Do you ever find yourself feeling calmer, more relaxed, or more focused after spending time in nature? That’s because time outside has studied and proven benefits for your mental health.
Mental illness affects one in five Canadians in any given year. Let’s talk about what some Vitamin N (nature) can do for your mental health.
An artist in residence program, what is it?
I had the best opportunity at Quetico Provincial Park, to be their Artist in Residence, the last week of June and the first one of July 2019.
Why Quetico?
Quetico’s backcountry wilderness camping and canoe routes are unique Canadian locations in the province of Ontario where you can experience old growth forest, drink straight from many lakes, see eagles, moose, loons, songbirds, wildflowers, Canadian Shield, beaches and sunsets all within the same day – and develop leadership, bonding and memorable experiences while you’re at it.
The Quetico Foundation is dedicated to the protection of wilderness with a particular focus on Quetico Wilderness Provincial Park since 1954. The Quetico Foundation primarily has two focuses; conducting ecological research and supporting academic studies to help protect the wilderness of Quetico Provincial Park, and helping students and young leaders connect to the beauty of Quetico’s wilderness, lakes and rivers through the joys, merits and benefits of wilderness canoe trips.
Please donate today to help the Quetico Foundation support protecting wilderness, connecting young leaders and students to Quetico via wilderness canoe excursions and wilderness research.
By: William Stolz, Quetico Foundation, Acting Science Chair
Omnibus legislation has been around since the first parliamentary session in 1868. With no specific legal definition of what constitutes an ‘Omnibus Bill’ the process is basically grouping a variety of legislative changes for a specific purpose. Ontario’s newest piece of legislation, Bill 197 – An Act to amend various statutes in response to COVID-19 and to enact, amend and repeal various statutes (Covid-19 Economic Recovery Act is the short title) is the latest version of an omnibus bill. The fourth omnibus bill in two years, it affects 43 acts. Ontario Nature has created a detailed Backgrounder which further explains the environmental impacts of the Covid-19 Economic Recovery Act.
Quetico’s oral histories have been locked away on archival cassettes at the John B. Ridley Research Library — until now. Courtesy of history enthusiasts from the University of Wisconsin Whitewater, they have come out of the vault and into our ears.
By digitizing our 400 (yes, 400) interviews, we hoped to preserve and share Quetico’s stories, in order to build connections to the people who travel here. Also, magnetic cassettes have a finite lifespan. As many of the interviews were conducted in the late ’70s and early ’80s, digitizing became a priority for the archive.
Quetico Foundation is pleased to announce Bjorn Van Der Loo the winner of the Shan Walshe Bursary.
Bjorn is an aspiring student who is pursing environmental sciences studies.
Construction is almost finished on an interpretative display that will focus on educating visitors about the role of forest fires in traditional indigenous culture and in sustaining the red and white pine populations. The exhibit will update an aged interpretive display at the Dawson Trail Campground. The Friends of Quetico and the Quetico Foundation are working together to financially support this important project.
by: Dr. Michael Rennie, Canada Research Chair in Freshwater Ecology and Fisheries Assistant Professor
Quetico Provincial Park has been described as a ‘natural oasis’; with all the things going on in the world, in Quetico, you can get in a canoe, traverse a few portages, and the outside world quickly melts away leaving just you and nature. Unfortunately, even in this relatively untouched oasis, unwanted visitors have begun to appear. Several aquatic invasive species now inhabit various lakes in the park, with the most prominent and widely distributed likely being the spiny water flea (or Bythotrephes to us scientists, which is the genus that these organisms belong to).
by Katie Tripp and Kelsey Atalise
Although this year had a shorter than normal season, a lot was accomplished by the biologist assistant crew. They assisted with four main projects this season; assessed lake trout vulnerability to climate change, identified the location of Spiny Water flea, an invasive species in Quetico’s lakes with a Lakehead graduate student working with Dr. Michael Rennie under the Quetico Foundation grant. They also assess the recovery and regeneration of conifer stands after a fire that occurred in the park and helped former biology intern Jared Stachiw, collecting data for his master’s thesis based in Quetico on Red Pine ecology.
