View Post

The Spirit of Giving: Cameron Curran

In News by couchiching

Every year, hundreds of people donate to The Couchiching Conservancy to make protecting land in our region possible. Here we feature four people who who took fundraising into their own hands.

View Post

Alvars — Habitat for the Hardy

In Nature Reserves & Easements, News by couchiching

Anyone who has driven County Rd. #6 between Kirkfield and Lake Dalrymple can be forgiven for thinking the landscape looks out of the ordinary and even a bit desolate. What they are seeing is in fact quite uncommon. Most of Carden Township contains alvars, a globally-rare habitat featuring flat limestone bedrock, dotted with lightly wooded habitats. Alvars are found in only a few places in the world (Sweden for example) and in Ontario, they can be found in a couple of areas such as Manitoulin Island and Carden Township. To have such an unusual and fascinating landscape so close to Lindsay and Orillia is something we can be proud of.

View Post

Nature’s Rugged Canvas — The Canadian Shield

In Nature Reserves & Easements, News by couchiching

Rocky outcrops, dark blue lakes, and dense forests; it’s no wonder that members of the famous Group of Seven artists chose locations on the Canadian Shield for their masterpieces.

The Canadian Shield, also known as the Precambrian Shield, covers almost half of Canada and reaches as far south in our region as the Severn River corridor.

During the last ice age, about 15,000 years ago, huge glaciers scraped the land pushing topsoil and rocks hundreds of kilometres south, leaving exposed bedrock, large hollows in the surface and very little topsoil.