Conservation Blog

Society of Grasslands Naturalists Raises Concerns About Land-Use Decisions in the Eastern Slopes

26 January 2021

The Society of Grassland Naturalists has raised concerns about land-use decisions in the Eastern Slopes. They urge the premier to adopt an integrated approach to planning that involves public consultations.

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Loon with chick
Common loon adult with small chick. DARWIN PARK

Why Are Common Loon Chicks Becoming Less Common?

22 January 2021

BY KRISTIN BIANCHINI

Measuring loon productivity is also an excellent indicator of lake health. As top predators, loons are sensitive to damage at lower levels of the food chain. For example, processes that decrease the number of fish in a lake can cause food shortages, especially for young loons. Being a top predator also makes loons more vulnerable to pollutants, like acid rain and mercury.

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Panorama of Lake Minnewanka. Z. KOZOMARA

A Fisheye View of Cumulative Effects in Alberta’s Southern East Slopes

22 January 2021

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.

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Alberta Parks to Remain Protected

23 December 2020

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 Minister Nixon has rescinded the government’s plan to delist 164 parks from Alberta’s park system.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.

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Blue Aster Lake and Warrior Rocky Mountain Peak, Kananaskis Country

Defend Our Parks

17 November 2020

BY RICHARD SCHNEIDER

Albertans want more of our natural heritage protected, not less.

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Can Smartphones Kill Trout?

1 November 2020

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.

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A Dangerous Man with a Dangerous Concept – Brad Stelfox

1 November 2020

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.

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Alberta’s Conservation Data Centre Needs Help

30 October 2020

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).

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Family at Little Fish Lake Provincial Park

Alberta Provincial Parks and Natural Areas Face Closure: A Nature Alberta Perspective

30 August 2020

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.

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Making Sense of Recent Shifts in Environmental Policy — And What To Do About It

15 August 2020

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.

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