Lights, camera, action! NCC conservation lands in the movies
Movie reel (Photo by Runner1616, Wikimedia Commons)
One of the many perks of working with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) in Alberta is I get to work in some of the most incredible landscapes in the province. In the course of my field work I’ve been to the Canadian Badlands, waded...
Why bluebirds?
Mountain bluebird (Photo by Allison Haskell)
Why did I decide to write a blog about bluebirds? I am no bird specialist, that’s for sure, but I do think bluebirds are gorgeous. The first time I saw a bluebird was just 10 days after starting my internship with the Nature Conservancy of...
How to be Batman, or the Flash, or even Aquaman if you want
Female superhero (Image by Vegas Bleeds Neon, Wikimedia Commons)
This past Saturday, the Alberta Conservation Volunteers team hosted our last event of the year: a winter willow harvest in the Red Deer River area. While I was there, working alongside volunteers, it struck me how lucky I am to be part of this...
A personal prairie legacy: The Tim K. Hodgson Prairie Stewardship Challenge Fund
Tim Hodgson at Horseshoe Dam (Photo courtesy of Tim Hodgson)
Caring for land is personal. Over 10 years ago, I realized native wildlife habitat conservation was the most meaningful thing to which I could contribute my energy, expertise and time. It was 2003, and I was re-evaluating what I was achieving in...
The stories we tell (and need to tell) about conservation
Connop Property in Alberta (photo by NCC)
It’s a crisis! A chunk of land of conservation value suddenly comes on the market, or it’s threatened with some form of development or in some way is scarce and connecting habitat for some charismatic megafauna that commands our...
Listening for the yellow rail
Yellow rail (Photo by Dominic Sherony, Wikimedia Commons)
The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) surveys biodiversity across the province of Alberta. From the grasslands and parklands of the south to the boreal in the north, we record the terrestrial and wetland species present, gather soil...
Sustainability is the new buzzword
Conservation Volunteers cleanup event at the Crowsnest Pass, AB (Photo by NCC)
Sustainability is the new buzzword. You see it everywhere: everything that aims to be green is "sustainable" or "sustainably produced" nowadays. But what does this word, sustainability, mean? According to www.dictionary.com, sustainability is...
Why not count some butterflies?
Identifying species at a CV butterfly count in Waterton (Photo by NCC)
This summer, my 12-year-old son Benny and I enjoyed helping out with two butterfly themed events for Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) in Alberta; one at the Ghost Horse Hills, and the other at the Weston Family and Bruder properties along the...
The perfection of the morning at Old Man on His Back
Kailey Setter visits Old Man on his Back, Saskatchewan (Photo by NCC)
There is a peace that finds you on the open prairie. In that vast openness, worry and stress diffuse into the air around you, and your body regains equilibrium. On this unexpectedly wild landscape filled with native grasses and endless sky, there...
Encountering Waterton
Butterfly count at the Waterton Springs campground (Photo by NCC)
During my travels, I’ve seen a variety of mountains: the ancient remains of volcanic peaks in Tasmania, the coastal slopes of the Sierra Nevada range in southern Spain, the aptly-named Remarkables of New Zealand. I know that not all...
