Five years with NCC (part one)
Kylie doing baseline work at Stark Coulee, SK (Photo by NCC)
I am Kylie (Garchinski) McGregor, natural area manager for the Missouri Coteau Natural Area with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). I started here as an intern in 2014 and have worked on and off for the organization since. Throughout my NCC...
Don’t forget to brake for snakes
The western rattlesnake. (Photo by Stephanie Winton)
The Okanagan Valley, a hot spot for many at-risk species, is located in the south-central Southern Interior region of British Columbia. It is home to 185 wineries, many golf courses and fruit orchards, and an incredibly diverse landscape that...
Human-created noise pollution impacts wildlife
A bat hanging upside down (Photo by Unsplash)
Just as noise pollution negatively impacts human health, it also affects wildlife. It can interfere with animal communication, hinder their foraging abilities and impact where they live. A recent study published in Biology Letters found that...
Getting wetland conservation right will help solve many issues
Forested wetlands in summer (Photo by Mary Gartshore)
Earlier this winter I watched as a record amount of January rain filled the swamp at the back of our property outside of Guelph Ontario. With the ground still locked in a hard freeze, there weren’t a lot of places to hold this deluge. This...
Weston Family Conservation Science Fellowship Program
Sundial lupine in the oak savannah (Photo by NCC)
It’s a sunny June day with only a slight whisper of wind in the trees. I am walking slowly through an oak savannah with Angela Demarse, a master's of science candidate at the University of Guelph in Ryan Norris’s lab. We are in search...
Digging badgers: A close encounter
A badger at its burrow. (Photo by J. Sayers, Ontario Badger Project)
“A badger? On my property? There are no badgers here!” is often the response I got from landowners in southern Ontario during my short stint as a field technician for the Ontario Badger Project. American badgers are difficult to spot;...
Conserving what we value
Children from Pelee Island Public School help collect seeds for restoration projects. (Photo by NCC)
It was my time to finally get my message across. About a 15 years ago, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) was beginning to purchase properties on Pelee Island, in Ontario. The community, however, was uncertain of conservation —...
Reducing light pollution is a simple way to help insects
Frosted elfin butterfly (Photo by Geoff Gallice, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0, generic license, Wikimedia Commons)
Have you ever noticed moths vigorously flapping around your porch light? Well, they’re probably mistaking it for the moon, according to The Guardian. And sadly, most insects trapped in this cycle are dead by morning, either from exhaustion...
10 highlights that show progress and should give us hope for the coming decade
Next Creek watershed (Photo by Steve Ogle)
At the dawn of 2010, the world seemed ready for change. There was increasing awareness about nature and the environment, and voices calling for action on climate and nature conservation were growing louder. A transition to true sustainable...
Caring for our water is a shared responsibility
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...
