Photo: Mark Lipman

Government of Canada invests $3 million in citizen science and open data for birds and biodiversity
Birds Canada, 5 March 2024
“We couldn’t have chosen a better backdrop for this announcement at the Fletcher Wildlife Gardens, which is run by the Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club. The Fletcher Wildlife Garden is a long-term project of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club. It is accessible to naturalists, gardeners, schoolchildren, and other residents of the city and its suburbs and encompasses a variety of natural habitats.”


Photo by Jean Levac/PostMedia

Greenspace groups fear housing legislation will gut conservation authorities
Ottawa Citizen, 4 Nov. 2022
“While conservation authorities are known for their work on floodplain control and mitigation, they have grown into a more extensive reach including water quality and supporting wetlands and wildlife habitats,” said Jakob Mueller, president of the Ottawa Field Naturalists’ Club.


Photo: Nature Conservancy of Canada

Protecting the peat: conservationists have bought a bit of the threatened Alfred Bog
Captial Current, February 2022
The recently purchased plot, located near the bog’s mostly intact centre, makes it an especially important candidate for protection, said Jakob Mueller, president of the Ottawa Field Naturalists’ Club, a non-profit natural history group that contributed $10,000 to the purchase.


PHOTO BY JULIE OLIVER /Postmedia
Road proposal threatens Mer Bleue wetland
CTV News, 20 July 2021
VideoMer Bleue wetland threatened by road proposal, field naturalists say
Ottawa Citizen, 16 July 2021
Jakob Mueller, president of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club, is raising the alarm about a multi-lane road proposal near Mer Bleue bog – a massive ecosystem of numerous species.City consulting on road extension near Mer Bleue wetland
CTV News, 15 July 2021
“The expansion and extension of this road so close to the boundaries of the Mer Bleue wetland is a threat in a number of ways to its’ ecological integrity,” says Jakob Mueller, who is the president of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club. He wants to see a different approach.For background info on this issue, please see Jakob’s blog post: Proposed new road threatens Mer Bleue wetland


7th annual Nature Inspiration Awards: 2020 finalists
CMN website, 25 September 2020
Macoun Club member, Geneviève Leroux, has been named 1 of 4 youth finalists for this year’s CMN Nature Inspiration Award! Congratulations, Geneviève!!


Mapping Ottawa’s biodiversity, one weekend at a time
Apt613.ca (23 September 2020)
“We’re at a very ground-level stage here where we don’t even necessarily know what tree species we have within 20 kilometres of Ottawa,” says field naturalist and tree expert Owen Clarkin. “There’s a lot of change happening. There’s a lot of clear-cutting occurring. There is climate change. Our push has been documenting what’s there today, so we can think about trends going forward.”


Ecology Ottawa – Our virtual field trip of Fletcher Wildlife Garden with Owen Clarkin
Ecology Ottawa (13 June 2020)
Ecology Ottawa gave a livestream tour of the Fletcher Wildlife Garden with Owen Clarkin leading the tour and hosted by Velta Tomsons of Ecology Ottawa.


Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club gives $15,000 to local nature researchers
CBC Ottawa Citizen (8 May 2020)
“The Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club has just awarded $15,000 in grants to six local researchers who will study our local wildlife, COVID-19 restrictions permitting. It’s the club’s own money, with no government grants.”Member Jeff Saarela, a full-time research scientist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, says the little club is a serious force in understanding our natural world.“Especially in the early days (the 1800s), members were really involved in publishing in our journal, which is now the Canadian Field-Naturalist,” he said.


Safe Wings Ottawa and partners unveil Ottawa Bird Strategy 2020
CBC Ottawa (8 May 2020)
Anouk Hoedeman was interviewed on CBC Radio Ottawa’s morning show about the release of the Ottawa Bird Strategy 2020 plans.


Important message from Governor General of Canada to Organizations with Vice-Regal Patronage
Email (Spring 2020)
“As patron of your organization, I wanted to send along my best wishes to you during these difficult times. I hope you are well.” View full message in above link.


Birdwatch Canada; Recognizes volunteer efforts by Leslie Barrenger
Birdwatch Canada (Spring 2020)
“This issue, we salute Leslie Barrenger for her long-term contributions to Citizen Science.” Her citation is on page 23.


With the humans away, the animals come out to play
CBC Ottawa (11 April 2020)
“I’m not entirely certain that there are more of them. In some cases there might be, but I think just more people are out right now,” Gordon Robertson told CBC Radio’s All In A Day this week. “They’re not at work so maybe they’re taking walks around and they’re just seeing them more.”


