When Craig and Bethany Sinclair set out to naturalize their 1/3-acre lawn in the early months of the pandemic, they weren’t trying to ruffle any feathers – except, perhaps, those of the northern cardinals visiting their DIY bird feeder. They certainly didn’t expect to be the target of unneighbourly complaints, or to find themselves meeting with lawyers to defend their right to grow goldenrod and asters on their property. But as their naturalization efforts grew, so did tension in their town of Smiths Falls, Ont. It wasn’t easy for a couple who describe themselves as quiet and rule-following p ..read more

“My neighbours were pretty used to seeing weird shit on my patio,” says Amber Sandy, laughing. Moose hides, deer skins, a bear pelt – all of them found their way onto the nine-by-nine-foot balcony of the Anishinaabe artist, hide tanner and conservationist. And in the kitchen of her small downtown Toronto apartment, she transformed scaly salmon skin – still with bits of flesh on it – into smooth, supple and flexible fish leather. The key ingredients (as seen on her @ambsandy Instagram highlights): leftovers from a sushi shop, salt, dish soap, cooking oil and many, many bags of Red Rose tea, to ..read more

This article by Abi Gazzard and Rosalind Kennerley of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Connor Panter of the University of Nottingham was originally published by The Conversation and has been reproduced here with permission. You might think you have the measure of the rodent family. Perhaps just the word “rodent” conjures images of invasive rats, those urban denizens accused of spreading pathogens and parasites, chewing through wires and spoiling food. Most rodents are, in fact, more elusive and inhabit quiet corners of rainforests, mountains, deserts and rivers. Thes ..read more

In March 2022, Paige Court at the Chazen Museum of Art was taken over by wild plants. Suspended from the building’s soaring three-storey ceiling, 60 panels of sheer netting featured larger-than-life imagery of native Wisconsin-area flora. The panels were 30 feet long and visible from the galleries on each floor that overlooked the space, placing viewers amidst a field of greenery. Like a mobile, they spun 360 degrees and the lightweight fabric reacted to the subtlest draft of wind, creating a gentle swaying like that of tall grasses in a field. “I think it captured the movement that happens w ..read more

This article by Heather Kharouba and Stephanie A. Rivest of the University of Ottawa was originally published by The Conversation and has been reproduced here with permission. Whether or not invasive species threaten native biodiversity and ecosystems has been a point of debate amongst researchers for years. Invasive species have caused extinctions of native species and even altered the functioning of ecosystems. But not all species that are introduced to new areas become invasive — meaning they cause negative impacts. Despite this, all non-native species are tagged as harmful. This way of th ..read more

Have you nurtured your biophilia today? Have you heard of biophobia? We hadn't either until recently, though its antonym, biophilia, has been in our lexicons for a while. (Thank you, Björk.) But as soon as we read a recent article about biophobia in fellow Canadian online mag Hakai, the concept struck a chord. This fear of nature is a growing phenomenon linked with urban development, according to a team of researchers that includes the University of Toronto's Masashi Soga. Why is it a problem? They posit that “biophobia is being reinforced and proliferated through society in a vicious cycle ..read more

It is winter here in New Hampshire as I write this. The land is asleep, but it will awaken come spring. The birds and squirrels hiding in the brush and the trees, awaiting their turn at the bird feeders, are the only signs of life. Looking out at the snowpack, it is hard to believe what this property has become, especially when one thinks what it started out as. Thirty-odd years ago my wife and I, after just a few years of marriage, bought the home we now live in. The house and the property it sits on are on the edge of Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city. My wife grew up in the city, wh ..read more

It’s a warm, dry autumn day and I’m exploring the trails at Terra Cotta Conservation Area, a 485-acre property about an hour west of Toronto. The trees have started turning, and the stained-glass effect of the sun hitting golden and red-orange leaves keeps drawing my eyes. I photograph intricate layers of lichen on a cut-off stump, and day-glo lilac asters in flower. My guidebook had mentioned bullfrogs the size of small dinner plates, and while I don’t spot any of those, I do encounter plenty of other small wildlife: squirrels and chipmunks running busy loops, little frogs warming themselves ..read more

Consider the birdhouse: a simple wooden box held together by nails or glue, sometimes with a peaked roof and a coat of paint, maybe an affectatious window carved into one side. Nothing like it exists in nature. It’s the conspicuous product of human hands, designed solely to shelter songbirds and their chicks from predation and weather. If the human builder benefits at all, it is intangibly, by way of songs, sightings and a dose of empathy. Birdhouses, then, are a very peculiar kindness. Justin Tyler Tate has taken this kindness to new extremes in what he calls “post-Anthropocene architecture ..read more

The English words species and specific share the same Latin root. Small wonder, when it is specificity that gives rise to species: organisms fine-tuning themselves to their more-or-less singular piece of the world. In turn, the usual shorthand for a community of species is biodiversity, an elastic term that can enwrap a creek or an ocean or a whole planet as need be. Yet across Earth today, countless enclaves of biodiversity are under siege from a rocketing number of invasive species. Alien predators have been blamed for almost 60 percent of all known bird, mammal and reptile extinctions to d ..read more