Nerdy About Nature

The first introduction episode to a new podcast series I'm starting here called 'Undercurrents' Every couple of weeks, I'll be connecting with Julia Huggins (PHD, huge nerd) where we'll share interesting articles, studies, and news from the world of environmental science, ecology, climate, and everything in between! The goal here is to be able to provide you all with more consi...

At a top level, the lives we live are governed by political systems which control regulations, policy and set enforcements for how we treat each other not only within our human societies, but they can heavily impact the way our societies interact with the grander, more interconnected natural world that we all share.  In order to create lasting change for the better in the world today, it ultimatel...

On every surface of every single thing, there are tiny microbial forces at work creating the world we live in.  From oily sheens on pond water to streaks of red mud, the evidence of these little microbes is more obvious than you may think - you’ve just gotta know where to look, and what to look for! Back for her third appearance, Julia Huggins takes us deep into the world of everyday microbes to s...

Have you ever stopped for a moment to think about where all our food comes from, and how it came to be? Well, if you know anything about ecology and life on this planet, you’d know that a vast majority of all that food either directly or indirectly comes from the work of pollinators. Without them, there would be no fruit, no squash or pumpkins, no berries and jam, no cattle or turkey feed so no me...

Fire is such a hot topic these days - pun intended! Yet we used to have a lot more fire across the landscape than we do today…so whats going on? Fires are a naturally occurring part of a forest ecosystem, and are generally classified as either low-intensity burns (LIBs) or high-intensity burns (HIBs), both of which have different causes and impacts based on different forest types and factors. Sinc...

After a serious of events that left me in need of a new car and long, arduous process of deliberation, I ended up getting a used PHEV, and decided to talk about my thought process here. Instead of going over the details, features, performance of the Rav4 Prime I ended up getting, I wanted to address the larger, more ethical issues associated with getting a car that still uses fossil fuels as gas,...

You may have heard that being amongst a forest can help calm your nervous system, but did you know that getting your hands dirty can help clear your mind too?   This week, I sat down with self-made gardening entrepreneurial creator Jordan Mara to chat all about the mental health benefits and aspects of gardening, and what he aims to do through his project Mind & Soil.  Come join us in his glor...

Extinction is a common threat to thousands of species these days as a result of human development, logging, pollution, habitat loss and fragmentation, and the plethora of impacts relative to anthropogenic climate change. In all these cases, the two biggest contributing factors to a species going extinct is habitat loss and limited genetic variation in the population - but what if we applied that s...

Grasslands are incredibly biodiverse and carbon rich ecosystems that perform numerous ecological functions, yet many of them across Turtle Island have all declined for various reasons, whether that be decades of development, fire suppression, removal of grazing animals, introduction of invasive species and lack of Indigenous stewardship or a combination of them all.  Here in coastal Cascadia, our...

I'm going to start releasing some of my slightly longer video here in a new series I'm tentatively calling 'Thought Snacks', because that's what they are...not quite a full meal, but just enough to get those wheels turning and reflecting about the world we live in. When it comes to impacts of climate change, wildfire is one of the hottest topics there is days - pun intended!  A...

One of the biggest hurdles we face today is reducing our dependence on fossil fuels for energy, which are rampant in just about everything we do and consume on a daily basis.  Fortunately, it is possible and we have a roadmap for doing just that, which is the subject of today’s episode where we talk about decarbonizing the energy grid - that’s taking all of our electricity we’re currently using an...

A few months ago in the news, you may have heard or seen articles about open net fish farms being removed from BC waters, and thought, “Wow!  That’s great!”...and then not done or heard much since then.  As you may or may not be aware, fish farms are one of the biggest threats to our at risk and endangered populations of wild Pacific Salmon that travel all over the ocean from down south in Oregon...

Have you ever seen those slick little certification logos on a product that claims it comes from sustainable forestry practices?  Unfortunately, those certifications aren’t those most ethical, accurate, and in some cases are just downright bogus, and may not truly reflect the logging practices used to obtain that wood. Peter Wood is a campaigner for Canopy Planet, as well as an adjunct professor a...

