January 2024 Newsletter
https://bit.ly/KWEFJanuary2024Newsletter
Included in this issue:
Use of Road Salt
Please Don’t Feed the Deer
Animal Tracks
Use of Road Salt
When it comes to road salt, a little can go a long way!
The overuse of road salt is damaging to our infrastructure, automobiles, vegetation, water quality and the environment, which is why it was added to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act’s Priority Substances List in 1995. Since this time, municipalities have been investigating ways to maintain public safety while reducing the amount of road salt used.
What are some of the best ways to reduce your salt use while maintaining safety?
Keep your driveway and sidewalk clear of ice and snow - shovel first to remove as much snow and ice before applying salt.
A little salt goes a long way. You only need to spread about a tablespoon or two of salt for a one-meter square area – the size of a sidewalk slab. Use a smaller grain-size, evenly spread on icy areas only, and give it time to work before clearing.
Protect yourself from slips and falls and increase road safety:
- Wear proper winter footwear designed for snow and ice.
- Add removable ice spikes to your boots for walking outdoors in icy conditions.
- Use a traction aid like sand or kitty litter on your walkway to increase traction.
- Having snow tires on your vehicle and driving at a slower speed will increase traction, lower your chances of winter accidents, and save you money through lower insurance premiums.
Prevent future icy buildups:
- Redirect your downspouts away from walkways and driveways.
- Shovel and pile your snow to lower areas or onto lawns to direct melting snow away from paved areas.
Road salt does not work when the temperature is below -10 °C. When it’s really cold, use sand to provide traction. Other traction alternatives include fireplace ash, coffee grounds and kitty litter
Avoiding the use of salt on your property whenever possible
Using the minimum amount of salt, when necessary, combined with the tips above will help us reverse the increasing concentrations of salts in our waterways, which will be good news for our wildlife, our infrastructure, and our health.
It’s time to go on a LOW (road) SALT DIET!
There are de-icing alternatives to salt. There are plenty on the market - “pet-safe” and “eco-friendly” versions made with beet juice, for example. Keep in mind that these usually still contain salt, just not as much. And they still have an impact on the environment. So, follow the manufacturer’s directions and only use what you need to stay safe and slip-free.
Source: Muskoka Watershed Council
Please Don’t Feed the Deer (or any wildlife)
Many provincial and federal agencies do not encourage the feeding of wildlife.
Feeding wildlife almost always has negative consequences for the wildlife involved, including:
• Increased disease transmission
• The loss of natural foraging skills
• Eating foods that are nutritionally incompatible
• Altered reproduction rates caused by artificial food sources; feeding wildlife may sustain higher than natural population levels.
• Affecting migration patterns
• Altering the ecological balance. Feeding one wildlife species and not another puts some at an unfair advantage and alters the ecological balance.
• Increasing human/ wildlife interaction. Wildlife may lose their natural fear of people, which could result in dangerous encounters with people and collisions with vehicles.
People who feed wildlife do so with the best of intentions and feel they are looking after the welfare of these wild animals; however, they should be aware that wildlife needs to remain wild. Wild animals should derive their food and shelter from natural habitats and under natural conditions. This will help maintain natural adaptations that ensure the long-term survival of the individual animals and of the species.
The general rule is: Do not feed wildlife.
Feeding Deer
People are often tempted to feed White-tailed Deer during the winter in order to “save” them from winter conditions. This practice causes a particular set of problems. Research has shown that deer actually get little or no benefit from being fed during the winter.
In fact, there are a number of negative consequences:
• Deer visiting feeding areas lose their natural wildness and aversion to people.
• Feeding manufactured food products removes the deer’s natural adaptations to cope with severe winters in their natural habitat.
• Natural migration patterns to wintering areas may be disrupted if the animals are enticed to remain at a feeding area.
• Deer become concentrated around feeding areas, resulting in the destruction of natural habitat.
• Concentrations of deer at feeding stations increase the risk of disease transmission among the animals.
• The digestive system of deer adapts to their typical natural food that is available during winter. Improper feeding of other food types can cause digestive problems that may result in death.
• Deer that become accustomed to feeders and are then not fed proper quantities or quality of food may die.
• Most of the food at a feeding area is typically eaten by a few dominant deer.
• Many deer feeding areas are near populated areas and homes, increasing the risk of dogs chasing and killing deer.
• Feeding deer near populated areas or highways greatly increases the risk of deer / vehicle collisions.
• Deer concentrated at feeding areas near homes inevitably cause a nuisance problem for neighbours, as deer eat and damage nearby shrubs and gardens.
• Winter mortality is a major driving force in keeping populations at long-term sustainable levels.
Animal tracks
Winter is an excellent time to notice the wildlife that surrounds us. Although we may seldom see them, evidence of their presence and daily activity reminds us that they are here enduring the cold winter months with us.
The most noticeable sign of wildlife are footprints in the snow. We can learn a great deal about an animal’s life from the tracks they leave behind. We can determine the size, family type, and often species of the animal. We can follow the tracks to identify where an animal is nesting or hiding. We can discover who is living in a specific area or recreate the scene of a hunt where a predator’s tracks are close behind its prey’s, revealing who is eating whom in the forest.
Just as we leave different tracks in the snow with our boots, skis, snowboards, and snowshoes, different animals leave distinguishable tracks on the ground. The best tracks are in a thin skim of snow (5-20 mm) over a hard base. New snow over previously hard packed snow is ideal. You can see every detail.
When tracking an animal, using its footprints to find or identify it, there are a few helpful hints to remember.
Look at the basic shape of the print and ask: Is it round or elongated? How many toes do you see? Can you see evidence of claws? How big is it? These basic questions can be a big help. For instance, Red Squirrel and Grey Squirrel tracks look the same, but the grey is twice the size of the red’s tracks.
Deer and moose leave hooved images in their footprints, but fox, wolf and coyote have distinguishable pad shapes in their prints. Small mammals’ tracks may look like clusters in the snow and sometimes tail or belly marks are also visible.
Look for the tracks’ patterns or gait. Many weasels hop, so the tracks come in pairs. Wild dogs, like coyote and fox, tend to put one foot in front of the other, so they leave a narrow, straight track through the snow. Domestic dogs walk with their feet more spread out and — if off-leash — rarely in a straight line.
It is important to keep in mind the type of habitat where a set of tracks is found. This can help us decide which animals’ tracks we are observing. For example, both the mink and marten leave similar tracks, but the mink lives near waterways while the marten usually resides is forested areas.
Source: www.walkingmountains.org and www.ontarioparks.com
