Appreciating insects this World Animal Month
Eastern black carpenter ant (Photo by Wally Simpson, CC BY-NC 4.0)
October is World Animal Month, a time for us to reflect on the important roles that animals play in our lives. Animals are an integral part of human existence, and this month gives us a chance to appreciate their presence and create solutions for...
Seeking nature
Backus Woods (Photo by Neil Osborne)
As a Torontonian, my interactions with nature tend to be few due to living downtown. However, Toronto has a few urban nature parks that are just further away and require some planning to get to. This has led me to travel across the city and region...
Prairie perceptions: Learning from landowners
Property in southeast Saskatchewan with a conservation easement with NCC (Photo by Jason Bantle)
This summer I was hired as a conservation intern assigned to help Marla, the stewardship coordinator in southeast Saskatchewan. Together, Marla and I travelled to the properties in southeast Saskatchewan that the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC)...
Four months of working for nature: The story of an NCC summer intern
Asquith, SK (Photo by NCC)
My name is Mahla, and the “H” in the middle of my name is pronounced, which is a challenge for most people in Canada, including my Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) colleagues. My colleagues' effort to learn the pronunciation of my...
Gaining a new perspective: Learning about Two-Eyed Seeing on a Medicine Trail walk
Grandmother Buffalo leading the Medicine Trail walk (Photo by NCC)
On Wednesday, June 22, the day after National Indigenous Peoples Day, a team of interpreters from the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC’s) Johnson’s Mills Shorebird and Interpretive Centre headed to the Fort Folly First Nation...
A day in the life of a field biologist
Field technician Breanne Kenner with a successful catch! (Photo by NCC)
There are numerous findings in the world of science, and conservation biology specifically, that would not be possible without field work. As part of my conservation internship with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), I have been given the...
The pine needle game
Play a game of Guess Who? with pine needles from four species (Painted by Mena Wallace)
Trees are a wonderous thing. Most of the time we barely notice them amid the scurry of our busy days, but every now and then you encounter a showstopper. I’m always on the lookout for a new tree to discover because species identification is...
Connecting to conservation
Allery Safruk and Mena Wallace, volunteer conservation interns and CCC participants, conducting invasive species control. (Photo by NCC)
Collaboration for conservation The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is one of many partnership organizations holding 12-week placements for a number of lucky Canadian Conservation Corps (CCC) participants — me included! The placement...
When tiny things make your heart sing
Selfie of Logan and Breanna hiking in Waterton National Park, AB (Photo courtesy of Breanna Silversides)
In the winter of 2017, I saw an advertisement for the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC’s) Conservation Internship Program. I was in the middle of law school and had planned to return to the summer job that I had worked at and loved...
Getting my feet wet as a conservation intern
A field of tall grasses in Backus Woods. This area was where controlled burns were conducted in the previous year. (Photo by NCC)
Although I have only been working with Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) for a few months, my relationship with the organization goes back many years. My family have been NCC supporters for as long as I can remember. We attended Conservation...
