Hello Dufferin Hi-Land Club,
Our names are Anna and Eric, and we have been the Trail Ambassadors for the Dufferin Hi-Land section of the Bruce Trail for the past two and a half months. But what exactly do we do as Trail Ambassadors? That’s exactly what we will be covering with you all today.
Our days of the week are split into two main categories: stewardship on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and public engagement on Friday, and Saturday. On stewardship days, our focus has been the monitoring and removal of invasive species, such as Garlic Mustard, Periwinkle, Common Buckthorn, Dog-Strangling Vine, Japanese Knotweed, Lily of the Valley, and Invasive Honeysuckle. It’s a great feeling to see a patch of invasive species disappear after a long day of pulling! However, as managing invasive species is a multi-year commitment, it is important that these projects continue in future years for long-term results to be observed.
On public engagement days, we focus on hiking at many of the more popular sections of the trail, including Mono Cliffs, Pine River Valley, and Splitrock Narrows. This allows us to talk with fellow trail users about our job, the role of the Bruce Trail Conservancy and the clubs, directions, and more! It has been great seeing and meeting several of you out on the trail this summer! During days when the weather didn’t allow us to get out on the trail, we have also made several social media posts for the biodiversity committee to showcase interesting species and landmarks to look out for while hiking.
While our personal favorite sections have been Pine River Valley and Mono Cliffs (great mushrooms!), it is always a pleasure seeing what the Dufferin Hi-Lands ecology and local history has to offer. Some of our highlight observations have been the Eastern newt, common snapping turtle, red raspberry slime mold, cup plant, giant puffball, and Eastern milk snake.
We have had a great time exploring the Dufferin Hi-Land section this summer!
-Dufferin Hi-Lands Trail Ambassadors
