Riverdale Stewardship

It's hot but we're out there!

2010-07-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

This week was a good turnout despite the hot weather with 6 people helping out. We pretty much finished removing the Canada Thistle but it wasn't easy, the patch of thistle was completely surrounded by thorny rose bushes. It was hard to turn around and there wasn't a lot of space to work in.

We also discovered quite a few native trees that had been planted in recent years but they were pretty much buried among the Thistle, the Tansy and the rose bushes. We quickly removed all of these to give more room to the trees and added a lot of mulch around the trees to help them with moisture.

Christine and Ty did a great job on the mulching.

Someone found this cute toad while working.

After I had finished with the Canada Thistle, I proceeded to work on the Tansy. It's still fairly easy to pull it but I was also using a shovel to help digging it out. The branches are quite tall and it's easier to try to get a whole bunch at once. It's a nice looking plant with a pretty color but I hate the smell of it so I really don't mind removing it. I remember removing a lot of it when I used to be at Beechwood Wetland.

We also worked on Queen Anne's Lace or Wild Carrot. Although it attracts insects, it's been listed as a noxious weed and is considered a serious pests in pastures.

The tansy and the thistle

2010-07-22T17:41:00.000-07:00

Last week, we started tackling Canada Thistle and I thought we had quite a good handle on it. I had been told that last year's stewardship team had worked extensively on this invasive. Well as luck would have it I found a huge patch of it in another part of the site. We call it Canada Thistle here although it's not of Canadian origin, and it's also largely spread in other parts of the world and it's standard English name is "creeping thistle". It is considered a serious invasive species.

We also have quite a bit of Tansy that we started to dig out and pull. It can spread quickly and is actually toxic. In former centuries, people actually used to eat it or use as an herb flavouring for puddings and omelets. I can't imagine using it in food as the smell is very pungent and one can get sick of the smell, let alone eating it.

Canada Thistle and Tansy

One method of removing it is to cut it at the stem. However, we mostly tried to pull it. Some of the plants though are too big and impossible to pull so we simply cut them at the base.

Our pile of compost is growing.

The northern part of the site. There is wooded area at the back and it's a good spot to work especially in the hot weather of the last few weeks.

The pond actually looks like one now with a good water level.

Swamp Milkweed

Back after 2 weeks

2010-07-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

I'm back after missing stewardship for a couple of weeks. There's been quite a bit of rain so the wetland actually looks like one.

One of the plants now flowering along the edge of the pond is Swamp Milkweed. It's a herbaceous plant native to North America. Like most other milkweed, it has sap containing toxic chemicals that repels insects and herbivorous animals. It is found growing wild near the edges of ponds and is one of the plants that attract the Monarch Butterfly.

Swamp Milkweed

Once again this week, we headed to Chester Spring Marsh to continue removing invasives. The site was also very wet and there were a lot of mosquitoes. I found a huge patch of stinging nettle and I spent the best part of an hour removing it.

The grey area shows the level of water that covered the site after the Sunday night storm. The area is very muddy.

Visit to Chester Spring Marsh

2010-06-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

This week, we visited Chester Spring Marsh, which is about a 20 minute walk from Riverdale Park. It has been decided that our team would visit the site a few times this season as it hasn't had a regular stewardship team working there since 2004. Consequently, it's very dense and was left to its own device, so there is a lot of maintenance work needed.

After going through a wooded path, we emerge on a beach right on the Don river.

We didn't waste any time and started pulling an incredible amount of invasives.

We had 3 piles like this one of all the stuff we pulled including garlic mustard, stinging nettle, burdock and dame's rocket.

I also noticed quite a bit of Japanese knotweed, another highly invasive species in the valley because of its rapid growth and height. The Global Invasive Species Database has listed it as one of the World's 100 Worst Invasive Alien Species. According to an article in Wikipedia about Japanese Knotweed "The invasive root system and strong growth can damage foundations, buildings, flood defences, roads, paving, retaining walls and architectural sites." There is also an interesting video posted a few years ago on Don Watcher's blog.

Manitoba Maple.

We managed to clear quite a large patch of these seedlings which have had a field day on this site in the last few years.

