Acoustic Bat Surveys in Quetico Provincial Park

Big brown bat, Angell Williams CC BY 2.0

Bat surveys are done three times a summer with an ultra high frequency microphone that picks up bats ultrasonic calls. The survey crew, composed of Cat Langille and Jared Stachiw, canoe from The Pines on Pickerel Lake to the north shore of French Lake just after sunset, slowly following the shoreline to pick up bat calls while they do their evening hunting. Computer software is then used to identify the number and species of bats detected or “heard” along the route based on collected audio information.

By |July 4th, 2019|Foundation News, Local news, Park News|0 Comments

Results of Broadscale Monitoring 2010-2017

It is field season for biologists again, including our biology interns! Did you know that Broadscale monitoring is the standard aquatic ecosystem monitoring program in Ontario? Our Quetico Foundation summer biology internship program participants helped with the aquatic monitoring! That’s Amy Adair, 2017 biology intern holding a  lake trout shown in the broadscale monitoring summary!

More information: https://queticofoundation.org/research-and-publications/

By |June 12th, 2019|Foundation News, Park News|0 Comments

Pay to Slay is Not the Way!

Lake sturgeon (Jeopardized Species At Risk) , Robert Elliott/USFWS

The province, northern Ontario and jeopardized wildlife in Ontario need your help. Ontario’s government announced its intention to gut the province’s Endangered Species Act (ESA). Please send an email to your MPP, make your views on the ESA known through the Environmental Registry or through Ontario Nature’s petition here: https://ontarionature.good.do/esa2/sign/ or https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/013-5033.


It’s easy to believe in a world of simplicity, where being “open for business” trumps all else. We all have to deal with complexity in our lives, with nuance, with ambiguity. We all want to live in a world where human livelihoods and nature can coexist.

We know that’s important when, in this very week, the UN issued a devastating report. It demonstrates that extinctions of organisms are now occurring at rates “tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the last 10 million years”. As many as a million species are at risk of disappearing in the next few decades – About an eighth of all Earth’s life forms. For a summary, see: popsci.com/un-extinction-report-stats-climate#page-2.

However, just last month Ontario’s government announced its intention to gut the province’s Endangered Species Act (ESA). The provisions include: allowing developers to pay into a fund rather than do what is necessary to ensure the survival of an endangered species on a site; allowing sweeping authorizations for developers to undertake harmful activities in multiple locations; removing the requirement of the Minister to consult scientific experts on endangered species; allowing the appointment of non-scientists to the technical panel on endangered species conservation (COSSARO); allowing the minister to ask COSSARO to reconsider its recommendations on an arbitrary basis and on… and….. on. A commentary by Ontario Nature can be found at ontarionature.org/endangered-species-act-review-top-ten/.

By |May 13th, 2019|Action, Foundation News, Local news|0 Comments

Quetico Foundation 2019 AGM and Canoe Day walk

Group photo of Quetico Foundation trustees and trustees emeriti, Annual General Meeting 2019, May 3 2019 -credit: Delia Dobson

Group photo of Quetico Foundation trustees and trustees emeriti, Annual General Meeting 2019, May 3 2019 -credit: Delia Dobson

By |May 7th, 2019|Events, Foundation News|0 Comments

2019 Artist In Residence application deadline March 31

Photo credit: Cass Atatise

Enjoy creating wonderful inspired art in the wilderness of Quetico Provincial Park! Apply now to be a Quetico 2019 Artist in Residence, the deadline is March 31st. The Quetico Foundation can also pay for part of these travel expenses and initiated the artist in residence cabin. Please see https://queticofoundation.org/what-we-do/arts-culture/ for more information.

By |January 5th, 2019|Foundation News, Local news, Park News|Comments Off on 2019 Artist In Residence application deadline March 31

Oh my magpies! Christmas Bird Count locally coordinated by Quetico Foundation trustee emeriti

Do you love science and observing birds?

Read about Dave Elder’s sighting of black-billed magpies, a species typically found further west, in Atikokan as well and his contributions to the Atikokan Christmas Bird Count here: https://view.publitas.com/on-nature/winter-2018/page/6-7. Dave Elder is a former Quetico Provincial Park superintendent and a Quetico Foundation Trustee Emeriti.

Amazing work Dave!!!

By |January 5th, 2019|Events, Foundation News, Local news|Comments Off on Oh my magpies! Christmas Bird Count locally coordinated by Quetico Foundation trustee emeriti

Atikokan Progress: Biology Interns Spending Summer Researching in Park

Quetico Foundation Biology Interns, Jared Stachiw and Katie Tripp, featured in an Article Progress article about backcountry canoe expeditions to do biology and forest fire data research in Quetico Provincial Park.

Online coverage http://atikokanprogress.ca/2018/08/21/biology-interns-spending-summer-doing-research-in-quetico-park/ and https://queticofoundation.org/atikokan-progress-biology-interns/

By |August 24th, 2018|Foundation News, Local news, Park News|Comments Off on Atikokan Progress: Biology Interns Spending Summer Researching in Park

Guest blog: Bat/bakwanaajii survey

Bat survey, Credit: Brian Jackson

Here are a couple pictures of Jessica Atatise taken myself, Brian Jackson, doing the bat/bakwanaajii survey funded by the Quetico Foundation (and yes, that is an official bat microphone pole).

By |August 2nd, 2018|Foundation News, Park News|Comments Off on Guest blog: Bat/bakwanaajii survey

Long-Term Salamander Monitoring

The Quetico Foundation’s Long-Term Salamander Monitoring

Blue-spotted salamander, Credit: Brian Jackson

By |August 2nd, 2018|Foundation News, Park News|Comments Off on Long-Term Salamander Monitoring

Pre-Prescribed Burn Vegetation Monitoring in Quetico

Credit: Katie Tripp

Forest fires are recognized as a crucial force in the dynamic ecosystems of the boreal forest due to their revitalizing impacts on the landscape. Fire is also essential for certain plants and vegetation communities to grow and thrive – this is the case for Quetico’s iconic red and white pines. Red and white pine are fire-adapted species that require fire to produce the environmental conditions necessary for them to reproduce and germinate. Frequent fires in the boreal forest also increases spatial, structural, and biological diversity, and reduces forest fuel loads thus preventing large, intense burns.

By |August 2nd, 2018|Foundation News, Park News|Comments Off on Pre-Prescribed Burn Vegetation Monitoring in Quetico