Volunteering & Volunteer Students

Mike and I spent this morning doing some volunteer work at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. The Fletcher Wildlife Garden encompasses a 7-hectare site located between the Arboretum and the Central Experimental Farm. It was started and is still run by the Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club.

There are several different types of renaturalized habitat in the garden: a couple of woodlots, a large pond, an old field, many hedgerows, several meadows, and a demonstration backyard garden. There is also a sizable interpretation centre with a library of information on local natural history and conservation issues. A great deal of information on the Fletcher Garden as well as on renaturalizing your own garden is available on-line through the numerous pages of their informative web-site.

Walking around the gardens and using the materials of the interpretation centre on-site are free. While the gardens are open 24-7, the interpretation centre is only open weekdays during normal working hours and on Sundays from noon to 4. If you're planning on going to use the centre resources, it's probably a good idea to phone ahead just to make sure it will be open.

In terms of the gardens, there are two things to look out for at the moment. First, the lupines are in full bloom in the butterfly meadow and are well worth a visit (see the photo above). Second, although I haven't seen them, there are a couple of green herons living near the amphibian pond (for photos of the green herons go to the Fletcher Garden blog and scroll down to the May 7th entry, P.S. the green herons aren't very green).

Fletcher Wildlife Garden, 613-234-6767, fletcher@ofnc.ca