Greetings Reptile Lovers of Ontario! The team here at 'Reptiles at Risk' are pleased to announce that we have (at long last) received our program funding for the 2011 Season. Yay!
Our Summer tour will kick off this year in the Georgian Bay region, where our first stops include the MacTier Library and Killbear Provincial Park. From there we will head north towards Sudbury, before heading home to Orillia. This will be somewhat of a practice run for us 'newbies' on the Reptiles at Risk team, and a warmup for our van, Big Red, to be ready to hit the road again.
Our 2 1/2 week tour of Eastern Ontario begins July 13th, taking us to the Frontenac Region (Ontario's largest Black Rat Snake habitat), and the upper Ottawa Valley, finishing up around Algonquin Park. In August we will head south to other important habitats of Southwestern Ontario, along the shore of Lake Erie to Chatham, Kent, Essex and Norfolk Counties.
I'd like to also take this time to introduce our team for this year: Adam, a Guelph student beginning his 2nd year with Scales Nature Park, has been obsessed with reptiles his whole life, and is very excited to be hitting the road. Katrina, a graduating Guelph student has joined us most recently this week, and is enthusiastic to be expanding her knowledge of the reptiles and amphibians of Ontario. Last but not least, I'm Amanda, and I'm keen to be combining my loves of wildlife, roadtripping and teaching all into one.
It's going to be a great summer everyone... Ontario, here we come!
Amanda