Field Trips & Collections Tours

The Quyon Alvar

Duration: Full-Day (9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.)

Cost: $ 48.00  (including transportation and lunch)

Maximum number of participants: 45

Guide: Jacques Cayouette, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Alvars are naturally open habitats with shallow soil over calcareous bedrock. Bare or mossy flat rock openings are frequent, but low to medium herbaceous vegetation with scattered shrubs and trees are characteristics of alvars. Alvars are globally imperiled habitats mostly in Europe, particularly in the Baltic Sea area, but also along the edges of the Canadian Shield in Canada and particularly in the Great Lakes region, in North America. Some occur in the Ottawa River valley of Quebec and Ontario.

The Quyon Alvar is close to the Ottawa River and is the largest in Quebec. It consists of a shoreline portion and an inland plateau. This alvar, like most plateau alvars, experiences extreme environmental conditions which limit tree growth and favour species that can resist inundation in spring and periodic drought in summer.

The Quyon Alvar is unique among the Quebec alvars, and many in Ontario including the Burnt Lands Alvar, in being an “Alvar savannah coniferous shrubland”, dominated by Juniperus communis var. depressa, Fragaria virginiana, Packera paupercula and Poa compressa. Other shrubs and small trees are sub-dominant, such as Crataegus spp., Quercus macrocarpa and Thuja occidentalis. In the herbaceous layer, the most frequent species are Danthonia spicata, Solidago nemoralis, Symphyotrichum ciliolatum, and Panicum philadelphicum, the last in mosses around exposed flat rocks. This alvar is quite diverse with at least 225 plant species. Fourteen of these are on the Quebec list of threatened or vulnerable species, of which 10 occur in the plateau portion. They are: Cerastium nutans, Draba nemorosa, Geranium carolinianum, Lathyrus ochroleucus, Panicum flexile, P. philadelphicum, Polygala senega, Solidago ptarmicoides, Vicia americana,and Viola affinis. Geranium carolinianum was recently added to the flora of Quebec. Vicia americana is located here close to its southeastern limit in Canada. Some very rare insects have been found in the alvar, including the moth Sarata caudelella, also a recent addition to the Quebec fauna; this species is commonly found in prairie habitats and is also present in some alvars in Ontario.

You will need comfortable walking shoes and a backpack for your box lunch and drinks. A camera, binoculars and hand lens are highly recommended!

Burnt Lands Provincial Park  ***CANCELLED***
 
Duration: Full-Day (9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.)

Cost: $ 48.00  (including transportation and lunch)

Maximum number of participants: 45

Guide : Paul Catling, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

This area, 40 km SW of Ottawa, includes one of the richest and most extensive alvar landscapes in the Great Lakes region. Open shrublands,   prairie and limestone pavements are interspersed with mostly semi-open White Spruce (Picea glauca) - White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis) boreal forest. The flora and fauna is considered relict from early postglacial times several thousand years ago and is quite different from an apparently more recent flora and fauna typical of much of the Ottawa valley. The persistence of early postglacial elements here is attributed to extremes of waterlogging and severe periodic drought which limits tree growth, favours evergreens and maintains dry, open conditions. Periodic drought is a consequence of both shallow soil and porous limestone rock which allows water to drain away but limits access to the water table. Dryness leads to natural fire and this also has played an important role in maintaining high biodiversity on this landscape. The composition is a mixture of boreal and austral elements with some western disjuncts such as Prairie Dropseed Grass (Sporobolus heterolepis) and Clay-colored Sparrows (Spizella pallida).  Early summer wildflowers include Early Saxifrage (Saxifraga virginiana), Lesser Yellow Lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium calceolus var. pubescens) and Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). The area also contains a large population of the local Hoary Elfin Butterfly (Callophrys polia) which flies in spring and early summer. 

You will need comfortable walking shoes and a backpack for your box lunch and drinks. A camera, binoculars and hand lens are highly recommended!

Gatineau Park & Tree Identification

Duration: Full-Day (9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.)

Cost: $ 48.00  (including transportation and lunch)

Maximum number of participants: 45

Guides : Jean Lauriault & Friends of Gatineau Park

Gatineau Park is a magnificent area just waiting for your visit to reveal its charms. It’s an open window on the National Capital Region’s great outdoors. Managed by the National Capital Commission, Gatineau Park is a superb nature reserve just 15 minutes to the north from Parliament Hill. It serves as a reminder that environmental protection is a cherished Canadian value, and its objective is to ensure the permanent preservation of a vast natural territory for the enjoyment of all Canadians. The Park is endowed with hundreds of kilometres of trails, forests containing more than fifty species of trees, abundant wildlife and numerous crystal-clear lakes typical of the hills of the Canadian Shield. The Eardley Escarpment is the dominant feature of Gatineau Park and is home to the richest and most fragile ecosystem in Gatineau Park. The Escarpment forms the dividing line between the rock of the Canadian Shield (which covers more than half of Canada) and the St. Lawrence Lowlands. It is without a doubt Gatineau Park’s richest natural area — and its most fragile; with the highest number of endangered plant species in all of Quebec. With its warm, dry climate and steep cliffs, the area is particularly sensitive to erosion. 

This field trip will bring you to some of the most interesting areas of the Park. You will also have the opportunity to join Jean Lauriault for a nature hike along Lauriault Trail in and learn how to identify trees using your senses.  Jean is the author of Identification Guide to the Trees of Canada.

Dress appropriately for the weather and to protect against insects.  Wear comfortable walking or hiking shoes (no sandals).  Don’t forget to bring a water bottle.

Geology for Geophytes

Duration: Full Day (9 am – 4:30 p.m.)

Cost: $ 48.00  (including transportation and lunch)

Maximum number of participants: 45

Guides : Jean Dougherty, Jan Ayslworth, and Ann Therriault, Geological Survey of Canada

The Geological Survey of Canada is part of the Department of Natural Resources Canada and it collects, conserves, documents, researches, and interprets scientific materials relating to the exploration, development, exploitation, and management of Canada’s natural resources.

This field trip will start with a preview of the educational resource Geoscape Ottawa-Gatineau, and we will provide handouts on this "Trip through time - the last two billion years in Ottawa." We will then head out to local sites to look at the geology of the Ottawa-Gatineau area and how it affects our urban environment. The trip will start with a Precambrian outcrop with glacial erosional features and another outcrop of Cambrian sandstone in Kanata.  We will also visit sites such as a stromatolites outcrop (see picture), fossiliferous limestone in front of 601 Booth, ripple marks and more at Hogs Back, and the bog vegetation trail at Mer Bleue, a 7600 year old bog – paleochannel (see picture).  Finally, we will cross an area shaped by glacial deposits and landslides.

During this trip we can visit Logan Hall (named after Sir William Logan, Canada’s first geologist), a small museum showcasing the best of our collections. We also house internationally known collections such as the National Minerals, National Ores, National Meteorites and Tektites, National Reference and Type Fossils, National Ice Core, rock samples, surficial Materials, and organic matter, which may be seen depending on time and weather. A more in depth visit to these collections can be arranged by contacting the leaders of this field trip.

Biking Ottawa Waterways:  National Capital Nature

Duration: Full Day (9:00 am – approx. 4:30 p.m.)

Cost: $ 60.00 (including box lunch and bike rental) or $25 (without bike rental)

Maximum number of participants: 15

Guides: Kieran Shepherd, Jennifer Doubt, Canadian Museum of Nature

Prefer to be self-propelled? Discover a bit of the natural National Capital during a leisurely 30 km bicycle tour along the Rideau Canal – a World Heritage Site! As a group, the tour will follow city bike paths and routes to visit gardens and the Arboretum at the Central Experimental Farm, explore Rideau River fauna with a Canadian Museum of Nature ichthyologist, and discover little-known geological wonders of Parliament Hill. Bring appropriate clothing and a small pack for carrying water and snacks. The trip will proceed rain or shine, so bring rain gear too! Lunch is included in the registration fee.

*Helmets are mandatory. Participants who cannot bring a bicycle can rent a bicycle and helmet as part of the trip registration fee.

Tour at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) at the Central Experimental Farm

Duration: Half-Day (9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)

Cost: $ 20.00  (including transportation)

Maximum number of participants: 30

Guides: Gisèle Mitrow, Scott Redhead, Owen Lonsdale, Jean-Pascal Gratton, Crispin Woods and Robert Glendinning

The AAFC’s Central Experimental Farm is located in Ottawa where are housed various internationally known collection such as the DAO Vascular Plant Herbarium, the DAOM National Mycological Herbarium, the CNC Entomology, Acarology & Nematology Collections (CNC) and the Arboretum. 

AAFC National Collection of Vascular Plants (acronym DAO): Where are the northernmost wild grapes in Canada? How far will Canada’s worst invasive alien spread? Here we can find answers to these and many other questions. It is the largest collection of its kind in Canada, including 1.5 million specimens, and the first in Canada to implement climate control to prevent damage and optimize the life of specimens. Examples of over 20% of the planet’s vascular flora are included, most of them Canadian. The 4000 type specimens in the collection are internationally significant in defining the correct use of plant names.

