In the early 2000s, Noella Storry took an environmental science course at Laurentian University. At that point, she was working full time at Casino Rama. A few years earlier, she’d been given a camera. On her way to work, she’d often see the same heron in a wetland. She started leaving earlier, in hopes of being able to photograph it. That bird, that camera and that wetland were the spark that ignited her passion for the outdoors.
She took the course simply because she was interested. A field trip brought the class to Grant’s Woods Nature Reserve, one of Southern Ontario’s oldest forests, slightly west of Orillia. That day a man named Ron Reid, the then Executive Director of The Couchiching Conservancy, came out to greet the class. He spoke of the importance of preserving our wetlands, lakes and streams.
Noella was so moved by how he spoke of the forest, she never forgot that day. What struck her about his words was the suggestion she could do something to help safeguard such places. It took her a few years, but that day still on her mind, she called the Conservancy and asked to volunteer.
Couchiching Conservancy now protects 57 different areas around Orillia and many of those have volunteer stewards: locals who regularly walk the nature reserves and keep an eye out for things like downed trees and vandalism. Noella and a team of volunteers stewarded the protected areas regularly. She learned to identify and report invasive plants, and how to test and record the streams’ water quality.
For years Noella visited different plots, Prospect Marsh in Kawartha Lakes and TC Agnew, Adams and Alexander Hope Smith Nature Reserves in Washago. It was actually her work at Alexander Hope Smith that led to her current home. She found the area so peaceful, she and her partner bought a house right across the road.
Life got busier and she took a small step back from volunteering. Then recently, she read it’s really difficult for scientists to accurately study road kill. Why would anyone study road kill you ask? Because if monitored, it can determine which highways interrupt common migration routes, or what road is bisecting a particularly fertile wetland. In fact, the County of Simcoe, guided by the scientist coordinating these local research efforts, recently installed its first wildlife friendly culvert during road upgrades. These are a type of Ecopassage: structures that keep wildlife off the road by diverting them away from and under the pavement.
Roadkill data is particularly tough to get, because frankly, it doesn’t last long. By this time, Noella was retired and walking daily with a neighbour. She realized she’d be the perfect community scientist because she walks the same route at the same time every day. She took reptile monitor training and now whenever she spots road kill she takes a picture and uploads it to a data collection app. She mostly sees reptiles and has been shocked by the number and variety of snakes. If you’d asked her in the spring what she’d expect, she would’ve told you garter snakes. But iNaturalist has identified 6 different snake species in her 30+ observations. She’s even fashioned her own ‘snake metre’. It wasn’t terribly appealing to place her hand next to her ‘observations’ to create scale in the photos, so she made what is essentially a ruler. But it fits in her phone case and now she never leaves home without it!
Noella loves what she’s learning and how she’s contributing. A camera and a course are what inspired this retired grandmother of 5 to get involved in environmental community science. What will inspire you?