My co-leader Christine. She is not the one who damaged that tree, none of our tools would have such a devastating effect on a tree. It was of course the work of beavers. Amazingly, the tree is still alive.

Lots of burdock and it's getting pretty big everywhere on the site.

I took this picture which shows a tree that's almost completely flattened in the ground, I don't recall ever seeing something like that.

Some maintenance work

2010-06-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

This week, we got busy cutting invasives and other vegetation around planted native species in order to give the natives some room to grow.

Recently planted trees and bushes such as Silver Maple and Dogwood need a little help when non native species start to grow around them.

The pond was pretty dry earlier this week but we've had quite a bit of rain in the last couple of days so I'm looking forward to see some water in there next week.

There are more Blue Flag irises at this site than I've seen in other parts of the Don.

We also did some mulching around the native plants to provide them with some moisture. It was a hot night so we always make sure to drink lots of water.

One more time for garlic mustard

2010-05-31T19:31:00.000-07:00

Last week, we had observed an abundance of this plant and I had another look at it. I'm now pretty sure it is cleavers since it's stem is very scratchy.

We continued working on garlic mustard but it's really the last time we can try to pull it as it's getting really tall and hard to remove without breaking it.

It is particularly hard to get the roots out.

But with perseverance, it is possible to get the whole thing out with the roots which can be quite long.

Blue Flag Iris, one of the native flowers along the pond.

New stewardship site

2010-05-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

For the summer of 2010, I decided to switch to a different site although not very far from Riverdale Farm. It's actually right across the river on the east side. It's still in Riverdale in Toronto, thus the new name of my blog. A few years ago, a new wetland was created at the base of Riverdale Park and last year was the first year a stewardship group was formed at this new site called Riverdale Park East Wetland.

It's a small site with a woodland at the back and the pond in the middle almost always dry up in the summer. Because of its size, it can be managed easily with a small team of 4 or 5 people which seems to be the size of the team this year.

This is what the pond looks like in the middle of May so I can imagine what it will be like in the summer. There isn't a lot of water there.

However, like any other site in the valley, there is no shortage of garlic mustard and it was about time we started pulling those. Donwatcher has just written an interesting post about garlic mustard.

We also saw an abondance of this plant which according to the Field Guide to Wildflowers may be either Cleavers or Wild Madder. If it's Cleaver, the stem should be very scratchy with recurved prickles. I'll have to wait until next week to verify that. In any case, these species are alien and their presence is not a good thing.

There is however a Silver Maple which is nice to see.

The team will also be working at Chester Springs Marsh. There used to be a stewardship team there but it stopped a few years ago mainly because it's not very easy to access. Luckily, from Riverdale Park East, it's easier to get there and we will go a few times in the summer.

I'll keep you posted throughout the summer with the progress of my new stewardship team.

Planting at Riverdale

2009-09-17T17:37:00.001-07:00

For the last couple of weeks of stewardship at Riverdale, we prepared a slope for a planting which took place on the last night.

This was the slope in the Spring. There were a lot of logs and vines.

The same slope in September after we cleared some of the logs and pulled as much vine as we could. We chose this slope because it's not too shady compared to most of the Riverdale site.

Stewards getting busy. We had about 50 plants to put in the ground.

We planted hemlock, witch hazel, raspberry bushes, white pine and sugar maple.

It's always a challenge to plant on a slope.

We finished late and unfortunately, the after picture is not very good. I'm still trying to figure out how to take good pictures at night. I'll have to go back in the day time to take a picture of the newly planted slope.

Benthic video

2009-08-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

I made a video from the benthic macroinvetebrates workshop of last week.

We're back (finally)!

2009-08-13T17:55:00.001-07:00

Stewardship has resumed last week after six weeks of interruption due to the garbage strike. As in previous years in August, it was time for the benthic invetebrates workshop. This workshop was offered to all the stewards including those of other sites. There were about 20 people in attendance. The workshop was presented once again by a member of Citizen's Environment Watch. My post from last year's workshop explains in details the process.

Stewards getting ready to wade into the ponds.

Walking in the ponds. It's hard to keep your balance.

We applied a slightly different method for the collection of insects this year. One person was simply walking in the pond in order to bring the insects closer to the surface as they tend to remain at the bottom, while a second person was moving the net back and forth in order to collect the insects.

