Twelve spooky facts about Canadian bats
Townsend's big-eared bat (Photo by Brock Fenton)
There are 18 known bat species in Canada. Although they are subjected to a spooky stigma around Halloween, they’re nothing to be afraid of. Here are 12 things you didn’t know about these not-so-scary mammals: 1. The snooze...
Giants of the forest: My father's discovery of Ontario's tallest white spruce
White spruce bark (Photo by Rob Duval, Wikimedia Commons)
When I was young we lived in Cochrane and Dad worked for the Department of Lands and Forests (now the Ministry of Natural Resources) as a forester. Around 1958 or 1959, he was cruising a lease for Abitibi somewhere in the Hudson’s Bay...
10 fascinating facts about wild turkeys
Wild turkey (Photo by D.P. Lawrence CC-BY-NC)
Today marks Thanksgiving in Canada. The first official, annual Canadian Thanksgiving took place on November 6, 1879. In honour of Thanksgiving, here are 10 facts to gobble up about wild turkeys, a species that has been documented on Nature...
Lovebirds: The day I broke a turkey's heart
Wild male turkey (Photo by Wayne Dumbleton, CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0)
One of my favourite field work stories comes from my very first field season. I’ll be the first to admit that I had no idea what I was doing back then. I couldn’t identify most plants, was slightly scared (ok, terrified) of dragonflies...
A throwback to working in Backus Woods
Forest canopy in Backus Woods, ON (Photo by Neil Ever Osborne)
I had the pleasure of working for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) for the summer of 2019 as a conservation technician out of the Norfolk County, Ontario, office. When I first came to Norfolk, I was expecting to see mostly farmland and...
Emblems of Canada: tree edition
Red maple (Photo by Jean Isaacs)
Trees have played a significant cultural role in the lives of many Canadians; they are engrained in our national identity. Take the Canadian flag, for instance. It features a single, prominent red maple leaf in the centre, which speaks to the...
Tackling invasive European common reed
Me on a six-foot ladder amidst European common reed, to illustrate its height and density. (Photo by Courtney Robichaud)
The highs and lows of monitoring the large-scale suppression of Phragmites australis spp. australis My field crew and I are covered in scratches. I’m a PhD student studying the recovery of native vegetation after invasive species control,...
Grandparents in the natural world
Old-growth forest (Photo by NCC)
I often find similarity in the structure of human society and in nature's ecosystems. Reflecting on how our community is comprised of people from all walks and stages of life, I can’t help but think the same about forests. As Grandparents...
So you’ve acquired a property. Now what? (part two)
Invasive dog-strangling vine (Photo by NCC)
In my previous blog, I defined the term baseline inventory, described the behind-the-scenes planning stages, and laid out how we classify vegetation communities on the ground. Read on to find out what other important data we collect in the field,...
Monarch migration reflections
One of the millions of monarchs I saw in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Michoacán, Mexico (Photo by Alberto Becerra)
I am an immigrant to this country, as are most people across this diverse continent with such a complex history. In fact, all who are not indigenous to this land are immigrants. When I was just a toddler, my family and I immigrated to Canada from...
