Community Leaders & Books: May 2025

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

British Columbia: The Greater Vancouver Bird Celebration from May 9-25 is a two-week series of events inviting local residents to explore the amazing world of birds. Life-long birders and curious beginners can participate in story times, live bandings, guided outings, watercolour workshops, birdhouse construction, and more.

Saskatchewan: Hear from climate experts with a prairie perspective at the Climate West Forum on Climate Resilient Futures: Empowering People Through Knowledge, Tools, and Stories on June 17-18, in Saskatoon or online. It’s free.

Alberta: Solar Alberta advocates, educates, and serves as an industry and community hub for solar energy. They offer monthly or bi-monthly online webinars. On May 22, Leon Cardinal shared the Alberta Native Friendship Centres Association’s green building initiatives.

Manitoba: The Manitoba Burrowing Owl Recovery Program has confirmed sightings of 10 burrowing owls this May, the highest count reported in the province in over a decade.

Books

Climate-wise Landscaping: Practical Actions for a Sustainable Future by Sue Reed & Ginny Stibolt answers the question: What can we do, right now, in the landscapes of our own backyards and communities? The book offers hundreds of easy, practical actions that achieve one or more of the following goals: shrink the landscape’s carbon footprint; create gardens and yards better able to flourish in new, challenging, and unpredictable conditions; and assist other species as they adapt to a changing world.

Fully illustrated, The Lives of Bats: A Natural History dispels the myths surrounding bats and leaves readers with a newfound appreciation of our flying friends, providing astonishing details of bats’ biology, appearance, and place in the natural world.

Why are some male birds so colourful and have such extravagant courtship rituals? In Birds, Sex & Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin’s Strangest Idea, Matt Ridley argues that sexual selection through mate choice – at a grouse lek for example – is a powerful evolutionary force and has shaped some of the most beautiful and bizarre features of the world.

In Voices for the Islands: Thirty Years of Nature Conservation on the Salish Sea, Sheila Harrington says, “Through this collection of stories about conservation on the Islands – the land acquisitions, legal battles, lessons learned, and areas protected through landowner (or landholder) agreements, such as conservation covenants – I hope to inspire readers, turn apathy or cynicism to action and support conservation in an era of restoration and reconciliation.”

In The Secret Life of a Cemetery, Benoît Gallot describes how woodpeckers and foxes, 80 different species of trees, wild orchids and yellow toadflax, bee hives, and grape plants flourish alongside death in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France. “Since we have such a palpable need to reconnect with nature – especially those of us living in metropolitan areas – and since nature is so vital to our well-being, why shouldn’t cemeteries do their part?”

Nature Companion

Ravens play games, hunt cooperatively, and understand cause and effect (e.g. looking for a carcass when they hear a gunshot but ignoring similar noises).

(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/28576607966

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.