Pitcher's Thistle - Pukaskwa
Historically, Pukaskwa had two naturally occurring populations of Pitcher’s Thistle; Creek Beach and Crescent beach, both located in Oiseau Bay. On Sept. 22 & 23, 1985 there was a severe windstorm that severely affected the beach at Oiseau Bay and caused erosion at the colony site and then on June 26, 1986, there was a severe thunderstorm with heavy rain that caused the washout of a huge portion of the Crescent Beach colony. Both of the colonies have shown negative population trends to the point where the Crescent Beach colony is now considered extirpated. From 1982 to 2014, each location was divided into plots and within each plot, each plant was tagged with a unique identifier using dymo tape and a bicycle spoke. The life stage of the plant, the habitat it is in, the number of stems, the number of heads and flowering heads, whether it was affected by plume moth, and if the plant was missing, dead or if the tag was missing or removed were recorded. In 2015, the protocol changed so that only the number of seedlings, rosettes and flowering plants per plot is recorded. In 1991, Middle Beach was planted by seed and has been surveyed in the same way since 1992. This project aims to achieve the species' recovery strategy goals by maintaining and restoring 3 colonies in Pukaskwa, with a minimum of 800 plants total and that all have acceptable fluctuations (colonies show stable trends with no more than 30% decline in 1 year).
- Publisher - Current Organization Name: Parks Canada
- Licence: Open Government Licence - Canada
Data and Resources
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Pitcher's Thistle - Survey Data- PukaskwaCSVEnglish French dataset CSV
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Pitcher's Thistle - Habitat Data- PukaskwaCSVEnglish French dataset CSV
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Pitcher's Thistle - Restoration Data- PukaskwaCSVEnglish French dataset CSV