Unido: 20.jul.2019 Última actividad: 06.oct.2024 iNaturalist Canada
I grew up a short distance from Rondeau Provincial Park on the north shore of Lake Erie, giving me the opportunity for an early start to an interest in nature. I eventually became a seasonal park naturalist at Rondeau and then the full time park naturalist for about 13 years, before continuing my Ontario Ministry Of Natural Resources career as the District Ecologist for Chatham and Aylmer Districts. I retired at the end of 2011 after 36 years with OMNR. Southwestern Ontario, where I spent the entirety of my career, is the most biodiverse part of Ontario. I was very fortunate to also have had work related opportunities to explore the northern Ontario forests from Cochrane to Thunder Bay, Ontario's sub-arctic lowlands along Hudson Bay as well as tallgrass prairies of the mid-western USA including Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Kansas. I have visited more than 100 tallgrass prairie sites in the USA alone. I was also interested in older growth forest as well as tallgrass prairie and was instrumental in establishing the Ontario Tallgrass Prairie association. I was also fortunate to be on the Committee on the Status of Species At Risk in Ontario for about 6 years and on dozens of species and spaces recovery teams. This allowed me to work with many highly regarded Ontario folks, some of who are part of the iNaturalist family.
Now that I am retired, I have a lot more time to pursue interests in the natural world, especially with my camera. My main interests are birds, botany, herps and various groups of insects. Photography has always been an important part of my outdoor explorations and travel, whether it be to document the various plants and critters or the landscapes they dwell in.
I have the time now to write a blog on nature. Check it out at: https://pawsnaturenuggets.blogspot.com