Science of summer: Ottawa’s friend of the flies
Ottawa Citizen (30 August 2019)
Jeff Skevington thinks flies don’t get enough respect. We hate flies, mostly: Black flies, house flies, deer flies and more. But Skevington looks past these pests to the far more beneficial flies that shape our farms and garden: flower flies.”


A good year for fireflies?
CBC Ontario Today (19 August 2019)
Beetle expert (yes, fireflies are beetles) Hume Douglas answers your questions about fireflies – on Ontario Today.


Turtle lovers hatch plan to protect roadside nests
CBC Ottawa (25 June 2019)
David Seburn heads Canadian Wildlife Federation’s turtle team, rescuing at-risk Snapping Turtle and Blanding’s Turtle nests from predation.Audio interview from Ottawa Morning here: CWF giving turtle eggs a helping hand


Fenêtres mortelles
Le Droit (20 mars 2019)
Anouk Hoedeman et son équipe d’Ailes en sûreté Ottawa ont organisé leur exposition annuelle à l’hôtel de ville, pour présenter leur collection d’oiseaux: l’équipe a récupéré 3135 oiseaux tués par une collision avec le verre en 2018.


Group rallies around century-old elm on Parliament Hill
Ottawa Citizen (11 February 2019)
OFNC’s Conservation Committee chair, Owen Clarkin, and OFNC member and Greenspace Alliance chair, Paul Johanis were on Parliament Hill to protest the removal of a mature elm tree. The Greenspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital held an information session Sunday focusing on the elm tree, which could be torn down to accommodate excavation work during upcoming renovations to Centre Block.If you’d like to save the elm, please sign the petition created by the Greenspace Alliance: Save Parliament Hill’s heritage elm tree


The cloak-and-dagger world of wild orchids
Ottawa Citizen (1 August 2018)
“Naturalists Holly Bickerton and Dan Brunton of Ottawa were out in the field in mid-July and found a small bog that had mostly escaped notice from environmental experts. Bickerton calls it a “mini-Mer Bleue.” It’s less than a hectare in size.”
Quoting Joyce Reddoch, the journalist talks about why no one has revealed the location of this rare find.


Order of Canada for Ottawa’s go-to snake and frog expert
Ottawa Citizen (6 July 2018)
Francis Cook, 83. was admitted to the Order of Canada recently in recognition of his years of work identifying animals that many of us ignore, and for bringing along the next generation of researchers.”


Hundreds of trees felled near Mud Lake to be replaced, NCC tells residents
CBC News (3 May 2018)
Daniel Brunton, a lifelong user and advocate for Mud Lake, near Britannia Beach in west Ottawa, was among the two dozen residents who raised concerns about the rationale for cutting so many trees and leaving thick piles of wood debris.”


National Gallery glass a clear and present danger, bird group warns
CBC News (1 May 2018)
“The National Gallery of Canada’s dramatic glass facade may make for an eye-catching Ottawa landmark, but it also kills dozens of birds each year, according to a group trying to reduce the number of avian collisions in the capital.”


  Aleta Karstad honoured with the Robert Bateman Award

From OFNC past-president, Fenja Brodo: “I am very pleased to pass on the news that Aleta Karstad will be getting the Robert Bateman Award from the Canadian Wildlife Federation in Regina, in June. If you know Aleta’s work you will know why she was an obvious candidate for this award. Her exquisite use of pencil, watercolours and oil to depict the natural world, from the microscopic to encapsulating broad landscapes, puts her at least on a par with Robert Bateman himself. And like Robert Bateman, her underlying mission is to get as many people as possible passionately interested in our natural world.”

Congratulations, Aleta!!


Extensive cutting by NCC in protected area of Mud Lake called ‘carnage’
Ottawa Citizen (26 April 2018)
Dan Brunton, an environmental consultant who helped draw up the NCC’s formal plan for Britannia Woods and Mud Lake in 2004, says the area has been officially rated with the highest possible ecological importance.”‘Who was your trail clearing contractor … Rommel’s Panzer Division?! That’s not trail maintenance or upgrading, that’s ecological vandalism…. Aside from representing an inexcusable disfigurement of this swamp forest, the slash is vastly wider than ANY pedestrian trail ROW (right-of-way) needs to be, let alone one through an ecological sensitive habitat.'”


