Toronto Zoo Presentation on The Great Lakes to TFN Juniors

Thanks to everyone who joined us Wednesday at TFN Juniors fall nature class. We were privileged to have Kat Lucas from the Great Lakes Program at the Metro Zoo speak to us about the Great Lakes, some of the cool species that live there and what we can do to look after them. Please check out the video we made of Kat presenting. Some of you might recognize your own voices!

Here is the slide of the Sturgeon we used for drawing and labelling the Sturgeon in our Nature Journals. This should allow you to finish up your drawing. Please send in a photo of your Journal entry–and I will forward them to Kat. Maybe she can show them to other kids, or put them up in her office!

When Kat asked what humans might do that affects the Great Lakes as habitat for creatures, some of you immediately mentioned ‘littering’. At this very moment the Ontario government is in the process of changing our laws about plastic recycling.  Please ask your parents to visit this website https://www.torontoenvironment.org/blue_box_act, and explain to you how the government would like to improve our laws about Blue Boxes. There is a petition you could sign if you wish.

Toronto Field Naturalists wishes to acknowledge this Land through which we walk. For thousands of years, the Land has been shared by the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. Toronto is situated on the Land within the Toronto Purchase, Treaty 13, the traditional and treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is also part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, a covenant agreement between Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Wendat peoples and allied nations to peaceably share the land and all its resources. Today, the Land is home to peoples of numerous nations. We are all grateful to have the opportunity to continue to care for and share the beauty of this Land.