Winter is the perfect occasion to admire the plant life that surrounds us – from the fire engine red stems of a dogwood to bright white snowberries and neon yellow lichen

EcoWest News highlights: Increasing Canada’s energy efficiency and competitivity, biodiversity solutions for municipalities, promoting insects, peatlands, and dead trees

Environmental news highlights for Western Canada: The dangers of building new homes in high-risk zones, legal protection for the night sky, abolishing the right to demolition, and prioritizing water

Books and community leaders: from energy justice, owls and raptors, migratory seabirds, rivers and metals, to urban nature

EcoWest News Highlights: Enhancing sustainable agriculture, speaking out about soccer’s environmental impact, and celebrating individual efforts to protect polar bears, glaciers, and snails

EcoWest News highlights: Renewed interest in coal in Alberta and Saskatchewan, a rewards program to conserve grassland birds and their habitat, reducing construction waste, and a salamander road crossing success story

A Little Queer Natural History by Josh L. Davis illustrates the tremendous variety of reproductive options and sexual behaviours of creatures as varied as yew trees, parrotfish, giraffes, and bighorn sheep

EcoWest News highlights: The challenges & opportunities facing Canada’s farmers, building back better after wildfire, greening our playgrounds & health facilities; and the natural beauty of dancing sharks & tiramisu mountains

This week’s top stories in EcoWest News: 1) Urban forests; 2) Aquatic species at risk in Saskatchewan; 3) Library of Things Toolkit; and 4) Paying people to save energy

Books and community leaders: from leadership programs, a native plant grant, and climate action to books about alternative economies, hares, and whales