GM Canada CAMI Assembly Plant

About the Program
General Motors Company's GMCL CAMI Assembly Plant occupies 570 acres in a residential area in the center of the southwestern peninsula of Ontario. The on-site habitat is predominantly a freshwater wetland, but there is also grassland and a hardwood forest. The team actively manages wildlife habitat and has been certified since 2011.

Practices and Impacts

• In 2015, the team began the Phragmites Pilot Project with the aim of removing invasive phragmites from the wetland areas on site and repopulating with native grasses and wildflowers. The pilot study, which was completed in 2018, was deemed a success and has been turned into a permanent project where the monitoring of the invasive species is done bi-weekly and cuttings are continued twice during growing and seeding season. The long-term goal is to have a "phrag-free" facility at GM CAMI.
• The team manages several nest box projects on-site. The wetland area contains six mallard nesting tubes. These tubes provide a safe breeding site for the ducks, with mallards returning annually. In order to protect wood duck populations, the team has set up two nesting boxes for the species. In both 2019 and 2020, hatched eggs were confirmed. There are also 15 bird boxes that are tailored to cavity-nesting birds on site, with the specific aim of attracting eastern bluebirds. These nest boxes successfully support hatchlings every year, while also preventing competitor species from nesting. Similarly, a nest box was established for barn swallows and one for owls (possible species include eastern screech owls, great horned owls or snowy owls). Barn swallows have frequently been spotted on-site, and within the first breeding season, the team observed eastern screech owl eggs in the owl box. Lastly, the team also manages a bat box, with the hopes of attracting one of four native bat species to roost -- the northern long-eared bat, the eastern small-footed myotis, the big brown bat and the red bat.
• A garden was established in 2014 to attract various pollinator species. Catering to monarch butterflies, milkweed is the dominant plant species in the garden. Every spring and summer, hundreds of butterflies are observed. Next steps for this project include planting more milkweed plants. To a similar end, three bee hotels were set up near the gardens. Made of bamboo, the hotels provide nesting opportunities for pollinator species such solitary bees, wasps and hornets. 
• To support populations of midland painted turtles and snapping turtles, the team established a floating platform in middle of the pond on-site. During spring, summer and fall months, turtles can be spotted sunning on the platform. Sun basking is integral to their health, allowing turtles absorb UV rays and warmth from the sun. 
• The team encourages a community-wide approach to help youth better understand their impact on local watersheds. The team run an ecoSTEM program where older middle school students come on-site to participate in stream monitoring, the implementation of an environmental issue-centered project and a watershed tour. The program builds students' environmental knowledge to enable informed decision-making necessary for community resilience around environment changes and challenges.