Alvar explorations of a wandering biologist (part one)
Esme on the alvar in Malham Cove, U.K. (Photo by Esme Batten/NCC staff)
“You are going to drive seven hours away to go walk around on flat rocks?” my Grandad asked when I told him about my planned trip to Malham Cove in the U.K. at the end of 2018. To most people, alvars, or limestone plains, as they are...
Game of Toads: How nature intersects with fantasy
Eastern wolf (Photo by Manuel Henriques)
As Thronies everywhere prepare for the new season of Game of Thrones tonight, I can’t help but notice how nature continues to influence fiction and fantasy. While there are no magical, fossilized dragon eggs waiting to hatch in fire out in...
Digging into soil health
Left: new undies; right: official SCCC undies dug up at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum in Ottawa, ON (Photo by CNW Group/Soil Conservation Council of Canada)
Across the country, people have been digging up buried underwear. In fact, they buried the underwear themselves to learn more about soil health as part of the Soil Your Undies campaign from the Soil Conservation Council of Canada. This backyard...
Gardening with native plants this spring
Wild bergamot (Photo by Sarah Ludlow/NCC staff)
I love to garden. I excitedly begin planning for the next year as soon as the autumn chill settles over the prairies. I’m always impatient for spring to arrive, and it doesn't help when the seed catalogues start arriving in November. I find...
Innovative learning experiences are putting the art back in science
The Herbarium Project, 2017, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC (Photo by Four Eyes Portraits)
If you’ve heard the terms “science art” or “sciart,” you’re probably familiar with the idea of using visual art to represent, explain or bring attention to some aspect of science. The wonderful realm of science...
Slow down, and connect
Colleen Dale believes the best way to educate Canada’s future conservationists is by taking them to explore her favourite place in nature: Ontario’s Backus Woods. (Photo by Neil Osbourne)
Ontario’s Backus Woods is a stellar example of one of Canada’s most diverse life zones. Growing up in a time without the internet, Colleen Dale learned about nature the old-fashioned way: getting out into it. “I can remember...
Invasive phragmites in a wilderness paradise
Cockburn Island, Manitoulin Islands Archipelago (Photo by NCC)
Cockburn Island is a paradise for nature lovers, and we can prove it! Only one person lives on the island year round, with his dog, Max. The rest of the island is left as a wilderness paradise for the bears, wolves, coyotes, deer and the small...
Adjusting to change
Assiniboine Delta, MB (Photo by Jordan Becker)
“According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the...
In the depths of the Lac-à-la-Tortue bog
Lac-à-la tortue (Photo by NCC)
Peatlands are wetlands composed of plant residues accumulated over thousands of years. Although they are widespread in Quebec, many people don't know about them. However they provide us with many essential services, such as water filtration and...
My bucket list adventure in the Galapagos Islands
Kristyn Ferguson in the Galapagos Islands (Photo by Jeff Verberne)
For many biologists, the Galapagos Islands are usually near the top of their list of places to see in this lifetime. On my bucket list they were annotated with an “!”. When my mentor and good friend James Duncan passed away suddenly in...
