Late November 2022

INSIDE: Giving Tuesday Matching Challenge; Help Build Food Security in Waterloo Region; Registrations Open for March Break ECO Camp; Fall Bird Monitoring in Eramosa Unveils 3 New Bird Species; A Conversation about Conversations for Conservation.

Photo by: Don Thomas

Double Your Support on #GivingTuesday

November 29, the Tuesday after Black Friday, is #GivingTuesday -- the world’s largest generosity movement; every act of generosity counts, and everyone has something to give.

This year, gifts made to rare on this day go further. Larry Hubble, a long-time rare supporter, has committed to match the first $2,000 in donations to rare on #GivingTuesday. This is in addition to the $5,000 matching challenge by the Uebele family running to the end of the year!

#GivingTuesday is an especially good time to Give the Gift of Nature -- protecting habitats and biodiversity and helping to build resilience for our community against future threats. Donate in the name of friends and loved ones, and symbolically adopt one of four species found at rare, and we will deliver an eCertificate to the email of your choice to let them know that you've given a gift that will last for generations.

Every donation helps and is greatly appreciated. On behalf of everyone at rare and the over 5,000 species protected on rare lands, we wish everybody a happy and healthy holiday season. Thank you for helping meet Larry Hubble's challenge on #GivingTuesday!

In these tough times, it's more important than ever to build local food security, ensuring everyone has enough to maintain a healthy diet.

This year's drought has cut harvests locally, including at rare's Springbank Farm, and that has put pressure on food prices, making it harder for agencies like our local food banks to help families in need just when the need is greatest.

For this reason, we are encouraging everyone who can to donate fresh produce and non-perishable foods to your local food bank to help people in need.

We are proud to continue to donate fresh organic produce to the Cambridge Food Bank and hope that everyone joins us in lending a hand to ensure everyone has enough healthy food to eat this holiday season.

Running from March 13-17, 2023, March Break is just 15 weeks away. It's never too early to plan for what to do with your kids, as events and camps tend to fill up quickly.

With that in mind, now is the perfect time to give your kids, aged 6-12, a meaningful outdoor March Break camp experience this year. By signing your kids up for rare's March Break ECO Camp, you will secure their space for an adventure, exploring unique habitats across a natural landscape. They'll hike rare's trails, meet special guests, visit our solar-powered North House and help at Springbank Farm to start the plants that will feed hundreds of families through the growing season. They will partake in environmental arts and nature-based crafts and activities while creating a journal of their time at rare.

It's just $300 per child for the March Break ECO Camp. The sessions run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Extended care available from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. every day for an additional charge of $25/week for a morning or afternoon session, or $50/week for both.

What adventures await at ECO Camp? CTV Kitchener covered some sessions of our Summer ECO Camp; you can see the videos here and here. For more information and to register, simply visit our website. We look forward to hosting this year's campers and sparking a sense of wonder in nature in the next generation of conservationists.

Bird monitors in the Eramosa River Conservation Corridor recently finished their Fall 2022 monitoring season. Spending over 65 survey hours across twelve weeks, monitors walked over 90 kilometres to observe over 7,000 individual birds from 101 different species. Monitors also observed three species that hadn't been seen at rare's Eramosa properties before, with sightings of a Bald Eagle, a Blue-winged Warbler, and an Evening Grosbeak.

With the fall monitoring season complete, attention turns to the spring 2023 monitoring season. If you are interested in participating, contact Jenna Quinn for more information.

Thanks to all our monitors for helping to build our understanding and knowledge of the protected lands at rare.

Grosbeak photograph by Mike Weissmann.

A Conversation about Conversations for Conservation

As the 2023 season of the Conversations for Conservation seminar series approaches, we wanted to ask our readers' opinions about this series and how best to improve it for the new year. We were delighted at the response to the 2022 season, but we want to take every opportunity to enhance the experience and ensure the best, most engaging topics are selected.

We invite you to take this brief survey for feedback on previous Conversations for Conservation, and your preferences on topics and additional suggestions that could make next year's series even better.

Thank you.