Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association
16 Brock Street P.O. Box 3 N0H 2R0 Tobermory, ON, Canada

The BPBA recently organized several socially distanced invasive phragmites cuts, thanks in part to the generous help of community volunteers. Pictured below are cuts at Gauley's Bay, Little Red Bay, and Sandy Bay.

Eco Adventures Our Eco Adventure tours have been up and running in a format that respects Covid-19 guidelines for social distancing. There is no set schedule. Call and we will try to customize to your interests and share with you the unseen Bruce. Special kids activities developed by Board Member Laura Sagermann can be included. We are currently accepting no-risk bookings for groups of up to ten people. Please visit: https://myecoadventures.ca, or call Graham or Rick at 226-...277-0944. City Escape Rooms where you solve a series of puzzles to get out of locked room or solve a mystery are very popular. So we are putting the final touches on an Escape Room located in the forest. Build bonds with your bubble group as you challenge yourself to solve the puzzles and riddles in our Forest Escape and learn fun facts about Bruce ecology. Call 226-277-0944 to book and match wits with our EcoAdventure’s Program Manager, Graham Thomas, who devised this fun adventure. Can you solve it??? Minimum group size of 6 people. Improving Septic Systems For the fourth year, the BPBA is entering its partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to help residents and cottagers replace or improve underperforming or failing septic systems that back onto watercourses. Our areas of focus for this project are the Stokes River, Old Woman’s River, and most recently, Little Lake. By the end of this year we will have supported the replacement of 40 septic systems and inspection and repair of 120 others. There are hundreds of older septic systems throughout the province that may be polluting nearby bodies of water. Many municipalities, including Northern Bruce Peninsula, do not require re-inspections of existing systems. This means that defective systems often go unchecked. Pollution from septic systems can contaminate our water in a number of ways, such the release of harmful E. coli bacteria, and the creation of algal blooms. So far this year, four, $4000 grant cheques have been written to resident owners, and more funds are available for septic system replacement and repair. If Biosphere Association members have friends or family who may be interested in attending upcoming socially distanced workshops on septic system replacement, please contact Elizabeth Thorn at 519-377-5166.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our 2020 pasture meetings and tours were offered through online call-in presentations and socially distanced car tours. These pasture meetings, which are open to the public, highlight our ongoing commitment to working with the local farming community to preserve and restore our waterways (as part of our Six Streams Initiative). The following photos show some of the key points of interest from a recent car tour we conducted.

Thanks to University of Windsor researchers David Ure and Bulent Mutus, a new bio filtration material has been developed to cleanse nutrient laden water before it enters streams and other watercourses. The Biosphere helped with its initial testing and a journal article showing 70% reduction in phosphorus loading was published. Throughout the first half of this year, Biosphere Association Vice Chair, the tireless volunteer John Rodgers and Chair, Elizabeth Thorn, have been con...tinuing this work with Professor Bulent Mutus of the University of Windsor. We are proud to report that the Biosphere Association has now signed a MOU with the University of Windsor to collaborate on the further testing of a new water filtration product that removes phosphorus and nitrates in agriculture settings. The first stage of this project will be the production on the Northern Bruce of sufficient biofiltration material for one of our test sites. As a whole, this project fits in with the Biosphere’s goal of promoting sustainable economic development in the Bruce Peninsula. Co-op students will be working with us this summer and fall in the Bruce, thus creating an expanded academic presence. The image below shows some of the project setup work being done by BPBA summer students Zach Rodgers and Paul Flanagan.

Eco Adventures Our Eco Adventure tours have been up and running in a format that respects Covid-19 guidelines for social distancing. There is no set schedule. Call and we will try to customize to your interests and share with you the unseen Bruce. Special kids activities developed by Board Member Laura Sagermann can be included. We are currently accepting no-risk bookings for groups of up to ten people. Please visit: https://myecoadventures.ca, or call Graham or Rick at 226-...277-0944. City Escape Rooms where you solve a series of puzzles to get out of locked room or solve a mystery are very popular. So we are putting the final touches on an Escape Room located in the forest. Build bonds with your bubble group as you challenge yourself to solve the puzzles and riddles in our Forest Escape and learn fun facts about Bruce ecology. Call 226-277-0944 to book and match wits with our EcoAdventure’s Program Manager, Graham Thomas, who devised this fun adventure. Can you solve it??? Minimum group size of 6 people. Improving Septic Systems For the fourth year, the BPBA is entering its partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to help residents and cottagers replace or improve underperforming or failing septic systems that back onto watercourses. Our areas of focus for this project are the Stokes River, Old Woman’s River, and most recently, Little Lake. By the end of this year we will have supported the replacement of 40 septic systems and inspection and repair of 120 others. There are hundreds of older septic systems throughout the province that may be polluting nearby bodies of water. Many municipalities, including Northern Bruce Peninsula, do not require re-inspections of existing systems. This means that defective systems often go unchecked. Pollution from septic systems can contaminate our water in a number of ways, such the release of harmful E. coli bacteria, and the creation of algal blooms. So far this year, four, $4000 grant cheques have been written to resident owners, and more funds are available for septic system replacement and repair. If Biosphere Association members have friends or family who may be interested in attending upcoming socially distanced workshops on septic system replacement, please contact Elizabeth Thorn at 519-377-5166.

Updates On BPBA Activities As the days get a little longer, we are heading into fall here on the Bruce Peninsula. This has been a season different from any in memory, with pandemic restrictions and historic high water that has changed the shoreline and limited access to some areas. Even so, the Biosphere Association is as busy as ever working on conservation projects and giving visitors meaningful experiences in nature. From our EcoAdventures programming to work on species at risk, invasive species and our focus on clean water, we stand committed to this very special place. We hope you are interested in our ongoing programs outlined in what follows. And if so, we hope you’ll consider becoming a BPBA member by following this link: https://bpba.ca/support/membership

Holy @#$%! EcoAdventures has been just awarded a Trip Advisor 2020 Travelers Choice Award! That places us in the top 10% of experiences and attractions around ...the world! We would like to thank all of our past adventurers, our amazing team, our partners and supporters, as well as our parent organization, the Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association for making this amazing accomplishment happen. 2020 has been a difficult year for the travel and tourism industry so it is nice to get a bit of good news. If you wanna see what all the fuss is about check out http://www.myecoadventures and book a custom family or bubble group tour today. Check out our TripAdvisor reviews at https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g670005-d12885

Don't miss out on EcoAdventures Snowshoe the Grotto. January Dates available. Book today at www.myecoadventures.ca

A perfect holiday gift! Enjoy the beauty of the Bruce Peninsula all year long. Proceeds to the conservation and stewardship projects of the Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association.

Sat July 6th, 8pm Rotary Hall Lion's Head $10 at the door!!! Don't miss the Dance party with DJ pussy Kitty! see you there!

Les soirées cinéma du vendredi sont de retour dès le 5 juillet à 20 h au centre d’accueil de Parcs Canada, à Tobermory. Venez regarder le documentaire primé d’E...dward Burtynsky intitulé Anthropocene (en anglais seulement). Ce film est une méditation cinématographique poétique sur l’immense transformation de la Terre, telle que façonnée par les humains. Don’t miss our first Friday Night at the Theatre on July 5 th at 8pm in the Parks Canada Visitor Centre in Tobermory. We will be screening Edward Burtynsky’s award winning documentary ‘Anthropocene’. A beautiful cinematic meditation on humanity's massive reengineering of the planet. See more