Projects | ARCC

How do we help with conservation?

Need more field technicians this summer? Need someone with specific GIS or other skills?

ARCC currently offers opportunities to apply for government funding through our agency.

*dependent on when government funding applications are being accepted

Saving Turtles at Risk Today Project

The S.T.A.R.T. Project is a turtle conservation project in partnership with the Georgian Bay Turtle Hospital, the Canadian Wildlife Federation, and Laurentian University. The project aims to reduce anthropogenic threats to the six turtle species (Spotted, Blanding’s, Map, Musk, Snapping, M. Painted) found within Muskoka, portions of Parry Sound and the Lake Simcoe watershed, through reduction of:

road mortality
habitat loss
subsidized predation
collection
persecution

Sciensational Sssnakes!!

This educational business provides hands-on programs for all ages about reptiles and amphibians. Their main focus is on native Ontario species. This is a very important topic because reptiles are the most at risk group of animals in our province. They provide flexible programming, usually with a show or display format all months of the year. Snakes dominate most of our shows for many reasons. They are almost perfectly designed for hands-on activities. They are safe, clean and easy to handle. They are one of the most misunderstood animals on the planet, and suffer greatly because of this lack of knowledge about them.

ARCC has been able to provide wages for educational presenters through Canada Summer Jobs funding.

Wildlife Preservation Canada

This conservation organization aims to save animals on the brink of extinction. Since 1985, they have been saving critically endangered species- species whose numbers in the wild are so low that a great deal more than habitat protection is required to recover them. Our partnership aims to support work with Blue Racers on Pelee Island.

Goals of this project include:

Abundance of Blue Racers
Population estimates and distribution
Collecting tissue samples to aid with genetic and genomic analyses

Georgian Bay Conservation Action, Research and Education about Snakes (C.A.R.E.S)

This is a new snake conservation project focusing on endangered and threatened species in the Georgian Bay watershed, including the Massasauga Rattlesnake, Eastern Hog-nosed Snake and the Eastern Foxsnake.

Their goal is to conserve these species by mitigating threats, filling knowledge gaps, and engaging the community to help.

Specific goals include:

delineating the eastern boundary of Massasauga distribution
surveying previously occupied locations without recent observations (40+ years)
identifying critical microhabitats such as hibernation and gestation sites

Pelee Island Salamander Project

This project is a research partnership with Trent University focused on determining the distribution and abundance of endangered Small-mouthed Salamanders across the island. They have recently been able to confirm this species still remains on the island, however, population estimates and distribution remains unknown.

This project has been able to:

Confirm the presence of pure Small-mouthed and Blue-spotted Salamanders on Pelee Island
Discover new breeding locations for Small-mouthed Salamanders

Blazing Star Environmental

This project is a partnership with Blazing Star Environmental focused on determining the distribution and abundance of Western Chorus Frogs across Ontario. Blazing Star aims to make communities environmentally prosperous, where families have natural areas to explore, clean air to breathe and clean water to drink.

This partnership's goals are:

To measure changes in the range of the Great Lakes- St. Lawrence- Canadian Shield population of the WCF over time throughout their Canadian range by establishing a program in Ontario that will complement ongoing monitoring
To provide new and measurable data on the progress towards recovery goals for COSEWIC status report updates
To all the conservation community to identify and respond to range declines.