spraying with Roundup and soy oil. Spraying must be certified under applicable municipal, provincial and federal regulations. It is unsafe to assume complete elimination after spraying because transported seeds, rhizomes and runners that are not killed by the herbicide can start new colonies. Following established best practices, the residue of tons of stems and seed can be burned off with preparation, care and approval.

Much tax money can be saved by early detection and elimination of invading Phragmites when it still has only small colonies. To report locations of colonies, contact local municipalities and call 1-800-563-7711 or go online to www.invadingspecies.com or call Friends of the Salmon River (613 379 5958) or Friends of the Napanee  (613 377 1287) or your local Conservation Authority.

More information: https://dr6j45jk9xcmk.cloudfront.net/documents/2675/stdprod-089643.pdf

Poplars are widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere and are found in every province of Canada.  Fast growing and prolific, they are the first trees to regenerate in areas devastated by forest fires. Regeneration occurs by means of suckers sent up from the roots and a few sprout quickly from stumps. Most people dismiss poplars as weed trees but they are actually wonders of nature.  Biologists praise them for their natural ability to clean up contaminated soil and water.  Poplar roots are particularly good at sucking up contaminates from soil and water and breaking down notorious chemicals into compounds that dissipate slowly over time.  Once in contact with agricultural herbicides used in Canada on corn crops, the tree actually creates a less harmful by-product by replacing the harsh chemicals with something much more benign.  The really good news is that neither the tree nor its leaves become a toxic waste hazard along the way.

Dr. Joel Burken, an environmental engineer at the University of Missouri-Rolla chose to study the poplar many years ago because poplars are easy to cultivate and grow remarkably fast, up to 30 feet in three to four years!  With over a thousand varieties, there is at least one that is suitable for almost any climate from Canada to Mexico.   Dr. Burken’s research gives governments and environmental regulators the green light to approve the use of poplar trees in reclaiming toxic lands on a large scale.  He points out that planting poplars is an economical choice and much less intrusive than cleaning up a site with bulldozers and backhoes.  The bonus is that reforestation happens simultaneously.

Four poplars are native to Ontario:  Trembling aspen, large-tooth aspen, balsam poplar and eastern cottonwood.  In addition to these native species, several introduced species and hybrids are widely planted for ornamental purposes or as windbreaks.  These are the European white poplar, Lombardy poplar and Carolina poplar.  Since most poplars have long leaf stalks, the wind always sets them fluttering and the leaves are always moving, especially the trembling aspen.  Interestingly, the common name for this species in many languages translates as “woman’s tongue”!

The life of poplars is short and vigorous.  They need a lot of light and moisture but offer bigger, longer-lived trees some gentle shade in their early years.  Eventually the larger trees take over and the poplars die.

Poplar wood is fairly light, soft and weak and is used commercially mainly for pulpwood, plywood, particle board, matches and boxes.  Animals love it:  Beavers love the inner bark and use the poplar trunks for the main structure of their dams.  Grouse eat the winter buds, snowshoe rabbits feed on the bark and twigs and moose browse among its branches year round.

Be thankful if you see poplar trees on your property.  They’re just helping Mother Nature to clean the environment.

Recently, a flood victim said "the walls I have built are not strong enough – I will make them stronger and bigger"

He summarized the widespread philosophy that pops up with every flood. Hold it back with walls of sandbags and keep it in its proper channel with berms. An engineering prescription for floods.

Stewardship of the watershed is a better, cheaper and longer-lasting prescription. Instead of 'here is the water—fight it', ask 'where does the water come from? How can the flood peak be prevented before it threatens us?'

Water that comes as rain and meltwater does not just run down our rivers. Rain is water that evaporated from the earth into the atmosphere. When it falls back to earth, it can be absorbed into soil or litter, or it can be evaporated again back to the atmosphere, or it can be contained in wetlands or lakes, or it can flow down a geological fault into the groundwater.

Prolonged or sudden, high volumes of rain or meltwater will quickly run off if it falls on waterproof slopes such as bedrock or pavement. Cover that area receiving the rain with materials that can absorb the rain, or let it soak in, or let it flow down faults and cracks into the groundwater, or evaporate it, or slow its flow downhill or store some in pockets in the land, such as wetlands, and the flow will be slower or the volume flowing will be less. The headwaters are the key.

Trees have great effects on the fate of water. For photosynthesis, trees use only about 1 percent of the water they take up; most of it is evaporated. Forest can remove up to 70 percent of the rainfall by evaporation and transpiration from the pores in their leaves. Because deciduous trees lose their leaves for several months and conifers do not, the conifers remove more water by evaporation and transpiration. In one experiment where 16 hectares (about 40 acres) of deciduous forest was replaced with conifers, about 24 million more litres of water was moved back to the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration by the conifers.

Some trees can move 500 millimetres of rainfall back to the atmosphere in a year if the trees are supplied with lots of water. That is more than half the annual rainfall in our region.

A watershed with lots of conifers in the headwaters area of the watershed can reduce streamflow by 15 to 20 percent compared to watersheds with no forest.

Besides evapotranspiration sending some rainfall back into the atmosphere, forests, including their leaf litter and their dropped limbs and other large litter, interfere with the flow of surface runoff and allow more rain to penetrate into the soil.

Besides benefits to us in our watershed, forests are major conservers of biodiversity. Forests are important components of the beauty that we see in our landscapes.

Bags and berms is a 'bandaid' approach. But we could easily apply a longer-term and less costly solution to sudden flooding by planning our stewardship of land use in the headwaters of our watersheds.