#817: Sandhill Fen: Wildlife Returns
It takes more than a few hills, ponds and trees to create a functioning ecosystem.
In the four years since Syncrude finished planting trees at its new Sandhill Fen, bushes and wildflowers have started to grow there.
And as ecologist Carla Wytrykush points out, now the wildlife is moving in.
CARLA WYTRYKUSH: We have a huge variety of animals that are already using the fen. They’re living there. They’re feeding there. They’re making babies there. This summer we had a resident bear, a giant. I think they estimated him to be a 400 pound male that hung out in the fen, eating the cattails and feeding on all those pincherries. And one really exciting thing is the common nighthawk. And so although it’s called a common nighthawk, its not that common and it’s actually a threatened species in Alberta. And we’ve had a pair of nighthawk nest in the fen. They return every year. We’ve seen them produce two young when normally the clutch size is only one egg. So they are very productive in the fen and they keep returning. So this is something we’re really excited about. There’s a wide variety of wildlife using this habitat, even species that are rare and threatened.
Thanks today to Syncrude.
You can hear the full interview with Carla Wytrykush at Innovation Anthology.com
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
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Sponsor
Syncrude
Program Date: 2016-10-25