Among the insects collected were midges and sow bugs which are the most common.

Visit to another site

2009-07-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

Spadina Quay: A downtown wetland.

Since the beginning of the City strike, we haven't been able to go to Riverdale Farm even for a visit since the park itself is closed. However, some of the other stewardship sites are not out of bound so today, I paid a visit to the Spadina Quay Wetland.

It's located on the waterfront right at the foot of Spadina. I received an eMail from the leader of the site which, for the first year, was going to have a regular weekly stewardship team. Of course, the strike put an end to that, at least for the time being. In previous years, the site was attended only on an occasional basis. I remember going there with my Beechwood stewardship team one evening last summer.

This wetland site is small but quite interesting. The stewards battle invasives such as thistle, bird foot trefoil, and most prevalent, cow vetch.

It is also home to a variety of birds such as the red-winged black bird. The Toronto Star had a funny article in June about this bird battling a goose that got too close to a nesting site.

Last year, there was also a beaver in residence. I'm not sure if it's still there this year.

Other sightings include swans and black-crowned night herons.

(photo by Don Watcher)

(photo by Don Watcher)

Time to tackle DSV

2009-06-15T17:12:00.000-07:00

We got started on Dog Strangling Vine this week, one of the worst invasive species. First of all because it's just about everywhere and second, it's almost indestructible. Or so it seems. The only way to tackle it right now is to dig it out with all its roots. It's quite a job. The only other possibility is to use pesticides which is really not ideal for environmental reasons and can be quite costly because the plant is so spread out. So, we just do what we can and hope that one day, somebody will discover a bug that kills it.

After working for an hour, I managed to clear a small path.

We also did a survey of the plants and shrubs we planted the last couple of years on the meeting house slope. We are happy to report that most of the plants are in good condition.

The wood ducks are also back this year. This is a picture from last year, I couldn't get a good picture when I was there last week. I will have to try again.

We have some pretty nice views from the top of the slopes. It's worth to take a break and enjoy it.

On with the workplan

2009-06-06T08:17:00.000-07:00

The garlic mustard is now more in control at Riverdale (at least for this year) so we can work on other invasives.

We came back after a week off to a ton of stinging nettle. It's pretty much everywhere.

The stewards are being very careful at protecting themselves and they were practically shovelling it out of the way.

The park is closed in the evening so we don't see people walking by but the creatures seem curious about what we're doing. Too bad we can't give them our brochures about the program.

We also started removing burdock which we have managed to keep in control over the past few years. I found several web sites discussing this plant and even though some of them praise the medicinal values of it, most agree that it can be highly invasive and even dangerous. The burs that it produces can damage the fur of animals brushing against it and they can also kill birds. This Ontario Wildflowers website has an interesting article about it.

The stems remind me of rhubarb.

Dog Strangling Vine (DSV) is also very friendly with burdock. We started removing some of the DSV, although it's still a bit early for that.

On one of the slopes at Riverdale, we also saw another invasive called Dame's rocket . According to Wikipedia, it is a herbaceous plant species in the mustard family and is cultivated in many areas of the world for it's attractive spring blooming flowers. However, as pretty as it is, it's a non native invasive. Luckily, we don't seem to have as many of it at Riverdale compared to other areas of the Don.

Dame's Rocket at the Goulding Wetland site.

No stewardship last week

2009-06-01T17:35:00.000-07:00

There was supposed to be a thunderstorm last week so stewardship was cancelled even though the storm never materialized. While looking at my pictures from previous years, I found these which I took last year at the Beechwood Wetland site. I found them interesting at the time but I had forgotten about them. It's a good example of some of the weird stuff you can find in nature.

Look at the base of the tree stump. No, it's not a present left by some animal.

Here's a closer look. Can you start to see a shape?

Can you guess what it is?

It's called Dead Man's fingers. I'm not kidding. And no, we didn't find a dead body. Believe it or not, it's a fungus commonly found in forests and woodlands that grows at the base of rotten tree stumps. As you can see, it is appropriately named, though its latin name is Xylaria polymorpha.

It grows on decaying hardwood stumps and logs, usually at or near the base. It sometimes appears to come out of the ground but it is actually attached to buried wood and it grows alone or, more commonly in clusters, like the pictures you see here.

