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The Government of Canada is in the process of developing Canada’s first National Adaptation Strategy for climate change. Over the last several months the government has consulted with experts and organisations about the future of climate change adaptation. Those initial consultations have culminated in the recently released “Canada’s National Adaptation Strategy Discussion Paper“. The discussion …
A study of 500 species of birds in Canada and the US was published in the prestigious journal Science in September 2019. It found that in the last 50 years, 3 billion birds have disappeared. This is 29 percent of the number of birds in the 500 species surveyed. We are part of the causes. Over …
We see otters on the Salmon River quite often, but their visits are not predictable. We simply must be looking at the river at the correct instant. Sometimes, it is just a passing male. Sometimes, at the correct season, it is the female leading a litter of juveniles. Anywhere from one to three. Once when …
Recent media attention has reported that a study by environmental scientists Cheng and Basu at the University of Waterloo has found that smaller wetlands are more beneficial to the landscape than larger wetlands. A fundamental reason for this is that small wetlands provide more habitat to grow aquatic plants. An acre of a small wetland …
The British Columbia taxpayers have paid about $250,000 to fight the invasion of bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) in the Osoyoos region in southern B.C. Estimates for control programs for the entire province run into the tens of millions. Why get rid of bullfrogs? They are not native to B.C. and they are eating the young of …
There is a growing tendency for environmentalists (and their commentators) to avoid input from ‘experts’ and instead to use popular opinion as evidence. The belief, supported by ‘social media’, is that all opinions are equal. This could lead to uninformed programs and baseless political decisions. The problem is that the popular response to an environmental …
Talk of our impacts on the environment often seems to suggest that the only important impacts are big, severe and obvious. Don’t believe it. Environmental impact statements sometimes have trouble dealing with them, but many of our impacts these days creep up on things rather than blasting them out of their habitats. If we plan …
The Land Between and most of eastern Ontario has been redesigned by our road managers and by cattails. The landscape is now mapped and marked by lines of cattails following the ditches along the shoulders of roads. Almost overnight, with the help of the wind, cattail seeds from this network have reached all open, wet …
The word “Biodiversity” has become prominent in the press and in our daily language. What does it mean? Often it just means how many kinds of plants or animals – the total number of species. A common aim of management is to conserve the highest number of species. But a large number of species with …
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