O’Canada! Culture of the wilderness: A day at the NCC Nebo property
Overview of the Nebo property, SK (Photo by Gail F. Chin)
Nebo, some 70 kilometres due west of the city of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan is the largest and northernmost property recently acquired by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). This is an interesting acquisition, as it is located in the...
How to conduct your own soundwalk
Volunteers have dropped off all sign posts and signs at their designated installation sites and are heading back to the central meeting area for a well-deserved break. (Photo by NCC)
A soundwalk is a walk where you focus on the sounds around you, and immerse yourself completely in the environment that you’re in. Soundwalking can be a very rejuvenating and meditative experience. Why not try doing a soundwalk on your next...
Hittin' the marsh
My one educational breakthrough was to teach them to emulate my hayseed ways by chewing on a piece of grass before touring the property (Photo by NCC)
It wasn’t even really that hot. I think that’s the thing that got me. Warm? I guess…for early June. Sunny? Mostly, but there were clouds and a bit of a breeze, so even saying it was warm is pretty generous. And forget about a...
Let's make a toast to stopping feeding bread to birds
Mallards — male on the left, female on the right. (Photo by Pia Vahabi/NCC staff)
Junk food is great, but I bet you wouldn’t eat it every day for a week, at the risk of feeling terrible at the end of it. You know it tastes good but it lacks nutritional content and I’m pretty sure parents don’t want to feed...
World Listening Day 2016: Sounds Lost and Found
World Listening Day 2016 (Photo by World Listening Project)
Each year since 2010 the World Listening Project (WLP) has invited people around the globe to participate in World Listening Day. July 18 was selected because it is the birthday R. Murray Schafer, the renowned Canadian composer, educator and...
Nature Days: Healthy children in healthy spaces
Students from Adrienne Clarkson Public School spend a day exploring NCC's Goldie Feldman Nature Reserve in Ontario (Photo by Sandy Nicholson Photography)
In recent years, a number of reports have suggested that screen time has taken a serious toll on children’s mental and physical well-being. But when kids ditch their screens to get their hands dirty in nature, amazing things can...
NCC's new Happy Valley Forest Hike Series
Participants listen in as Todd Farrell talks about the plants in Happy Valley Forest (Photo by Evelyn Senyi)
City, meet nature “How far do you think we are from Dundas Square?” It’s an odd question that Todd Farrell, coordinator of conservation biology in central Ontario for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), poses to a group of...
Birdy McBirdface takes on the Big Year
Toby with monocular (Photo by Joanna Streetly)
Recently I had the chance to speak to a young lady, who is not only knowledgeable but passionate about birds and their conservation, and about her birding quest – pursuing a Big Year challenge at just 11 years old. Meet Toby —...
O'piping plover where art thou?
Group shot at the Mather Lake census (Photo by Gail F. Chin)
2016 marks the 5th international census of the piping plover population. Recently, I joined the Saskatchewan chapter of the Nature Conservancy of Canada in a two-day count at Mather Lake and Shoe Lake West in an area of central southern...
Poems for Trees: Nature close to home
Eastern painted turtle (Photo by Greg Schechter)
This poem originally appeared in Kristyn Ferguson's blog Poems for Trees and is reposted with permission on Land Lines. The early morning sun sizzles orange Rays flicker across sleeping faces Roused by light, warmth and anticipation It’s...
