Blackie School Green Day
Students making ferruginous hawk nesting platforms. (Photo by Sandi Riemersma)
The first of June was an exciting day in the small community of Blackie, Alberta. “Why is that,” you ask? It was the first ever Blackie School Green Day! Close to 20 partners came together to offer their knowledge and resources to more...
Stories from the forest floor
Joanna Hudgins, NCC summer intern, cheerfully collecting bones (Photo by Claire Elliott/NCC staff)
As a child, I was dogged by an unfortunate desire to pick up all kinds of things in the woods that were deemed inappropriate by adults. I never did understand what was dirty about a bone or a feather. They were fascinating, especially if you could...
Liberating the Happy Valley Forest from invaders
Happy Valley Forest, ON (Photo by Miguel Hortiguela)
It was a covert ground-assault by a small group of dedicated resisters, led by Thomas Unrau of the Nature Conservancy of Canada, on an invader to the perhaps not-so-Happy Valley. I'd signed up to participate in a valiant effort to thwart the...
My (grizzly) neighbours - Part One
No need for coffee when you see this vision outside the kitchen window first thing in the morning. (Photo by Peter Shaughnessy)
Never leave the house without a camera...and a spare battery. I learned that lesson well over the past 27 years while living and working in British Columbia’s Tatlayoko Valley and I will explain why. But first, where is Tatlayoko? It is a...
Barnacle Bill: The loggerhead turtle of Belize
Left to right: Will Cascadden, the divemaster and Katie Cascadden (Photo courtesy of Katie Cascadden)
Last May my dad and I took a trip down to the beautiful country of Belize for a diving trip. Once at the docks off of Belize City, we had a two-hour boat ride we arrived at the Blackbird Caye of the Turneffe Atoll. Two days later on our second...
On discovering Ontario’s tallest tree
Standing with Ontario's tallest pine (Photo by NCC)
Nature does not thank us for protecting nature reserves. But left to its own devices, it does offer up hidden rewards and ecological gifts for us to discover. We just found one of these natural gems in a Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC)...
My Singapore turtle encounter
Red-eared slider (Photo by Maggie Cascadden/NCC staff)
Conservation is different in every country. In Canada, for example, we have land protected at the national, provincial and municipal level, as well as privately through organizations like the Nature Conservancy of Canada. But what do you do if...
A pilgrimage to the great Thessalon pine
White Pine (Photo by Bernt Solymar)
When a giant tree falls in the forest, does it make a giant sound? One thing is for sure, when the Giant White Pine of Thessalon collapsed in 1997, it must have scared the heck out of local wildlife. And it would have been really shocking to any...
Confessions of an NCC tour guide: Day Two
Fort Ellice, Riding Mountain (Photo by NCC)
With still lots of ground to cover we headed out bright an early for a hike through the Elk Glen. Our trail wound through a beautiful mixed wood forest, opening up into a beautiful, hilly fescue prairie. I diligently explained to Lisa and...
Confessions of an NCC tour guide: Day One
Riding Mountain Natural Area, Manitoba (Photo by NCC)
This past October, four of us ladies (...women, females, gals...ya let's go with gals) from the Manitoba Region of the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) embarked on a two-day survey of NCC properties across three natural areas. The purpose of...
