Our class is involved in a nesting box project associated with the Yukon Southern Lakes Nest Box Project. We have started with five boxes that were made for us by corrections and will be making more next school year. The boxes will be numbered and initialized with E.S.E.S.. The students will be checking on the boxes on a regular basis and recording their findings. These findings will be given to the Yukon Southern Lakes Nest Box Project people.

The reason we are doing this is because we have noticed there are less birds in our green belt than in previous years. We believe that A.T.V.'s and other motorized vehicles are scaring them away or damaging their habitat. We also know that there are more people using the green belt because new neighbourhoods have been built nearby. Because of the increase in people, we are aware that there may also be people cutting and destroying trees and shrubs who are not using motor vehicles. We also know children have been making new trails. Therefore part of our study will be observing the immediate area around where the nesting boxes are, approximately a 3 to 5 metre radius, for signs of people vs motor vehicle damage.

We know that some snow machines have chased and thrown things at the birds and animals in the area. We are concerned that our bird houses may be tampered with by people, but we are also aware that they may be tampered with by other animals such as squirrels and cats.

We hope to discover from our study the following: