Join the invasion at Hazel Bird
Hazel Bird Nature Reserve, ON (Photo by NCC)
When visiting the Nature Conservancy of Canada's (NCC's) Hazel Bird Nature Reserve in Ontario, you are greeted by a stunning grassland prairie with strong, looming oaks scattered delicately within the fields. You see the occasional shift of the...
Small pulls for a big cause: Ridding the Happy Valley Forest of invasive species
White trilliums in Happy Valley Forest, ON (Photo by NCC)
Summer in the Happy Valley Forest is the best time to enjoy the newly emerging flowers. It's a pleasant reminder that the warm weather is well on its way. Hiking through the forest, you may come across patches of bloodroot, Mayapple and of course...
Song of Northern Superior
White-throated sparrow (Photo by Wikimedia Commons)
It was a chilly April morning in southern Ontario, so all of the windows in my house were closed. But I could still hear something outside. I quickly pushed open the window and listened. There it was — the cheery song of the white-throated...
Feeling happy about conservation
Kristyn Ferguson, spring monitoring, ON (Photo by NCC)
I was 21 years old, and I was going to save the world, starting with one particular forest. In 2004, during my third year of an undergrad degree at the University of Guelph, I took a course called "Problem-solving in Environmental Biology." My...
How the Great White North can change the world: Canada's role in global biodiversity conservation
Powder Islands, Lake Superior, ON (Photo by Alan Auld)
I still remember a time when thinking about conservation made me feel disappointed in Canada. During my undergraduate years at the University of Waterloo in the early 1990s, I learned about the pioneering work of Norman Myers and read subsequent...
Top 10 forests to visit across Canada
Lusicich, Crowsnest Pass, AB (Photo by NCC)
Canada is rich in forest habitats, with many unique forests in each province. Over half of our country is covered in forests, and Canada is home to almost 10 per cent of the world’s forests. The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is...
Finding peace in nature
Walking through a BC forest dripping with witch's hair lichen (Photo by NCC)
Do you ever just wake up in a bad mood? Or something, or someone, has you unsettled? Sometimes the best way to clear your mood, and silence those “mice talking to each other in your head” (as my brother-in-law puts it), is to go for a...
After the clear-cut: A tale of resilience
Sun rising over the aspen forest (Photo by Emma Christensen)
When I think “clear-cut,” I automatically think habitat loss. I don’t think I’m alone in this. Pictures of ravaged swaths of cleared forest, punctuated by the upturned root systems of old-growth conifers, have been...
Pricing the priceless: How the economics of natural capital can help us all better value nature
Walking through Emma Young forest, ON (Photo by Mike Dembeck)
Putting a price tag on nature is challenging. Some people don’t believe it can be done. Some people hate the idea of it. Most will have no idea what it means. But there are new and emerging approaches to help us put a price on the services...
A species' international highway
White-tailed deer (Photo by Lorne)
Humans aren’t the only creatures on Earth that need to get around. Animals in the wild have to travel as well, some to migrate, some to hunt and others to find mates. And that explains the importance of the Frontenac Arch, a...
