The Buzz at KEPO 2.2

What's the Buzz at KEPO?

Welcome!

This is the official newsletter of the Kahnawà:ke Environment Protection Office (KEPO). The Buzz at KEPO is a quarterly newsletter that will provide updates on current KEPO initiatives and events, as well as environmental information relevant to Kahnawa'kehró:non. Keep on reading to see what we’ve been doing to protect and better our environment.

Amanita muscaria

New Project

Entewahnekahserón:ni' - We are Rejuvenating the Water

Tyler Moulton, Environmental Projects Coordinator - Aquatic Habitats

KEPO is delighted to announce that we have received funding in the amount of $2,925,000 from the Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Fund (AERF) administered by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The project funding will be used to plan and implement restoration works in the Recreation Bay and the creeks in Kahnawà:ke.

Submerged roadway removal zone in

Funds will be used to:

The timeline of the project is from 2023-2027 and several associated projects are already underway

The North Creek Community Visioning Project (NCCVP) has begun, led by KEPO’s new Environmental Projects Coordinator – Policy and Outreach, Carlee Kawinehta Loft. The seaway road excavation has been designed and is slated to take place in 2024. The goal of this project is to build a collective memory of North Creek (Whákeras Creek), and from this, develop a vision of what restoration could look like

Bay North Creek, 2023

Through a series of workshops with community members and water resource engineers, we will develop a North Creek restoration plan with implementation to begin in 2024 (channel modifications, creek bank re-grading and restoration, etc.). We will also work to develop a community creek stewardship plan. This plan will complement the Aquatic Stewardship Program’s monitoring of the creeks led by KEPO’s Tyler Moulton and Brandon Rice. The process for North Creek restoration –community memory, community visioning, restoration planning, and implementation – will be repeated for the Suzanne River and Little Suzanne River.

The heart of this work will be the input from the community We want to keep the memory of the old creeks alive and work to give them a better future for generations to come We are inviting all interested community members to join for a community visioning workshop on Wednesday, October 18th at 5pm. We will talk about future restoration work, go over questions and concerns, consider possible priority areas to work on, and what restoration could look like. If you want to share stories and/or participate in these projects in any way, please reach out to KEPO at 450-635-0600 or environmentprotection@mck.ca. Keep an eye out for more communications coming soon.

SAVE THE DATE! DETAILS COMING SOON... COMMUNITY VISIONING EVENT - OCTOBER 18TH, 2023.

North Creek Community Visioning Project

Complied by Carlee Kawinehta Loft

In order to understand the history of the creek, we have been conducting interviews with community members, held sessions with elders at the Turtle Bay Elders Lodge, hosted two Creek Walk n’ Learn workshops, and put out a call for stories. See below for some of what we’ve heard so far.

“The creek runs behind my house, when I was little I remember my neighbor catching bullhead in there which I didn’t think was possible”.

- Brody Leborgne

“We used to skate that creek from cemetery road all the way to the golf course!”

- John Delisle

“The Creek meant everything to the kids in the neighborhood”

- An anonymous elder.

“We ate so many frogs and so many fish” reflected Mavis Thomas when asked about the creek. She’s not the only one, we heard from multiple elders now that there used to be so many frogs in the creek that cooking up frog legs was common!

North Creek 1950s.

Photo by Ronnie Delisle

Riverfront. 1950s.

Photo by Ronnie Delisle

Hemlock Family 1950s

Photo by Ronnie Delisle.

Project Update

Kahnawà:ke's Food Forest

by Marina Gosselin, Environmental Projects CoordinatorClimate Change

KEPO is excited to announce that planting for the food forest will begin during the week of October 23rd, with the exact date and times to be announced soon. As the soil on Tekakwitha Island is very rocky, we will be planting using the “lasagna garden” technique. This permaculture method requires no digging or tilling and creates healthy, living soil by layering organic materials to make garden beds We will also be offering a workshop that teaches how to apply this planting technique in your own gardens. The lasagna garden workshop will be a 4-hour hands-on format presented by Graham Calder from P3 Permaculture and will be held on Saturday, October 21st at the food forest site on Tekakwitha Island, next to the pollinator garden (time to be confirmed).

The food forest is a multiphase project that will grow over time. We will start by focusing on soil quality and establishing plants that will improve the soil to ensure the long-term success of the project before we plant edible species We will plant trees and shrubs this year that will take some time to produce fruits and nuts, however, with time, the project will benefit local biodiversity and Kahnawa’kehró:non for years to come.

Saturday, October 21st, 2023.

If you are interested in participating in the workshop on October 21, please sign up using the link below Additionally, we will have an official food forest planting day the following week (date TBA), so keep an eye out for more information in the coming weeks.