It's a bit creepy but fascinating at the same time.

When you think you're done...

2009-05-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

This week, we thought there was so little garlic mustard left, we would be done in 15 minutes and would have to look for something else to do. Well, we were in for a surprise when we realized that one of the higher slopes was literally covered with it. We haven't worked there much in the last couple of years and it clearly needed some attention. So, we took a few stewards up hill to tackle this task.

We got our arms (and buckets) full.

The only thing competing with it is (of course) our favourite, the infamous dog- strangling vine also known as swallow-wort.

The genus name is cynanchum . Cynanchum comes from Greek and means "to choke a dog". It's kind of depressing don't you think. But I wouldn't want to discourage anyone so soon, so I'll talk about it some other time.

Meanwhile, another group of stewards got acquainted with stinging nettle, a nasty herbaceous perennial flowering plant that owes its name to the fact that when a person brushes against it, they can get a stinging and burning sensation. Despite our best precautionary warnings, there are always one or two who get stung badly.

Stinging nettle

We're lucky to have a very enthusiastic team of stewards this year and we manage to have a lot of fun.

Garlic Mustard Month

2009-05-06T20:43:00.000-07:00

I think we should officially declare the month of May Garlic Mustard Month, at least as far as the stewardship program is concerned. This highly invasive, non native, is everywhere on the site and we usually spend the better part of the month pulling it. It has round shaped, slightly wrinkled leaves that when crushed smell like garlic.

A new steward giving the thumb down to garlic mustard.

The new stewarship season brings both new and returning stewards.

The slope where we worked extensively last year had less garlic mustard this year, although it acquired a few tulips from the slope next door. We think the squirrels might have had had something to do with their displacement.

As usual at this time of the year, the ponds appear quite clear but we know it's just a matter of weeks before they become murky again with duckweed.

The gardening folks at Riverdale have gone all out with the tulips.

Alliaria petiolata or garlic mustard

Springtime at Riverdale Farm

2009-03-31T19:35:00.000-07:00

Spring is here and in a little more than a month now the new stewardship season will begin. However, stewards don't often have the opportunity to visit the farm on the evening of stewardship, there's too much that needs to get done. So I decided to post a video graciously provided by Don Watcher, who paid a visit to the farm last week. Enjoy!

Bring Back the Don newsletter

2008-08-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

I wrote an article about Riverdale Farm Ponds in the Fall 2008 issue of the Bring Back the Don Newsletter. It pretty much summarizes the work we do all summer and it contains pictures from this blog. Take a look.

Company

2008-08-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

While we were taking samples from the pond this week for the Benthic macroinvertebrates study, we were in the company of several black-crowned night herons. I've never seen so many at that spot, usually there are only one of two. And they were pretty close too. We tried not to disturb them but they were probably wondering what we were doing. However, I don't think they were interested in the macroinvertebrates insects, there was plenty of goldfish for them to feast on.

Monitoring water quality

2008-08-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

Benthic macroinvertebrates

This week, we did the annual collection of benthic macroinvertebrates. They are animals found on the bottom of a water body that are large enough to be seen with the naked eye and lack a backbone and internal skeleton. They are relatively sedentary and widespread, with varying tolerances to changes in water and sediment quality.

As in previous years, we were joined by members of Citizens Environment Watch, an organization which provides education, equipment and support for community-based environmental monitoring and stewardship. The monitoring procedure that CEW developed enable volunteers to sample stream habitats for benthic macroinvertebrates. The procedure includes necessary information to collect, process and identify benthic macroinvertebrates found in southern Ontario watersheds.

Collecting samples in one of the Riverdale ponds

The sampling is performed using a D-net (so-called because it's in the shape of a D) which is placed firmly against the stream bottom. Afterwards, the D-net is emptied into a sieve over a bucket or large tray and stewards use squeeze bottles and water from the stream to rinse the net. Once this is done, it's time to look for the bugs and try to find them. Unfortunately, at Riverdale, there is so much mud that it's very difficult to see anything. We managed to find a few, including isopoda (sow bugs) which have a tolerance value of 8 or high tolerance to poor conditions.

We should soon have the results of our experiment and I will post them as soon as they come.