Charlotte Dawe is a campaigner with the Wilderness Committee who works on various issues regarding policy around biodiversity, at-risk & endangered species, old growth logging, glyphosate spraying, and many more.  Her and I caught up to debrief on COP15, the United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity in Montreal, to hear all about the good, the bad and all the goss of this global shindi...

A founding member of Indigenous Women Outdoors and coach with ILSA, Sandy Ward is an avid snowboarder, mountain biker and climber from the Lil'wat nation working to carve out a path for more Indigenous folks to get into the outdoors in a safe, welcoming space, and to see their ancestral lands from new a perspective through sport.  Her and I sat down to talk about her journey in the outdoor sp...

Chelsea Greer is the Wolf Conservation Program Director at Raincoast Conservation, and we sat down one Autumn morning in the woods to chat all about wolves!  In this conversation, we delve into the concept of conservation ethics, different monitoring approaches, population dynamics, and their relationship with endangered mountain Caribou, as well as the history of wolves in Western Culture an...

Siginaak Court Larabee is an incredible human who also happens to be the director of the Indigenous Life Sport Academy, a non-profit which works to provide Indigenous youth access to outdoor sports as a means of healing, and to build culture and community.  In this Podchat, I sat down with Court to chat all about the work he is doing as a leader within these communities, the recent growth the...

The Oceans are an incredible feature of this planet that we all share, connecting not only coastal communities and ecosystems to one another, but all of the various inland ones that are impacted by and impact our oceans, from deserts in Africa to the temperate rainforests of Turtle Island.  My first repeat guest, Julia Huggins is a biogeochemist, forest ecologist, PHD student and microbe expe...

Dr Rachel Holt is a forest ecologist based out of Nelson BC, and one of the authors of the infamous 'BC's Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity' Report that was published in 2020, which created a huge wake throughout Canada regarding forestry practices and our diminishing old growth forests.  The report and work she did also contributed to the BC Government's Strategic Review of Ol...

Leslie Anthony is a good friend of mine from the ski industry with a wide variety of skillsets.  Not only is he an outdoor travel and sports author, but a biologist who wrote a book called 'Aliens Among Us' a few years ago that's all about different invasive species, so I sat down with him alongside some train tracks to chat about it all!  Here we talk about different types of invasive s...

Mark Worthing is the Coastal Projects Lead for Sierra Club BC and is an incredibly well-spoken, intelligent, and inspirational guy doing some really important work for our forests, indigenous nations, and the world at large.  He & I sat down to chat about the connections between forests and politics, and in this chat we cover quite a bit - Government / Industry ties that create forestry p...

Julia Huggins is a forest ecologist, microbiologist, National Geographic Naturalist, PHD student and huuuuge nerd who specializes in the tiny world that makes up the big world we all share - microbes!  Her & I sat down amongst some Alders to chat about the role microbes play in our forests and the biogeochemical processes across the globe, and even got our hands dirty digging for microbia...

Diane Rudge is a natural textile artist & one of the co-founders of The Den, a small refillery on the coast of Vancouver Island that focuses increasing access to organic, natural and locally made products.  Her and I sat down and chatted about the way that us humans use and consume products (often mindlessly) and all that she's doing to re-envision and re-educate folks on the way that we...

Tom Balfour is a fish ecologist and fish program manager at Redd Fish Restoration Society, working to restore habitat for Wild Salmon out on the coast of Vancouver Island.  He & I sat down in a creek and weathered a few little rain showers to chat all about these amazing fish, from their history in these Cascadian waters to all the factors that impact their populations today, and finding...

I sat down with Jessica Hutchinson amongst some ancient Redcedars and Salal to chat about forests and how they've been affected by modern logging practices, how that then impacts Salmon and the broader ecosystems in which we live, and all the good work she is doing at Redd Fish Restoration Society to help fix these problems created by our past. Learn more about Redd Fish Restoration Society at htt...