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Do you get enough Vitamin N?

Father and child by the lake (Photo by Laubenstein Karen, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Wikimedia Commons)

Father and child by the lake (Photo by Laubenstein Karen, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Wikimedia Commons)

You find yourself breathing more deeply, taking in the sharp scent of pine and the sweet mustiness of leaves returning to dust on the forest floor beneath your feet. For a moment, the quiet is broken only by birdsong — the notes that...

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Calling in the corps — the Canadian Conservation Corps

CCC participants cutting invasive phragmites stems (Photo by NCC)

CCC participants cutting invasive phragmites stems (Photo by NCC)

They say that many hands make light work. Well, I don’t know if the hard-working young people who hauled brush, cut phragmites stems or collected buckets of acorns would tell you that the work was “light” but I can certainly say...

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Protected doesn’t always mean perfect

Volunteer cutting the giant knotweed using a hedge trimmer (Photo by NCC)

Volunteer cutting the giant knotweed using a hedge trimmer (Photo by NCC)

Imagine frolicking along on a Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) property, hoping to stumble upon some neat findings, like rare herptiles and unique plants. But then you look up and scan the landscape to see what may be your worst nightmare: a...

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Lake Erie: Recovery, or requiem?

Aerial view of Point Pelee, ON (Photo by Gerry Kaiser)

Aerial view of Point Pelee, ON (Photo by Gerry Kaiser)

Someone recently asked me how I would invest a million dollars to help conserve Lake Erie. My first thoughts were that I would use that money to protect wetlands and other habitats on the coast, or maybe to help farmers create wider buffer strips...

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A throwback to working in Backus Woods

Forest canopy in Backus Woods, ON (Photo by Neil Ever Osborne)

Forest canopy in Backus Woods, ON (Photo by Neil Ever Osborne)

I had the pleasure of working for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) for the summer of 2019 as a conservation technician out of the Norfolk County, Ontario, office. When I first came to Norfolk, I was expecting to see mostly farmland and...

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Tackling invasive European common reed

Me on a six-foot ladder amidst European common reed, to illustrate its height and density. (Photo by Courtney Robichaud)

Me on a six-foot ladder amidst European common reed, to illustrate its height and density. (Photo by Courtney Robichaud)

The highs and lows of monitoring the large-scale suppression of Phragmites australis spp. australis My field crew and I are covered in scratches. I’m a PhD student studying the recovery of native vegetation after invasive species control,...

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Rooting myself in restoration

All smiles after a full day in the field at the Napanee Plain Alvar Nature Reserve, cutting back sumac and prickly ash to improve the habitat quality for eastern loggerhead shrike. (Photo by Samantha Ceci)

All smiles after a full day in the field at the Napanee Plain Alvar Nature Reserve, cutting back sumac and prickly ash to improve the habitat quality for eastern loggerhead shrike. (Photo by Samantha Ceci)

My career in the field of ecosystem restoration has begun to sprout, thanks to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). It all began with an email last year, where I inquired about volunteering for NCC. I was interested in shifting gears in my...

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Opportunities that shaped my view on conservation and the environment

Wetland assessment in Riding Mountain (Photo by NCC)

Wetland assessment in Riding Mountain (Photo by NCC)

In June 2018, shortly after graduation from the University of Winnipeg, I began my first internship with the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC’s) Manitoba Region as a stewardship intern. The next year, I was fortunate enough to come...

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Conservation on a budget

Lake Erie Farms (Photo by NCC)

Lake Erie Farms (Photo by NCC)

This spring, conservation staff from the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) contributed to a study that looked at the most cost-efficient ways to monitor restoration success in Ontario. So what, you may ask? Let me back up a bit and provide some...

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Caring for our water is a shared responsibility

Fishing in the lake (Photo by Natasha Overduin)

Fishing in the lake (Photo by Natasha Overduin)

My partner and I are in a yellow canoe in the cold, dark water, gliding silently as we skirt the lake’s rocky cliff edge. Our canoe is an old, dented tanker, borrowed from a friend for this three-night camping trip on a large lake in the...

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