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Heard it from a Scout: A beginner's guide to winter camping

Scouts pitch insulated tents to keep warm in winter. (Photo by Scouts Canada)

Scouts pitch insulated tents to keep warm in winter. (Photo by Scouts Canada)

During the winter months, most Canadians dream of flying south to escape the snow, ice and below-zero temperatures. Scouts, on the other hand, like to get outside by heading to campgrounds to enjoy all that nature has to offer. A scout’s...

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What nature means to an 89-year-old

Author Zoë and her granny standing beside Lake Ambleside in England. (Photo by Zoë Arnold/NCC staff)

Author Zoë and her granny standing beside Lake Ambleside in England. (Photo by Zoë Arnold/NCC staff)

At six months shy of 90 years of age, my granny Vera is a strong-willed (some might say stubborn) English woman. Each time she boards the double-decker bus, she insists on climbing the narrow, winding stairs up to the top deck. As the bus begins...

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Leave only footprints: Minimizing your impact in nature

Grace and Pepper exploring the winter wonderland (Photo by NCC)

Grace and Pepper exploring the winter wonderland (Photo by NCC)

Nature has been my greatest teacher. As a child growing up in the semi-desert of the Okanagan in British Columbia, I learned not to touch prickly pear, which plants smelled the most like sage and to move away from the warning rattle of a...

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NCC's new Happy Valley Forest Hike Series

Participants listen in as Todd Farrell talks about the plants in Happy Valley Forest (Photo by Evelyn Senyi)

Participants listen in as Todd Farrell talks about the plants in Happy Valley Forest (Photo by Evelyn Senyi)

City, meet nature “How far do you think we are from Dundas Square?” It’s an odd question that Todd Farrell, coordinator of conservation biology in central Ontario for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), poses to a group of...

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Cadence: Reflections from the trail

Trail at Many Glacier (Photo by Erica Thompson/NCC staff)

Trail at Many Glacier (Photo by Erica Thompson/NCC staff)

“Humans are animals and like all animals we leave tracks as we walk: signs of passage made in snow, sand, mud, grass, dew, earth or moss.... We easily forget that we are track-markers, though, because most of our journeys now occur on...

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So you'd like to see a warbler...

Black-and-white warbler (Photo by NCC)

Black-and-white warbler (Photo by NCC)

I like birding at just about any point of the year, but spring birding brings a certain excitement after a long winter season. Throughout Canada, warblers and other songbirds are starting to flock to landscapes that were recently quiet. Many are...

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Paradise for daytrippers and stargazers

Star trails over Butala Homestead in OMB at dawn, SK (Photo by Alan Dyer)

Star trails over Butala Homestead in OMB at dawn, SK (Photo by Alan Dyer)

Imagine plains so vast and wide that the night sky is flooded with stars and the Milky Way as far as the eye can see. There is one Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) property renowned for its rolling grasslands and nightscape: Old Man on His Back...

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Through the lens I see a beautiful Earth

Large-format camera lens (Photo by Wikimedia Commons, Image Gallery of the Agricultural Research Service (U.S. Department of Agriculture))

Large-format camera lens (Photo by Wikimedia Commons, Image Gallery of the Agricultural Research Service (U.S. Department of Agriculture))

An avid photographer may do just about anything to get the perfect shot: whether contorting their body (to shoot in a novel perspective), hiding for hours on end to catch a glimpse of a rarity, or, in the same light, trekking through all types of...

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Four ways I’m making 2016 a year for nature

American tree sparrow (Photo by NCC)

American tree sparrow (Photo by NCC)

Ah, January! Time for a new year, a fresh start and a list of resolutions to be forgotten by February. Not so in 2016! This year, I’ve decided on a resolution that will not only be beneficial for my physical and mental well-being, but also...

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Why nature conservation matters to me: A downtowner’s perspective

Author Michael Paskewitz at Cheakamus Lake, BC (Photo courtesy of Michael Paskewitz)

Author Michael Paskewitz at Cheakamus Lake, BC (Photo courtesy of Michael Paskewitz)

As someone who was born and raised in big cities, people sometimes ask me why I care at all about nature conservation. Some people think it’s odd when someone who did not grow up with nature in their backyard ends up with a passion for...

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