The Couchiching Conservancy held an appreciation event for its volunteers Saturday at Couchiching Beach Park.
The event also celebrated a recent Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) grant that has funded the organization’s science program. The grant was supposed to start in 2020, but because of the pandemic, the OTF delayed the start of the grant while the conservancy regrouped.
Couchiching Conservancy executive director Dorthea Hangaard says the grant was important to the non-profit organization. When it applied for it, it told the OTF its plan was to use the funds to improve the citizen science stewardship program to make it an effective, sustainable system for stewarding land under the protection of the conservancy, which would allow it to accelerate the acquisition of ecological habitats.
“We’ve been given a challenge by the board that if we want to keep growing and acquiring land, they needed to see what the plan was going to be to steward the land,” Hangaard explained. “We came back with this idea of community science.”
She says volunteers were instrumental in keeping the conservancy going during lockdown periods by continuing work on nature reserves. Today, there are 260 active community science volunteers with the conservancy.
Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop says the work volunteers do for the conservancy is “absolutely fantastic.”
“I’m proud of the work I see being done here in our community and specifically at the Couchiching Conservancy,” she said. “Thank you to all of the volunteers who make these things go round and get a lot of work done.”
At Saturday’s event was Thomas Kaethler, a volunteer of two years. He joined when he moved to Orillia from Manitoba five years ago.
“One of the ways I enjoyed interacting with friends was through hiking in Grant’s Woods,” he said. “I started wondering who hosted the trails, and that’s how I got to know about the conservancy and became a member.”
Kaethler says he enjoys learning about climate change and what it means for him at a local level.
“I came to a place where I decided that I want to volunteer in a peaceful, community-oriented space,” he said. “It’s been a positive and educational thing for me.”
He encourages others to follow in his footsteps and get involved with community-minded organizations.
“I would also encourage people to hike in Grant’s Woods, Scout Valley, or any of the other spaces,” he said. “I’m proud when I go there and see other people enjoying it.”
