Editor: D. Jolly
| ISSUE 6:May, 2000 |
EARTHQUEST Peru Expedition team:
Top row; Brent Tomlinson, Angelo Konidas, Sean Donovan, Nancy Antoniuk, Carlos Nordt. Bottom row; author. Photo: by author |
Expedition team goes to Peru
|
Four team members and I journeyed deep into the heart of the Peruvian Amazon down the Piedras River system from April 12-26, 1999. From the gold-mining pioneer town of Puerto Maldonado, I led the team down the Piedras River 300 miles into the remote ecological reserve of Curiyaco. The river boat trip took 4 days to complete. Along the way the team saw over 115 species of birds, including endangered Scarlet Macaws, Hoatzins, storks such as Jabiru and unusual fowl birds such as Screamers. During the evening hours the team had time to enjoy the clear starry nights and view the Scorpio constellation as well as swim with the Caimen and Pirrhana. Fifteen mammal species were discovered. Personal favourites were Golden Lion tamarin monkeys and Giant Otters. Upon our arrival at the reserve we immediately began construction of a base camp and cut trails for observing wildlife. The team successfully cut and marked 1.5 kilometers of trails over a 3 day period and built feeding platforms to attract local primate residents. EARTHQUEST is planning a similar Expedition to the Manu National Park region of southwestern Peru for the spring or summer of 2001. Anyone interested in joining should contact us ASAP as spaces on this team are limited and expected to fill quickly. |
The first Bruce Trail Expedition
|
In July, 1999 EARTHQUEST initiated the Bruce Trail Project. Over a 5 year period EARTHQUEST plans to completely document all vascular plants, amphibians and reptiles, birds, mammals and butterfly species within 25 meters of either side of the Bruce Trail. The Bruce Trail is an 800 kilometer natural foot path which extends from Tobermory to Niagara Falls, Ontario. It directly follows the Niagara Escarpment and is part of the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve established in 1990 by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). |
Affiliation with InkaNatura
|
InkaNatura Travel, based in Lima, Peru is a leader in eco-travel within Peru and other parts of South America. I talked with Kit Herring, Manager of the Florida office in the USA and discussed possibilities of running Research/Conservation Expeditions to Peru with InkaNatura as the Tour Operator. Kit was delighted to hear of our decision to go with them. InkaNatura specializes in ecotours to ecolodges located around Manu National Park, including the famous Cock-of-the Rock Lodge. We greatly look forward to working with InkaNatura in 2001 |
Results of Bruce Trail work
A team of 5 documented 130 species of plants (3 provincially significant), 65 bird species (2 rare in the Province of Ontario), 4 amphibians and reptiles, 6 mammals, and 14 species of butterflies. This data was used by local biologists for environmental impact statements and universities to update information on the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve.
2000 Bruce Trail FAT Expedition team:
|
Michelle DeCiccio (FA), Michael Rowland, Susan Bone, author, Morgan Hall, Tanya Forde, Robert Noble. Photo: by author
Season two: Bruce Trail Project
The summer of 2000 marked our second season of collecting data on the flora and fauna of the Bruce Trail. Expedition teams will finish off the Bruce Peninsula and attempt to publish the first series of books on the Bruce Trail flora and fauna species by December, 2000. Emphasis this season will be placed on photographing birds, amphibians and reptiles as well as capturing landscape shots for the publication.
June 20-30 Field Assistant Training Expedition
The main collection of data is expected to be compiled by a team of 6 Field Assistant Trainees (FAT's) during a 10 day Expedition to the Bruce. Michelle DeCiccio will be returning as the Field Assistant (FA). Michelle was excited to learn that she was invited to the position and will bring alot of that excitement to the team. We're delighted with having her! Hopefully, with a little luck, team members from this FAT team will discover more significant plants and birds.For more information about Bruce Trail programs for 2001 please Click here.
Official website design by author
EQ Website
In October, 1999 I began engineering a website for internet browsers. I spent 4 months labouring over my invention and finally placed it on the net in January, 2000. Additionally, I developed a way to increase the ranking of the website on the net using HTML coding. As a result the official EARTHQUEST website gained number 1 ranking on the InfoSeek search engine and number 4 on Google. Collectively, the website now receives an average of 120 hits per month.
Partner Organizations - RCDP-Nepal
EARTHQUEST announces its latest affiliation with the Rural Community Development Project-Nepal (RDCP-Nepal) this month with the inclusion of a webpage dedicated to RCDP-Nepal on the official EARTHQUEST website. RDCP-Nepal plans to work alongside EARTHQUEST in the coming months to develop and orchestrate Research/Conservation Expeditions to Nepal in the spring and summer of 2001. The purpose of these Expeditions will be to explore and document rare and endangered medicinal plants in the Central Hill region of Nepal. Nepal is the second poorest nation in the world and the people rely solely on natural plants for medical and pharmaceutical needs. The EARTHQUEST teams sent in to document native plant species will add significantly to attempts to preserve and identify primary areas for protection.!For applications on EARTHQUEST programs please Click here.
April 2001 Newsletter
November 2002 Newsletter
E-mail: earthquestcanada@yahoo.com
Executive Director & Senior Instructor
D. Jolly, B.Sc.
EARTHQUEST (Canada) for the Environment
8122 Rogers Rd. S., RR #5
Aylmer, Ontario, Canada
N5H 2R4
©copyright EARTHQUEST (Canada) for the Environment
| Website designed and maintained by D. Jolly
Last Updated 23/10/09 |
|