Owlets rescued after mom injured in ice storm
CBC Ottawa (18 April 2018)
“The two owlets are resting close to their mother in Anouk Hoedeman‘s home. Hoedeman is involved with Safe Wings Ottawa, an organization that works to reduce bird deaths caused by window collisions. (Safe Wings/Facebook)”


Petrie Island owlets rescued from ice storm peril after mother injured
Ottawa Citizen (17 April 2018)
“Arborist Trevor Miazga had just got home from one emergency callout due to Monday’s ice storm, when he answered the call for another. When Miazga arrived, Safe Wings was already there along with nature photographer Wilson Hum and some other dedicated owl watchers.”


Where’s the tallest tree in Ottawa? It’s not an easy question to answer
Ottawa Citizen (17 March 2018)
“‘Measuring trees has to be very precise, and not a lot of people do it,’ Owen Clarkin says. ‘We use a tool called a laser hypsometer.’ The tool allows you to calculate the height of a tree or building by pointing a laser at the bottom of the object and measuring the time it takes the laser to reach the top. You need to know the distance between yourself and the object to get the correct measurement.”


Maple syrup: turning sunshine into food
North Grenville Times (28 March 2018)
Fred Schueler and Aleta Karstad… have been sugaring almost every spring for the past 20 years…. “I welcome sugaring, because it gives me a reason to have a fire indoors,” Aleta says, carefully watching the pot of boiling sap on the wood stove.”


Congratulations to Safe Wings coordinator Anouk Hoedeman on receiving a Canada 150 certificate and commemorative pin to recognize her spectacular work in getting Safe Wings off the ground and shaping it into what it has become, and for making Ottawa a safer place for birds. She was selected as one of a handful of local people and organizations for being an outstanding community builder. Catherine McKenna presented the certificate and pin.


More than just road kill
North Grenville Times (8 November 2017)
OFNC’s Fred Schueler‘s “study of roadkill falls into a field called road ecology, which looks at how roads affect the habitats they run through and what roadkill can tell us about the population and movement of animals that live along roads.”


“They’re important to us”: Ottawa woman heads group rescuing injured birds
CBC news and In Town and Out (28 October 2017)
Giacomo Panico goes out patroling with OFNC’s Anouk Hoedeman of Safe Wings Ottawa


Important conversations about bird conservation
Kitchissippi Times (28 Sept 2017)
Bev McBride is being interviewed and giving the conversation her full attention, but doesn’t miss a beat when asked what birds she’s noticing, on the shore of the Ottawa River downstream from Westboro Beach.”


Canada is actually running short of bugs
Ottawa Citizen (24 Sept 2017)
OFNC’s Jeff Skevington talks about the loss of grasshoppers, cicadas, beetles, etc., that used to be common in summer.


Environmental history project for North Grenville
North Grenville Times (18 January 2017)
“The North Grenville Historical Society is partnering with noted environmental power couple Dr. Fred Schueler and Aleta Karstad on a major research project which will trace the environmental history of North Grenville.”


A naturalist’s view of the ice storm
North Grenville Times (17 January 2017)
“As naturalists and observers, Fred Schueler and Aleta Karstad used the ice storm as an opportunity to gather information about how the ice storm affected the flora, fauna and habitats of the area.”


Ottawa group wants Ontario to end snapping turtle hunt
Ottawa Metro (16 Jan 2017)
OFNC’s David Seburn explains why the legal hunt for Snapping Turtles should be stopped.


Why won’t Ottawa’s robins go south?
Ottawa Sun (22 Dec 2016)
“The annual Christmas Bird Count… recorded 1047 of them [this year]. That is a record… ‘And that’s not including a flock of 500 seen on the Experimental Farm,’ notes birder and environmental consultant Dan Brunton.”


City adds more bird-proofing to glassy skywalk at city hall
Ottawa Citizen (24 May 2016)
“Safe Wings Ottawa recommended the window treatment after more dead waxwings were found under the bridge this past winter.”


  Bird crashes pile up; group worries about glassy NAC upgrade
Ottawa Citizen (12 Feb. 2016)
The dazzling redesign of the National Arts Centre will jazz up the core, but for Anouk Hoedeman, it’s a future avian death trap.


OFNC member, Rob Alvo, talks about his new book, Being a Bird in North America on CBC’s Our Ottawa and In Town and Out (5 Dec. 2015)


Moose: a year in the life of a twig eater
The Nature of Things (15 October 2015)
Former Macoun Club member, Hugo Kitching, tracked two moose calves for a year in Jasper National Park.


