(Image courtesy of Craig Paterson)
A love of nature and desire to spread the word about the importance of the natural world has prompted a University of Toronto PhD candidate to write a children’s book about Rondeau Bay’s spotted gar.
Dominique Rumball, who has been part of a project to restore gar habitat at the Keith MacLean Conservation Lands on Kent Bridge Road for the past several years, has written “Finding A Forever Home; The Adventures of Giigoonh the Spotted Gar.”
The book, written with the support of the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority (SCRCA), which operates the McLean site, tells the story of how Giigoonh seeks to find a home and also of those who are helping restore the gar habitat.
Dominique said the book came about through a science communication workshop and was written with her brother’s and partner’s child in mind.
“I found an Indigenous collaborator (Benny Skinner), an illustrator (Shaela Kinting) and an editor (Molly Labenski). These people have a beautiful passion for nature and changing the world for the better,” Rumball said.
The conservation authority helped create educational resources and lesson plans and provided funding. The resources align with the Ontario science curriculum for grades 2-6, but can be used for most elementary grades.
The book can be purchased at https://finding-a-forever-home.square.site/ or through the conservation authority. A total of $1 from each copy will be donated to the St. Clair Region Conservation Foundation to support conservation efforts for Species at Risk.
The Spotted Gar Project has gained notoriety through a TV episode with Ranger Em, the host of a nature awareness show on Rogers TV https://youtu.be/cITN8DBMuiE
PBS contributors Gregg McLachlan and Cynthia Brink of WorkCabin Films (https://workcabinfilms.ca/) have filmed a trailer for a documentary about the project.
“We’ve done two days of filming, one in the field and one in the lab, and we’re set to do another this spring in our field session, and hopefully from there it will get into production,” Rumball said.
The spotted gar; a fish listed as endangered, only exists in three areas in Canada, Long Point Bay, Point Pelee, and Rondeau Bay. The estimated local population of the gar, known for its distinctive long beak-like mouth, is just over 8,000.
Rumball, of the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough; and Craig Paterson, the manager of biology at the SCRCA are set to return to the McLean site for their fifth year of research, although cold weather and low water levels have made timing difficult.
“We should be there sometime in May,” she said. “But it’s up to nature.”
The first two years of the project were spent monitoring the then-farmland at the MacLean site, while the next two years monitored the area during habitat restoration, which returned the land to its wetland setting.
“This is the first year we will have a section of the area completed and be able to start post-restoration monitoring,” she said.
So far, 350 spotted gars have been tagged, and the fish will be monitored for movement and time spent in the area.
Rumball is three years into her PhD Candidacy and expects to defend her thesis “Evaluating the effectiveness of restoration activities for freshwater Species at Risk in Ontario” in 2028.
The McLean Conservation Lands are a 130-hectare property donated to the St. Clair Region Conservation Foundation by McLean, an ardent conservationist who died in 2012 at the age of 90.
The property, located just east of Rondeau Provincial Park, includes farmland, forests, ponds, wetlands, and prairie. The property is open to the public and features four kilometres of trails. It is visited by thousands of hikers and birders each year.
