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September/October eNewsletter

Overview:

Membership reminder
Highlights from the summer
Upcoming volunteer opportunities

Membership reminder - fees waived but sign up required

To join or renew your membership this year, please fill out this form.

(Contact us at colonyfarmparkassociation@gmail.com with any questions or for further instructions for mailing a cheque.)

At the AGM, the board and members acknowledged the potential impacts of the pandemic on people’s well-being on many levels. This, combined with the limited ability to collect membership fees in-person, led to a motion to waive membership fees for individuals ($10) and families ($15) this year if any are finding it too difficult to arrange payment. Group memberships ($15) are still required. For those who are able, membership fees can be paid by mail.

If you would like to support CFPA financially apart from membership fees, you can contribute to our donation page through through the Pacific Parklands Foundation.

Summer stories

We had an enthusiastic group of youth with Catching the Spirit Youth Society join us in July to pull invasive sweet yellow clover.

We have had volunteers out throughout the summer helping to remove invasive species and weedy trees from the native restoration plantings around the new Sheep Paddocks wetland.

We also set up HOBO data loggers to continuously monitor temperature in all 3 Sheep Paddocks wetlands, and continued to measure water quality parameters thanks to funding from the George Ross Grant through the Pacific Parklands Foundation.

We were concerned about the bat maternity colony during the heat dome event in July, but the addition of a shade structure seemed to prevent signs of heat stress.

Later in July, the bats vacated the bat box array after the pups fledged. They likely have multiple alternate roosts in the area and can switch between them depending on conditions. During our July counts, we saw smaller numbers (30-50 bats compared to 500-600 earlier in the year) emerging from the bunkhouse openings. Thanks to the volunteers who came out to monitor the bats!

Photo Credit: Melissa Hafting

On July 21, we had a rare sighting in the park. A male Indigo Bunting showed up down the road to the service yard. He stuck around for a week and many people got a chance to see him. Compared to the Lazuli Buntings that breed regularly in the park, male Indigo buntings are a uniform shade of deep blue without a reddish breast and white belly. Like his Lazuli cousins, this bird enjoyed skulking in the hedgerows and popping out briefly.

If you passed by the new wetland on the Sheep Paddocks trail, you may have heard the peep-peep-peep alarm call of the spotted sandpiper that nested out on the turtle beach. Last year their nest failed, but this year, they had three chicks that made it to fledging!

Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities

We are looking for help with wetland stewardship and monitoring in September and October!

September Stewardship Events

Amphibian branch installation
Sunday September 12, 9am-11am
> add branches along the edge of the Sheep Paddocks wetland for amphibian egg mass attachment next spring

Native seed collection & dispersal
Sunday September 19, 9am-11am
> gather and distribute native seeds to fill in gaps in the wetland plantings

Turtle beach vegetation clearing & water quality monitoring
Sunday September 26, 9am-11am
> keep the wetland plantings clear of weedy vegetation & test the water parameters to prep for future release of baby Western Painted Turtles

October Native Planting Event

Saturday October 23, 10am-1pm
> help us plant native shrubs to fill in gaps in the restoration plantings around the new Sheep Paddocks wetland

Register here!

Volunteer Snail surveys

Starting your walk in the park at Mundy Creek trailhead in September or October? Help us track the population of endangered Oregon Forestsnails in the nettle patches by the trailside by counting snails (and helping any rogue snails across the trail). Send us an email to learn more.

For the latest on our activities you can also follow us on social media @colonyfarmparkassociation (on Facebook and Instagram). If you want to pass along the link, anyone can subscribe to the eNewsletter here - http://eepurl.com/hrB5yX

Email colonyfarmparkassociation@gmail.com if you have stories or photos to share with CFPA. You could be featured in a future newsletter!

If you would like to support CFPA financially, you can contribute to our donation page through through the Pacific Parklands Foundation.

Copyright © 2021 Colony Farm Park Association, All rights reserved.

Visit our website at https://colonyfarmpa.com/

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Colony Farm Park Association · 1008 Corona Cres · Coquitlam, BC V3J 6Y9 · Canada