2009 - Shuswap Watershed Project

30 Pages·2009·0.78 MB·English

www.WildEducation.org
2009
Learning About Wildlife
Educator’s Guide
What’s Inside?
Resource Sheets
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................3
Celebrate Native Plants
What Are Native Plants?
Why Are Native Plants Important?
Resource Sheet 1: Native Plants Are Wildlife, Too .........................................................................................4
Plants and Ecozones
Not All Plants Are Native
Indigenous People and Plants
Plants and Animals
Resource Sheet 2: Benefits and Threats ..........................................................................................................14
Benefits of Native Plants (Photosynthesis, Food, Oxygen, Carbon Sink, Water, Soil, Habitat,
Our Health and Material Lives, Aesthetic Pleasure)
Threats to Native Plants (Lacking Connections With Nature; Following Disruptive Practices)
Resource Sheet 3: Act Today to Conserve Native Plants For Tomorrow ........................................................20
What Can You Do?
Classroom-Ready Activities
Native Plant Puzzles .......................................................................................................................................6
Native Plants and Their Environment ...........................................................................................................18
Local Native Plants .........................................................................................................................................22
Resource Links................................................................................................................................................24
Contacts .........................................................................................................................................................25
Educator’s Guide Learning About Wildlife Unit 27 Canadian Wildlife Federation cwf-fcf.org
Curriculum Links Table
Visit the WILD Education website at WildEducation.org
Grades K–3 4–6 7–8 9–12
Science and Plants and changes. Plant diversity. Basics of life. Environment.
Technology
Plant structures Ecosystems. Adaptation and Diversity of
and adaptations. succession. living things.
Diversity of
Understanding and care native plants. Plant growth. Sustainability of
of the natural world. ecosystems.
Plants and communities. Interactions within
Growth and change ecosystems. Botany.
Diversity of living things.
in animals.
Effects of humans Ecology.
Plant structure
Air and water in on ecosystems.
and function. Resource management.
the environment.
Identifying specimen
Habitats and Wildlife biology.
Daily and seasonal with keys.
communities.
cycles. Biodiversity.
Weather.
Stewardship.
Photosynthesis.
Human impacts on
Identifying specimen the environment.
with keys.
Geography Canadian geography. Canada’s regions. Natural resources. Causality.
Discovering the Environmental
various provinces impacts.
and territories.
Physical variations
across Canada (such as
soil types, landscapes).
Arts Visual representations (such as drawing, painting, crafts, graphic arts, web design).
Language Persuasive writing. Journaling.
Non-fiction reading and writing. Creative writing.
Media presentations (video, photos, advertisements).
Practical and Preserving leaves. Horticulture.
Applied Arts
Educator’s Guide Learning About Wildlife Unit 27 Canadian Wildlife Federation cwf-fcf.org
Celebrate Native Plants Why Are Native Plants Important?
Imagine a world without plants. You can’t—or at least, you The most amazing aspect of native plants is that they are an
certainly wouldn’t want to. The fact is, you can’t have a land- established part of nature’s community and are well adapted
scape without plants. Even in the polar desert on Ellesmere to their native habitat. They have existed in their habitats
Island, amazingly hardy lichens grow amongst the dry, frigid for a long time and can flourish under the environmental
rocks and gravel. Plants and plant communities are in a very conditions in which they grow. That means they are already
real sense the living skin that covers the bare-bones skeletal adapted to their specific locales — to the soil conditions, to
frame of the earth—the rocks and the varying overlays of soil. precipitation levels and to summer and winter temperatures.