Massey/Goulding estate

2008-08-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

Last week, the team went on an outing to the Massey/Goulding estate on Dawes Road north of the Danforth. It is part of the Taylor Massey Creek and the group Friends of the Don East has been maintaining the site. They basically removed all the Manitoba Maple and other non native trees from the area and planted native species so the area now offers a lot of diversity for birds and wildlife. We observed a lot of goldfinches there. However, even though the Manitoba Maples have been removed, there are still a lot of saplings and this kind of tree grows very fast so after our tour, we proceeded to remove those invasives. The size of the saplings is pretty impressive, especially when you only expect some small shrubs.

Some of the Manitoba Maples that we removed.

Water testing

2008-08-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit behind with my posts but I'm now catching up. A couple of weeks ago, we tested the water in the ponds and the results were actually not bad, in spite of all appearances. The water in the ponds moves slower than other sites so factors such as water and soil odor, water appearance and dissolved oxygen showed poorer results. All the pictures in this post were taken at the Beechwood wetland site but the exact same test was done at Riverdale and the results were surprisingly similar.

The dissolved oxygen rating was poor

The phosphate level was fair.

Phosphorus is a nutrient that acts as a fertilizer for aquatic plants. When nutrient levels are high, excessive plant and algae growth creates water quality problems.

The ph level was 8 which is considered to be good.

The pH is a measurement of the activity of hydrogen ions in a water sample.

Second part of the season

2008-07-16T08:31:00.000-07:00

This week, we started the second part of the stewardship season. Unfortunately, the last couple of weeks we had to cancel because of Canada Day one week and a huge thunderstorm the other. Therefore, there is a lot of work to do. We continued with the invasive removal along the paths and worked on huge patches of stinging nettle.

Black-crowned night heron (photo curtesy of Sherry)

When we walked down to the site at the beginning of the evening, we saw a night heron down in the pond. Their breeding habitat is fresh and salt-water wetlands. These birds stand still at the water's edge and wait to ambush prey, mainly at night. They primarily eat small fish, crustaceans, frogs, aquatic insects and small mammals.

Grapevine on top of our pile of removed invasives

Grapevine going up a tree

Later on, Sylvia and I struggled to remove a huge grapevine that had twirled itself on large trees and we managed to win this battle. Those vines are very invasive and they can do a lot of damage to trees and plants.

Fleebane

I'm on vacation this week so I had the opportunity to walk around the site one morning. I found a large patch of fleebane. There are quite a few around the site.

Unfortunately, along the same path, the DSV is rampant. We haven't worked along this path, but it seems to me it needs a lot of attention.

I also found another large patch of stinging nettle along the path of the middle slope which we haven't visited either. I think I'll try to tackle that next week.

Every Tuesday in Riverdale Park, there is a small market from 4:00 to 7:00 P.M. and I'm told this is one of the reasons why the stewardship is held on a Tuesday at this site. At any rate, stewards can have an incentive to show up early or on time for our 6:30 start time.

More clearing

2008-06-29T09:49:00.001-07:00

This week, we continued clearing paths of weeds and we went a little further. We're slowly making our way to the east slopes which I know from previous years are still in bad need of care.

I worked on a huge patch of stinging nettle and it feels so good to chop that off. We try to clear as much as possible of it because groups of children walk along the paths at Riverdale and it's really not fun to be stung by this nasty plant.

Stinging nettle

All chopped off

At least, not everything is invasive and non native. There is also a silver maple along the path, which is nice to see.

I also remember last year working on a patch of Canada Thistle. It's back this year but there doesn't seem to be as much.

Canada Thistle

The best part of the evening was that we finally saw some wood ducks. We had been looking for them since the beginning of the season because we spotted them once of twice last year. We don't see them very often. We only saw a female with ducklings, it'd be nice to see a male some day as they are very colorful.

A female wood duck with ducklings.

This week's turnout was great, 14 people showed up. You can get a lot done in just about one and a half hour.

Clearing out the paths

2008-06-22T17:37:00.000-07:00

This week, we focused on a couple of the paths in order to remove invasives. In addition to garlic mustard, we worked on burdock, stinging nettle and DSV. I talked about dog-strangling vine a year ago in my blog.

