On Wednesday the Watson Arts Centre was presented with a plaque for their contribution to the preservation of chimney swifts.
The large chimney on the art centre’s building is now a habitat to chimney swifts.
Amanda Shave, Coordinator of the Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative presented the plaque.
“There are various volunteers in Dauphin who have volunteered with our program for a number of years and this is one of the chimneys that they watch, and when they watch they fill out a data sheet and send that to our organization. We compile and keep track of the trends of chimney swifts in Manitoba. Chimney swifts are a species at risk – they’re threatened both by the province and federally, so it’s a very important species to be keeping track of to see what their populations are doing.”
Yvonne Lillie, Director with the Dauphin & District Allied Arts Council says the chimney is a neat feature of the Watson Art Centre.
“It shows how tall they had to make this chimney and if you saw the room below it that’s another whole story in itself. Anything we can do whether big or small that is going to keep heritage and culture alive in Dauphin is to keep this whole spot where it’s at.”
The Chimney Swift population has declined in Canada since the 1960s, and they are now listed at risk both provincially and federally.
