'Illegal' warriors repair the Great Barrier Reef

Several operators have owned up to the practice of coral flipping, where divers are deployed underwater to, quite literally, turn live coral the right way up after it has been tipped over in a cyclone! Want to read more?  See http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2011/03/01/151811_local-news.html

New World Growth report contains 'false and misleading' information" INDONESIA

A new report from World Growth International, a lobby group for industrial forestry interests, contains "false and misleading" information on the economic impact of reducing Indonesia's deforestation rate, says an Indonesian environmental group. TO READ MORE SEE http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0401-world_growth_international.html

MORE MACOUN MARSH IMAGES FROM CANADA

These images were taken this past weekend:

I do love spring!  Mallard male in full colour!

Sleepy raccoon in a squirrel nest.

Canada geese going for a cool walk. 

Northern saw-whet owl

Snowdrops

  Male cardinal

Durrell's Global Conservation Programme for 2011-2015

For 50 years, the Durrell Conservation Trust has championed and led the conservation of species threated by extinction.    Naturalist and author Gerald Durrell believed that zoos had an important role in the protection of wildlife.  To read more see http://www.durrell.org/Home/Conservation//

Image above from the Durrell Conservation Trust

MORE MACOUN MARSH UPDATES (OTTAWA, CANADA)

What an exciting time as the season of spring brings species and diversity!  A Northern Saw-whet Owl  returns in search of  rodents.

Snowdrops emerging from under the snow

A female Common Redpoll in seach of nyjer seed!

Earth Hour Fredericton

On March 26th Fredericton NB celebrated Earth Hour by hosting a party at the downtown market space. There were many exhibitors including the astronomy society who had telescopes set up to watch and identify the stars. The whole event was unplugged and there were 2 bands playing acoustical music. Our EcoGroup had a booth set up advertising our bur oak project and focusing on our new project called Adopt A Tree, whereby people agree to adopt a bur oak, give it a home and look after it. We give them a tree and an adoption certificate.
We also promoted the Youth Accord on Biodiversity and collected some signatures.
If any one is interested in adopting a but oak tree they can contact us at buroak2010@gmail.com

Jack Simpson
Clara Simpson
Christina Vietinghoff

Young Masters Programme in Preventative Environmental Strategies

This is a message to all environmentalists between the ages of 15 - 18 about a course offered from Lund University in Sweden. It is an on-line course and it is free. It is called the Young Master's Programme (YMP) and it takes about 18 months to complete.
CISV EcoGroup in Fredericton has been taking an online course in preventative environmental strategies. It consists of 4 parts. The first two parts consist of 18 study modules where you learn about our environment, its problems and what we can do about it. Part 3 is a community project that you develop among yourselves and Part 4 is a global youth conference where you can meet some of the other hundreds of youth from around the world who are also taking the course from their home towns. We are a group of 7 and we meet once a week to discuss the module and to enter our posting on the YMP website. We can also learn about the postings made by others from around the world. We can also communicate with those other people about their environmental issues.
This is the third group to take the course and it is really awesome.
For more inormation see www.iiiee-ymp.org