Keeping my distance from a gentle giant
Moose on Mount Hereford, QC (Photo by MRC de Coaticook)
I have had a great respect for moose ever since a misadventure at Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia, more than 20 years ago. While hiking along the popular Skyline Trail, my boyfriend and I came across several moose grazing on low...
Keeping Halifax wild
A visitor takes in the views at Williams Lake, NS (Photo by NCC)
This fall, Halifax Regional Council voted unanimously to move forward with a proposal by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) for a 379-acre (152-hectare) urban wilderness park just 10 minutes from the downtown core, on the shores of Williams...
Places worth protecting: Atlantic Canada
Crabbes River, NL (Photo by Mike Dembeck)
At the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), we like to say we produce results you can walk on. Without a doubt, the lands that NCC protects are the primary measure of our effectiveness and contribution to the conservation of Canadian nature in all...
A summer for the (at-risk) birds
Canada warbler (Photo by Gerald Deboer)
I groggily open my eyes, and by the faint moonlight filtering in through my tent, I find my phone to check the time: 4:29 a.m. — one minute before my alarm is set to go off. I turn it off before the artificial sound interrupts the chorus...
Sinkholes, cliffs and ravines – oh my!
Amy exploring a section of karst forest in Cape Breton, NS (Photo by NCC)
As a conservation intern for the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC’s) Atlantic Region this summer, I’ve battled mosquitoes and deer flies, bushwhacked through rose bushes and hawthorns, almost lost a rubber boot in an open bog...
Gaff Point, Nova Scotia - a feast for the senses
New pathway, Gaff Point, NS (Photo by NCC)
Gaff Point is a lush peninsula dangling into the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Nova Scotia. If you look due south from the bottom tip of the point, and if you could actually see far enough, the land on the horizon would be South America. Gaff...
Why Canada matters on World Wetlands Day
Wetlands in the Marion Creek Benchlands, British Columbia (Photo by Tim Ennis/NCC)
While other nations have picked wetland wildlife, such as Finland’s whooper swan or Pakistan’s Indus crocodile, to represent their country, Canada is the only country in the world that has selected a wetland engineer as its national...
From woodsman to grandsons to Canadians
Alan Bonnyman and his two sons (Photo by Mike Dembeck)
Whether they live in big cities or small villages, Canadians often see their identity as defined by nature: by our dramatic seasons, by the sheer size of our country and by living near oceans, rivers, lakes, mountains, prairies and forests. This...
Need to ID a plant in Nova Scotia? There's an app for that!
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 Migratory Bird Treaty turns 100!
Woman, wearing a large feathered hat and boa, posing for a portrait (Photo by John Oxley Library, Public Domain)
This year we mark the centennial of the convention between the United States and Great Britain (for Canada) for the protection of migratory birds — also called the Migratory Bird Treaty — that was signed on August 16, 1916. A century...
