Show me the spreadsheet: Unveiling the wonders of working landscapes
NCC Stewardship Coordinator, Casey Rempel, engaging with Aberdeen Pasture patrons during a field event. (Photo by Matthew Braun/NCC staff)
What crazy jobs we have. Did you think when you were a young student that shuffling numbers on a spreadsheet for a school project would be the key bit of experience you’d need for conservation? Yeah, me neither. Let me explain by going on a...
Wildlife encounters in rural Saskatchewan
My co-worker and I comparing our feet to prints left by a bear in rural BC.(Photo by Matthew Braun/NCC staff)
Wildlife encounters during my rural Saskatchewan childhood were rare, and you’d have to include cats and dogs and the numerous coyotes surrounding our farm to really pump my numbers up. And while coyotes arguing with dogs during the quiet...
The making of a bison song
Bison and a sunset at OMB, SK (Photo by Jason Bantle)
Matthew Braun is program director for the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC’s) Working Landscapes Program in Saskatchewan, and Simon Neufeld is director of research and development for Earth Alive Clean Technologies in Quebec, a...
Travels with Cary
Cary Hamel (Photo by NCC)
I really don’t remember many of the specifics from reading John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley. I’m pretty sure Charley was John’s large, curly-haired poodle, which I guess is somewhat similar to my Manitoba counterpart,...
What the meadowlark sang to my grandmother
Western meadowlark (Photo by Allison Haskell)
I am not a professional biologist or a fanatical birder like many of my colleagues. I feel like I am surrounded — I mean, it’s Saskatchewan, so it’s tough to feel surrounded by much of anyone or anything — by highly trained...
Going head to head with the prairie rose
Prairie rose (Photo by Karol Dabbs)
I cannot kill this dang plant growing in my garden! Emotionally I can’t kill it, because it means something to me, and literally, because I accidentally tried and it didn’t die. This hardy little number is the prairie rose, and...
Uncovering the magic of winter wildlife
Meeting Lake 03, SK (Photo by NCC)
While attending college in Winnipeg, my classmate and I used to walk north from the campus at the corner of Shaftesbury and Grant streets to explore the different sections of Assiniboine Park. As the school year was between September and April,...
No sunflower seeds in the washrooms, please: What it's like to hold a conservation planning meeting in small-town SK
No sunflower seeds in the bathrooms, please (Photo by NCC)
“So, what are you guys up to today?” It is about 8:15 a.m. on a Tuesday morning and I’m picking up the keys for the Lumsden River Park Centre at the town office. I arrived before the office was open so Chris, who apparently...
