Apple Hill Scout Reserve

Saturday October 27, 2018

That’s the date for our annual Fall Work Day.  There will be a multitude of tasks to help get the camp ready for the Winter.

Free camping to the workers and we’ll feed you lunch on Saturday.

A list will be posted once it becomes available.  There will be a variety of tasks appropriate for senior Scouts, Venturers, Rovers and Scouters.

Contact the Camp Warden to let him know you’re coming, ahsrwarden[at]gmail.com

List of Work Day tasks is available below.  If there’s something of interest to your Patrol, Company, Crew or team, then let Patrick know and he’ll put your name next to it.

As of July 24th, the fire ban has been listed in North Glengarry county. Apple Hill Scout Reserve is within the county, so any future burn bans apply within the camp property. When a burn ban is on, only camp stoves / lanterns or BBQs may be used. All open fires, including those in fire pans or hobo stoves, are not permitted.

North Glengarry – burn permits / bans

The Glengarry Pioneer Museum hosts an annual driving tour of Eastern Ontario, and they made a stop at our camp.

Specifically, they had lunch in the Pole Barn. This is fitting, as the Pole Barn was one of the original buildings built in the 1960s when the property was handed over to Scouts Canada (Boy Scouts of Canada at the time).

Patrick was on site to tell stories of the property and lead them in campfire songs. Of course, Patrick was more than happy to have a fire going to set the proper atmosphere.

As part of creating a Sustainable and Managed Forestry Plan for the camp, we invited conservation officers from Nation and Raisin River Conservation areas to visit us. Technically, we’re in the Raisin River area. The Conservation Areas are offering free assistance to help landowners prepare Forest Management plans.

Peter took Cheyene, Nation Conversation Area, on a walk through the property (Red Trail, NW field to gate, NE field to gate, Blue trail – Orange – Main road). We saw a wide variety of trees, she educated Peter on tree identification by bark and leaves, plus we discussed best practices for our existing poplar stands.

Some of the tree varieties:

ash (3 varieties)

maple (sugar + another)

ironwood

basswood

hemlock

beech

oak (burr, white)

bitternut hickory

butternut

white pine

black cherry

The wetland area on the western side of the property is considered a Provincially Significant Wetland (PSW). That means no buildings to be constructed; no problem. We did find there is a birdhouse in the wetland, would be a good place to add more.

The old Domtar poplar stands are reaching the end of their lifespan. We can start doing in-fill planting and use the poplars to protect the saplings for a few years. We could also do selected planting of cash crop trees, again using the poplars to protect the saplings. Both of these options provides an opportunity for Scouting youth to organize and plan a tree planting session to help with our reforestation plans.

Next steps are to determine if we want to have a detailed forest survey (last done in 1985) to go along with the plan.