Spiny water flea impacts on fish: Year 1

MSc student Danielle Gartshore and Ben Wood, a graduate of Dalhousie University

by: Michael Rennie, Associate Professor Lakehead University; Canada Research Chair in Freshwater Ecology and Fisheries

We are now into our second year of work in Quetico Provincial Park to investigate the impact of spiny water flea (or Bythotrephes to us scientists). Thanks to generous funding from the Quetico Foundation, we initiated our first full year of fieldwork in Quetico, with some different approaches than originally planned and modifications due to COVID, but were highly successful in gathering critical information to answer our research questions. Much of the fieldwork this summer was focused on collecting aging structures for walleye from lakes that will help us to answer questions about the potential negative impacts of Bythotrephes on early growth rates of Walleye, being led by MSc student Danielle Gartshore.

By |September 27th, 2021|Foundation News, Park News|0 Comments

Biology Interns

Katie Tripp

by: Katie Tripp

Most of the summer was spent working on the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas and moving songbird meters around the park. In addition to this work, other projects completed this summer include collecting depth and water clarity information from lake trout lakes so that each individual lake trout population’s risk from climate change can be assessed; sampling lakes for the presence of invasive Spiny Water Flea and monitoring trends in salamanders in the park. We also assisted the Lakehead University Quetico Foundation Research Partnership students in data collection for their thesis.

By |September 9th, 2021|Foundation News, Park News|0 Comments

John B. Ridley Research Library 2021

Library shelves with books

By: David C. Toop

This year was a memorable one for Quetico Park. We entered the season with Province-wide Covid restrictions in place. Day use was allowed, while the opening of the Dawson Trial campground was delayed by several weeks. Many of our guests are American, and the USA border did not open until well into August. This was too late and too restrictive to open our remote entry stations this season. From June onward, forest fires caused the closure of the southern part of the backcountry, and by late August, the entire backcountry. The Ridley Library opened again to park visitors, many of whom were in awe of our collection of local and indigenous archives.

By |August 19th, 2021|Foundation News, Park News|0 Comments

Women of Ontario Parks

Photograph of Lise Sorenson sitting next to a campfire with a red canoe in the background

“It’s such a privilege to spend my work day helping people connect to the land…especially when that land is the resonant and enduring wilderness of Quetico Provincial Park.” – Lise Sorenson

Happy International Women’s Day

Ontario Parks, couldn’t do without their women team members. They work as biologists, instructors, wardens, superintendents, planners, managers, and more.

By |March 9th, 2021|Park News|0 Comments

Quetico Provincial Park Awarded International Dark Sky Park Designation

Quetico Foundation is pleased to announce Quetico Provincial Park has been designated as an International Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA).

By |February 23rd, 2021|Local news, Park News, Uncategorized|0 Comments

International Women and Girls in Science Day 2021

Photograph of Katie Tripp and Kelsey Atatise, Quetico Foundation Research Team working in the forest, collecting data

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Katie Tripp and Kelsey Atatise, Quetico Foundation Research Team

With the support of the Quetico Foundation, Kelsey and Katie have been involved in a number of research and monitoring projects important for the management of Quetico Provincial Park.

By |February 11th, 2021|Foundation News, Park News, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Digitizing Oral History

Collage of photos of some of the voices heard on the tapes.

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.

By |November 3rd, 2020|Foundation News, Park News|0 Comments

Red Pine History Display

Red Pine Display at Quetico Provinical Park Visitor Centre

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 |October 15th, 2020|Foundation News, Park News|0 Comments

First year of Lakehead University and Quetico Foundation Research Partnership

First year partnership Lakehead University and Quetico Foundation

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 |September 21st, 2020|Foundation News, Local news, Park News|0 Comments

Biology Interns, Katie and Kelsey, reflect on their summer

Biology Interns Katie Tripp and Kelsey Atalise

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.

By |August 31st, 2020|Foundation News, Jobs, Park News|0 Comments