Hill’s thistle (Cirsium hillii) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 12

Acknowledgements and Authorities Contacted

Meetings with three people were critical to bringing some clarity and substance to the known records for the COSEWIC report. The report writer wishes to  sincerely thank Dr. John Morton, Judith Jones, and Joe Johnson, for taking the time to pore over topographical maps and share their intimate knowledge of the numerous stations of Hill’s Thistle which they have personally surveyed over a combined 60 years of botanical explorations on the Bruce Peninsula and the Manitoulin Islands. In the writers’ preparations for bringing in the greater precision to Morton and Venn’s ‘Manitoulin’ records necessary for this report, Joan Venn’s provision of the printouts for Hill’s Thistle records from their database of the Floras of Manitoulin Island and adjacent islands and the Tobermory Islands was indispensible.

Special thanks are due the Saugeen First Nation Band for permission to access the Chief’s Point First Nation Reserve in order to survey the historical population recorded there. In particular, the writer would like to thank Herman Roote and Kirk Roote of the Saugeen First Nation Land Management and Leasing Department for granting access permission to Al Winters and Joe Johnson, and for accompanying them in the field surveys of September 2003.

The writer would also like to express his thanks to Bob Gray of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Owen Sound; Mike Oldham and Kelly Ramster of the NHIC, Peterborough; and Marilyn Beecroft, Central Zone, Ontario Parks, for providing several reports pertinent to the study. Mike made available the NHIC file on the species, including several Rare Species Field Reporting Forms completed for the species, and Kelly also provided all of the pertinent Element Occurrence summaries. Wasyl Bakowsky provided two GPS coordinates from our visit to Burnt Island Alvar in 2002 and Paul Jurjans was most accomodating in converting any UTMs in NAD 83 to NAD 27. Susan Hallaiken, Aggregates Clerk for the Ministry of Natural Resources in Sudbury, kindly provided information on the quarry licence for Great La Cloche and Little La Cloche Islands. The writer also thanks Dr. Erich Haber for his management of the contract for this report, for his excellent editorial suggestions on the text, for his incorporation of changes requested by reviewers, and for his improvements made to the quality of the maps and photographs.

Ilo-Katryn Maimets, York University Library, was extremely helpful in accessing the York University and University of Toronto databases to search for papers on Hill’s Thistle and in suggesting ‘good sites’ in general to search. The loan of topographical maps for parts of Manitoulin and associated islands by Will Kershaw and Krista Carre of the Sudbury Office of Ontario Parks is greatly appreciated. The help of Nancy Sather, Minnesota Conservation Data Centre, and Kim Mitchell, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Division of Endangered Species, Minnesota, in obtaining a copy of the Hill’s Thistle status report for that state is much appreciated. And once again, Dr. Tony Reznicek was most helpful in answering the authors questions pertaining to some of the stations.

Finally, the writer would like to thank his daughter, Sydney Allen, who for the third straight year acted as his field assistant for COSEWIC fieldwork. In 2002, she bravely agreed to go “on the road” with me for two weeks in August, the first week of which was spent hunting down Hill’s Thistle. Sydney’s search image for the species, and her ability to discern reproducing plants from basal rosettes, and to call them out, was very helpful. Judith Jones is thanked for her generosity in offering a campsite on her front lawn and the use of her kitchen to Sydney and me during fieldwork on Manitoulin Island, as is Mrs. Florence Balderston, for offering lodging at her home in Wiarton during fieldwork on the Bruce.

Funding for the preparation of this status report was provided by the Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada.

Authorities contacted

  • Bob Gray. 2002-2003. Ecologist. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 1450 7th Avenue East, Owen Sound, Ontario N4K 2Z1.
  • Joe Johnson. 2002-2003. Consulting Biologist and expert on the flora of Bruce and Grey Counties. Box 556, Wiarton, Ontario N0H 2T0.
  • Judith Jones. 2002-2003. Consulting Biologist and expert on the flora of Manitoulin and adjacent islands. RR #1, Sheguiandah, Ontario P0P 1W0.
  • Will Kershaw. 2002-2003. Parks Planner. Ontario Parks, Ministry of Natural Resources, 199 Larch Street, Suite 404, Sudbury, Ontario P3E 5P9.
  • Dr. J.K. Morton. 2002-2003. Professor Emeritus and expert on the flora of Manitoulin and adjacent islands. University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1.
  • M.J. Oldham. 2002-2003. Botanist/Herpetologist. Natural Heritage Information Centre, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 300 Water Street, 2nd floor, North Tower, P.O. Box 7000, Peterborough, Ontario K9J 8M5.
  • Andrew Promaine. 2002-2003. Ecologist. Bruce Peninsula National Park, P.O. Box 189, Tobermory, Ontario N0H 2R0.
  • Dr. A.A. Reznicek. 2002-2003. Professor and Curator of the Herbarium. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 . 

Page details

Date modified: