HollandCollege Charlottetown, Prince Edward IslandCanada
Ben Hoteling and HollandCollege provided an exceptional opportunity that combined time for our Annual General Meeting as well as extended professional development field trips around Prince Edward Island.The rolling topography and the red, iron rich soils were two of the more striking features of the area.Although a large percentage of the island is in cultivation with numerous potato fields, there are abundant fence rows, woodlands, and rivers that form a patchwork quilt effect in the landscape.PEI is without a white-tailed deer population, although the habitat seemed suitable.The eagle banding field trip was a great experience, when three eaglets in excellent condition were found from a single nest.
Eaglet banding activities on Prince Edward Island
Additional professional development activities included an early evening cruse of the Charlottetown harbor and waterway between PEI and New Brunswick, shoreline birding and seal watching activities in eastern PEI, the Greenwich Parabolic Dune System interpretative hike and a field trip to the Macphail Woods Ecology Forestry Project.
Interpretive program along the Greenwich Parabolic Dune System
Significant progress was made in the development of Wildlife Technician Certification with The Wildlife Society.A review of the suggested hour requirements was conducted and a memo of understanding was drafted.The finalize document was reviewed over the summer by those in attendance and was sent to Dan Svedarsky for presentation at the September 2007 TWS meetings in Tucson, Arizona.
The Accreditation Committee’s recommendations were approved for the re-accreditation for a five-year period of SirSandfordFlemingCollege’s Fish and Wildlife Technician Program taught on their Frost Campus located in Lindsay, Ontario. A one-year conditional accreditation of the Natural Resource Management Program at HawkeyeCommunity College, located in Waterloo, Iowa was also approved.
Our “Silver Anniversary” Annual General Meeting will be hosted by VermilionCommunity College and Lori Schmidt, NAWTA President, in June 2008.The location is in the northeast corner of Minnesota near the Boundary Canoe Area Wilderness.It is as close to the center of the North American continent as we can get, with easy access for our Canadian members via Thunder Bay and for those from the United States via Duluth.
North American Wildlife Technology Association www.NAWTA.org