Lasagna Gardening Illustration

KEPO Training

Coyote Program

by Tim Law, Environmental Consultation Advisor

Every month since this past spring, KEPO staff have been camping out in Papineauville for a weekend as part of the Coyote Program’s 7-month field ecologist course. Each month, we tackled a different topic, covering animal tracking, birds, plants, bugs, amphibians, reptiles, and fungi

Organized by Steve Leckman and Patrick Gravel, the course takes an alternative approach to teaching and understanding the natural world around us. Focusing on ecological connections and developing a relationship with the environment, we were invited to ask questions such as: “Why is this bird making this particular call?” Through an exploration of the different reasons for why a bird might call, we learned that birds have 5 distinct signals; alarm calls to signal danger, calls for food from hungry chicks, contact calls to maintain contact during foraging, mating songs to find mates, and territorial calls to establish territories Understanding these different calls helped us notice other elements of the forest The sharp yeep of a robin might alert you to the red-tailed hawk circling above the trees or the contact calls of a group of birds to foraging habitat nearby

We also learned about specific tools that are useful as an ecologist for identifying the fauna and flora around us Armed with a dichotomous key, an identification tool that uses a series of paired statements to guide us to the correct species, we were able to identify trees using only their buds and leaf scars. This is particularly useful for trees like ashes, as buds can help provide a more definitive answer when the leaves look

Winter tree identification practice

Coyote Program Camp March 2023

Frog identification practice Coyote Program May 2023

Apart from being fun, training programs such as the Coyote Program are important for supporting KEPO led projects and educational opportunities

Skills such as tree identification using buds will be useful for our seed collection program. Exploring different methods of teaching and learning can help us improve our educational programming and even inspire our own training programs

As the program wraps up this October, we look forward to integrating the lessons and skills learned from the course into our work and exploring how we can share what we learned with others.

programmescoyote.com

Meet the Team

Karahkwine McGregor

Karahkwine joined KEPO in September 2018. In 2015, she graduated from the administrative assistant program at the NOVA Career Centre.

Her role is to assist staff with day-to-day tasks, manage the reception area, assist in maintaining KEPO’s operational budget and provide any additional administrative support as needed. She acts as the initial contact for community members with environmental concerns and questions. She assists staff with the logistics for projects and events She manages arrangements for staff trainings and workshops

Karahkwine is passionate about the environment and has a strong connection to the natural world. She spends a lot of her spare time in Tioweró:ton to enjoy the natural habitat. She also enjoys fishing with her boys, and recently started beading Karahkwine is very proud of the team she works with They work hard every day to carry out their duties of protecting the environment and is honoured to be working with each and every one of her team members.

To learn more about the Coyote Program visit the link below...

Executive Administrative Assistant

Coyote Program April 2023

Monarchs are poisonous to predators They get their toxins from eating milkweed leaves

Monarch caterpillars have been known to devour a whole milkweed leaf in under five minutes.

Males have a small black spot on the top surface of the hindwing.

Monarchs will only be in the caterpillar stage for 10 to 14 days.

Estimates say up to a billion butterflies arrive in the mountains of Mexico each year where tens of thousands of them can overnight on a single tree

most recognizable r bright colour and Eastern monarch butterflies travel from the southeast of Canada to the mountains of central Mexico where they will hibernate from November to mid-March. It will take 3-4 generations of monarchs to complete the round-trip journey.

Adult butterflies have large orange wings with black veins and white spots on the edges. The monarch caterpillar is also easy to recognize by its black, white, and yellow stripes. Monarch eggs can be found on milkweed plants and the caterpillars will feed only on these plants. The caterpillar will leave its milkweed plant to pupate in a pale green and yellow spotted chrysalis.

KEPO Training

Monarch Monitoring

by Julie Delisle, Environmental Projects CoordinatorEducation & Outreach

Last month, KEPO staff had the opportunity to participate in the Monarch Watch Program and learn how to properly tag monarchs Monarch Watch is a non-profit volunteer-based citizen science organization that tracks the fall migration of monarch butterflies As part of the program, volunteers will apply coded tags to the underside of the wings of wild monarchs and submit data sheets to Monarch Watch.

Tagging monarchs helps researchers to answer questions about their migration patterns, changes in geographic distribution and mortality during migration. The tags do not interfere with flight or harm the butterflies when applied properly.

Monarchs are currently listed under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) as Special Concern but may soon be moved to Endangered It is estimated that between 1996 and 2014, populations of eastern monarchs have gone down by 84% Changes in climate and habitat loss are the main threats to monarch populations An endangered designation would mean that habitat for monarchs would be protected by federal law.

This training will help KEPO to establish our own monarch monitoring program in the future and allow us to share these skills with others in the community.

Monarch

Tagged monarch Montréal Technoparc green space

Community science

Tehont’nekanónhnha Returns

by Julie Delisle, Environmental Projects CoordinatorEducation & Outreach

This month, KEPO guided the science classes at Kahnawà:ke Survival School (KSS) through the Tehont’nekanónhnha (Water Guardians) program Tehont’nekanónhnha is a version of the citizen science program, Adopt a River, created by the Education and Water Monitoring Action Group (G3E) that incorporates our traditional knowledge of the waters with the scientific ecological monitoring of the water Ecological monitoring is the long-term study of the state of species, populations, and environmental indicators to understand the changes in ecosystems over time.

Students gain experience studying physicochemical parameters, conducting site descriptions, harvesting fish, and collecting macroinvertebrates. This hands on field work experience, combined with in-class theory will provide a better understanding of the interconnection of the natural environment, a sense of responsibility to our local waters, and hopefully inspire action to protect aquatic ecosystems. This year we also introduced the students to the North Creek Restoration Project (see page 2). We hope to hear the youth’s perspectives on this work and illustrate how the skills they are learning in Tehont’nekanónhnha can be applied in future environmental protection careers

With the help of the Kahnawà:ke Education Center, this is the second year that KEPO has facilitated the program with the grade ten classes at KSS. We are currently adapting a version of the program for the elementary level.

Kahnawà:ke Environment Protection Office

450-635-0600

environmentprotection@mck.ca

kahnawakeenvironment.com

@KahnawakeEnvironment

P.O.Box720

Kahnawà:keMohawkTerritory

J0L1B0

Tehont’nekanónhnha 2023