A soft spot for the infamous predator: Wolves
Gray wolf (Photo by Mike Dembeck)
The timber wolf, also known as the gray wolf, is common in northwestern Ontario, where I have worked and lived for nearly 40 years. Common, but not always safe. I have a soft spot for predators such as wolves. In part because they are beautiful...
One human's trash is an endangered snake's treasure
Gray ratsnake (Photo by Jessica Ferguson)
I spent my summer radio-tracking a female gray ratsnake and assessing habitat characteristics in Norfolk County, for Natural Resource Solutions Inc. (NRSI), an ecological consulting company based in Waterloo, Ontario, and Ontario Nature, a...
Good things happen when you take your class outside
Jenna Siu leading the group at Nature Days, Happy Valley Forest (Photo by HSBC Bank Canada)
In many urban areas, children and families lack access to nature and the freedom to explore local plants and animals. Anxiety levels, attention-deficit disorder (ADHD) and antisocial behaviour in children is on the rise. It's said that the average...
Winter strategies for at-risk birds
Bobolink (Photo by Bill Hubick)
Now that I’m hunkered down for the cold winter season, I often find myself reminiscing about summer days and the colourful feathered friends that have long departed for warmer climates. Yearning for a trip somewhere warm, I wonder, what...
Tracking eastern loggerhead shrikes
Eastern loggerhead shrike (Photo by Dave Menke, courtesy of USFWS)
Driving past the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) Napanee Plain Alvar Nature Reserve, north of Napanee, Ontario, you might not notice anything overly special about the site. In fact, if you didn’t stop to have a closer look, you might not...
From chaotic to biotic
Forest along Long Tusket River, NS (Photo by Mike Dembeck)
There’s a new breed of problem emerging, and these problems are making a lot of people uncomfortable. Aptly named “wicked problems” because of their complex and high uncertainty, they're defined by having multiple contradicting...
Painting Big Trout Bay
![Réjean Roy. <i>Piercing light, McKellar Point </i>[cropped], 2017. Oil on panel, 24 x 30 inches. © Réjean Roy](https://www.natureconservancy.ca/assets/images/blog/piercing-light-mckellar-point-lr-thumb.jpg)
Réjean Roy. Piercing light, McKellar Point [cropped], 2017. Oil on panel, 24 x 30 inches. © Réjean Roy
The pursuit of art is a solitary endeavour. Most artists tend to follow their own personal lead, motivated by self-expression. Even though their muse might be an object, person or an event, they recognize inspiration by being attuned to their own...
Coming home to NCC
Teamwork makes the dream work (Photo by NCC)
I don’t claim to be an expert on every inch of Ontario's Frontenac Arch. One summer as a conservation technician with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is nowhere near enough time to explore everything, but in 2016, the wetlands, rock...
Treasure hunting: The quest for queen snakes
Queen snake found on the Saugeen Bruce Peninsula in 2017. When these snakes are observed, not only do we look for signs of snake fungal disease, we also examine them for signs of injury and measure them so we can better understand the number of young versus adults in the population. (Photo by NCC)
Paddling across the lake, fellow staff from the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) and I couldn’t contain our excitement. It was the first day of our annual queen snake surveys, and we were all curious about what we might find. I often...
Biomimicry: Every step is a story
A bighorn sheep on Luxor Linkage conservation area (Photo by Bonnie-Lou Ferris)
When I first learned about biomimicry, I was in a math and poetry class at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. It was 2004, and while the professor didn’t necessarily talk about the term “biomimicry,” he introduced us...
