native grass garden is just about complete and in 2006 more of the innovations 
outlined in the five year plan for the garden will be implemented. All the work is 
performed by a dedicated band of volunteers under the direction of Jay Ladell. If 
you would like to join in (and new members are always more than welcome) please 
contact Jay at jay_ladell@yahoo.com or leave a message at 234-6767. 
Events 
Under warm, sunny skies on September 24 we took part in A AFC’s open house. 
Although the projected number of visitors didn’t materialize, a steady flow of 
people, ferried around the farm on double-decker buses, visited the garden. A 
bilingual information sheet, “ Welcome to the Fletcher Wildlife Garden ” was 
prepared as a handout. Copies are still available at the centre. 
Winter is generally a quiet time at FWG but mark your calendars for our two 
upcoming regular events. International Migratory Bird Day on Saturday May 13, and 
the Annual Native Plant Sale on Saturday June 3. More information can be found in 
the “Coming Events” section of this publication, or by checking our website at 
http://www.ofnc.ca/fletcher. If you have native plants you would like to donate to 
the sale please contact Sandy Garland at sgarland@magma.ca. We will also be 
participating as usual in the Wildlife Awareness Event at Billings Bridge, a part of 
the Ottawa Wildlife Festival. Visit us there on April 7, 8 and 9, 2006. 
The Great Backyard Bird Count will be over by the time you read this report. FWG 
has participated for some years now and it is always fun to see how many birds we 
can find during this count. Watch for details in the next update. 
Problems 
Surprisingly, no fires were found this fall, perhaps a first! This is not to say that we 
didn’t have our share of problems, although I’m happy to say that none were serious. 
A newly erected boundary sign was removed and slightly damaged in late fall. One 
of the Old Field birdhouses lost its top (yanked off and discarded nearby), and one of 
our picnic tables was "borrowed” in January and found at the bottom of the BYG 
facing the canal. Perhaps the most disheartening problem we encountered was the 
damage to two White Pines just north of the Ash Woods. Since this happened 
shortly before Christmas we can only assume they were taken for Christmas trees. 
One was lopped off near ground level, the other about four feet above the ground. 
We’ve watched these trees grow from tiny saplings so it was doubly sad to see this 
damage. Once again we remind readers that if they see anything suspicious at FWG 
to please call AAFC Security at 759-1985 and the FWG at 234-6767. 
Managing the Garden 
Invasive species 
The last update contained a great deal about invasive species control (Hanrahan 
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