National Mycological Herbarium (acronym DAOM): This is the largest mycological herbarium in Canada, holding 350,000 specimens. Representatives of virtually all known, Canadian phytopathogenic fungi are represented in DAOM or the Canadian Collection of Fungal Cultures (CCFC), along with forest decay fungi, and a wide variety of endemic saprophytic and mycorrhizal species. Foreign collections of many phytopathogens and taxonomically allied species are represented for comparisons. The collection also includes over 55,000 formal exsiccatae specimens.

Entomology Collection (acronym CNC): The first insect collection at AAFC dates from 1886 when the Experimental Farm was first established. These specimens were merged with those from the Department of Agriculture in 1917, resulting in the CNC Collection. The collection has now grown into one of the five largest collections of its kind in the world, with nearly 16 million insects, arachnids, nematodes and invertebrate fossils.  It is constantly increasing, contributing to the National Identification Service, improving Canadian agriculture, international collaborations, and Canadian research on biodiversity, biocontrol, IPM (Integrated Pest Management) and climate change.

Arboretum: Since its inception in 1889, the Dominion Arboretum has undergone several stages of evolution. Originally a test site for winter hardiness of forestry and agro-forestry crops it later became a center for ornamental plant development and introduction. The Arboretum serves as both a cultural and historic landmark and a national plant collection. It displays and manages a wide variety of native and non-native trees and woody plants in a formal, urban setting. It holds over 4000 woody plant specimens which have been carefully identified, accessioned, mapped and labeled with digital records kept of each plant’s respective attributes.

Behind the scenes in the Canadian Museum of Nature Collections

Duration: Half-Day (1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.)

Cost: $ 20.00  (including transportation)

Maximum number of participants: 100

Guides: Wilda Corcoran and CMN staff

The Natural Heritage Building at the Canadian Museum of Nature houses an estimated 10 million specimens gathered over more than 150 years and covering four billion years of Earth history. The specimens represent the flora, fauna and geological record of Canada and other locales around the world. In this open house concept, you will choose to see any or all of our collections and laboratories. Highlights will include a visit to our 3D Imaging Centre, large skeleton room, and the herbarium. In each of our collection areas and labs, our research and collections experts will be on hand to explain the work they do and their exciting discoveries.

The National Herbarium. The plant collections of the Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada were officially incorporated into a museum department in 1882, and built up to 100,000 plants by 1911. The herbarium now houses almost 1 million specimens of vascular plants, lichens, mosses and algae, including 4,500 type specimens.

Vertebrate Collections.  We have over 313,000 lots of fish, amphibians and reptiles, birds, mammals and bones, for a total of 1,035,000 specimens (60,000 fish lots, 37,000 amphibian and reptile lots, 125,000 birds and 85,000 mammals). Our collections include the best Canadian Arctic fish and lamprey collection in the world, one quarter of the world’s species of birds, including species that are now extinct, and cetacean samples collected during whaling operations in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Invertebrate Collections: Our more than 1 million invertebrate samples include annelids, molluscs, crustaceans, parasites, and insects (primarily beetles, with Scarabaeidae and Curculioniodea particularly well represented). In addition, this collection houses cnidarians, various free-living helminths and non-segmented worms, and other invertebrates.

Earth Sciences: We have a comprehensive collection of 120,000 specimens (450 primary types) of vertebrate fossils, fossil plants, fossil pollen, fossil fungi, minerals, rocks and gems. Our vertebrate fossil collection contains more than 50,000 specimens, and includes a broad range of fauna from the Devonian to the Pleistocene. Our Quaternary mammals, collected in northern Canada, constitute the finest and most comprehensive collection of its type. With the acquisition of the William Pinch collection, our collection of Canadian minerals is the finest in the world.

Post-conference field trip (Saturday, June 5th)

Botanical hike in Gatineau Park

Duration: Full-day (9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.)

Cost: $ 30.00 (including lunch and transportation)

Maximum number of participants: 15

Guide: Lynn Gillespie, Canadian Museum of Nature

Covering 361 square kilometers, Gatineau Park lies to the northwest of the nation’s capital; its plants and wildlife are protected by the National Capital Commission. This field trip will provide an opportunity to unwind near the end of the conference with a full-day botanical hike, which will include spectacular views of the escarpment and Meech Lake.

The beginning of June is an excellent time to see a combination of late spring and early summer wildflowers, flowering shrubs, and trees. Moccasin flower (Cypripedium acaule), trilliums (Trillium grandiflorum), spring beauties (Claytonia caroliniana, C. virginica), bellworts (Uvularia grandiflora, U. perfoliata), gaywings (Polygala pauciflora) and a plethora of other beautiful plants including early sedges and grasses may be seen in flower.

You will need fairly sturdy hiking/walking shoes, as well as a pack to carry your box lunch, drink, and water. Be prepared for mosquitoes and blackflies!