New Projects and Upcoming Events


FUNDRAISER FOR THE VULNERABLE WATERSHEDS  EXPEDITION



JOIN ALETA AND FRED AT THE BRANCH RESTAURANT IN KEMPTVILLE, ONTARIO

SUNDAY, 20 JULY 2:00 -  8:00 
Live Music (open mic) from 3:00 - 6:00

The Branch Restaurant will be donating 50% of the proceeds from their great food from 2:00 to 8:00 on Sunday, and Fred and Aleta will be there, showing paintings, talking, sharing their own ecological songs, and signing books.

THE EXPEDITION: People often feel so helpless as decisions are made by government and big industry with little consideration of the health of local communities, nature, and the environment. Not only do government and big industry disregard many classes of concerns in their evaluation of big projects on the land, but - You're right - they don't know what's out there!

A proposed route for the Energy East pipeline has been flung across Canada, to transport tar sands bitumen to off-shore export from the east coast, and Biologist Dr Frederick W. Schueler and his artist wife Aleta Karstad are launching an independent assessment of the characteristics of the rivers and streams that the Energy East Pipeline would cross.

You have seen a few of the initial paintings from this project on this website, but on 1 August Aleta and Fred begin the expedition, in earnest - heading first through eastern Ontario and Quebec to New Brunswick as they locate water crossings all along the proposed route of the Energy East Pipeline toward the refineries in Saint John, noting the health and diversity of vulnerable watersheds, identifying amphibians and invertebrates large and small, searching all the time for species at risk and noting vulnerable natural communities. 

They return home briefly to the Ottawa area at the end of August, and in early September they drive to Calgary Alberta to attend scientific meetings. By mid-month they will begin to slowly work their way eastward along the pipeline route, surveying and painting precious and beautiful rivers, waterfalls, lakes, and wetlands, all so vulnerable to spills of diluted bitumen. It's not a matter of how few spills there may be, but concern about long-term damage from any at all - so we need to know NOW, what's living naturally all along the pipeline route, and this knowing may help in decision-making.

Aleta paints on site, 'en plein air', capturing the essence of each place in oil on canvas, while Fred's general biological surveys preserve a record of "might be lost" downstream of pipeline crossings all along the route. The number of sites to be assessed would depend on circumstances and levels of support, but as a rough guide, one day in the field costs $500 all in (including the work of data entry and curating specimens). We're asking for help to fund 10 sites.

It's wonderful to have the support of the Branch Restaurant this Sunday, and it would be exciting to have you join us!  However, one-time events are so easy to miss, so if you would like to help in other ways to support the Vulnerable Watersheds expedition (fiscal or in-kind) please e-mail Aleta at karstad(at)pinicola(dot)ca

ABOUT US: Fragile Inheritance best describes the work of Aleta and Fred as they explore and document landscapes through art,  digital data, and specimens, publishing and collaborating with individuals and organizations with similar goals. Aleta is one of Canada's leading natural history artists, and author of several natural history books, while Fred is a senior research associate of the Canadian Museum of Nature, chair of South Nation Conservation's Fish and Wildlife Committee, as well as being active in numerous issue-oriented conservation organizations such as the Ontario Freshwater Mussel Recovery Team, and the Ontario Road Ecology Group.

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