NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF P.E.I. INC. UPDATE 1992 by Dan McAskill

There has been a wide variety of exciting activities and accomplishments this past year at the Natural History Society.

The Natural History Society of Prince Edward Island assisted the Island Nature Trust in the conservation of a piece of Herring Island, one of the Murray Islands near Murray Harbour, through the purchase of an Honorary Deed.

There were three displays hosted by the Society this year, one each during Environment Week and National Wildlife Week and the other during National Forestry Week. The Society contributed the third prize award to the Womens Institute's wildlife carving competition and both questions and prizes for the a trivia contest in National Wildlife Week.

In May, the Society hosted its annual slide show and added a special category competition for bird slides. Rosemary Curley won first prize in the open category, Margaret Mallett won second prize, and Donald Wilkinson won the special bird slide award.

David Cairns, Charles Keuper, and Roberta Palmer acted as judges for the U.P.E.I. Science Fair and awarded prizes and newsletter subscriptions to one winner in each of three divisions.

Thanks to the many Society members who mailed in pledges and the efforts of 18 pledge collectors, the Francis Bain Birdathon conducted on May 30th by the Natural History Society, raised $3,000 for the Geoff Hogan Biology Honours Research Fund, bringing the fund to over $14,000. Awards from this fund will support undergraduate biological research at the University of Prince Edward Island.

On June 4th, the Society hosted a booth at Carrefour de l'Isle-St.—Jean to assist with the Institute of Island Studies presentation “Through Geoff's Eyes: A Tribute to an Island Naturalist and Gardener". With funding from Environment Week, the tribute honoured and celebrated the well—known Island naturalist, Geoff Hogan, who died March 13th.

We were pleased that connections with other groups and agencies increased. Society members worked with the Island Nature Trust, Rails to Trails, Parks and People, P.E.I. National Park, and other organizations on solutions to sand drift on the National Parks highway north of the Lake of Shining Waters and a proposed interpretation center near this site. In August, the Society assisted David Xattenburg on the identification of Island issues for the Earth Chronicles syndicated radio series. Nominations were sent forward for the citizen category Environment Week, the Recreational Fisheries, and the CNF's Pimlott Awards. The outstanding work of the nominees led to their winning each award.

The NHS assisted with the implementation of Stephen Flemming and Rachel Gautreau's research on Piping Plovers through funds from the Environment Week program and Endangered Species Recovery Fund. Ben Hoteling helped implement the Piping Plover Guardianship Program beach identification and monitoring efforts. Several radio, television, and newspaper releases were prepared. The final text for the a Canadian Wildlife Service occasional paper on the international census was completed and our survey results were included in the U.S. Fish

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