to know the land

Nature Guelph was established in 1966 and since then has been promoting connection with the lands in and around the city I now call home. I have been attending their events for years, always drawn in by their knowledgeable speakers and presenters and great community. It has been a hub for naturalists in Guelph and I have been so lucky to get to know the broader community of humans and non-humans t...

Knowing the plants who are in relationship with the animals we track can help us find the animals we want to learn about. They can point in the direction of where the animals are going or where they will be going. They can show us if we are in the right environment or if we need to keep looking. This episode is pretty much a story of a recent afternoon spent tracking in the Lake of Bays region, ju...

I have been tracking Deer Mice ( Peromyscus maniculatus ) a lot lately, and trying to learn a little bit more about them through their tracks and all the questions that come up. What are they eating right now? How can I tell them apart from Voles and Shrews? How many live together in the Winter? Who ate this one’s brains? You know, the usual. I have also been looking at bird tracks a bunch, especi...

I have seen and been part of a lot of Buckthorn ( Rhamnus cathartica ) removal efforts, and while initially hopeful, often there is a inevitable return of the non-native to once again take over the forest understory in short time. What if there were strategies, without herbicides or biocontrols to reduce or prevent the likeliness of Buckthorn’s recolonization? Mike J. Schuster from the Department...

It has been the Winter of the Fisher indeed with long tracking missions following three different Fishers at three locations in Southern Ontario between November 27, 2021 - January 16, 2022. I had only written of one of the experiences and hadn’t really told the story of the second and third, I thought I could detail some of what happened, and some of what I had been learning about for this episod...

A friend told me that someone in their small village had spotted a Northern River Otter ( Lontra canadensis ) in the same river the passes through the city where I live. This is the closest sighting of a River Otter to my neck of the woods I have ever heard of. I was so excited that I ran to my  desk where I had all of my mammal books out anyways, and flipped to the River Otter entries and st...

My friend Julian Fisher recommended a book to me he thought I would enjoy. It was Baptiste Morizot’s On the Animal Trail from Polity books . I got it and began reading when he told me he had just finished the book and was working on a review for the journal Environmental Philosophy. In light of this, I asked him if he would like to do a “book report, not a review” with me, where we could just have...

2,100,000 acres protected within not only the most populous area in Canada, but one of the most important economic areas, the struggle between development and sprawl vs protection and conservation of farms, forests and fragile wetlands is a very real undertaking, and one very much beyond me. Getting to talk to Shelley Petrie of The Greenbelt Foundation about how a successful mobilization 16 years...

I first noted the book because of the “tracking rats” part of the title, but when I began reading it I realized Dr. Cylita Guy ’s new book Chasing Bats and Tracking Rats : Urban Ecology, Community Science, and How We Share Our Cities is more than what it seems. Cylita has written about how eight different researchers go about conducting their research along with how they themselves, as individuals...

RCMP has invaded Wet’suwet’en territory from the second time in as many years. Land protectors have been resisting a pipeline going through their territory for many years, and most recently from a site where the pipeline would be buried below a river where folks fish and drink from. When the police raided the blockades there were calls for support and solidarity actions. Locally and abroad there h...

The massive Beehive Collective posters were a big part of my culturation and activist upbringing. Every punk house, infoshop, or radical space I encountered had one of their many gorgeously illustrated prints in a living room, bedroom or even in the washroom. They were so detailed, so thorough and nuanced that I would discover new facets every time I made the effort to study one. But despite seein...

I really appreciate when I can meet someone who can take something despised and vilified and transform it into a beautiful focal point, braiding together natural history, human history, and urban ecology. Using a playful approach to science, research and with her signature illustrations, Rosemary Mosco brings the Pigeon back into our awareness as a wonderful urban companion through the Anthropocen...

Most of this episode is a talk given at the Decolonizing Thanksgiving Dinner (formally Anti-colonial Thanksgiving Dinner) on October 14th, 2018. I wanted to highlight this conversation on reconciliation when right now, RCMP forces are again actively invading indigenous territories across so-called Canada. Since September 25th, the Gidimt’en Access Point has been holding new blockades and using a v...

