Adventures in the night, continued!
The night sky over Rankin River in Saugeen Bruce Peninsula. (Photo by Esme Batten/NCC staff)
I get it. It can be hard to look outside in the winter and think, “Wow, I want to go and explore!” When it is -20 C and the wind is blowing, it’s hard enough to get outside during the day, never mind at night. However, I...
Weston Family Conservation Science Fellowship Program
Sundial lupine in the oak savannah (Photo by NCC)
It’s a sunny June day with only a slight whisper of wind in the trees. I am walking slowly through an oak savannah with Angela Demarse, a master's of science candidate at the University of Guelph in Ryan Norris’s lab. We are in search...
Digging badgers: A close encounter
A badger at its burrow. (Photo by J. Sayers, Ontario Badger Project)
“A badger? On my property? There are no badgers here!” is often the response I got from landowners in southern Ontario during my short stint as a field technician for the Ontario Badger Project. American badgers are difficult to spot;...
Just get out the door
Bluebird sky hike at -30 C. (Photo courtesy of Gayle Roodman/NCC staff)
Back in the day, I was a long-distance runner. When two knee surgeries forced me to finally hang up my Asics for good in 2005, I switched to cycling. And to fill in the gaps in my fitness regime, I threw in hiking, cross-country skiing or whatever...
Ode to a coworker
Emily Little (Photo by NCC)
After four years of working for the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC) Saskatchewan Region, my friend and colleague Emily Little has left our rectangular province, and I’m trying to come to terms with our failure to make her fall in...
Way up in the trees
NCC staff carefully balancing their steps on the canopy boardwalk at Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve (Photo by NCC)
The Nature Conservancy of Canada's (NCC's) Ontario regional staff visited the Haliburton Forest & Wild Life Reserve in October 2019 as part of a staff conference focused on shared learning and team building. And what better way to bond with...
Conserving what we value
Children from Pelee Island Public School help collect seeds for restoration projects. (Photo by NCC)
It was my time to finally get my message across. About a 15 years ago, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) was beginning to purchase properties on Pelee Island, in Ontario. The community, however, was uncertain of conservation —...
Out in the woods at Nebo
Pond at Nebo (Photo by Bill Armstrong)
Having experienced several Conservation Volunteers (CV) events on Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) properties over several years, spending part of a day at the end of September on the 178-hectare (439-acre) Nebo property in Saskatchewan was a...
Hiker meets hunter: An encounter with a snowy owl
A male snowy owl (Photo by Pixabay)
When I moved to Newfoundland in 2011, I was excited to explore the incredible landscapes of my adopted province. Even the most densely populated part of the province — the Avalon Peninsula near St. John’s — is still wild enough...
Reducing light pollution is a simple way to help insects
Frosted elfin butterfly (Photo by Geoff Gallice, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0, generic license, Wikimedia Commons)
Have you ever noticed moths vigorously flapping around your porch light? Well, they’re probably mistaking it for the moon, according to The Guardian. And sadly, most insects trapped in this cycle are dead by morning, either from exhaustion...
