What’s the buzz on bees at the Cowichan Preserve?
Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve flowers, BC (Photo by Tim Ennis/NCC)
You’ve probably seen it in the news: bees are in trouble. There has been a lot of press about managed honeybees that have been introduced to North America for pollination and honey. Unfortunately, we also know that many wild bees are also...
Bloomin' flowers at the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve
In Bloom Wildflower Festival, Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve, BC (Photo by NCC)
Here in the BC Region of the Nature Conservancy of Canada, one of our favourite conservation projects is the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve. It's a favourite because there is so much that goes on there — university research, Conservation...
Ecosystem restoration: A practice of patience
Wetlands on Columbia Lake - Lot 48 (Photo by NCC)
I am an immediate gratification kind of person. If there is something I can do now to see results now, I will go the extra mile just to feel that satisfaction. Sometimes this means sleep deprivation or failed attempts to learn something new; like...
The year the bluebirds stayed the winter
A pair of western bluebirds is spotted in March prospecting for nest boxes at a territory that has not been used by bluebirds since 2013. (Photo by Trudy Chatwin)
In Canada, conservation activities for the western bluebird normally begin in earnest in late March or early April, timed with the arrival of the first birds returning from migration to their breeding grounds. But it was only mid-January when we...
There's no place like home
Catherine Dale with bluebird (Photo by Angela Boag)
“The bluebird carries the sky on his back.” ~ Henry David Thoreau It seems to be an immutable law of nature photography (at least in my experience) that anything mobile will move the second you’ve gotten your camera ready,...
Have you heard the one about the fun guys (fungi)? For Canada's bats and frogs, they're no April Fool's joke
The newly erected bat houses (Photo by Cori Lausen)
The Frog Bear Conservation Corridor in British Columbia’s Creston Valley has received a lot of attention for its promise of protecting migratory habitat for creatures large and small. Grizzly bear and elk share these lands with migratory...
40 years of adventures at Lac du Bois
Ian Barnett surveys the landscape at Frolek Ranch, Lac du Bois, BC (Photo by Brendan Matthews)
In the mid-1990s much of the grasslands and open forests situated near my home in Kamloops, BC were made a provincial park due to the unique flora and fauna present and the need to conserve shrinking native grassland habitat in BC. In 2008, the...
Caring for babies at the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve
Maxine Leichter lends a hand during a Conservation Volunteers event at CGOP (Photo by NCC)
What does an environmentalist grandmother do who lives thousands of miles from her grandchildren? She takes care of baby plants instead at the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC's) Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve (CGOP) near Quamichan Lake and...
Why did the bear, frog, bat and wolverine cross the field?
Wolverine (Photo by Daniel J. Cox, Natural Exposures)
Compared to other conservation lands, “Lot 3” is not much to look at. The 140-acre (57-hectare) property is a perfectly level field of canola located in BC’s Creston Valley, nestled in between the Purcell and Selkirk mountains....
Bring Back the Bluebirds: Putting translocation to work to restore a rare ecosystem’s flagship species
In 2014, this breeding pair of western bluebirds returned to NCC’s Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve to nest for a second year in a row. (Photo by Jemma Green, GOERT)
As recently as 60 years ago, the gentle, vibrantly coloured western bluebird was a common occurrence in the species-rich Garry oak meadows and savannahs of the Salish Sea region of British Columbia and Washington. But as their habitat became...
