Getting down at the Yellow Quill Prairie
The Yellow Quill Prairie Preserve on a sunny day (Photo by Diana Bizecki Robson)
Last week I started my field season by getting down on my hands and knees to collect plants and pollinators at the Yellow Quill Prairie Preserve south of Brandon, which is owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. While that may not...
Wild bees in the grasslands
A summer storm gathers over NCC’s Fort Ellice prairie (Photo by Marika Olynyk)
In 2015, I had the good fortune to spend a second summer conducting pollination research on beautiful grasslands in western Manitoba. As described in my previous post, I have been investigating landscape effects on pollination service in...
Alberta's ranching evolution (Part One)
Boholomec Ranch, Crowsnest Pass (Photo by NCC)
For me, there is something about the Canadian prairies. It’s not where I originally came from, but when I moved west to Saskatchewan and Alberta from Ontario some 36 years ago, they just took me in, and I knew I could not ever stop living...
Be a beaver believer
Beaver (Photo by Makedocreative/Wikimedia Commons)
Aside from the long list of initiatives celebrated today, April 7 is also a day to celebrate beavers! For starters, here’s a little beaver-inspired anecdote from our Alberta office: “There was once a young man who walked to work...
Sand dunes that want to be free
Asquith North 3 starts off pretty unassuming, a fairly flat piece of dry grassland, but a somewhat stunted forest of aspen and shrubs hides a transitioning to dramatic sand dunes frozen in place (Photo by NCC)
Asquith North 3, a Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) property that abuts Crown land, is one of my favourite places to visit. That’s a little weird for a NCC staffer in Saskatchewan to say because it really isn't good burrowing owl habitat,...
Stumbling upon the unexpected
Perfectly camouflaged eggs of our mystery species (Photo by NCC)
There’s almost a rule among biologists: when you’re out looking for one species, you will have a difficult time finding it. But you’ll often see some other amazing species incidentally! This past summer, fellow Nature...
Why did the turtle cross the road?
Minesing Wetlands (Photo by Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority)
I didn’t expect one of the neatest experiences of my summer to happen while surveying the Minesing Wetlands for road mortality last June. In fact, I’d spent the day preparing myself mentally to have to make difficult observations of...
Invasive species and the steward's role
Phragmites (Photo by Wikimedia Commons)
More and more land is being conserved these days by various conservation groups. This is a good thing, but coming with that is a responsibility to protect and manage that land. Unless there are local offices, the most efficient way to carry out...
rare team collects seeds for conservation
rare team partners with NCC to collect native grasses seeds, Central Big Creek Property, Norfolk County (Photo by Carleigh Pope)
Staff from the rare Charitable Research Reserve (rare) were very excited to join hands with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) for another joint initiative to maintain a healthy natural environment in Ontario. Founded in 2001, rare is a more...
Of crappies and conservation
Black crappie (Photo by Eric Engbretson, USFWS)
If you've ever tossed a line into freshwater in eastern North America, there's a good chance that you've hooked a feisty, speckled panfish that puts up quite the struggle and is a year-round favourite of anglers everywhere. They go by a number of...