It also means that local living organisms are adapted to their
Indeed, if you conjure up your favourite memory of a
presence. Native plants provide food, shelter and places for
Canadian rural, urban or remote landscape, it’s almost
varieties of wild creatures to breed and survive, and they
guaranteed to have native plants in it. Perhaps you’ll recall:
determine the kind of birds, insects and other organisms
• a wind-shaped jack pine on the rocky promon- and even other plants that can live within a community.
tory of a northern lake in the Canadian Shield;
It’s sad to say that our activities can wreak havoc on
• a hillside of short-grass prairie on the southern
native plants. When we clear land to build our homes
slope of a small coulee (creek or river valley); with
and businesses, we remove native plants from their
wild roses and wolf willow blowing in the wind;
habitats. This loss means that some plants and ani-
• the dense growth of big bluestem
mals may lose their natural home, their habitat.
and other tall prairie grasses;
• a splash of red against a green backdrop of Join the Canadian Wildlife Federation and its partners
sweet gale, where a patch of Cardinal flower to pay homage to Canada’s native plants, and do your
grows along the bank of a Maritime river; part to help conserve them. In this educational unit,
• the thick, green majesty of boreal for- you will find classroom resources and activities to assist
ests that sweep across Canada; learners in developing awareness, knowledge and skills
• the open canopy of a Garry oak savannah on an about native plants, engage in activities to inspire com-
island off the coast of Vancouver Island or the mitment to result in informed decisions and constructive
deep forest of majestic red and yellow cedars action concerning native plants for a healthy planet.
and Douglas firs in British Columbia; or
Don’t stop here. CWF, through its WILD Education website
• the flame of colour where purple saxifrage has caught the
at WildEducation.org, offers a host of teaching materi-
sun on an alpine or Arctic tundra, where all the plants
als, electronic resources and links about native plants.
live out their lives within centimetres of the ground, and
only centimetres deep above bedrock or permafrost.
What Are Native Plants?
Did you know that Canada has about 3,200 identified native plant species? In this unit, native plants are defined as
plants that existed—and flourished—in Canada before the arrival of the first European immigrants. They are wild spe-
cies that occur in Canada naturally. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC)
also includes wild species that have expanded their range into Canada without human intervention from a region
where they naturally occurred, have produced viable populations and have persisted in Canada for at least 50 years.
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Resource Sheet 1:
Native Plants Are Wildlife, Too
Images of charismatic wild creatures such as bear, beaver and moose often come to mind when we speak of “wildlife.”
But native plants are wildlife, too.
Plants and Ecozones Not All Plants Are Native
Our vast country has many varieties of native Not all plants found in Canada are native. Many
plant communities. They have evolved by adapt- species that flourish along roadsides or in other
ing to a combination of conditions, such as: disturbed and developed areas were brought by
European settlers accidentally or on purpose.
• climate (temperature, rainfall, wind);
• geographic land features (mountains, • These are often called alien, exotic, intro-
plains, rocks, river valleys); duced or non-indigenous. They include:
• geology (granite shield, limestone plains); Ì Queen Anne’s Lace (which is related to the
• predominant soil types (sand, clay, loam, silt) and depths; domestic carrot … just smell the root);
• day length; and Ì the attractive spring roadside flower
• amount and annual distribution of available moisture. called Dame’s Rocket;
Ì the autumn bloomer, chicory; and
In Canada, we have codified 15 different areas known
Ì the common lilac bush.
as “terrestrial ecozones” and five areas called “maritime
ecozones.” Each one is a combination of climate, geog- • Some of these non-native species have integrated
raphy, geology and the plant and animal communities into to their local habitats and fit in well with their
that have adapted to them. Take a look at the ecozone native neighbours. Others are considered “invasive
map and identify the ecozone in which you live. species” that can crowd out native plants. Read
more about this problem in Resource Sheet 2.
Each zone is subdivided again into “ecoregions.” There
are 200 in Canada. Within each, you will find dif-
ferent types of plant communities, including:
Indigenous People and Plants
• forests (over 60 per cent tree canopy cover);
• The cultures of indigenous peoples such as the Haida,
• woodlands (20 to 60 per cent canopy cover);
Cree, Anishinabe or Inuit include the use of native
• savannah (grasslands with about 10
plants. For example, the Anishinabe used spruce
percent tree canopy cover);
and cedar wood to fashion canoe frames, which they
• prairie;
then covered with bark from the white birch trees,
• meadow;
laced on with spruce tree roots and with seams and
• alvar plain (shallow soils on flat limestone bedrock); and,
cracks made waterproof with a mixture of spruce
• wetlands (marshes, swamps, bogs, fens and ponds).
