One human's trash is an endangered snake's treasure
Gray ratsnake (Photo by Jessica Ferguson)
I spent my summer radio-tracking a female gray ratsnake and assessing habitat characteristics in Norfolk County, for Natural Resource Solutions Inc. (NRSI), an ecological consulting company based in Waterloo, Ontario, and Ontario Nature, a...
Tracking eastern loggerhead shrikes
Eastern loggerhead shrike (Photo by Dave Menke, courtesy of USFWS)
Driving past the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) Napanee Plain Alvar Nature Reserve, north of Napanee, Ontario, you might not notice anything overly special about the site. In fact, if you didn’t stop to have a closer look, you might not...
From chaotic to biotic
Forest along Long Tusket River, NS (Photo by Mike Dembeck)
There’s a new breed of problem emerging, and these problems are making a lot of people uncomfortable. Aptly named “wicked problems” because of their complex and high uncertainty, they're defined by having multiple contradicting...
Heard it from a Scout: 15 things you may not know you can recycle
International recycling logo (Photo by Krdan, Wikimedia Commons)
Now more than ever, it’s important that we reduce our ecological footprint to create a greener world for the future. Scouts Canada has always encouraged members to do their part to create a cleaner environment, whether it be through litter...
Painting Big Trout Bay
![Réjean Roy. <i>Piercing light, McKellar Point </i>[cropped], 2017. Oil on panel, 24 x 30 inches. © Réjean Roy](https://www.natureconservancy.ca/assets/images/blog/piercing-light-mckellar-point-lr-thumb.jpg)
Réjean Roy. Piercing light, McKellar Point [cropped], 2017. Oil on panel, 24 x 30 inches. © Réjean Roy
The pursuit of art is a solitary endeavour. Most artists tend to follow their own personal lead, motivated by self-expression. Even though their muse might be an object, person or an event, they recognize inspiration by being attuned to their own...
A five-year-old entomologist-in-training
Hannah, a five-year-old amateur entomologist taking care of monarch chrysalises. (Photo by NCC)
With the help of my dad, I’d like to tell you everything I know about monarch butterflies. Don’t worry — I’ll explain the life cycle, the special habitat requirements and the incredible migration to Mexico. By the way,...
What a difference a year makes
The summer-blooming showy goldenrod, being visited by a bee fly, was less abundant than the spring-blooming flowers. (Photo by Diana Robson)
One of the first papers on pollination I tried to publish was rejected because it contained data from only one field season. I withdrew the paper, and did another year of research. Why is having two years of data so important, you may ask?...
Strong and free: Releasing a red-tailed hawk at Bunchberry Meadows
Red-tailed hawk (Photo by Bill Hubick)
This fall, WILDNorth (formerly the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton) staff were invited by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) to release a red-tailed hawk at NCC’s Bunchberry Meadows property in Alberta — an absolutely...
Coming home to NCC
Teamwork makes the dream work (Photo by NCC)
I don’t claim to be an expert on every inch of Ontario's Frontenac Arch. One summer as a conservation technician with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is nowhere near enough time to explore everything, but in 2016, the wetlands, rock...
Biomimicry: Every step is a story
A bighorn sheep on Luxor Linkage conservation area (Photo by Bonnie-Lou Ferris)
When I first learned about biomimicry, I was in a math and poetry class at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. It was 2004, and while the professor didn’t necessarily talk about the term “biomimicry,” he introduced us...
