2010 YEAR IN REVIEW

As I write this review, what comes to mind is how much our few volunteers accomplished in 2010. Thank you folks, you know who you are. I regret to inform you that, at this time, we have been unable to replace our valued retired volunteers with much needed new recruits.

With this year’s Review, we are launching an appeal to people living in the Spanish River watershed area to join us in important volunteer based projects going forward in 2011. Our mandate says it best: the Friends of the Spanish River are dedicated to Restoring, Preserving and Celebrating the Spanish River!

If we all do a little, it all helps a lot!

In early winter before freeze-up, the Spanish River coats the trees with hoarfrost transforming the landscape into a winter wonderland.

Highlights:

• We promoted and celebrated ‘Earth Hour’ with an article in the Mid-North Monitor encouraging everyone to participate in this growing global phenomenon. Over one billion people around the planet turned their lights off between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. on March 27, 2010!

• The winners of our Children’s Fish Art Contest were announced at a special ‘Green Environment Day’ function held in the auditorium at A. B. Ellis Public School in Espanola on February 12, 2010. The six winners shared $1,500.00 in prize money and one artist’s work was subsequently featured in a new Friends of the Spanish River ‘What Does a Sturgeon Look Like?’ bookmark. Read complete details on our website at www.friendsofthespanishriver.ca, click on ‘Press Releases’, then ‘Friends Host Fish Art Contest’.

• Doctor Mark Chambers, a scientist with Environment Canada, was the guest speaker at our March 10, 2010 F.S.R. meeting. He presented his ‘Spanish Harbour Status Draft Report’ to get input from our members. In it he explained that nickel contamination in the Whalesback Channel, the final destination for all water flowing from the Spanish River, is so extensive it would take decades to bring the area to within provincial safety standards. You can read more on this vital environment issue on our website. Click on 'Press Releases' then 'April 2010 Spanish Harbour: In the Shadow of the Big Nickel'. The F.S.R. are in ongoing talks with scientists from all levels of government in Canada on this topic and will be reporting our findings to the general public in due course.

• We commissioned O.J. Graphix Ltd. of Espanola to publish new ‘What Does a Sturgeon Look Like?’ and ‘What Does a Muskie Look Like?’ bookmarks for us to give out at future events. We needed to explain that there is now no fishing allowed throughout the Great Lakes and their tributaries for Lake Sturgeon because this ancient fish has been elevated from ‘endangered’ to ‘threatened’! There is also no fishing allowed for Muskellunge in the lower Spanish River until they become better established.

• Earth Day on April 17, 2010 saw the FSR and special guest, ten-year-old Taylor Seminiuk exhibiting at Market Square in downtown Sudbury. We featured our Children’s Fish Art Contest Display complete with lots of artwork created by the school children that live along the shores of the lower Spanish River. Taylor’s winning artwork of a Lake Sturgeon was so accurate that we decided to make it a special ‘What Does a Sturgeon Look Like?’ bookmark to hand out beginning with this special environment day event. The Espanola Mall and A.B. Ellis Public School featured our display and handed out Sturgeon and Muskie bookmarks throughout the summer and early fall.

• The F.S.R. were present at a ‘Northwatch’ sponsored event in Spanish, Ontario on May 31, 2010. You can learn more about the presentations of ‘Exploring Biodiversity- Protecting Natural Values During Mineral Exploration’ by emailing northwatch@onlink.net.

• Our bright red pointer boat was a hit again in this year’s Massey Fall Fair parade. We exhibited our Children’s Fish Art Contest display and gave out bookmarks from Friday night, August 27 to Sunday afternoon, August 29, 2010.

• We represented The Loblaw’s Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup Program on September 18, 2010 by cleaning up the shoreline at the Espanola boat launch again this year. There are now over 900 cleanup sites from coast to coast to coast throughout Canada and we collect lots of trash every year.

• Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation Community introduced their first ‘Sagamok Fall Classic 2010 Walleye Tournament’ catch and release event on September 25th and 26th, 2010 on the lower Spanish River. Their tournament demonstrates that the local pickerel population is healthy.

• In mid-September, the scientists at the Espanola branch of the Ministry of Natural Resources gave us an early warning that the oxygen levels on the lower Spanish River were low. The Domtar environment scientists were planning to operate their oxygenator below the Webbwood bridge for the first time since installing it eight years ago. When they did, the results were a disappointing .5% increase in oxygen levels; however the subsequent cool wet weather corrected the problem naturally.

Our pointer boat in the early years showing the late Captain Bill Blight in the bow, the late first mate Scotty Carson to starboard, Marcel Golec and Gary Kessel now retired from the “Friends’.

• We completed the restoration of our 32’ replica pointer boat, antique oars, paddles and pike pole this summer. It seemed like the right time to consider donating our boat to the new Massey Museum if they wanted to feature it in their new facility. Upon suggesting it to their Board, their response was a definite ‘yes’. We subsequently agreed, at our December 1, 2010, meeting to donate our boat to them. For over ten years we have displayed the boat at fairs and in parades to educate the public of all ages of the exciting local logging history and the people who were a part of it. Now it’s time for the Massey Museum to take that message further.

• We have recently added a link on our website to ‘Wild at Heart’ Wildlife Refuge in Lively, Ontario to show our support for the important work they do in healing locally injured wildlife. You can reach them directly at www.wahrefugecentre.org.

• We are currently building a virtual map of the Spanish River through Google with the help of our webmaster, Bill Leeney of Massey, Ontario. More on this project later.

• We encourage you to ‘surf’ our website (www.friendsofthespanishriver.ca) because we have been building it up and adding new material. Some of it you just won’t believe, such as our eight-minute pointer boat film clip circa 1947 in our new ‘History’ section. Enjoy!

Your ‘Friend',

Bill McKenna
Chairman, Friends of the Spanish River

P.S. Ask yourself this: If the Spanish River didn’t flow through our district, how many of us would be here today? Isn’t it time we said, ‘Thanks!’