Carden Nature Festival 2014: “Plain” and simply inspiring
Male eastern bluebird ready to enter a near by nesting box to feed its chicks (Photo by 2014 MudInspired.com)
I had the opportunity to attend the 2014 Carden Nature Festival, which fell on the weekend of June 7 and 8, 2014 at the Carden Community Centre on the shores of Lake Dalrymple. Touching a special place in my heart due to its location, this event...
Creating connections in Norfolk County
University of Waterloo environment & resource studies students at Long Point, ON (Photo by Brian Craig)
This spring, eight students left the lecture halls of the University of Waterloo and travelled to the Long Point Biosphere Reserve in Norfolk County, Ontario to discover ecological restoration in practice. The University course was taught by Brian...
It’s called the Great Outdoors for a reason
Family hiking near the mountains (Photo courtesy ParticipACTION)
Close your eyes and picture this: you are walking barefoot on the beach with your toes in the sand. Your kids are running ahead of you, and you can feel the warm sun on your face. In front of you is a big stretch of water. The wind is high and you...
The science behind conservation: Behind the scenes with the Manitoba Region’s Scientific Advisory Network
Giant hyssop, tall grass prairie, Manitoba (Photo by NCC)
Over a decade ago, a colleague contacted me to see if I would be interested in serving on a new science committee of the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC’s) Manitoba Region. As an ecologist working in the province for many years, I...
Pack your bags, zebra mussels!
Zebra mussels (Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
Back in the fall of 2013, zebra mussels were found in Lake Winnipeg — much to everyone’s alarm. The news broke and it seemed almost instantly that organizations like Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship leapt into action to come...
Discovering new ways to explore New Brunswick
ExploreEcoNB screenshot (Photo by NCC)
As technology evolves, people today are expecting a lot more out of their mobile phones. The use of mobile applications is increasing across phone users and everybody is trying to find a way to take advantage of it. Mobile applications help you...
#1000 Urban Miles: An Invitation to walk in the Praeger spirit
Killarney (Photo by Emily Walsh)
It’s possible that you don’t know what walking is, what walking can accomplish, until you have walked a distance across a mountainy bog in Ireland. In the rain. Earlier this summer, accompanied by a colleague and by 14 of our students...
Wolves and cougars and bears, oh my!
Beautiful view (Photo by Diana Bizecki Robson)
For most of my career I have studied prairie plants, mainly because prairies are among the rarest ecosystems in Canada owing to the fact that they’ve been almost completely converted into cropland. As a result, I have never had to worry...
Patience
Mother grizzly bear and her cub (Photo by Brocken Inaglory)
The skies are clear on this mid-afternoon in July, with a light breeze blowing in from the Pacific Ocean. A flock of geese fly overhead, honking loudly to one another. A grizzly sow plops down on the small, grassy ridge overlooking a knee-deep...
The Ontario BioBlitz Program
Dave Ireland (Photo by Tallie Garey)
A bioblitz is a biodiversity snapshot: an intensive survey of all living things in a given area within a set time, usually within the span of 24 hours. Biologist E.O. Wilson helped make the concept mainstream in 1999 when he suggested that citizen...
