Conservation
A Fisheye View of Cumulative Effects in Alberta’s Southern East Slopes
BY SARAH MILLIGAN
The southern East Slopes region is both busy and ecologically significant. However, no landscape can provide an inexhaustible supply of benefits to humans. And in the southern East Slopes region, there are growing indications that a tipping point has been reached.
Read MoreAlberta Parks to Remain Protected
BY RICHARD SCHNEIDER
Break out the champagne, it’s time to celebrate! Minister Nixon has rescinded the government’s plan to delist 164 parks from Alberta’s park system. He could hardly have done otherwise.
Defend Our Parks
Can Smartphones Kill Trout?
BY MICHAEL SULLIVAN
Unlike birders, we fish lovers can seldom go to a lake or river and simply “see” a fish. To see one, we usually need to catch it. The question is: can occasional losses from catch-and-release fishing be safely ignored or are they a cause for concern?
It turns out that this question is harder to answer than one might expect.
Read MoreA Dangerous Man with a Dangerous Concept – Brad Stelfox
BY LORNE FITCH
Over time there have been some notably dangerous men and women who have confronted the status quo, toppled conventional thinking, debunked ideologies, and pried off our blinders. Dr. Brad Stelfox is one of these individuals and cumulative effects assessment is the idea he is advancing.
Read MoreAlberta’s Conservation Data Centre Needs Help
BY LINDA KERSHAW
Most Canadians aren’t aware of the national network of Conservation Data Centres (CDCs) that operate across the country under the umbrella of NatureServe Canada. Each province or territory has its own CDC, with the exception of Atlantic Canada which has a regional system. Alberta’s CDC is referred to as the Alberta Conservation Information Management Centre (ACIMS).
Read MoreAlberta Provincial Parks and Natural Areas Face Closure: A Nature Alberta Perspective
BY RICHARD SCHNEIDER
The Alberta government has announced its intention to remove 164 of 473 sites from the Alberta parks system. This move is part of a broader initiative to reduce government spending.
Nature Alberta is opposed to this proposal for several reasons.
Read MoreMaking Sense of Recent Shifts in Environmental Policy — And What To Do About It
BY RICHARD R. SCHNEIDER
Twelve years ago, Alberta had an epiphany. We came to understand that the future we were constructing was not the future we wanted to live in. This idea was crystallized in a groundbreaking document called the Alberta Land-Use Framework.
Read MoreRecovery of Ord’s Kangaroo Rats on the Suffield National Wildlife Area
BY PAT FARGEY
Kangaroo rats get their name from their large back legs and feet that they use to hop in a fashion reminiscent of Australian kangaroos. They are sometimes confused with the smaller western jumping mouse, which is also a hind foot jumper.
Read MoreA Story of Mammals in Alberta’s Beaver Hills Biosphere Reserve
BY FRANCES STEWART
I was walking through an aspen forest in the UNESCO Beaver Hills Biosphere Reserve (BHB), 50 km east of Edmonton and south of Elk Island National Park. The first rays of sunlight were peeking through the trees and shining off the fresh snow on this crisp January morning. It was silent, still. I could see my breath shimmering in front of me like the beautiful hoar frost on the surrounding branches. A perfect morning for live-trapping fisher.
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