[NatureNS] upcoming Wild Flora Society field trips

Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2006 09:03:44 -0300
From: "Andrew Hebda" <HEBDAAJ@gov.ns.ca>
To: "naturens" <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
Cc: "Jeffrey B Ogden" <OGDENJB@gov.ns.ca>
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Just a reminder to all you Wild-Floraites going on the walk, keep an eye out for ticks, especially in the Spryfield area.  If you get any, we would appreciate seeing them. As an alternative, take them to your nearest DNR office for processing.

Many Thanks

Andrew

A Hebda
Curator of Zoology
Nova Scotia Museum

>>> Anne Mills <ocotillo@ns.sympatico.ca> 8/8/2006 7:49 PM >>>
Upcoming NS Wild Flora Society walks.

The NS Wild Flora Society will host a series of walks in Halifax 
intended to survey the urban flora of several "roadsides & waste 
places", as the field guides and other botanical publications like to 
describe them. These tend to be places that are neglected by amateur 
naturalists, yet harbour may many interesting plants. It will be 
interesting to see how many species previously unrecorded in N.S. we 
find! This project is the idea of Prof. Jeremy Lundholm of St. Mary's 
University. Prof. Lundholm's introduction is printed below...

Urban Botany
An increasing portion of the world’s population lives in cities. In 
Canada, we are over 80% urban. As an ecologist, this trend begs several 
questions: What kinds of habitats are present in cities? What value does 
urban biodiversity have? How can remnant natural habitats survive in 
cities? Urban ecological research has been a neglected component of the 
whole field of ecology. This has changed in the last 10 years, with 
studies of urban plants, birds, insects, mammals, nutrient flows and 
other parameters. Urban ecology is crucial not just to increase our 
scientific understanding of human impacts, but perhaps most importantly 
that the majority of our population grows up with experience primarily 
of urban habitats. In order for these people to grow up with any feel 
for the natural world, it may be necessary to revitalize our conception 
of urban habitats and celebrate the biodiversity that is there.
As botanists, urban areas are interesting first because they are 
dominated by non-native species, especially in disturbed or artificial 
substrates away from remnants of natural habitats. Many are concerned 
that cities represent a source of potential biological invaders that can 
colonize natural areas. Certainly some introduced plants can cause 
problems for natives, but these are a small minority of all the 
non-native species found in urban areas. Many of these species are in 
fact, found only in urban areas, and sometimes in very specific urban 
habitats, such as pavement cracks or roadsides. Halifax is an important 
place for the study of exotic urban plants because it represents a 
‘ground zero’ for introductions via our port and the terminus of a 
cross-continental rail line.
A second point of interest for urban botanists is the sheer diversity of 
urban plants and their ability to grow in the harshest of environments. 
Many of these species originally evolved in dry rocky areas, which may 
explain their abundance in urban sites such as gravel parking lots and 
pavement cracks. Many botanists look down upon urban plants as 
consisting mainly of a few scraggly weeds, but these plants are the ones 
we share are immediate environment with. They are our compatriots: we 
have built it and that’s why they have come! I believe that we should 
get to know are closest neighbours in the plant world. Eventually, we 
may actually come to respect them for their sheer toughness but also 
elucidate any ecological value they may have.
One of the first tasks that faces anyone interested in urban botany is 
to assemble a list of species for any given area of interest. This is 
especially important here, given the probability of new introductions to 
the Maritimes entering through Halifax first. Indeed, we have already 
discovered one new species for the province while surveying an 
especially species-rich vacant lot in Spryfield! While an exhaustive 
list of plant species for even an area as small as the peninsula of 
Halifax is a daunting prospect, we can make this easier by starting with 
certain species-rich sites that will contain a large proportion of 
interesting species we are likely to encounter. I suggest that we pick 
two or three areas for repeated sampling this summer (this is the fun 
kind of sampling which simply involves identifying plants and making 
species lists, not the kind plant ecologists usually do) and develop 
comprehensive lists for these areas. We should also start a database to 
be circulated to the membership whereby we can take the provincial 
species list and simply submit sight records for any species we know are 
in Halifax (we need to carefully define the region of interest*the whole 
of HRM is way too big and mostly not urban anyway). Any takers?
-- Jeremy Lundholm

The walks are:

Date: Monday August 14 2006
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Place: Roach's Pond, Spryfield.
Directions: Take the Herring Cove Rd & travel about 5 kilometres from 
the Armdale Rotary (or about 2 kilometres from Sussex St.). Look for 
Mansion Rd. on the right; Roach's Pond is just across Herring Cove Rd. 
There is a small parking area along Herring Cove Rd.

Date: Monday August 28 2006
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Place: Along the railway across from the Pier 21 parking lot.
Directions: Barrington St. to South St. to Terminal Rd. to Marginal Rd., 
which runs behind the Hotel Nova Scotian & Via Rail Station.

Date: Saturday September 9 2006
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Place: Roach's Pond, Spryfield
Directions: as above
Note: After this walk, we will take unidentified specimens to the botany 
lab at St. Mary's to work on identification.

Date: Saturday September 16 2006
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Place: Seaview Park
Directions: Seaview Park is adjacent to the Fairview Container Pier, on 
North Marginal Rd. (not to be confused with the location of walk #2, 
which is at the other end of Barrington St.!). It is reached either from 
Barrington St. or via McIntosh St. off Lady Hammond Rd.
Note: After this walk, we will take unidentified specimens to the botany 
lab at St. Mary's to work on identification.

For further information, contact Barry Sawyer, NS Wild Flora Society, at 
(902) 445-4938.

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