In This Issue
Upcoming South Shore Events
Join us for Monarch Day
Recognizing the Rights of Nature …
At Husking Time
Word Games - Monarch Butterfly Word Search & County did you know … Late Summer Blooms Riddles
SSJI Step Into Nature Raffle
Naked Eye Astronomy – August & September
Choreography for an afternoon
Kids Korner: Make a Cloud
Kids Korner: Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle Flip Book
Photo Gallery: Blanding’s in my backyard
Photo Gallery: Some Photos from SSJI’s 2026 SS Fest
SSJI Received A 2026 Municipal Community Grant
Editor’s Note
Male Monarch Butterfly - Photo: Ian Barker
Female Monarch Butterfly - Photo: Ian Dickinson
Upcoming South Shore Events
Come to these sky events hosted by the Belleville Chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada at the Mariners Park Museum, 2065 County Rd 13, Milford, ON K0K 2P0.
1) Partial Solar Eclipse - Wed., Aug. 12 from 12:00 to 3:00 P.M. Free event registration here.
2) Partial Lunar Eclipse - Thurs., Aug. 27 from 9:00 P.M. to 12:00 A.M. Free event registration here.
3) Observe The Moon - Sat., Sept. 19 from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M. Free event registration here.
Celebrate The Magic of the Monarch Day on Sat., Aug. 22, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 3:00. See here.
Join hiker and plein-air painter Tim Snyder and local South Shore Footpath Project volunteers for a South Shore Watercolour Walk at Hudgin Log House, Hudgin-Rose Nature Reserve, 191 Ostrander Point Rd., Prince Edward County, ON K0K 2P0. on Sat., Sept.26, 2026 from 9:00 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. For more information contact Lesa Berec at [email protected] . Also see here. View the previous event from July 2026 here.
Step Into Nature with SSJI’s Fundraising Raffle on Fri., Oct.30, 2026 at 4:00 P.M. at Little Ben Cottage, 361 Main St., Wellington, ON K0K 3L0. See here.
View all events here.
Recognizing the Rights of Nature - A Necessary Shift in Law and Culture
📝 Vince Fiorito
(Original article used with the permission of the author)
For generations, we’ve treated the planet as if it were an endless resource. Forests would regrow, rivers would heal, harvested oceans would refill with life, and somehow the air would remain clean no matter how much we poisoned it. We believed that dilution was the solution to pollution. But it wasn’t true. Today’s reality reads like a long list of overdue bills: rising greenhouse gases, contaminated soils, plastic-filled oceans, depleted aquifers, collapsing wildlife populations… More of us understand now that the Earth’s life-support systems have limits, and we are pushing past them.
This is where the Rights of Nature movement steps in and asks a simple, reasonable question: If inanimate corporations can have legal rights, why can’t living ecosystems?
Corporations are human inventions. Rivers, forests, mountains, wetlands, and species are not. They breathe, they flow, they grow, and make all life on this planet possible, including ours.
Rights of Nature is an ancient idea. Long before modern courts, many human societies viewed themselves as part of the natural world. Many Indigenous peoples around the world continue to see rivers, forests, and mountains as relatives. With relatives come responsibilities. You can’t take from a family member forever and act surprised when the relationship breaks down.
Western economic and legal systems have turned the natural world into nothing more than exploitable resources, where everything has a price and nothing has a voice. This lopsided approach is now pushing hard against natural limits. Ecosystems are failing, and our future fails with them.
Rights of Nature is a perception that ecosystems are persons under the law. They can be represented in court, defended from harm, and restored when damaged. Guardians or legal representatives, often chosen by local communities or governments, speak on their behalf. Through the actions of people, Nature becomes a legal participant in a court of law rather than a silent casualty.
A growing number of countries and communities around the world have already adopted Rights of Nature policies and laws, including:
• Ecuador wrote Rights of Nature into its constitution in 2008.
• New Zealand, guided by Māori leadership, recognize the Whanganui River, Te Urewera forest, and Taranaki Maunga as legal persons.
• Colombia, Panama, Uganda, Spain, and others have granted rights to rivers, forests, lagoons and other ecosystems.
• In Canada, the untamed Magpie River in Quebec has legal guardians defending its right to flow clean and unrestricted.
These laws don’t freeze human activity. They value the life-giving environmental services that sustain us, while preventing reckless damage that destabilizes ecosystems and harms our communities. The Rights of Nature approach to laws and policies shifts our culture from one of unlimited extraction and exploitation to one of responsibility, stewardship and reciprocity.
