World Listening Day 2016: Sounds Lost and Found
World Listening Day 2016 (Photo by World Listening Project)
Each year since 2010 the World Listening Project (WLP) has invited people around the globe to participate in World Listening Day. July 18 was selected because it is the birthday R. Murray Schafer, the renowned Canadian composer, educator and...
Read with NCC this summer
Reading outdoors (Photo by Ed Yourdon/Wikimedia Commons)
You’re probably thinking that a summer reading list must contain light, beachy books. This list is different: there are no protagonists trying to fit their dream wedding dress into an overstuffed closet or to solve a murder in the English...
Birdy McBirdface takes on the Big Year
Toby with monocular (Photo by Joanna Streetly)
Recently I had the chance to speak to a young lady, who is not only knowledgeable but passionate about birds and their conservation, and about her birding quest – pursuing a Big Year challenge at just 11 years old. Meet Toby —...
Poems for Trees: Nature close to home
Eastern painted turtle (Photo by Greg Schechter)
This poem originally appeared in Kristyn Ferguson's blog Poems for Trees and is reposted with permission on Land Lines. The early morning sun sizzles orange Rays flicker across sleeping faces Roused by light, warmth and anticipation It’s...
Cracking down on garlic mustard: A delicious and therapeutic experience
Garlic mustard are no match against our staff (Photo by NCC)
On May 12, Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) staff had the opportunity to step away from their desks to crack down on invasive garlic mustard at the Happy Valley Forest. Commanders of the day, Todd Farrell and Mark Stabb, asked us to form pairs...
Talking science with the younger generation
Wildflowers on Pine Ridge, Alberta (Photo by Bob Lee)
For the past five or six years I’ve spent my summers working outdoors with kids and animals, teaching the kids about the environment, which is essentially a fancier way of saying I worked at a summer camp for far longer than is socially...
Learning to listen to the land
The band in action with our throat-singing friends Lynda Brown and Heidi Langille (Photo by Dan Roy)
What does “tracing one warm line” mean to you? You may recognize the phrase from the classic Canadian folk song, Stan Rogers’ “Northwest Passage.” It describes a journey into a mythological northern homeland that we...
Amateurs
Bunchberry Meadows Conservation Area, AB (Photo by Kyle Marquardt)
Amateurs have been instrumental in the history of science. Amateurs are numerous in astronomy and continue to find asteroids on collision courses with Earth! Out there they have found comets and former planets, but amateurs have also surveyed...
Hope is...
Denise Harris, Clifford E. Lee Nature Sanctuary, AB (Photo by NCC)
As I head into my 10th season with the Nature Conservancy of Canada's (NCC's) Conservation Volunteers program, I am disturbed by news regarding climate change impacts, species extinction and so on. But whenever life’s challenges pop up, I...
Giving time for growth: Why volunteering to help nature is vital to our happiness
Volunteering at a local community garden (Photo by Micheline Khan)
National Volunteer Week (NVW), which takes place April 10-16 this year, celebrates millions of volunteers across Canada and recognizes them for their efforts. As NVW nears, I have been thinking about my personal motivation for volunteering over...
