1996 - Present

MTRI works with other organizations, volunteers and government agencies to fill knowledge gaps and recover Endangered Blanding's turtle populations in southwest Nova Scota.  Activities include protecting nests from predators, monitoring populations, identifying habitats use, and following up on public sightings to find potential new populations.

2004 - Present

MTRI is dedicated fostering recovery of the Threatened Eastern Ribbonsnake.  Activities include studying the Eastern Ribbonsnake to find out where they live, how its populations are doing, what factors are threatening it and working to make sure it is around for many generations to come.

2006 - Present

Since 2006, MTRI has managed several projects to research, conserve and promote old forests in Nova Scotia. Today, less than 1% of the province is old-growth, the gold standard of old forests, and many factors threaten them, but we are determined to continue our work and save our old forests.

2008 - Present

Working with industry, government and private land owners to monitor (long term survivorship, threats), identify and preserve at risk lichens and their habitats. MTRI conducts pre-harvest surveys on crown land under the Lichen Special Management Practice (SMP).

2008 - Present

MTRI is a leader in Monarch engagement with the public; we organize the provincial milkweed monitoring project which surveys milkweed for monarch presence and engages volunteers, teach schoolchildren about this and other native pollinators and supply nurseries with seeds to grow their host plant, Milkweed.

2012 - Present

In 2012 MTRI and partners initiated a project to monitor the threats and population trends of Eastern Mountain Avens (Geum peckii) on Brier Island and Digby Neck. The threats include, Herring gulls, habitat loss/change, climate change and nutrient enrichment.

The global range of this species is Digby Neck/Brier Island and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Since 2012 Provincial, Federal and NGO partners, informed by ongoing Academic studies, have managed a large-scale restoration of Big Meadow Bog on Brier Island.

2017 - Present

Our work at MTRI focuses on sharing information on this invasive with the public, working with government to monitor its spread and assist with Nova Scotia’s management plan. We have also work with and trained private landowners to develop monitoring and treatment plans as well as being directly involved with the hemlock woolly adelgid international working group.

2017 - Present

Monitoring, researching and public outreach about the wonders of bats. We collect public bat reports through batconservation.ca and then use this data to inform conservation efforts. This work involves close partnerships with private landowners to monitor and protect significant summer bat roosts where endangered Little brown bats are breeding.

2018 - Present

We lead the forested wetlands target for the Kespukwitk Conservation Collaborative. This involves coordinating threat and recovery strategies, climate smarting the program, working with the collaborative committee, developing Key Ecological Attributes, and developing projects to conserved forested wetlands in Kespukwitk. 

2019 - Present

Two thirds of our forests in Nova Scotia are privately owned and throughout our years of species at risk research we've listened to landowners about the need for support in managing private woodlands for biodiversity. In response, we have developed a Biodiversity Assessment to gauge the special features and wildlife habitats on a woodlot. The assessment looks at a variety of ecological features such as tree species, tree ages and heights, forest dead wood and special habitats like wetlands, watercourses and old forests. All these features can go hand in hand with active forest management and our tool uses this information to recommend practices that ensures these special characteristics are maintained or improved.

2021 - Present

Kespukwitk (Southwest Nova Scotia) is a biodiversity hotspot and one of 11 Priority Places under the Pan-Canadian approach to transforming species at risk stewardship in Canada. The Kespukwitk Conservation Collaborative (KCC) is a collection of partners focused on coordinating conservation in Kespukwitk. The KCC engages with municipalities for species at risk conservation by providing support and resources, including a toolkit for municipal stewardship. We are empowering municipalities to contribute directly to long-term species at risk stewardship in Kespukwitk.

2021 - 2026

To educate and incentivize private landowners with known SAR occurances to implement applicable BMP's in order to protect the habitats of SAR.

2021 - Present

Kespukwitk (Southwest Nova Scotia) is a biodiversity hotspot and one of 11 Priority Places under the Pan-Canadian approach to transforming species at risk stewardship in Canada. The Kespukwitk Conservation Collaborative (KCC) is a collection of partners focused on coordinating conservation in Kespukwitk. MTRI is responsible for engaging all relevant partners for species at risk conservation through the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation framework to ultimately set achievable conservation goals for the Upland Forest.

2022 - 2027

Conduct desktop biodiversity reviews of nominated sites; Advise on biodiversity survey requirements; Conduct SAR surveys as needed; Provide biodiversity related training for FFN partners.

2023 - 2024

MTRI and Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change staff are working to verify LiDAR derived Wet Area Maps (WAM) by visiting predicted wetlands and collecting data (presence/absence of wetland conditions; wetland boundary; wetland classification; rapid assessment of hydrology, soils, and hydrophytic vegetation; dominant vegetation structure; photos; soil samples). 

MTRI staff are engaging with local, private land owners around high-priority lakes in Kespukwitk to promote ACPF stewardship, monitor populations and threats and solve regulatory gaps that impact at-risk ACPF plants.

The Coastal Islands of Southwest Nova Scotia provide many benefits to humans such as storm-breaks and fishing-grounds while also providing habitat for rare species. MTRI works with conservation and industry partners across the province to reduce threats to Coastal Islands such as the inflated populations of gull species. These over-inflated populations can cause problems for local and rare species in several ways, like destroying the habitat of the Eastern Mountain Avens and by predating nests of Roseate Terns.

MTRI in partnership with Birds Canada is promoting the monitoring of Barn Swallow nests in Nova Scotia using the Birds Canada Project, Project Nest Watch. We promote stewardship by providing education and increased public awareness of the Barn Swallow in the province. The objective of our outreach is to increase the number of monitored Barn Swallow nests so that we can better understand overall productivity and populations size.

As a founding member of several woodland stewardship initiatives including the MCFC, WWSC, NSWWT, NSAWC, and FFN, MTRI continues to support these collaborative initiatives as funding allows. MTRI provides training and networking opportunities through workshops, seminars, and Woodland Conferences committee support. One on one advice is given to landowners on invasive species, biodiversity and available resources on request.