Before I pressed record I was pressing Matt with questions about fungal infections which affect Apples throughout the orchard. We wove between trees, ducking low branches looking for the perfect spot to record in. My hands were full with my audio recorder, my newly broken headphones, and apples I had gleaned from below a couple of nice old trees with well pruned branches, low canopies and open for...

The seasons are changing and it’s getting a little more obvious everyday. I have been watching life turn over the past couple of weeks and it’s been lovely. I went out on Saturday, sat under a Sugar Maple ( Acer saccharum) , and watched the wind move through the grass. I’d been feeling a sense of loss since the moment I realized I had forgotten to press record on my wonderful but now lost-forever...

Bumble Bees (genus Bombus) are a diverse genus of Bees with 25 species in Ontario according to range maps, but more like 14-16 species you are more likely to encounter. It can be a confusing process not only trying to decipher the genus of a Bee, but especially down to the species. Now how about trying to i.d. a increasingly hard to find species? Its hard. Its harder still to try and help these be...

In 1975, Hal H. Harrison wrote the Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds’ Nests. In 1979 he wrote the Western guide. I have my copy of Eastern Birds’ Nests on the primary bird shelf (there are two shelves) beside Bird Feathers by S. David Scott and Casey McFarland. Now, Casey McFarland, Matthew Monjello & David Moskowitz have come together to revamp the Peterson Field Guide to Bird Nests. In o...

Black Walnut ( Juglans nigra) is a tree I have been building relationship with for years. Through gathering, processing, storing, cooking, dyeing, planting, distributing and educating, this has been a plant I have come to know a lot about, and with whom I have shared some of myself with. I do not know Walnut in all stages (I long to know the flowers more), and I do not know the post glacial disper...

For most of my life I have enjoyed biking and walking through the trails at night. I explore the meandering paths by creek or riverside, venture through parks and fields looking for something unnameable or unknowable by day. There is a special beauty that glows faintly at night and I have longed to share that with friends ever since I was old enough to spend the night out by myself. It took me by...

I went up to Point Grondine with my partner last week and while there we saw lots of great flora and fauna. Cardinal Flower, Bunchberry, Bristly Sarsaparilla, Bluebead Lily, among so much more beautiful flora. Some of the fauna included Bears, Beavers, Porcupines, possible Wolf scat, Moose tracks... but also one night we were woken up by an animal going through one of our bags. I scared them away...

The Raccoon ( Procyon lotor), whose range has expands to include nearly all habitats on the continent, from Canada to Panama, has made their impact on the land, hearts, minds, and cultures of those who have encountered them. Author, professor and animal nerd Daniel Heath Justice helps us navigate the wild cultural impacts and impressions of Raccoons. From indigenous Missippian cosmologies as bound...

Ebony Jewelwings ( CIalopteryx maculata) are beautiful, which is one of the reasons they are so interesting to watch. I have seriously sat for hours watching them, photographing them and trying to learn from observing what is going on. I have mostly come away with questions. In light of my own questions and many from friends I have decided to try and research a little bit more about these beautifu...

Dawn Matheson wants to start connecting with trees, or a specific tree rather, at the University of Guelph Arboretum but she’s unsure which one yet. There is a process to get to know a tree and she is in the midst of sorting out that process. How do you find a friend in a tree when the culture around us says humans and trees can’t be friends? Well, she makes friends with other humans who are alrea...

If you have listened to the show in the past you’ll know that I am interested in interspecies communication. Usually I focus on animals, especially birds and bird language. Dr. Sarah Abbott is also interested in interspecies communication, and recently completed her doctoral research project with a focus on communication between humans and trees . I thought this was exciting, so I had to find out...

Tina and Angie describe themselves as “the Wizards behind the curtain” of an awesome company based out of Brooklyn called Bird Collective . They make beautiful patches, t-shirts, sweaters and hats and more celebrating birds from across the continent while also donating 20% of the proceeds to conservation organizations and other projects that help make the world of birding more accessible to everyo...