Visit From Edison School


On Friday Feb 8 we had the pleasure of hosting the Grade 3 class from Edison school here at D'Arcy Ranch. As part of our Outreach and Education program within Audubon, we have been working with the Edison School over the past 2 years to provide educational opportunities to students.

The main topic of this site visit was wildlife. There was a small picture presentation made to the students about some of the wildlife that we see in and around D'Arcy Ranch. From there we went on a hour nature walk where we focused on animal tracking. We were able to pick up tracks of many different species including Deer, Rabbits, Coyotes and we think a Cougar, and did end up seeing a Mule Deer.

Our walk ended with the class checking the Bird Nest Boxes that were constructed and placed along the left side of #1 last year by the grade 9 class. As you may or may not know, Edison School is also responsible for the maintenance of these boxes. Our investigation of these boxes showed us that we did NOT have any inhabitants last year, but that is probably a result of the timing of placement, late June last season.

We really enjoyed our time having the students here for a couple hours and are looking forward to having some of the other classes here in the near future.

Assistant Superintendent
Michael Roberts

Audubon Certification


We are well into the month of February and the weather has been relatively mild for this time of year. In our quest to become a Certified Audubon Sanctuary I mentioned in an earlier posting that we needed to fulfil the requirements for one more category which was "Outreach and Education" to achieve this goal. We were notified by Audubon International and told that we have met all the requirement and are now certified. This has been a very rewarding and educational experience and we are extremely excited to have accomplished this achievement. The 6 categories that are required for certification are:
  • Water quality management
  • Water conservation
  • Environmental Planning
  • Chemical use reduction and safety
  • Wildlife management
  • Outreach and education
We will continually work towards improving our procedures, policies and practises in all of these categories to make sure we meet the requirements for re-certification in 2015.