Robert Ormston Email and Phone Number

This contract primarily involved controlling invasive species using manual, mechanical and herbicide controls. Crew Leads and Field Technicians were sent to site, and using mapping pf invasive species carried out control activities.

I carried out a variety of duties at Quinte Conservation in this role, including these main areas:Education programming: Led, assisted and developed K-12 school programs to introduce students to environmental science concepts. This included numerous outdoor education programs, watershed model workshops, special programs such Stream of Dreams and Yellowfish Road, as well as virtual programs during pandemic restrictions. Landowners outreach and stewardship programs: Conducted site visits with landowners to provide expertise and services. I would discuss conservation goals with landowners, provide general advice, and sometimes deliver programs such as shoreline planting, large scale tree planting through the 50 Million Trees program, Bay of Quinte Remedial Action plan grants. Bio-inventory of Quinte Conservation Lands: Identified lands likely to harbor species and features of conservation interest and then exploring sites to record species on the ground. These efforts helps record several new instances of threatened and endangered species on QC lands. The data collected during these inventories was used to support Quinte Conservation's Managed Forest CertificationVarious community outreach and stewardship programs: I regularly assisted community partners with a variety of different projects. Sometimes this entailed working on naturalization projects with municipalities, attending outreach events to provide information on CA programs and stewardship advice, and working with volunteer groups on various stewardship projects.Assisting other departments with duties: I regularly partnered with regulations and stewardship staff to help identify plants and plant communities for wetland delineation. Also helped water resources staff with vegetation and aquatic invasive species monitoring efforts.

I worked for 3 summers in this role, primarily working on:- Preparing and leading interpretive nature & history programs for a variety of audiences and ages.· Interpreting history and nature in visitor centres to a variety of audiences and age groups. · Providing customer services to park visitors.· Conducting butterfly counts at Presqu’ile, Sandbanks and Ferris provincial parks. · Maintenance including mowing, trimming, cleaning bathrooms, & collecting garbage; operating garbage trucks & ATVs· Carrying out duties while observing COVID-19 safety protocols.· Set-up and planning of displays, and producing interpretive material.· Translating available files for interpretive material into French to offer a bilingual experience for visitors to the nature centre.- Controlling invasive garlic mustard along a section of mature forest. - Occasionally assisting with various resources management activities such as putting up turtle nest protectors.

Position paid for by Friends of Presqu'ileAll duties as Student Park Ranger in addtion to:· Coordinating volunteer activities for the nature centre.· Caring for live animals, which included fish, reptiles, amphibians and insects.· Training new staff to work in the nature centre, and preparing staff evaluations.· Maintenance of nature centre which included care of displays, gardening, cleaning, repairs and arranging large repairs.