Achievements in the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve

The Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association is a non-profit, community-based organization dedicated to achieving a healthy community on the Bruce Peninsula by promoting a healthy environment.

Established in 2000, it became the first community committee to implement the concepts of UNESCO World Biosphere Reserves along the Niagara Escarpment. The Association promotes a healthy, sustainable community with a balance between local development and ecological conservation. It strives to build local capacity by providing support for research, monitoring, education and information exchange re-lated to local issues.

Administered by a volunteer board of directors, the Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association represents diverse members of the community, including conservationists, business owners, hunters and anglers, teachers and students, First Nations, farmers and several others. This collaboration among a wide range of community members is the foundation to the Association’s guiding principles, representing all interests in the community to achieve a healthy, vibrant, and sustainable community on the Bruce Peninsula.

Recent Achievements

THE BRINKMAN FARM: NATURALLY, A SUCCESS! In 2003, the Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association collaborated with a local farmer and several other community partners to rehabilitate an agricultural stream. With landowners, businesses, government and non-government organizations, and local schools, the community on the Bruce Peninsula came together to, not only preserve a significant natural feature of the area, but also protect the integrity of our local watershed. Read more…

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ESCARPMENT In October 2005, the Niagara Escarpment Commission recognized the accomplishments of the Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association by presenting an Achievement Award. This award pays tribute to the Association’s outstanding contributions to the Niagara Escarpment over the past five years.

Left: Commissioner Tom Boyle (left) and NEC Chair Don Scott present the Niagara Escarpment Achievement Award to BPBA Director Sean Liipere and student Association member Mark Shearer at the NEC's October meeting in Tobermory, Ontario.

CELEBRATING OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
In recognition of our efforts in hosting the 2004 Provincial Envirothon, the Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association was awarded the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s prestigious Great Grants Award. The Biosphere Association was one of seven recipients selected from among 3,800 competing organizations throughout Ontario. Presented by Ontario’s Minister of Culture, Madeleine Meilleur, the award pays tribute to non-profit organizations that strive to build healthy, vibrant and sustainable communities throughout the province. This award not only acknowledges the lasting impacts of the 2004 Provincial Envirothon on Ontario’s youth, but it also celebrates the vision and spirit of our community, as well as the strong community partnerships that were formed.

Members of the Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association and partners are presented w ith a Great Grants Award from Robin Cordozo, Chief Executive Office with the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Our Ongoing Projects

MONITORING OUR FOREST ECOSYSTEMS
In 2002, a long-term monitoring program was initiated to assess the health of forest ecosystems on the Bruce Peninsula. Sixteen monitoring plots have been established on both private and protected lands throughout the municipality to observe changes in the health of our forest ecosystems by monitoring mature tree species, seedling and sapling regeneration, decay rates, lichens, and salamanders. Read more…

MONITORING OUR AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
Since 2003, a benthic monitoring program has been implemented in three local cold-water streams to monitor the health of these aquatic ecosystems. Benthic monitoring involves collecting bottom samples from the streams to identify and count the macroin-vertebrates, or aquatic insects, present in the water. Since some of these species are sensitive to disruptions in their environment they are good indicators of the health of the streams. Read more…

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
For four years, the Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association has provided local youth with an opportunity to gain hands-on employment experiences under the mentorship of re-source professionals. Read more…

HELPING OUR UNESCO SCHOOLS
One of the objectives of the Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association is to ‘maintain a strong link with the youth of the community.’ It has helped three local schools to be-come a part of UNESCO’s Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet), an in-ternational network of 7,793 schools in 175 countries. This program encourages students to think globally but act locally by exploring world issues in the context of their own environments, experiences and aspirations. Read more…