Heard it from a Scout: A beginner's guide to winter camping
Scouts pitch insulated tents to keep warm in winter. (Photo by Scouts Canada)
During the winter months, most Canadians dream of flying south to escape the snow, ice and below-zero temperatures. Scouts, on the other hand, like to get outside by heading to campgrounds to enjoy all that nature has to offer. A scout’s...
Leave only footprints: Minimizing your impact in nature
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...
The silence of the hillsides
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...
From one NCC intern to another
Bourgeau Lake in Banff National Park (Photo by Sophia Yang/NCC)
One of the main reasons why working for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is so rewarding is because of all the wonderful people that make the work possible. At the forefront are NCC’s interns. Whether it’s spending days at a time...
Greenspace makes for great headspace
Hikers in Happy Valley Forest, ON (Photo by NCC)
The natural world has always been my fall-back position. Whenever life got too busy, scary or stressful or even when it was at its most fulfilling, I seemed to want, in fact to need, to find some green space to process it all, for a while. As a...
Discovering the natural wonders of Manitoba
Fort Ellice, Riding Mountain (Photo by NCC)
I grew up in southwestern Manitoba, living only a few minutes from both the American and Saskatchewan borders, and I have remained in the province while completing my undergraduate and graduate degrees. In the past year, I spent a lot of time...
Out for a walk
Approaching the Bay Bulls lighthouse with the last of the daylight (Photo by Lanna Campbell/NCC)
An unnatural thirst for physical pain and the lure of making memories set the stage as we carefully planned out nine days’ worth of trail food. My tent-mate, Megan, would later ask me a few days in, “Did I want to do this hike, or did...
What I discovered spending the day in an outside classroom
Smiling faces of the outdoor education students from Greenall High School in Balgonie, SK. (Photo by NCC)
Growing up in a rural town, I would love to say we all got out to see nature on a regular basis. However, with the draw of technology and the lure of multimedia, not many of us go out as much as we should. And these days, finding a habitat...
Celebrating Canadian species: Grizzly bear
Grizzly bear (Photo by Peter Sulzle)
When I put my boots on in the morning, I never really expect or seek to see a grizzly bear. Despite the fact that my Rocky Mountains backyard is home to many brown bears, any encounter always feels like a surprise. Meeting a bear in the wild...
A walk in the woods: A homegrown love for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence forest region
Emma Young Forest by Bill Hubick
I grew up in Cantley, Quebec, in a charming house near a sugar maple forest with a lot of space to play and to explore nature. That area is situated in the southern region of Quebec and is part of the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence forest region....
