Re: What’s in a (Bird) Name I can hear the chirps, trills and warbles of delighted birds – now proud possessors of new names. The once forlorn McCown’s longspur now revels in its glorious moniker, namely, ‘the thick-billed longspur’. And why not? Who wouldn’t want their nomenclature changed by the august American Ornithological Society (AOS)? In fact, I am thinking of writing to the AOS myself, in hopes that they might provide us with a list of brand-new names for our family members – at least as far as second cousins go. My only concern is: exactly how does this kind of NEWSPEAK protect envir ..read more

Re: What’s in a (Bird) Name With the greatest of respect, I, (a longstanding “birder”) find the proposed bird name changes written about in Julia Zarankin’s Last Word article asinine! What a flavour is lost when changing Lewis’s Woodpecker or the Baltimore Oriole when one knows of the reasons behind the name? Or Wilson’s Warbler, or the employment of famous Audubon upon a bird name, or the Bonaparte Gull, or the Franklin’s Gull, etc. etc. And what about names of birds in other countries, many more of which use some ornithologist as a first name? All this because someone did not like a first na ..read more

5 | This Issue Diversifying the conservation movement. By Caroline Schultz Subscribe Today 7 | Earth Watch A Deal to Protect the Nabish Wetland Complex Breeding Bird Atlas Data in Action Spring Species Watch: Northern two-lined salamander and tardigrade Featured Photographer: Aidan Harradence The Unequal Toll of Climate Change 14 | Earth Watch Flushing the Forest Water Usage Invasive Marbled Crayfish Discovered in Ontario Invasive Buckthorn A New Life for the Don River? 20 | Protecting All That Hops, Slithers and Crawls A comprehensive guide to reptiles and amphibians in Ontario ..read more

RE: The War on Invasive Species I was very disappointed in the article The War on Invasive Species, Last Word by By Conor Mihell in the current issue of the magazine (Winter 2023). Actually, I thought (hope) it was there to start discussion, not because it was really a serious approach to the topic. There may possibly be a case for not removing invasive species, at least in some circumstances but this article displayed a very shallow understanding of what people who care about biodiversity are faced with. The article shows no understanding of the actual damage done to habitats by a wide variet ..read more

5 | This Issue Everything Is Local. By Caroline Schultz Subscribe Today 7 | Earth Watch Highway 413 Would Raze Bumble Bee Habitat Study Scores Areas by Restoration Potential Winter Species Watch: Rough-legged hawk Featured Photographer: Mark Bernards Connecting Forests 14 | Earth Watch More of the Frontenac Arch Now Protected Big Opportunities in Small Places Monarch Point A Healthy Environment Is Now Our Right Youth Summit Oak Wilt Arrives in Ontario 24 | A Burning Issue The record-breaking wildfire season is highlighting the gaps in human knowledge of the impact of fires on wil ..read more

5 | This Issue Conservation in an era of climate change. By Caroline Schultz Subscribe Today 7 | Earth Watch National Invasive Plant Legislation Urged Ontario’s Bees Need More Habitat Fall Species Watch: Cockspur Hawthorn and Striped Whitelip Featured Photographer: Andrew McLachlan Connecting Forests 14 | Earth Watch Reducing Barriers to Nature Court Opens Door to Further Scrutiny of New Highway New Resources for Wetland Conservation 20 | The Little Fox That Could A community science project shows that gray foxes are successfully adapting to the harsh climate of the province’s no ..read more

Thank you for your email about Ontario Nature’s nature guides. At age 92 I’m not doing much travelling. But I watch nature in the courtyard of the large private seniors residence where I live. Some of the space is wooded and grassy. Do your nature guides include information about getting there by public transit? If not, you’re encouraging use of private cars. My family and I gave up our car about thirty years ago in Toronto. We had been walkers, hikers and cyclists. In the nineteen thirties and forties people travelled out of Toronto to holiday destinations such as Muskoka by bus, train and bo ..read more

I read with interest your feature article “Lone Wolf” in the summer 2023 issue of ON Nature about gray wolves need for uninterrupted landscapes for habitat. Ontario Nature rightly cares about gray wolves. Unfortunately, just yesterday, I read the news from the Fur-Bearers group that B.C. had shot from helicopters 217 wolves and 8 cougars spending $1.65 million of taxpayer money ostensibly to help caribou. This is a stunningly stupid move, and I can’t imagine who or why the B.C. government would do such a horrible thing. Clearing of trees to make roads and disturbance of habitat by mankind to a ..read more

RE: “Lights Out” (Summer 2023) I’ve been enjoying the latest print issue of ON Nature but was surprised (and disappointed) to see the “Lights Out?” fireflies story was illustrated with an Artificial Intelligence image. To me this seems rather disingenuous for a magazine focused on nature, science and education. In the future, I hope to see more full disclosure when AI is used for nature illustrations. Perhaps a didactic insert or captions directly on the image would help differentiate between “unaltered photographs” and AI. Looking for clarity and truth in nature. Sincerely, – Margaret Belisle ..read more

RE: “Lone Wolf” (Summer 2023) The canine habits described here suggest how we can enhance human society: We need the input of both pack- and lone-wolves. The former stick to “defined areas”, while the latter “establish new territories”. There’s value in keeping some aspects of the current order. Take democracy, for example. The principle of one person, one vote is worth preserving. But we also need to experiment. In Canada we’d do well to try out proportional representation. The wolf world is illuminating. It shows the value of both status quo and novelty. – Gideon Forman, Toronto The post Wo ..read more