For the love of trees: A look at the NCC Magazine Fall 2016 issue
NCC Magazine Fall 2016
Do I have to be a tree hugger to love trees? I hope not. I always worry that while embracing a tree I will end up with some sticky, sappy stuff on my clothes. Still, I like trees, although you might say I’m a late bloomer in my appreciation...
Innovation through collaboration
Nebo, SK (Photo by Matthew Braun/NCC staff)
Corporate philanthropy plays an important role in supporting the arts, culture, education, health and environment in Canada. Five years ago, corporate philanthropy in Canada totalled approximately $3 billion. Since then, the corporate-giving...
Need to ID a plant in Nova Scotia? There's an app for that!
Bunchberry (Photo by NCC staff)
Those red teaberries look so yummy, but can I eat them? What can I collect to make tea? What goes well in a salad? These questions and more may be answered for you in a recently released app created by developer Gordon Isnor and me, curator of...
Getting my hands dirty for conservation
Volunteers got their hands dirty for conservation (Photo by NCC)
I started volunteering with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) about a year and a half ago, after becoming overwhelmingly “itchy” at my office job. I had been working in the environmental field for the past 20 years but was, for...
Down by the river
Group shot from CV event on Legacy Island, AB (Photo by Amy McClelland)
Volunteering for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) and Trout Unlimited tree planting and clean up on Legacy Island was a great learning experience for me. I feel like I contributed to helping keep our province beautiful for years to come. And...
The void of indifference
American badger near its burrow (Photo by Gerald A. DeBoer/Shutterstock)
I often take forays out to wilderness areas for what I call it my sanity break. So it was one August afternoon, as I turned my vehicle down a gravel road, that I made an abrupt stop. There, about a quarter of a mile away, I spotted some creature...
An ode to whale (Part One)
Sperm whales (Illustration by Elena O'Neill)
royalty’s fish / radiating into the night / to fathoms and float / (Inspired by Moby Dick) Facts: I’ve been reading Herman Melville’s Moby Dick during my lunches. Needless to say, this book is markedly different from my...
Pollinating the prairies
A parasitic fly pollinating a hairy golden aster (Photo by Diana Bizecki Robson)
It was with some sadness that I finished my last field work of the season at Yellow Quill Prairie. It will be many long, cold months before I get to go out again. However, I was eager to get back to the office to crunch some numbers and see how...
A walk in the woods: The forest through the lens of a photographer
Forest along Long Tusket River, NS (Photo by Mike Dembeck)
For me the forest is always a welcoming place. As a child, I always knew what to expect when wandering off: always predictable, friendly and ever welcoming. A forest was a place to immerse myself in and experience nature. Photographing it was...
What I discovered spending the day in an outside classroom
Smiling faces of the outdoor education students from Greenall High School in Balgonie, SK. (Photo by NCC)
Growing up in a rural town, I would love to say we all got out to see nature on a regular basis. However, with the draw of technology and the lure of multimedia, not many of us go out as much as we should. And these days, finding a habitat...