Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour is Returning

The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour is the Nature Centre's biggest, most important and most-fun annual, fundraiser. Check out the poster for rates, dates and times. Tickets are available at the Nature Centre or at Valhalla Pure Outfitters in Red Deer.

If you'd like to help us out, feel free to download the poster and either forward it to your email contacts or, print it and put it up at your place of work/school.

Bookstore News

Bookstore Newsletter for Dec09-Jan-Feb 10


Water—Birds need water year-round for drinking and bathing. . You can use a birdbath heater that has a built-in thermostat to warm up the water just enough to keep it from freezing. Never add antifreeze or other chemicals to the water. The bookstore has a good selection of Bird bath heaters. Its features include: 200watts, 120 volts, works in sub-zero temperatures, built in thermostat conserves energy, stainless steel guard and auto shut –off for safety, full three warranties, price $70.95
Singing Bird Clock Know the time and at the same time enjoy the hourly song of the birds. A wonderful Xmas present for only $38.95
Squirrel Feeders- The bookstore has some excellent squirrel feeders in stock. They have the large glass jar for the squirrel to crawl into to obtain his food. Only $39.95!!(NOT EXACTLY AS SHOWN).
Suggestions for Stocking Stuffers
1. A new product that will delite all nature people is our line of INsect Candy from HOTLIX. Kids and adults will love to have a package of it in their Xmas stockings. A Chocolate coverered ant package is only $3.95. The Larvets worm snax are $2.95

2. Booklets of animal stickers-@$2.50 each. Examples Birds, dogs, solar system, insects, spiders , frogs
3. Right angle prism-$8.95
4. Insect magnifier ,collector viewer box and tweetzers-$1.90
5. Pocket Naturalist Guides(laminated).Prices are $6.95 to $7.95. – Guides available include Albeerta Birds , Mammals, Alberta wildlife, Solar system, reptiles & amhibians, common rocks& pebbles.

Other gift suggestions
WE have a good selection of Coffees and teas from Just Us! Coffee Roasters Coop.














Be an Astronomer
Planisheres for our region are great and very educational and easy to use for children and adults.
Our Special
Regular $13.95
Special $12.95
If you purchase 3 or more $10.95 each


Other Stocking Stuffer Ideas

Animal globe-$5.95
Canada Wind Sock- $5.95
Animal Puppets- various prices according to puppet sizes

Late Season Squatters

Well we're in the first week of November, there's ice on the lake, the leaves have all fallen from the trees and the ground is frozen down to about an inch deep. Apparently none of that matters to these Trumpeter Swans and Canada Geese. Six swans and about ten geese remain on the West Lake in the Gaetz Lakes Sanctuary. The rest of the local flock appears to have flown south.

Help us Win Grant Funding

We've just submitted an idea to the Aviva Community Fund, a competition that could result in positive change for our community. If the new program initiative idea receives enough votes, it will have a chance at sharing in $500,000 to bring a greater understanding of our natural surroundings to new Canadians to life. All of us here at the Nature Centre would really appreciate your help in pushing the idea to the finals. Please vote for our idea at http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas.

Ah, autumn in Alberta

Remember a week and a half or so ago when the temperature was in the mid thirties Celsius? Yeah, I'm not entirely sure that I do either.

I hope everyone's enjoying the snowfall.

Oh, and just a reminder to be careful out on the Sanctuary trails for the next little while. Last night's winds probably took down a few trees. If you happen to notice any that are a danger, please give us a call at 403-346-2010.

Kerry Wood Nature Centre/City of Red Deer Christmas Light Exchange

Save Energy and Money by Exchanging Your Old Christmas Lights

(Red Deer, Alberta) – The City of Red Deer and the Kerry Wood Nature Centre are partnering to help you save energy and money on your outdoor holiday lighting bill. Starting on November 1, Red Deerians can exchange two strings of old, incandescent exterior holiday lights at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre for one box of new, energy efficient LED lights.

“The Electric, Light and Power Department had already identified funds to promote energy efficiency, so when the Kerry Wood Nature Centre approached us with the idea of a Christmas Light Exchange, it was a no brainer” Said Pam Vust, Environmental Initiatives Coordinator with The City of Red Deer. “Offering this type of program not only gives people information, but it provides them with the tools to make an immediate difference for the environment and their pocketbook.”

This program is open to Red Deer residents only and lights will be given out on a first come, first served basis. Although there is a limit of one box of free LED lights per adult per household, residents will also be given a discount coupon to purchase matching sets from Executive Home Building Centre, who supplied the lights for the program at a reduced rate. All LED lights provided through this program are multi colored.

“Replacing incandescent house lights with LED lights can reduce your holiday energy consumption by up to 95%” Said Todd Nivens, Programs Coordinator with Kerry Wood Nature Centre. “For a residence operating 6 strings of old Christmas lights for six hours a day, the monthly energy cost will be approximately $27. Replacing those old lights with the same number of LED’s will only cost 47¢ for the entire month.”

The Kerry Wood Nature Centre is open from 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM daily and from 1:00 – 5:00 on Statutory holidays. The wire from the lights received through this program will be recycled as scrap metal. Red Deerians wishing to recycle their old lights may bring in more than two strings, but they will not receive additional free LED lights.