gum and bear grease. Light and strong, maneuverable
Many plants have evolved to live across several eco- enough to navigate fast-flowing waters, and easily
zones. Some are so specialized they only inhabit carried over portages, these craft were adapted to the
one zone (or at least just one in Canada). regions in which they lived. Indigenous peoples also
used many plants and plant extracts for medicinal
• For example, this is the case with plants whose north-
purposes, or for food, such as wild rice. For example,
ernmost range just reaches into Canada from the United
chewing the inner bark of willow bushes helped cure
States in southwestern Ontario’s Carolinian ecoregion.
head, joint and muscle aches, as the plant contains
• Although the Carolinian forest occupies only one per
the same active ingredient found in aspirin.
cent of Canada’s landmass, it has more species of flora
• Living in a harsh climate and landscape where plants
and fauna than any other region.
are tiny, with very short growing seasons, the Inuit of
the eastern Arctic depended mainly on sea mammals
like seal, walrus and whale for such essentials as shelter,
clothing and food. They harvested plants including
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blueberries, lingonberries and edible roots such as Some plants even turn the tables on the animal
licorice root (bear root), when available. They also used kingdom, eating instead of being eaten.
the flowers of cotton grass as wicks for their oil lamp
• Bog plants such as sundews, pitcher plants, butterworts
or qulliq, traditionally the main source of essential
and bladderworts have adapted to a very low nutrient
heat and light through the cold, dark Arctic winter.
environment by evolving ways to trap and digest insects
and microscopic animals like the water fleas, copepods,
scuds and roundworms. Their ‘prey’ provide nutrients
Plants and Animals
that are absent or scarce in the soil. These plants lure
Did you know that plants are not just passive partners the insects with combinations of colour and odour.
waiting to be eaten in their relationships with animals? • Bladderworts employ a kind of suction trap, suck-
Here are some examples of their adaptations for survival: ing water and microscopic creatures swimming in
it into especially developed bladders, where the
• Red squirrels feed largely on seeds from the cones
“meat” is digested with enzymes suited to the job.
of conifer trees such as white spruce and red pine.
• Sundews and butterworts use sticky secretions to
In response, white spruce produces cones in two- to
create a kind of “flypaper” that traps mosquitoes,
six-year cycles, where a year of particularly heavy cone
flying aphids, midges and springtails, among others.
production may be preceded and followed by several
• The pitcher plant forms a water-filled trap of its
years of limited production. This behaviour (known
leaves. What’s amazing is that there are insects and
as mast seeding) has evolved over many generations of
other microscopic creatures who have adapted to
trees as an adaptation to ensure survival. By producing
live inside the pitcher plan—and nowhere else
light crops, the trees limit the size of the squirrel
on Earth—to feed on trapped insects.
population such that in the mast year many more seeds
will escape being eaten and have a chance to grow.
• Similarly, snowshoe hare populations go through
multi-year cycles. Their population can grow to as
high as 3,000 hares per square kilometre and then
crash to about 10 per cent of that. Hares eat the bark
and twigs of various willows, aspen, birch and spruce
but as their population and pressure on these plants
increase, the plants respond back by flooding their
tissues with toxins that reduce the hare’s ability to digest
and absorb nutrients. The more they eat, the less they
can absorb, until they die from malnutrition. Thus
the plants are replenished and the cycle continues.
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Native Plants Puzzles

Province or Territory Flower Tree
Newfoundland-Labrador Pitcher Plant Black Spruce
Prince Edward Island Lady’s Slipper Red Oak
Nova Scotia Mayflower Red Spruce
New Brunswick Purple Violet Balsam Fir
Quebec Blue Flag Yellow Birch
Ontario White Trillium Eastern White Pine
Manitoba Prairie Crocus White Spruce
Saskatchewan Western Red Lily White Birch
Alberta Wild Rose Lodgepole Pine
British Columbia Pacific Dogwood Western Red Cedar
Yukon Fireweed Sub-alpine Fir
Northwest Territories Mountain Avens Tamarack
Nunavut Purple Saxifraga No tree designated
Grades: 3 and up Setting: Indoors
Subjects: Science and Geography Materials: A wall map of Canada that shows all prov-
inces and territories; Resource Sheet #1, print-out
Learning Outcomes:
of the Native Plants cards (39 cards in total); strips
Students will be able to: of coloured paper for headbands; tape; scissors; 10
sets of Native Plant cards to form playing decks
• Identify the provinces and territories of Canada
• Identify native flower and tree emblems of Summary: Students learn about Canadian provinces and ter-
the provinces and territories of Canada ritories and the native plants that are indigenous to their areas.