Marathon migration of the Ancient Murrelet
Quirks and Quarks (19 September 2015)OFNC member and associate editor of CFN, Anthony Gaston, talks about his studies of a sea bird that migrates across the Pacific instead of heading south.


A lime, a celery, or a wild parsnip plant. Which one do you avoid touching?
Ottawa Citizen (13 August 2015)
OFNC members and environmental consultants, Dan Brunton and Holly Bickerton, inject voices of reason into the current hysteria about Wild Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa): “it’s wrong to frighten people into avoiding nature.”


Deer flies, horse flies having ‘good year’ in Ottawa due to rain
CBCNews (3 August 2015)
OFNC member and entomologist, Jeff Skevington, says blood-sucking flies thrive in wetness. “On a dry year, the muck along pond edges dry out, the ponds recede, then its horse flies and deer flies dry up. This year, we’ve had intermittent rain through the season, so it’s a good year for them.”


Bird of Ottawa Panel
CBC’s In Town and Out (2 May 2015)
OFNC members Anouk Hoedman and Alex MacDonald joined Mike Runtz on a panel to choose an official Ottawa bird.


Flying into a glass wall: Bird deaths in downtown Ottawa no laughing matter
Metro (1 April 2015)
OFNC member, Anouk Hoedeman is “currently discussing bird-safe design guidelines with the City of Ottawa. Her organization is asking for volunteers to join patrols in the city to rescue injured birds and document fatalities online.”


“I really like being with the group of people”: social wellbeing and nature volunteeering at Ottawa’s Fletcher Wildlife Garden
International Journal of Arts & Sciences, 7(6):291-304)
OFNC member Renate Sander-Regier and Josephine Etowa


  There’s a hole in my atlas
David Seburn writes about his experience gathering data for the Ontario Reptile and Amphibian Atlas as oordinator for the Ottawa region (Ontario Nature’s wildlife blog, 28 January 2015)


  Joyce and Allan Reddoch honoured by Canadian Orchid Congress
Over the past 49 years, Drs. Joyce and Allan Reddoch have monitored 36 orchid species in Gatineau Park and elsewhere, producing “the largest assemblage of long-term orchid studies in Canada.” (Orchid Conservation News, p. 2, December 2014)


Ottawa woman fights to prevent deaths by (building) design
Anouk Hoedeman has heard the sound about a half dozen times: that dull thud a bird makes when it collides with a window…” (Ottawa Citizen, updated 7 December 2014)


Alexander Skevington – October 2014 Zeiss eBirder of the Month
View Alexander’s winning checklist from Australia and find out more about his use of eBird, and his love of birds. (eBird Canada, 26 November 2014)


Ontario’s highly praised Invasive Species Act gets a second chance
“Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of effort and a little bit of money,” said Iola Price, president of the Ontario Invasive Plant Council [and member of the OFNC]. (Alternatives Journal, 7 November 2014)


Vulnerable waterways
“Fighting pipelines, with paintbrushes. Fred Schueler and Aleta Karstad are travelling crosscountry, and using art to express their concerns about the proposed Energy East Pipeline.” (Superior Morning, CBC Thunder Bay, 27 October 2014)
Read the blog of the journey


Bird advocates want building warnings
F.L.A.P. Ottawa Wing organizer, Anouk Hoedeman, and colleague, Cynthia Paquin, were interviewed by Sandra Abma. (CBC News Ottawa, 5 and 6, 14 October 2014)


  Invasive species experts want more involvement from public
OFNC member, Iola Price, talks about local invasive species. (CBC News, 14 October 2014)


Brightest fall colours in Ottawa-Gatineau still to come
“The two key factors that lead to really vibrant red colours in the fall are low temperatures and high light,” says Jeffery Saarela, a research scientist at the Canadian Museum of Nature. (CBCNews, 6 October 2014)


Bird Tweets
Every Saturday on CBC’s In Town and Out, OFNC member, Alex MacDonald, talks about a local bird species.


Rogue goose attack or ‘evil’ breed of bird?
CBC interviews OFNC member, Jeff Skevington about cyclist attacked by a Canada Goose (Ottawa Morning, 26 June 2014)


Earth, water, fire: an ecological profile of Lanark County
Videotape of Paul Keddy‘s recent OFNC talk (11 March 2014)


  Very tall Black Spruce creates excitement
“[The OFNC’s conservation chair,] Owen Clarkin was in the province this summer measuring trees, and he found something very special in the Ayers Lake area.” (CBC News, New Brunswick, 16 December 2013)