Welcome to EcoWest News, a weekly round-up of news and resources that you can put to use in addressing environmental issues and protecting the wild in your community.
Across the West
The Yellowhead Flyway Birding Trail Association is launching a project to protect road allowances: “each mile of undeveloped road allowance provides eight acres of habitat for an array of plants and animals.” [SaskToday]
SOS Trees is celebrating Arbor Week in Saskatoon from May 20-28 with a wide variety of activities ranging from outdoor art and yoga to a talk on trees and climate change, a tour of the Patterson Arboretum, and a pruning workshop. [SOS Trees]
Two UBC researchers will be studying how bats use urban and natural landscapes around Metro Vancouver, and how this impacts bat diversity and abundance. [UBC]
A Complex Coast: A Kayak Journey from Vancouver Island to Alaska, written and illustrated by David Norwell, is a young man’s travelogue and quest for meaning. [The Tyee]
Residents are encouraged to let Calgary city council know they believe it’s important to protect Ricardo Ranch, the last undeveloped, intact wetland on the Bow River, from development. [Alberta Wilderness Association]
An independent report commissioned by the Manitoba Wilderness Committee characterizes logging activities in and around Duck Mountain Provincial Park as excessive, raising issues such as the impact of all-weather logging roads on habitat and logging on waterways as well as risks to wildlife, including dwindling moose and bat populations. [The Narwhal]
Across Canada
If you believe nature conservation should be at the heart of Canada’s new national urban parks, send your feedback to Parks Canada, either online or in a letter as suggested by CPAWS.
The federal government’s agenda to rapidly clean up Canada’s electricity grid should include saving — not simply producing — more electricity. [National Observer]
Around the World
Consumers are lobbying for control of their electricity to accommodate renewable energy, minimize power failures, and expand consumer choice. [Inside Climate News]
Warehouses are pollution hotspots due to noise, tailpipe emissions, and particulate pollution created by the wear and tear of large vehicles on the roads. [The Verge]
Tero Mustonen and Snowchange Cooperative are rewilding some of Finland’s former peatlands and speaking out about native land rights. [Yale Environment 360]
By relying on nature identification apps, “vital aspects of natural history, such as understanding the ecological setting and drawing on prior experience, are being bypassed; and, more importantly, the instinctive connection of human to non-human.” [Ecological Citizen]
Rewilding attempts to restore complex ecosystems by reintroducing long-lost plants and animals. Invertebrates, which play a key role in pollination and recycling nutrients, are often overlooked. A recycling project in Australia moved leaf litter containing over 300 invertebrate species from rich national park sites to revegetated agricultural sites. [Rewilding]
Nature’s Wonders
Discover the unexpected, other-worldly beauty of slime molds in macro photographs by Barry Webb. Slime molds are extremely small (1-4 mm) and neither plant nor fungi. During one life stage they are single-cell amoebae. [Barry Webb Images]
The camouflaged looper is a master of disguise. The small inchworm attaches small pieces of the flower it’s munching on to its back, so it blends in with its surroundings. [Cool Green Science]
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/apmckinlay/52046850834
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 Twitter, or subscribe by email.