Action vs inaction? A body in motion tends to stay in motion
Volunteers and staff working on fence, Haughan, Pakowki AB (Photo by NCC)
The road to my undergraduate degree may not have been paved with popcorn, but I certainly watched my fair share of environmental documentaries along the way. Climate change, food security, fossil fuels, fisheries, oceans, chemicals, deforestation...
My first CV event: Nexen Energy interns help remove weeds in the badlands
Nexen CV event, Horseshoe Canyon, AB (Photo by NCC)
Less than a week into my internship with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), I attended my first Conservation Volunteers (CV) event on June 5, 2014. The NCC team arrived early at the site, located on the Nodwell-Horseshoe Canyon property, to...
Many hands make light work: National staff lend a hand in restoration work on the Rice Lake Plains
Micheline Beevis, Christine Beevis Trickett and David Beevis, Rice Lake Plains, ON (Photo by NCC)
On a warm autumn day in 1832, Catharine Parr Traill boarded a wagon “comfortably lined with buffalo robes,” and headed from Cobourg, Ontario into the rolling hills of the Rice Lake Plains. “We now ascended the plains — a...
Longing for the long weekend
Birding at the Tabusintac Estuary, NB (Photo by NCC)
Much of my adolescence has prepared me well for long weekends. I grew up exploring forests, watching clouds and skipping through puddles — an amateur explorer, some might say. And I can assure you that this angst to be surrounded by green...
A summer for nature
Denise Harris, Clifford E. Lee Nature Sanctuary, AB (Photo by NCC)
So why did I take the summer off to volunteer for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC)? Well, let’s see. Several years ago, at the first NCC event I ever participated in, I was greeted with an undulating purple sea of four-foot-tall...
Urban farming: Bringing communities back to nature
Cherry picking (Photo by Malgiosa Halliop)
As employees of the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), something we are often encouraged to do is unplug, unwind and spend some time outside, exploring and connecting to the abundant natural spaces we are fortunate enough to have across the...
Spring cleaning: Conservation Volunteers give piping plovers a helping hand in Nova Scotia
Piping plover (Photo by Andrea Drake)
One of the most endangered species in Canada received a helping hand through the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC's) Conservation Volunteers program this past weekend.The piping plover is a shorebird that relies on sand and pebble beaches...
The beaver: Nature's engineer..and archaeologist?
Beaver (Photo by Makedocreative/Wikimedia Commons)
The beaver has the distinguished reputation of being “nature’s engineer.” These furry, web-footed builders are skilled at taking raw materials and converting them into complex lodges and dams. Playing the role of woodcutter,...
Volunteers lending a hand to protect the Quamichan wetlands
Water sampling at Quamichan wetlands
Wetlands are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth and it takes teamwork to care for them. The Quamichan wetlands on BC's Vancouver Islands are a great example of what can happen when we join forces to protect these special...
How do you get a volunteer to stop working?
NCC staff and volunteers pose for a photo (Photo by NCC)
I usually catch people off guard when I tell them that during our Conservation Volunteers (CV) events my job is often not to motivate the volunteers, but to find ways to get them to stop working. They laugh because they think I’m joking or...