Some critics may claim recognizing nature’s rights will hurt economically. But a prosperous economy on a resource-depleted dying planet is a short-term illusion. If the water is unsafe and crops fail while storms and fires grow increasingly severe, wealth becomes meaningless. A healthy planet is the foundation of every job, industry, and form of prosperity.
Rights of Nature laws can be messy, inconsistent, or easily challenged — just like civil rights, labour rights, and women’s rights once were. No important societal change happens without resistance. All movements must evolve over time in response to new understandings and ideas.
We’re at this kind of moment now. Ecological decline isn’t a distant threat; it’s happening right now in real time. We can see and measure it.
Future generations will ask what we did when the warnings became clear.
Did we assume someone else would fix our problems?
Did we really believe a living river could have fewer rights than a corporation?
Or will we be able to say that we finally recognized nature not as property to be exploited, but as a partner to love and respect — and that we updated our laws to reflect that current reality?
Which side are you on?
At Husking Time
Emily Pauline Johnson (Takehionwake)1
At husking time the tassel fades
To brown above the yellow blades,
Whose rustling sheath enswathes the corn
That bursts its chrysalis in scorn
Longer to lie in prison shades.
Among the merry lads and maids
The creaking ox-cart slowly wades
Twixt stalks and stubble, sacked and torn
At husking time.
The prying pilot crow persuades
The flock to join in thieving raids;
The sly racoon with craft inborn
His portion steals; from plenty's horn
His pouch the saucy chipmunk lades
At husking time.
1 - Johnson, Emily Pauline (Takehionwake). 1922. At Husking Time in “Flint and Feather, 8th Ed.”, P.34.
The Musson Book Company, Toronto, Ontario. Accessed 20260806Thurs.
Choreography for an afternoon
JC Sulzenko1
He walks on stilts
among riverweeds
Lifts his grey talon
Its underside: soft, pink
Each step in slow motion
His neck extends in this adagio
He stops, head down, then shrugs
Lifts over the bay with low, wide wingbeats
Feather tips dip, make circles on the surface
He lands down Stream on a manicured lawn
Saunters to a rocky point, waits
at the end of a pile of a pile of stones
Strikes. The legs of a frog
dance from his beak
but not for long. The show
over, he rests on one leg
From afar, could be a dead branch
till he stalks off stage.
Great Blue Heron stalking prey (Ian Barker)
Great Blue Heron standing (Photo: Ian Dickinson)
1 - Sulzenko, JC. 2017. Choreography for an afternoon in “South Shore Suite: Second Nature” Pg. 30. Point Petre Publishing, Milford, ON.
Blanding’s in my Backyard
📸 Dawn Ayer
On Friday, June 12, 2026 Dawn’s partner - Braydon Scully - discovered a female Blanding’s Turtle in their oversized pool enclosure. They left the gate to the enclosure open overnight so the turtle could get out. Dawn photographed the female Blanding’s Turtle, tucked into her shell, by the fence.
Blanding’s Turtles are a Species at Risk. They have been known to travel a kilometre from their home wetland in search of a place to lay their eggs. These turtles reach sexual maturity at about 20 years old and have been known to live for as long as 75 years. They are a Species at Risk because of habitat loss, and predation of their eggs by Red Foxes and Raccoons.
See the description of this splendid turtle in:
SSJI. 2023. Blanding’s Turtle in “Your Guide to Species at Risk” Pg.34-35. PEC, ON.
Female Blanding’s turtle by Pool Fence
Location of Blanding’s turtle in Pool Enclosure
Head photo of female Blanding’s turtle
Some Photos from SSJI’s 2026 South Shore Festival
📸 John Brebner
Debbie and Steve RASC Tent
John (QFN) and Gerry (PECFN)
Jason and Rachelle Nature Canada
Liz and Edwin County Heritage
SSJI South Shore Festival Kids Tent
SSJI Received A 2026 Municipal Community Grant
2026 Municipal Community Grant Recipients (Photo: Brooke Spencer/ County of Prince Edward)
N.B. - SSJI Board Members appear in lower left of the photo i.e. Cheryl Anderson with dog Leo, Cheryl Chapman, and Dawn Ayer behind Cheryl C.
Editor's Note
This is the 37th edition of The South Shoreliner. The editor would like to thank the following for contributing to this 37th edition of The South Shoreliner: Vince Fiorito, Emily Pauline Johnson, John F. Foster, Steven Burr, JC Sulzenko, Cheryl Chapman, and Prince Edward County. Contributions make the newsletter readable and interesting. For the next and upcoming newsletters, contributions of articles, photos and events are always welcome.
-- John F. Foster, The South Shoreliner Editor
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