Look for these first signs of spring across Canada
Red-winged blackbird (Photo by Bill Hubick)
With the springing forward of our clocks and the increased daylight, many Canadians are getting antsy for the arrival of spring. What can be more delightful than noticing the little signs that signal the arrival of a new season, such as the...
Exploring the boreal forest with an interactive story map
Canada warbler (Photo by Gerald Deboer)
Imagine taking a flight across Canada’s vast and breathtaking boreal region, which stretches across approximately 60 per cent of the country. Now take a step back from this picture of grandeur to focus on the littlest bird residents flitting...
Hugging trees
I’m walking along a well-beaten dirt path in a favourite forest. The brilliant early fall sunshine streams through the leaves, which are gradually dimming from their vibrant summer green to hues of yellow, gold and the first tinges of red. A...
Private land conservation: Another option
As this past summer’s Nova Scotia conservation engagement intern with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), I was given the opportunity to explore the province from one tip to the other, seeing parts of the province I had never seen...
Canada’s other rainforest
Wabanaki (Acadian) forest, Chignecto Isthmus, NS (Photo by Mike Dembeck)
The word “rainforest” evokes vivid images of a rich natural world. Many people think of the lush, misty jungles of the Amazon or Congo with thick vegetation. If you live in Canada, you might think about BC’s temperate...
A glimpse of the past: Using historic maps to guide land management
The Prairie provinces, like much of agricultural Canada, look vastly different than they did before European settlement. During the development of Western Canada, forests were cleared, wetlands drained and grasslands plowed in an effort to settle...
Ain’t no mountain high enough
Hikers in Happy Valley Forest, ON (Photo by NCC)
So, you’re the master of hiking up hills in the Greater Toronto Area, are you? You take the stairs over the escalator at the shopping mall. You’ve conquered the stair climber at your local gym. Perhaps you’ve even climbed the CN...
Beech leaf disease: A new problem for Ontario trees
Early-stage leaf striping (Photo by John Pogacnik, Ohio Department of Natural Resources)
Beech bark disease began ravaging beech trees in Ontario in the late 1990s, after spreading west from Atlantic Canada. But recently, a new beech disease has emerged in the province. Beech leaf disease was first detected in North America in 2012 in...
Conserving carbon sinks: A natural solution to climate change
Darkwoods mountains, BC (Photo by Bruce Kirkby)
In the global effort to fight climate change, forests, wetlands and grasslands are more and more being recognized for their important role in absorbing greenhouse gas emissions (i.e., carbon dioxide) and storing carbon over the long term....
What ash trees and bumble bees are telling us
American bumble bee (Photo by K.S. Gardener/iNaturalist)
Black ash and American bumble bee are not species I thought we would ever need to save. When I started my studies in conservation over 25 years ago, bumble bees still seemed commonplace, and I thought of ash as a common tree that was great for...
