Doing Science that Matters: Engaging with Communities in Collaborative Scientific Research
University of Victoria student Megan Adams monitoring hair snags near Wuikinuxv Village, BC (Photo by ACS lab)
I should have known I would become an ecologist. As a child, I always seemed to catch a salamander while waiting for the school bus, or bring home precious flowers to press through the seasons. I could stare from the bus window out into the...
Hammering home the message of community leadership
NBCC Moncton Carpentry student working on a public viewing platform at Johnson's Mills, NB (Photo by NCC)
Every summer, massive flocks of shorebirds journey through the Bay of Fundy from the Canadian Arctic before heading to South America. Among the feathered visitors, approximately 80 per cent of the world's population of semipalmated sandpipers stop...
Exploring the remarkable Gervais Property
Channel spring, Gervais property, Ottawa, ON (Photo by Daniel F. Brunton).
You can hear it...The sound of rushing water, like a rapids or a waterfall, right in the middle of the woods where no channel exists. Huh? Until then there had been no immediate outward sign that I was in a remarkable spot, let alone one that is...
Giving hope to wildlife: How rehabilitation and conservation go hand in hand
Dr. Barry MacEachern (Photo courtesy of Barry MacEachern)
It would seem that wildlife rehabilitation and wildlife conservation go hand in hand. As the main veterinarian for the Hope for Wildlife Rehabilitation Society, I have had a unique chance to see how the two areas intersect. In my mind wildlife...
The forgotten art of gathering wild food
Oyster mushroom (Photo by Jim Tunney, Mushroom Observer, Wikimedia Commons)
As I delve deeper into my own journey as an organic gardener, I come across many interconnected subjects that pique my interest. The art of foraging is just one of them. Historically our ancestors gathered food locally for both edible and...
Mopping up Mortlach with MEC
Volunteers Jeffrey Price and Dylan Gross roll wire and clear the fence line at NCC's Mortlach Conservation Volunteer event, Fall 2014. (Photo by NCC)
The purchase of the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) property near Mortlach, Saskatchewan was partly funded by a donation from the Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC). As a member of MEC since the mid-1970s, I wanted to help "mop up" the Mortlach...
The eastern subterranean termite: An introduced species in Ontario
Eastern subterranean termite (Photo by United States Department of Agriculture, Wikimedia Commons)
Most of us in Ontario, I think it is safe to say, don't give a moments thought to termites, or realize that they are found in this region. In fact you are unlikely to ever meet the acquaintance of one, unless your house unfortunately becomes...
It's the great pumpkin pollinator! Meet the squash bee
Female squash bee on a male pumpkin flower (Photo by Margaret Chan)
At my house, Halloween is a frenzy of pumpkins — those lovely globes that throb with the vitality of summer. We carve them into frightening orange-skinned, ghoulish-grinned beasts set aglow by the light of beeswax candles. I fell in love...
Swimming with a loon
Swimming with a loon (Photo by Allison Goodings)
The air was warm, the sky blue, the water refreshingly cold. Not the coldest Canadian lake I’ve swum in, but my third of the summer. We were at Lake Rosseau on a glorious autumnal day with, interspersed among the evergreens, The Colours...
Where have all the pollinators gone?
Research site (Photo by Diana Robson)
After a summer filled with ticks, mosquitoes and biting flies, I was ready for a pest-free pollinator survey at the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) properties near Riding Mountain National Park this September. Autumn field work can be quite...