For more information about this and other environmental education programs, call the Kerry Wood Nature Centre at 403-346-2010 or The City of Red Deer 403-342-8750 or refer to The City’s website at www.reddeer.ca/envservices.

For more information, please contact:

Todd Nivens
Programs Coordinator Environmental Initiatives Coordinator
Kerry Wood Nature Centre
403-346-2010 ext. 106

or

Pam Vust

Environmental Initiatives Coordinator

The City of Red Deer

403 342-8750

Fall Bookstore News

Special offer-10% discount
Present this coupon to the cashier at the KWNC bookstore and receive 10 % off your purchases(concessions excluded). The bookstore has a good selection of nature books for adults and children, high quality birdseed & bird products. It also sells shade grown fair trade coffee & teas. For information on birds, nature & birdseed, come to our nature centre.
KWNC 6300-45st Red Deer, telephone 403 346-2010
Offer valid October 01 to November 30, 2009

1Suggestions for Christmas Gifts for” the Man”

1. Bat houses- bats are very beneficial creatures to have around in your yard during the summer. A bat consumes its weights in bug eating almost everyday. Our bat homes are well built and very economically priced,.
2. Bird Bath Water heaters; water is essential for life and in winter our feathered friends experience difficulty I securing good fresh water. Attract birds to your yard and feeder by placing a bird bath water heater in your bird bath .
Suggestions for Christmas Gifts for the ladies
1.Gazebo bird feeders. Our bookstore has a great selection of very nice looking gazebo feeders.
2. Bird Identification Books; we have a good selection
Suggestions for the younger set- Hiking and Touring Books; here are some staff picks:
a. Canadian Rockies Geology Guide by Ben Gadd-$28.50
b. The David Thompson Highway- A Hiking Guide by Jane Ross & Russ Kyba-NEW EDITION-$16.95
c. The Canadian Hiker’s & Backpacker’s Handbook- Your how to Guide for Hitting the Trails Coast to Coast by Ben Gadd-$29.95
Books of General Interest and Controversy: new 2009
1. Climate Wars by Gwynne Dyer; Massive Population Shifts-spreading epidemics-drought-rising sea levels-food scarcity-crashing economies-political extremism.
2. Carbon Shift by Thomas Homer-Dixon; How the twin crises of oil depletion and climate change will define the future.
For the younger set
Our bookstore has a great selection of nature books, puzzle &, games

Blow out Special- while quantities last;
Bird identiflyer(not exactly as illustrated.
Blowout special- regular $34.95; Special( $12.95


Gift Certificate don’t know what to purchase for the special person; obtain a gift certificate from the bookstore!!

Environmental Ethics and Environmental Education

Foundational to the work we do at the Nature Centre toward fostering environmental citizenship, is the work we do in encouraging an environmental ethic in the population. There are many paths to a environmentally literate population with a strong sense of environmental ethics. However, often metaphor is required to illustrate what an environmental ethic (or any other ethical framework) would look like.

While at my summer residency at Royal Roads University I had the chance to explore worldviews and environmental ethics. Here is a sampling, with some new thought and content, of some of the ideas we explored. Credit goes to Natalie Bowes who co-wrote the document from which this post was generated.

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Nothing is static. The wind blows, water flows, birds fly and all manner of life is always on the move. Even the rocks degrading in the face of wind and water are changing; rock to sand, sand to dust, dust to mineral, inevitably leaching back into the oceans and lands of the earth to help drive life. We are part of this dynamic system. Everything we are and do is tied our interplay with the living Earth. And, everything we are and do affects the Earth. In the words of Thomas Berry, “We are Earth reflecting back upon itself”.

While phenomenally complex and often subtle, if we look carefully we can see these interactions at work; not just on a species-species basis but at every level of organized and seemingly random life. Between these places of organization, there are transitional zones; places where either literally or metaphorically, there is interplay that brings together disparate factors to create new possibilities.

Florence Krall (1994) refers to these special places as ecotones. In biology “ecotones are transitional regions between two different habitats” (Mortimer-Sandilands, 2004, p.45) The Aspen Parkland of Central Alberta can be seen as a giant ecotone. It is a zone of convergence for the ecology of Boreal forest, the prairie grasslands, the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and the tumbling Badlands. In this space biotic life and abiotic factors influence each other to create a unique system made up of - yet unlike - all the surrounding systems.

While providing rich zones of convergence and interplay that can facilitate positive change, ecotones can also stand as barriers to those unable through the mechanics of biology and/or geology or through social constructs of power, to interact with them. An ecotone, with its ability to facilitate change and create new connections is an excellent metaphor for the path one could take in fostering an environmental ethic.

At the Nature Centre we are an evolving ecotone comprised of a variety of interactions between people from around the region, plants, animals, climate and all the connections those interactions create. The ecotone we collectively create through the Nature Centre can be stimulated to affect positive behavioural change, which with inputs of education and positive reinforcement, can lead to the uptake of an environmentally positive ethic.

Now, it should be made clear that we don't sit around in meetings and have discussions about how we "create an ecotone and use it to foster change". Rather, by visiting the Centre, taking part in a program, going for a walk in the Sanctuary, reading this blog, subscribing to our Facebook group or any of the other ways to interact with us, your fellows and the environment, you are creating and evolving the ecotone. We are merely picking strategic points to interact with it and help it along toward an environmental ethic.