British Columbia’s forest industry today
Orford Bay, BC (Photo courtesy of Interfor)
I grew up hiking and backpacking with my family in British Columbia’s woods. I chose to become a forester because of my inherent desire to take care of the natural environment; I wanted to contribute to the thoughtful management of our...
A winter celebration in the Canadian Rockies
Hockey game, Winter Celebration, Marion Creek Benchlands, BC (Photo by NCC)
In the days leading up to the second annual Canadian Rockies Winter Celebration it seemed that Mother Nature had decided it was already spring before winter had even truly arrived. A foot of snow melted in less than a day and the lake ice had...
High-tech conservation
Katy Fulton uses an iPad regularly in her stewardship and monitoring work (Photo by Ben Fox)
Many people now use their iPad to communicate, be entertained, informed and conduct business in a highly mobile fashion. The development of software apps to support these activities has been prolific. This has included the development of several...
Historical ecology: Probing the mysteries of ancient landscapes
A sunny Garry oak savannah (Photo by Jenny McCune)
A challenge for humans in our attempts to manage ecosystems is that we’re often dealing with beings much longer lived than ourselves. For example, a Douglas-fir tree can live to be 800 years old or more. A century is a long time for a human,...
The importance of kelp
Sea otter, Vancouver Aquarium (Photo by Wikimedia Commons, Stan Shebs)
Sea otters are a keystone species. They play an important role in the health and stability of near shore marine ecosystems. They eat sea urchins and other invertebrates that eat vast quantities of giant kelp. In the absence of sea otters, grazing...
Call of the wild: Up close and personal with screech owls in Fernie, BC
Western screech-owl (Photo by US Fish & Wildlife Service)
There is nothing more incredible than witnessing a whole family of owls interacting and communicating with one another. This is what I discovered after an intimate and humbling experience with a family of screech-owls in the Elk Valley this past...
Doing Science that Matters: Engaging with Communities in Collaborative Scientific Research
University of Victoria student Megan Adams monitoring hair snags near Wuikinuxv Village, BC (Photo by ACS lab)
I should have known I would become an ecologist. As a child, I always seemed to catch a salamander while waiting for the school bus, or bring home precious flowers to press through the seasons. I could stare from the bus window out into the...
Where the roads have no name: Road deactivation on the Darkwoods property
Culvert deactivation, Darkwoods, BC (Photo by NCC)
“Ok pickup truck, you’re good to go,” the crew chief calls over the radio. We cautiously crawl across the active logging site en route to Darkwoods, the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC's) vast conservation area in...
Connecting birds with people...and people with birds
Pat Shaughnessy with a savannah sparrow, TLBO (Photo by NCC)
Much is written about the importance of getting young children out into nature, while their joy of engagement with natural life is unmitigated. We should not overlook the idea that that joy is not restricted to children. Pat Shaughnessy is 83...
Tatlayoko forever! The Tatlayoko Lake Bird Observatory opens for a ninth season
White-winged crossbills, Tatlayoko Lake Bird Observatory, British Columbia (Photo by Steve Ogle)
Although trained as a vegetation ecologist, I have been interested in birds and birdwatching for many years. To my delight, in 2006 I was asked to design a monitoring program for migratory birds at the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC's)...
