Date: Tuesday February 22, 2022
Participants: Sarah Coughlin - Manitoba Hydro
Keith Kowall – Manitoba Metis Federation
Amy Stevenson – Manitoba Hydro
Darryl Taylor – Dakota Tipi First Nation
Weather: Morning; Clear skies Temp; -29C Afternoon; Mainly clear -23C
The day began with the four of us meeting at 9:00 a.m. at Tower 124 which lies immediately north of St. Mary’s Rd. at the floodway. The tremendous amount of snowfall experienced this winter made venturing beyond the parking area next to impossible so monitoring was limited to audible and wildlife observance. I found it to be exceptionally quiet with no noise pollution. A couple of black birds were spotted but were too distant to tell if they were crow or raven. I did not spot any wildlife tracks from my vantage point.
Our next stop were Towers 440/441 and 405/406 near the community of Sundown in southeastern Manitoba. There we found an even greater amount of snow with venturing off the roadways impossible with snow depth being up to one’s knees after literally two or three steps. It appeared that there was a recent fresh snowfall in the area. I’m sure that had we been able to access the right of way wildlife footprints would have been evident. The combination of extreme cold and being confined to the side of the roadways made any observations sadly all too brief and limited.
In summary, with this winter bringing the third largest amount of snow on record it greatly limited our ability to monitor the rights of way. Note to self: next time we have this amount of snow on a winter monitoring trip BRING THE SNOWSHOES! I look forward to the Spring Tour where a more robust report is promised.
Commentaires