Community Leaders & Books: April 2026

We profile local community leaders and post book reviews on a weekly basis on social media, along with excerpts from Nature Companion, our nature app/website. Once a month we repost these items on our website for those of you who may not be active on social media.

Community Leaders

Saskatchewan: Prairie wetlands are omnipresent, but will they continue to be? Dr. Colin Whitfield, SENS, led a discussion on Prairie wetlands, their behaviours, roles for society, and pressing threats to their survival at Café Scientifique in Saskatoon on April 21. [Café Scientifique, Agricultural Reservoirs]

Alberta: Mark Bidwell and John Conkin, Canadian Wildlife Service, discussed whooping crane recovery efforts in Wood Buffalo National Park at a talk hosted by Nature Alberta on April 22. A recording is available on YouTube. [Nature Alberta, YouTube]

Manitoba: Jane’s Walks in Winnipeg explored St. Norbert’s riverbottom forests, new tree plantings along Jubilee Avenue, and the Bunn’s Creek Trail, May 1-3. [2026 Jane’s Walk Winnipeg]

British Columbia: Keeping Nature Connected is a regional initiative helping protect and restore ecological connectivity across the Thompson–Okanagan and beyond. It supports practical, collaborative solutions that protect wildlife movement and restore connected landscapes. [Keeping Nature Connected]

Saskatchewan: Fragile Flight: Bird Conservation in Human Spaces, hosted by a wide range of university and community groups at the University of Regina on May 8 explored the risks birds encounter in human spaces and how they can be prevented. Participants were invited to join a new on-campus bird conservation initiative. [University of Regina, Bird Friendly Regina]

Books

How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World by Ethan Tapper: “Once it seemed that there were only two paths to follow: a status quo that saw forests and other ecosystems as commodities, and an opposing force that sought to protect ecosystems from ourselves, to leave them alone. As forests everywhere struggle under the weight of the many threats and stressors of the modern world, as they suffer the legacies of the past and confront a future that promises challenges like never before, Bear Island has helped me realize that neither of these two paths is enough. I have realized that the world needs action intertwined with compassion, relationship imbued with responsibility, death infused with life. I have gone my own way, fostering a divergent vision – a reimagining of what it means to love a forest.”

Let’s Botanize! 101 Ways to Connect with Plants by Ben Goulet-Scott and Jacob S. Suissa is a guide to learning about and understanding the world of plants. The 101 prompts will inspire readers to engage with plant life meaningfully each day by observing the parts, patterns, and processes that make plants so amazing. Examine a bud at the tip of a branch—does it have hairs or scales? What is the most brightly colored plant part you can find that is not a flower or a fruit? Listen to the plants—what sounds do you hear them making? Follow the prompts on dedicated walks in the woods, on your sidewalk, on your commute to work, or even in your kitchen.

The Call of the Honeyguide: What Science Tells Us About How to Live Well with the Rest of Life by Rob Dunn: “We live and act as though we were all alone and could chart a future independent from the rest of the living world. This way of thinking and being is, I hypothesize, delusional … “It is in the context of modernity’s disconnections from the living world that the idea that other species benefit us, and we them, has become almost radical, something that is at once very old and also new. It is upon this new, old, radical path that we now embark, one in which we need other species and they need us.”

In the Circle of Ancient Trees: Our Oldest Trees and the Stories They Tell, edited by Valerie Trouet, “brings together ten essays by tree-ring experts from around the globe, exploring the stories of our oldest living trees. From cold snaps to forest fires, droughts, and human activity, the authors uncover the life stories of trees by decoding the messages hidden in their rings … Each essay explores trees in terms of their ecology and history – but also their character, their significance to the humans that have lived around them, and the personal connections the authors make with their subjects.”

Nature Companion

Male painted lady butterflies defend their territory from other males and will court any female that crosses their path. In warm climates, they mate year round. (Nature Companion is a free app/website introducing many of the plants and animals found in Canada’s four western provinces.)

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/apmckinlay/55181232085

EcoFriendly West informs and encourages initiatives that support Western Canada’s natural environment through its online publication and the Nature Companion website/app. Like us on Facebook, follow us on BlueSky, X, and Mastodon, or subscribe by email.