Friends of Oliphant Coastal Environments

The Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation has released the “Coastal Stewardship Plan for Oliphant”.

The full 79 page publication is too large for this site to host but available in pdf format at the Coastal Center’s site. Click here to obtain a copy.

The Coastal Center’s press release concerning this document appears below.

“Media RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A Plan to Protect Oliphant’s Coast

July 5, 2010  -   The Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the conservation of Lake Huron’s environment, has just released a new report entitled “Coastal Stewardship Plan for Oliphant.” The plan is in response to concerns about human impacts to the shoreline, and the degradation of a once pristine environment. With low lake levels in recent years, the flat open shorelands have attracted vehicle traffic, which is particularly destructive to the wetlands.

The shoreline at Oliphant is part of a coastal wetland complex that is home to many rare and at-risk species. The coastal wetlands at Oliphant, commonly called coastal fens, are particularly rare, and support a wide range of land and water species. Wetlands are also important water filtration features that provide clean water for people to swim in.

The Plan is intended:

1)      to educate and inform the community about beach and wetland processes, their sensitivities to human impacts, and how to minimize those impacts;
2)      with this information, empower the community to care for these resources, and enact insightful stewardship over the long term;
3)      to guide stewardship efforts that will help the shoreline heal itself, and restore the ecological balance to this shoreline area.

The Stewardship Plan describes some of the necessary measures needed to begin the healing process. “Controlling vehicle access to specific areas, and putting an end to driving over the shorelands will be absolutely key to the success in protecting Oliphant’s coastline,” noted Geoff Peach, Coastal resources Manager with the Coastal Centre, and main author of the plan. “Of course, the second main threat to Oliphant’s coast is invasive species, notably the highly invasive Phragmites australis.”

The Plan provides the municipality, local agencies and the public with a set of “best stewardship practices” aimed at improving the health of the coastal environment at Oliphant. “We are excited to be implementing, with the help of other community groups and the municipality, stewardship measures identified in the Plan that are based on sound coastal science principles and conservation approaches,” said Donna Stewart, chair of the local Friends of Oliphant Coastal Environments. “This is so important to the long term health of our shores.”

Funding for the plan was provided through Ontario’s Species at Risk Stewardship Program, Bruce Stewardship Resource Network, and the Town of South Bruce Peninsula. For a digital copy of the Plan, contact the Coastal Centre at coastalcentre@lakehuron.on.ca

For more information contact:

Geoff Peach, Hons. B.A., CCEP
Coastal Resources Manager
The Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation”

We have learned that the Ministry of Natural Resources has topped up a shortfall in funding to The Coastal Centre to put towards the Oliphant Management Plan. $4000 has been directed to the Coastal Centre to assist with the completion of the biotic inventory.

We would like to say a HUGE thank you to those who have made this possible.

The Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Centre has received $17,000 from the Species at Risk Fund for the Oliphant Management Plan!

Thank you to our Working Executive, who has worked tirelessly towards the goal of having a Management Plan done for the Oliphant shoreline. Thank you to Geoff Peach and Patrick Donnelly, who heard our call and have made this happen!

Thank you to our membership for demonstrating to our municipality and these other organizations the caring and commitment needed to pull together as stewards of this wonderful piece of shoreline!

The $17,000 received by the Coastal Centre was part of a larger grant received for a number of projects.

Friends of Oliphant are working on having a Management Plan created for the Oliphant shoreline. Our hope is that it will guide our community in the protection and stewardship of our shoreline.

The first part of the process involves use of the A-B-C inventory method: surveys of the biotic, abiotic and cultural aspects of our shoreline, to pull together important information.

Judith Jones, Biologist, and twelve volunteers, naturalists and botanists surveyed public areas of the Oliphant shoreline on Saturday, June 21st. Thank you to the Owen Sound Field Naturalists and friends who assisted. We were delighted to gather data that demonstrates we have a very significant population of tuberous Indian plantain that extends over a long stretch of shoreline, which is designated a species of special concern.  As well, Dwarf Lake Iris, designated as threatened, was found. Our biologist also saw a massassauga rattlesnake.

If you would like more information on any of the above species, you will find information on our website at www.fooce.org in our Species at Risk Section and some great photos in the Flora Photo Album.

Judith will be visiting Oliphant twice more this summer when other plants, such as rare beach grasses can be more easily identified in late July and August.  The Junior Rangers will also be made available to us, under the direction of Bob Gray, through the Bruce Stewardship Network to assist with other aspects of the biotic inventory, in July.

If you see anything on the Oliphant shoreline this summer that you think is a significant species, please let us know. We will forward your information to the Coastal Centre and the biologist to add to the data base. The information must be very specific, so it can be confirmed. The best possible piece of information you could give us would be the GPS coordinates. If not that, use any landmark possible to define it. (i.e. 50 yards west of lot # x on Bay Street, two feet north of the patch of a cedar trees) If you have your camera or cell phone with you, please take a photo and forward.

Looking forward to another great summer in Oliphant, this little piece of heaven on earth!

Keith Brownlee, intern with the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation is looking for historical photos to document the varying water levels in Oliphant through the years and the state of our shoreline. If you have any interesting photos for Keith, please forward to him at keith.brownlee@lakehuron.on.ca
Keith is assisting Patrick Donnelly and Geoff Peach, with their work this summer.

Thank you to the Town of South Bruce Peninsula! We have recently learned that we will receive $5000 to support our efforts related to public education and having a management plan completed.

Our goal this summer is to provide more information about our fens, alvars and beach/grasslands, the diversity of life they support, and the threats to the health of these sensitive coastal environments.

We believe that the development of a shoreline management plan, with the technical support of the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation,  will be a guide for our future stewardship of the Oliphant shoreline.

The Friends of Oliphant Coastal Environments has been granted $3,000 from the Bruce Resource Stewardship Network to be put towards the development of a Management Plan for the Oliphant shoreline.

Lee Burton of Oliphant accepts the cheque on behalf of FOOCE from Craig Todd, Bruce County Stewardship Coordinator.

This year FOOCE applied for a “netCorps Technology Grant for Environmental Organizations” to support our desire to use technology to communicate effectively as an executive and to reach our extended membership who live in a variety of geographical locations.

Unfortunately, we were not successful with our netCorps application. However, the organization said our application for technology assistance had merit and invited us to apply again next summer.

FOOCE has recently submitted two funding proposals to support our work. Read more… »