Pelee Island

We've got, you know, Sherry and Hilda and Crystal and Kathy that just stepped down from Essex.

Pelee Island as mayor.

Yeah.

I mean, we've got amazing elected women all over Essex County, but yet still at this point, zero in Windsor.

Yeah.

So right now the main project I'm working on is called the Pelee Island Salamander Project, uh, and this is a project that's been running since about 2015.

It focuses on the blue-spotted salamanders and the small-mouthed salamanders of Pelee Island.

But interestingly, on the island, it's also home to an all-female lineage of unisexual salamanders, and these salamanders reproduce by using genetic material from the two other species and basically incorporating it into their offspring.

And in this sense, these, uh, weird female unisexual salamanders contain different proportions of blue-spotted and small-mouthed salamander chromosomes, and they can have up to as many five sets of different chromosomes, and this also makes these salamanders incredibly hard to tell apart.

[laughs]

It does sound interesting.

Now, has the blue-spotted salamander been in the region that long? You had said this other unisex species back 4,000 years, um, there'd be evidence of that in Pelee Island, and when did the blue-spotted salamander arrive?

And its natural range was south of Ontario.

There's some debate about whether there was one tree hanging on at the southern tip of Pelee Island at one point, but the vast majority of its range is south of the boundaries of

the

province of Ontario.

And through Catherine and her husband, I got to meet a lot of other folks that were working in the industry at that point in time creating the wineries.

And also because of them, they're, they had a great affiliation with, uh, with Pelee Island.

At one point they both worked with Pelee Island for a number of years.

So that sort of brought me further and further into the wine world.

At some point you decided to become a sommelier.

And as part of our election coverage, we are offering interviews to women, uh, running in Windsor Essex.

Today it's my pleasure to have Cathy Miller, the mayor of Pelee Island, on the show.

Cathy Miller is the first term mayor of the township of Pelee and a local small business owner.

Prior to moving to Pelee Island full-time in 2020 with her husband Kevin and their two dogs, Jodi and KJ, she spent 20 years in corporate media managing over a $25 million in revenue targets and leading a team of 28.

I can't wait to hear more about that.

Uh, but beyond her municipal duties, Cathy is a dedicated community organizer.

She served on the organizing committee for the Island Unplugged Music Festival, so cool, was secretary to the board of Pelee Island Community Arts, and is currently launching the sixth year of Hell on Heels, also love, a one-mile fundraising walk bringing women and allies together to support essential local needs like potable water, period products, mental health resources, and AED machines.

Cathy, thank you.

Yeah.

So right now the main project I'm working on is called the Pelee Island Salamander Project, uh, and this is a project that's been running since about 2015.

It focuses on the blue-spotted salamanders and the small-mouthed salamanders of Pelee Island.

But interestingly, on the island, it's also home to an all-female lineage of unisexual salamanders, and these salamanders reproduce by using genetic material from the two other species and basically incorporating it into their offspring.

And in this sense, these, uh, weird female unisexual salamanders contain different proportions of blue-spotted and small-mouthed salamander chromosomes, and they can have up to as many five sets of different chromosomes, and this also makes these salamanders incredibly hard to tell apart.

[laughs]

It does sound interesting.

Now, has the blue-spotted salamander been in the region that long? You had said this other unisex species back 4,000 years, um, there'd be evidence of that in Pelee Island, and when did the blue-spotted salamander arrive?

And Graeme and Margaret had spent a lot of time talking about and, and investing in research around that, those migratory patterns.

They co-founded the Bird Observatory on Pelee Island in southwestern Ontario.

For people who haven't been down there, can you just, just describe why that part of this country is so key to the migration of birds?

Yeah.

And they, you know, they avoid obstacles like the Great Lakes, and so southwestern Ontario really funnels a lot of those birds into a small area.

And also when they hit the shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, they tend to pile up.

So places like, um, Point Pelee, Pelee Island, Long Point, Rondeau Park become, you know, um, havens for, for these birds, and people come from all over the world to, to bird watch and see those birds.

What is it like at the peak of the migration?