The pile of cut plants is getting higher and bigger.
A couple of years ago, we used to bag a lot of the plants we cutted but now, we just pile it up in a corner for pick up at a later date. At least this way, we can measure our progress.

This year, we also decided to monitor the level of water in the ponds. Apparently, this is something they used to do a few years ago. We don't know how accurate this measuring stick is or if it's slowly sinking in the mud but we're checking on it every week nevertheless.

Tree planting

2008-06-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

Now that we removed most of the garlic mustard on the slope where we've been working for the past 3 weeks, we were able to do a planting. We planted pretty much the same trees as last year, eastern hemlock, white pine, dogwood and also sugar maple and chokecherry. About 12 people showed up so the planting went quickly.

Let's get going

Now we can see a little more clearly without all the GM

Great team work

Hope the trees won't mind the slant too much

Sugar maple, my favourite.

One dedicated steward also removed more garlic mustard after she finished planting.

A good start

2008-05-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

The new stewardship season was off to a good start tonight. We had a turnout of 11 people, the weather was perfect (not too sunny, not too warm, no rain, no wind) and we set ourselves to attack some garlic mustard. Some of the plants already have flowers and right now at Riverdale, that's pretty much all you see. The slopes are covered with it.

Stewards getting ready to pull the nasty plant from one of the slopes.

We managed to remove it from about half the slope.

Garlic mustard was introduced in North America as a culinary herb (it's edible and used in salads and pesto) and is an invasive species in much of North America and is listed as a noxious or restricted plant.

Luckily, Riverdale also has beautiful scenery that makes it all worthwhile.

Since we started early this year, we were able to admire the fields of tulips that have been planted by the Riverdale Garden Club.

And the ponds, which look decidedly poetic in the spring.

2008 Stewardship Season

2008-04-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the 2008 Stewardship Season.

At long last, Spring is here and I can revive my blog about the Riverdale Community Stewardship program. It's great to be back after such a long and harsh winter.
Tonight was orientation for the Community Stewardship program and the turnout was very good, almost double from last year. We got about a dozen stewards who signed up for the Riverdale Farm site and it's a great start. We begin the work next week and we expect that more people will probably show up.

This year, we're starting the season earlier and our first task will be to start pulling garlic mustard. This is the best time of the year to tackle it because the ground is still soft and it's easy to pull. It's also a good way to start the season without exerting ourselves too much at the beginning.

Pollination Study

2007-09-13T20:23:00.000-07:00

I wrote my last post a couple of days ago and I realized that I had said earlier I was going to talk about the pollination study. This is a study that was performed by the stewards at all the stewardship sites throughout the summer in order to identify pollinators and the flowers they were visiting. We had forms to fill out as part of a kit and it was part of a national survey put together by Pollination Canada. We did what we could to try to identify pollinators and some stewards were better than others at the identifying test. I wasn't very good but it was interesting nevertheless. Take a look at the site to find out more about it.

Butterflies are pollinators too

Last week of stewardship

2007-09-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

Here we are, the last stewardship session at Riverdale for this summer. We finished the season tonight by tagging invasive trees such as Manitoba Maple, Norway Maple, Black Locust and Tree of Heaven.

We put orange ribbons to mark those trees.
City workers will come to remove them. They won't remove them all but they'll decide which ones they can get rid of.

We had a pretty good turnout for the last week and some other stewards continued to remove invasive species. I must say that we haven't been able to kill all the DSV but we sure tried our best. It will be back next year but with some luck, there won't be as much. One can only be optimistic.

Cheryl found this interesting looking "thing" that was attached to the leaves of a sumach. Is anybody out there able to identify this? I apologize for the poor picture but it was getting pretty dark when I took this.

This one is not much better but maybe it can help.

Working at the site has been a lot of work but we also had much fun. I feel a little bit sad that it is now over but I'm hoping to see some of my co-stewards at one of the many planting events organized by Green Toronto this fall.

Studying Benthic Invertebrates

2007-08-27T16:58:00.000-07:00

Note: this is a cross-posting from Don Watcher. I am repeating the posting here because it happened at Riverdale Farm Ponds.

