The Kenauk Institute
is one of the largest private nature reserves in North America.
Partnership with Kenauk Institute
Resource
Look into nature: conservation through research
We have been fortunate enough to be introduced to The Kenauk Institute through Doug Harpur, BCS'67, who is the Chair of its Board of Directors. Over the past several years, BCS has been working extensively with Liane Nowell, Executive Director, and the Institute on a variety of projects.
The Kenauk Institute is a non-profit charitable organization in Montebello, Quebec, Canada. It is one of the largest private nature reserves in North America, encompassing 65,000 acres of forest and more than 60 lakes. The mission of The Kenauk Institute is to support, coordinate, and supervise scientific research, involve local schools in environmental education, and connect Kenauk with the broader community. Its vision is to establish a baseline inventory of biodiversity and monitor the property with a 100-year time horizon. With time, Kenauk will become a laboratory for monitoring climate change and human impacts.
Scholar-in-Residence
We welcomed Liane to Moulton Hill in October 2021 as our second Scholar-in-Residence. Liane’s expertise is in the fields of marine ecology, fish husbandry, and sustainable living and conservation. She is also an established educator, through her work at Kenauk. Working alongside both our students and our faculty and staff, Liane is helping to develop our ecology curricula and to give our teachers inspiration for designing inquiry-based, hands-on, and field-based educational programs. During her stay, Liane worked closely with our Science Department and offered workshops on topics such as:
- Permanent sample plots being marked in our forest for the recording of trees and fauna that will be part of a 100-year study.
- Locating vernal pools in the field and discovering what is living in them.
- How to use and track the data that is being captured by the BCS weather station.
- Recording data through installed trail cameras and tracking animal movement over time.
- Insect traps for observation and identification in the forest.
- Bat population nighttime activity.
- Educational workshop on ticks and what a deer tick bite looks like and how to react if bitten.
- Pollinators (bees, wasps, and others) outdoor activity for field observation.
We look forward to Liane returning this winter and spring to continue this exciting work with our community.
Form II Trip
Our Form II students travel to Kenauk once a year for a nature camp in the spring coordinated by Liane. During the camp, our students have the chance to experience nature, some for the first time, and bond with one another and their teachers, as well as to gain a better understanding of some of the basics of ecology in Quebec.
Junior Internship Program
The Junior Internship Program annually aims to offer two of our female students the opportunity to gain first-hand research experience in ecology and other fields of biology. The junior interns spend ten days in the field working under the tutelage of Liane and other female undergraduate and masters level students, and gaining a better appreciation and understanding of true scientific research.
CONTACT
Marie-France Labelle
Director of Academics
819.566.0227 x252
email