Out of sight, out of mind
![Greater sage-grouse (Photo by Gordon Sherman © Audubon Canyon Ranch)](https://www.natureconservancy.ca/assets/images/species/bird/greater-sage-grouse-Gordon-Sherman-Audubon-Canyon-Ranch-thumb.jpg)
Greater sage-grouse (Photo by Gordon Sherman © Audubon Canyon Ranch)
Now and then, I look out my living room window and begin to search. I am not searching for anything in particular, it is simply by habit. I can spend 20, or even 30, minutes just gazing here and there at just about anything. Little brown birds...
Leave only footprints: Minimizing your impact in nature
![Grace and Pepper exploring the winter wonderland (Photo by NCC)](https://www.natureconservancy.ca/assets/images/blog/grace-and-pepper2-by-elke-meyfarth-ncc-staff-thumb.jpg)
Grace and Pepper exploring the winter wonderland (Photo by NCC)
Nature has been my greatest teacher. As a child growing up in the semi-desert of the Okanagan in British Columbia, I learned not to touch prickly pear, which plants smelled the most like sage and to move away from the warning rattle of a...
Uncovering the magic of winter wildlife
![Meeting Lake 03, SK (Photo by NCC)](https://www.natureconservancy.ca/assets/images/land/sk/meeting-lake-03-sk-winter-ncc-thumb.jpg)
Meeting Lake 03, SK (Photo by NCC)
While attending college in Winnipeg, my classmate and I used to walk north from the campus at the corner of Shaftesbury and Grant streets to explore the different sections of Assiniboine Park. As the school year was between September and April,...
The silence of the hillsides
![Fort Ellice, Riding Mountain (Photo by NCC)](https://www.natureconservancy.ca/assets/images/land/mb/Fort-Ellice-Riding-Mountain.jpg)
Fort Ellice, Riding Mountain (Photo by NCC)
For the past six months, I’ve worked as an assistant conservation biologist with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) in Riding Mountain Natural Area in western Manitoba. I found that a summer in the area challenged me to reconsider how I...
Canada's bats in crisis
![Little brown myotis (Photo by Brock Fenton)](https://www.natureconservancy.ca/assets/images/species/mammal/Little-brown-bat-ON-Brock-Fenton-thumb.jpg)
Little brown myotis (Photo by Brock Fenton)
I’ll never forget the first time I saw a cloud of little brown myotis bats flying in broad daylight at the coldest time of the year in January. There was something vaguely disturbing and peculiar about seeing them fluttering around against a...
Top 10 blog posts of 2016
![Snow forest on Darkwoods, BC (Photo by NCC)](https://www.natureconservancy.ca/assets/images/land/bc/darkwoods/snow_forest_darwkoods_ncc_thumb.jpg)
Snow forest on Darkwoods, BC (Photo by NCC)
This past year, Land Lines published content that celebrated the wonders of the world around us. From adventures on high mountain tops to exploring coastal habitats in Atlantic Canada, stories have come in from Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC)...
Saving our planet: 10 good news conservation stories from 2016
The choices we make about our planet in the next decade are going to impact nature and the well-being of people for generations to come. Both nature and human well-being face some big challenges. Biodiversity continues to be threatened by habitat...
An ode to whale (Part Two)
![Blue whale (Illustration by Denise Wong)](https://www.natureconservancy.ca/assets/images/species/aquatic/blue-whale-baleen-whale-Denise-Wong-thumb.jpg)
Blue whale (Illustration by Denise Wong)
morning! /he takes in the salt /retiring to depth / (Inspired by Eden Killer Whale Museum) Facts: Baleen, also known as whalebone, is not bone. Baleen is the bristly drapery that lines the mouth of a dozen species of whales, including the...
Need to ID a plant in Nova Scotia? There's an app for that!
![Bunchberry (Photo by NCC staff)](https://www.natureconservancy.ca/assets/images/species/plant/Bunchberry-Photo-by-Jenel-Bode-thumb.jpg)
Bunchberry (Photo by NCC staff)
Those red teaberries look so yummy, but can I eat them? What can I collect to make tea? What goes well in a salad? These questions and more may be answered for you in a recently released app created by developer Gordon Isnor and me, curator of...
The void of indifference
![American badger near its burrow (Photo by Gerald A. DeBoer/Shutterstock)](https://www.natureconservancy.ca/assets/images/species/mammal/American-badger-Photo-by-Gerald-A-DeBoer_Shutterstock-thumb.jpg)
American badger near its burrow (Photo by Gerald A. DeBoer/Shutterstock)
I often take forays out to wilderness areas for what I call it my sanity break. So it was one August afternoon, as I turned my vehicle down a gravel road, that I made an abrupt stop. There, about a quarter of a mile away, I spotted some creature...