A collection of clips from the Benthic Invertebrate study at Riverdale Farm Ponds

This week I went by Riverdale Farm Ponds to participate in a study to monitor pond organisms. The point of the study was to collect benthic invertebrates from the bottom of the pond. Benthic invertebrates are a group of creatures that live in an aquatic environment and include fully developed insects; insects in a larval stage; some crustaceans; and worms and leeches. Benthic Invertebrates can be used to measure the health of a pond. Since some species are more tolerant of pollution, the presence or absence of them can be used as a general water quality gauge.

The collection process involved donning hip waders, wading into the pond and collecting samples from the bottom muck with a special scooping net. Once the samples were collected, we went up to one of the buildings and sifted through the debris looking for different creatures. During our investigation we encountered aquatic sow bugs, midges, aquatic worms, scuds, leeches, and snails. All of these are mostly pollution tolerant and the species found indicated that water quality was low, about 7 on a scale of 10 (1=pristine water, 10=absence of life).

However, there is some good news. Last year an aerator was installed to inject air into the water. Due to several longterm problems, the ponds suffer from anoxic conditions which means that not much can survive here. A similar study was done before the aerator was activated and a grand total of 8 creatures were found. This year between 50-100 organisms were found. So things are looking up for the ponds.

Nathalie and Heather from Citizens' Environment Watch help facilitate the collection process

Looking for bugs in mud

A closer inspection reveals...

...a blurry image of a bloodworm

Benthic invertebrates revisited

2007-08-18T16:33:00.003-07:00

This coming Tuesday, August 21, the Riverdale team will be participating in another session of benthic macroinvertebrates (aquatic) testing in the sanctuary pond. This is a monitoring study which involves taking samples from the pond and collecting insects from these samples. The benthic zone is the lowest level of a body of water. It is inhabited by organisms that live in close relationship with the ground, called benthos or benthic organisms.

Once again, we will work with members of Citizens' Environmental Watch, a community-based ecological group which organizes monitoring and stewardship programs. They use benthic invertebrates or "water bugs" as biological indicators to assess water quality. In order to collect these samples, we will have to get into the pond wearing hip waders and using nets to try to pick up as many "bugs" as possible.

Volunteers collecting specimens

Looking for signs of life

Wet weather

2007-08-08T01:40:00.000-07:00

Last night, we worked in a different spot (at least, I had never worked there). We went on the right side of the sanctuary pond where invasives are having a field day. Aynsley told me that she did some planting there a few years ago but it now needs a lot of work. There is so much stuff, we could be working there until the end of the season. It's full of japanese knotweed and there is also grapevine, which is native but extremely invasive.

The pond is a great environment for the grapevine but there is really too much of it.

The weather was uncertain at the beginning of the evening but we decided to go on anyway. After about an hour, we had to stop because it was really coming down. Still, we had 5 brave souls who showed up.

We saw these ducks but couldn't identify them. They may be just mallards. (We keep hoping we'll see the wood ducks we spotted at the beginning of the season).

Hot night

2007-07-31T19:06:00.001-07:00

The weather was hot tonight for the stewardship but 6 people showed up nevertheless. Cheryl suggested we only work for an hour and nobody argued with that. In addition to the pollination study (stay tuned for a post on that coming soon) and the watering, we went on a hunt for more DSV killing (we'll never get rid of that stuff but we sure keep trying).

A steward (who asked to remain anonymous) on the lookout for DSV

There is still quite a bit and it's getting harder to reach.

Still, I managed to get rid of some of it.

Another black crowned night heron (or maybe it's the same one
as a few weeks ago). It's still too far, I need Marnie's camera from
Beechwood Wetland.

At the beginning of the evening, we saw a juvenile night heron,
He was standing very close to the edge of the pond but he flew away
before I had a chance to take a picture. I haven't seen them coming
that close yet. We think that they are probably nesting nearby.

The New Enemy

2007-07-17T18:35:00.001-07:00

Ok, I thought the worst invasive was Dog-strangling Vine but now, I know another one even worse. In addition, this one can also hurt you. If you brush against it, it burns like hell. In fact, one of its nickname is Devil's Claw. What is it? Any guesses? Why, stinging nettle of course. The Riverdale site has its fair share of this dangerous and even poisonous invasive.

Julia from the stewardship team works hard
on the stinging nettle.

