Port Rowan, Nov. 20, 2014. Two additional wildlife culverts will be installed under the Long Point Causeway this winter thanks to $120,000 in funding from the new National Conservation Plan launched by the federal government earlier this year. These culverts will provide safe passage for wildlife and potential aquatic connections between the Big Creek Marsh and Long Point Bay. “This new federal funding recognizes that wetland restoration is also an important ecological goal of the Long Point Causeway Improvement Project (LPCIP), in addition to the reduction reptile road mortality”, said Paula Jongerden, chair of the LPCIP steering Committee. Jongerden noted[…]
LPCIP News
More wildlife culverts for Long Point Causeway
Port Rowan, Sept. 24, 2014 – The Long Point Causeway Improvement Project (LPCIP) will be installing three more wildlife culverts this fall to reduce road mortality of Species at Risk turtles and snakes under the 3.6 km. roadway. Since the Project began in 2008, road kill of reptiles on the Causeway has been reduced by more than 50 per cent. The LPCIP will be paying all of the $307,000 in costs related to this construction project thanks to funding from Environment Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk and Ontario’s Species at Risk Stewardship Fund. “We’ve received tremendous support[…]
More wildlife culverts on the way
Road kill rates ‘way down’ as endangered species cross in safety By Katie Starr, Norfolk News Turtles, snakes and other endangered species will continue to be able to safely cross the Long Point Causeway as phase two of the wildlife culvert project moves ahead. Construction of three new culverts is due to begin this month and will end in November, said Rick Levick, co-ordinator of the Long Point Causeway Improvement Project Steering Committee. Levick was at council recently to discuss the second phase of the project, which seeks to reduce roadkill rates on the Causeway by getting animals to cross[…]
A lesson on ecopassages
Rick Levick, coordinator with the Long Point Causeway Improvement Project stands with one of the displays at an open house held at the Port Rowan Community Centre on Thursday. (SARAH DOKTOR Simcoe Reformer) By Sarah Doktor, Simcoe Reformer Thursday, December 19, 2013 5:13:02 EST PM The Long Point Causeway Improvement Project held an open house at the Port Rowan Community Centre as part of their environmental assessment process and to inform the public of their plans to install up to nine more wildlife culverts. “They can ask questions and find out what we’ve done so far. Learn about what we’ve[…]
Slow and steady saves the turtles
Photo by Katie Starr Author Jan Everett has written a children’s book about turtles traversing the Long Point Causeway. By Katie Starr, Norfolk News It started with a birthday present. After giving her baseball fanatic husband John tickets to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field the year before, Jan Everett knew the pressure was on for birthday number 61. “So I decided to write him a book,” Everett said at her book signing in Simcoe last weekend. “It was something I had just giggled about doing before, but the words and illustrations just came to me.” Everett’s gift wasn’t just[…]
Nine more ecopassages proposed for Causeway
By Pat Finney, Port Rowan Good News November 18, 2013 – The vision of further reducing reptile and amphibian mortality on the Long Point Causeway road and increasing the historic movement of water between Big Creek Marsh and the Inner Bay of Long Point, is one important step closer to becoming reality. At a Council-in-Committee meeting on November 5, Council agreed a) to be the proponent of the next phase of the project to install as many as nine more ecopassages: two aquatic or ‘wet’ ecopassages and seven more dry ecopassages, potentially bringing the overall total to 12 b) to[…]
“Never Give Up” book for sale
The Long Point World Biosphere Reserve Foundation has teamed up with local children’s author Jan Everett to offer a revised edition of her popular “Never Give Up” book about little Johnny helping turtles cross a dangerous road. The book is based on the true story of her husband John’s efforts to rescue turtles crossing the Long Point Causeway, once rated the fourth deadliest road for turtles in North America. Johnny’s story also reflects the work of local citizens since 2006 to reduce road mortality of turtles, snakes and frogs on the Causeway that is located in the Biosphere Reserve. The[…]
More help for turtles, frogs at Long Point
Simcoe Reformer, July 18, 2013 Construction is expected to start next year on more eco-passages to take turtles, snakes, and frogs safely under the Long Point Causeway. A group of concerned citizens, which installed three tunnels under the roadway last fall, announced Wednesday they have received another $211,500 in provincial funds. Combined with $223,000 in federal grants from earlier this year, the Long Point Causeway Improvement Project says it has enough money to build at least four, and possibly six, new passages. LPCIP co-ordinator Rick Levick said the group’s next step will be to approach the county, which owns the[…]
Ontario provides funding for more Causeway ecopassages
Port Rowan, July 17, 2013 – Ontario’s Species at Risk Stewardship Fund (SARSF) is contributing $211,500 over the next two years to support the installation of more ecopassages that will allow turtles, snakes and frogs to pass safely under the Long Point Causeway. The new funding brings the total of SARSF contributions to the Causeway Improvement Project over the past five years to more than $440,000. Last month, Environment Canada announced it would be providing $223,000 over three years for this work. That brought Environment Canada’s total contribution through its Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk to $710,000. “This[…]
Turtle poaching near Long Point a concern
By Monte Sonnenberg, Simcoe Reformer Tuesday, June 25, 2013 10:09:49 EDT PM LONG POINT – The Ministry of Natural Resources is asking the public to be on the lookout for people behaving suspiciously around area ponds and wetlands. The ministry has received reports in recent weeks of people in the local area helping themselves to turtles in the wild. The reports are disturbing because poaching of this sort can be devastating to species-at-risk. “We are speculating as to why they are taking them,” Emmilia Kuisma, a district strategic officer with the MNR in Aylmer, said Tuesday. “It’s either for the[…]