• Discover and learn the characteristics of the vari-
Background: Through various means, certain flowers
ous native plant species found across Canada
and trees have become emblems of provinces and ter-
Skills: Problem solving, matching, reading for ritories. The chart above provides a handy summary.
specific purposes, co-operative learning
Refer to Resource Sheet #1 for more
Duration: 20 to 30 minutes information about native plants.
Group Size: Any
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Procedure For older students:
1. Photocopy enough sheets of cards to create one full
For younger students:
deck of all cards for teams. For example, divide 30
1. Download and print the cards provided with this activity.
students into 10 teams of three students each and
2. Have students make headbands by taping give each team a deck of cards. Each team may cut
together long strips of paper. out the cards and assemble its own deck of cards.
3. Select a colour scheme for each set of headbands 2. Have students play a form of “fish” with their cards by
such as yellow paper for headbands with “provin- forming a “set” of three cards. Each “set” consists of a
cial” and “territorial” cards; blue for “flowers” and provincial (or territorial) card and the “flower” and “tree”
green for “trees.” Then have them tape an appropri- that are associated with the province (or territory).
ate card onto the front of it such that it can be worn
3. Have students find out how the weather, climate
on their head. Collect all completed head bands.
and landscape influence the presence of the native
4. Tell students they will now match flowers and trees that plants in their respective province or territory.
are emblems of a province or a territory of Canada.
5. Select 13 students and give them each a yellow headband.
Extensions:
Ask them to form a line along the front of the classroom,
shoulder to shoulder. Tell them they each represent a
1. Discuss the threats and stresses experienced by na-
province or territory. Let them see their headbands to
tive plants. Have students create a radio, TV or
determine which province or territory they will represent.
magazine advertisement to help protect native plants.
6. Ask remaining students to represent flowers, Older students could create a blog or podcast.
give them blue headbands without letting
2. Have students discuss the impacts of the
them know which flower they represent.
loss of native plants on the local ecosystem
7. Have students who are representing flowers interview and what they can do to mitigate it.
each “province” or “territory” by asking the ques-
3. Have students conduct different components of this activ-
tion: “Am I found in your province (or territory)?”
ity on different days. Have students learn about Canadian
8. Once students have each found their “partner,” ask the geography on the first day and about native plants the
students representing a province (or territory) to an- next day. On the third day, they could match plants with
nounce the name of the flower that is found in their area. a province or territory as an assessment of their learning.
9. Hold another round of this activity but
replace all “flowers” with “trees.”
Evaluation:
10. After students finish both rounds, make and circulate
copies of the “Native Plant Puzzle” chart template provided 1. Use the Native Plants Match-Up Puzzle template
in this activity. Ask them to match the names of flowers to evaluate learning with younger students.
and trees associated with each province and territory.
2. Have older students identify factors that
11. Discuss the geography of Canada. Point out influence the presence of native plants.
the various provinces and territories of Canada
and their differences and similarities.
12. Have students in a large group discuss how the weather,
climate, length of day and landscape could influence
the presence of native plants in a particular area.
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British coLumBiA pAcific doGWood WEstErn rEd cEdAr
British coLumBiA British coLumBiA
ALBErtA WiLd rosE LodGEpoLE pinE
ALBErtA ALBErtA
sAsKAtchEWAn WEstErn rEd LiLy WhitE Birch
sAsKAtchEWAn sAsKAtchEWAn
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mAnitoBA prAiriE crocus WhitE sprucE
mAnitoBA mAnitoBA
ontArio WhitE triLLium EAstErn WhitE pinE
ontArio ontArio
QuEBEc BLuE fLAG yELLoW Birch
QuEBEc QuEBEc
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