Meanwhile, I was removing one my old favourites:
Canada Thistle

Now you see it...

Now you don't!

The best part of the evening was when we saw a night heron.

Black-crowned Night Heron

Duck sighting

2007-07-08T10:08:00.001-07:00

This week we continued to attack the DSV slope. We're almost finished now so we should be able to focus on something else. At the beginning of the evening, I took some pictures of a couple of black ducks (or at least I was told that's what they are). If anybody knows different, please let me know.

Iris Versicolor

We also went to check on the planting we did last week. On the west side of the pond, there is a little island where some people planted irises and sedges. All the plants are doing quite well.

Sedges

More planting

2007-06-30T17:19:00.000-07:00

Newly planted Boneset at the sanctuary pond

This week, we did some more planting but this time, we planted along the sanctuary pond. We tried to plant them as close to the edge of the pond as possible. Here's a list of the plants:

Blue Flag (Iris versicolor)

Knotsheath sedge (Carex retrorsa)

Bebb's Sedge (Carex bebbi)

Joe-Pye weed (Eupatorium fistulosum)

Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)

Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)

Swamp Aster (Aster puniceus)

The soil is very muddy and there are also a lot of roots which makes it harder to get through. Aynsley and Cheryl were there and including myself, there were about 10 of us so we managed to get most of the planting done.

The aerator was on while we were there and seemed to be working although only in one area of the pond where the water was swirling. The rest of the pond was kind of green and scummy.

The bubbling is caused by the aerator

The ponds

2007-06-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

The ponds at Riverdale can be quite picturesque and at this time of the year, the water is still pretty clear.

Unfortunately, it's also easier to see the stuff that people have dumped in them. We should fish out this suitcase and open it. Who knows? Maybe there's a lot of money in it.

This looks like a hat. Must have been a windy day.

Cute rabbit

2007-06-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

I noticed that Marnie, one of my fellow stewards at Beechwood, posted a picture of a cute rabbit. I decided to steal her idea and post pictures of my own. I haven't seen any rabbits at Riverdale yet but this one wasn't very far.

A slope buried in DSV

2007-06-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

DSV or Dog Strangling Vine also known as swallowwort is everywhere in the Don Valley and Riverdale Farm is no exception. We spent most of last week's session removing some of it from one of the slopes. For the time being, we were just pulling it and trying to remove as much of the roots as possible in the process. This method of removal will have to be repeated over several years before we can get rid of it but we're just doing what we can for now. I found an information fact sheet from the city on the subject which is very helpful to better understand the problem of invasive species.

Planting and Japanese Knotweed galore

2007-05-31T18:31:00.000-07:00

Planting on the hillside

Murky Sanctuary pond

The stewardship season at Riverdale officially started on Tuesday. Quite a few people showed up, I would say at least a dozen, which was good because we had some planting to do. The Riverdale site is mostly on slopes and that's where most of the plantings take place This makes things somewhat more complicated so the more people who show up, the better.

We planted Red Oak, Eastern White Pine, Dogwood and Eastern Hemlock.

Eastern Hemlock

Since so many people showed up, the planting was all done in less than an hour, so the rest of the time was spent removing Japanese Knotweed for the most part.

Later, the team had the pleasure of observing wood ducks in one of the ponds. Unfortunately, they were too far to take a good picture, but we observed them with binoculars.

The pond itself is looking a bit clearer than before, now that the aerator is on every night. This device was installed last year to increase the level of oxygen in the ponds.

Stewardship starting next week

2007-05-25T19:12:00.000-07:00

This is a new blog for the Riverdale Farm Community Stewardship team organized by Green Toronto. I was part of this team in 2006 and I will post items throughout the summer to talk about the various activities that will take place. Here's a sample of the kind of activities that the stewards might take part in.

In August 2006, the team took part in a monitoring session of the sanctuary pond to study the water quality of the site. The study involved taking samples from the pond and collecting insects from these samples.We worked with members of Citizens' Environment Watch, which organizes community-based ecological monitoring and stewardship programs. They use benthic inverterbrates, or "water bugs" as biological indicators to assess water quality. In order to collect these samples, we had to get into the pond wearing hip waders and using nets to try to pick up as many "bugs" as possible.