Keep Your Cats Indoors: Disappearing Birds
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 …
The River’s Otters
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 …
Kennebec Wetlands Are The Best
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 …
Expensive Frogs
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 …
Environmentalism and Populism
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 …
Creeping Impacts
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 …
Cattail Tales
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 …
Better Than Biodiversity
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 – …