Backpack Essentials: Beat the bite
Backpack Essentials (Image by NCC)
Summer is my favourite season. It’s the best time of year to be outside enjoying the sunshine. For mosquitoes, it is also a good time for them to feed on unsuspecting humans. In Canada, these blood-sucking creatures rarely carry deadly...
Invasive Species Olympics
Phragmites javelin (Photo by NCC)
The Olympic Games: the spectacle of international competition, where every four years, thousands of athletes from over 200 countries compete in the pinnacle of their sport. Inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, first held in Olympia, Greece, in...
What is GIS anyway?
Sometimes Alayna Chan comes into the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) office on a Thursday and sits down at her desk to work on data entry. (Photo by NCC)
Sometimes Alayna Chan comes into the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) office on a Thursday and sits down at her desk to work on data entry. Sometimes she comes in on a Thursday and takes a truck out to do some bird banding in...
Connecting with shorebirds at a unique Conservation Volunteers event
Naomi Derksen (Photo by Bill Armstrong)
While attending the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC’s) shorebird tour Conservation Volunteers (CV) event in June, I met first-time CV Naomi Derksen. Naomi found her way to the event through a roundabout internet route. She was...
Reforestation breathes fresh air into efforts against climate change
Forests are a vital part of our fight against climate change. (Photo by NCC)
When you think of Saskatchewan, your first thoughts probably go to flat cropland, rolling grasslands, sunsets and open horizons — and not forests. In reality, our prairie province is actually more than 50 per cent forested. In fact, boreal...
Bring on the alternative lawns!
A cottontail among a red clover and black medic clover patch (Photo by Mike Dembeck)
Weeds: What are they? Unwanted, non-traditional turf? But what if there was something more to all those pesky patches of plants? For some, there’s nothing more satisfying than a healthy lawn full of lush, green grass. For others, like...
Heard it from a Scout: Plastic-free camping
A group of Scouts on a camping trip (Photo courtesy of Alyana Lalani)
For Scouts, the natural world is incredibly important. The environment is our home, a place where we play, learn and have fun, so it is our duty to take care of it. The Leave No Trace principle, which provides guidelines on how to minimize your...
Meadows for Monarchs
Meadows for Monarchs event participants (Photo by NCC)
If you thought you saw more monarchs flitting about last summer and fall, you were right. Monarch Watch reported that 2018 was a good year for the iconic orange and black butterfly, thanks to a combination of aggressive conservation efforts in...
Backpack Essentials: Get ready for wetlands
Backpack Essentials (Image by NCC)
This blog post is part of the Backpack Essentials series, a series that explores the items that Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) staff carry with them when heading outside. It is inspired by the quarterly Nature Conservancy of Canada Magazine...
Wild cats of Canada
Bobcat (Photo by Gary Kramer, courtesy of USFWS)
Today (August 8) is International Cat Day, an occasion started by the International Fund for Animal Welfare in 2002. In honour of International Cat Day, learn about the three wild cat species found in Canada. Bobcat The smallest of...
