In 2024, GEI Consultants Ltd. undertook research evaluating how the endangered Kirtland’s Warbler utilizes the recovering Jack Pine Barrens ecosystem within the 2018 Parry Sound 033 fire footprint along the northern Georgian Bay coastline. In collaboration with community members from Henvey Inlet First Nation, the long-term study focuses on assessing habitat suitability, establishing repeatable monitoring transects, and measuring local post-fire forest attributes.

Significant achievements and milestones were reached during the 2024 field season. Most notably, the team confirmed Kirtland’s Warbler breeding within the study area, documenting two mated pairs, three nesting attempts, and two additional unmated males along the Key River transect. This represents only the third confirmed breeding site for the species in Canada and establishes a novel breeding habitat preference, as the birds were utilizing a landscape dominated by igneous rock barrens rather than traditional glacial outwash plains. Although nesting attempts ultimately failed due to suspected natural predation, monitoring confirmed that the habitat was suitable enough for pairs to establish territories, construct nests, and reach both incubation and nestling stages.

Progress in 2024 also included surveying 25 point-count stations place across eight established transects, conducting targeted playback surveys, mapping bird territories, and gathering breeding data for the third Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. In addition to avian monitoring, researchers completed preliminary vegetation structure characterizations (including Jack Pine stem density, ground cover characteristics, and snag (song post) availability) and conducted trial 3D Structure from Motion (SfM) drone photogrammetry over the Key River area to evaluate fine-scale post-fire habitat recovery. The ongoing fauna and flora life sciences inventory logged hundreds of incidental observations, documenting local biodiversity across the recovering burn.