What can one tell a Yukoner about fireweed? Isn’t it like talking to an Inuvialuit person about ice? Fireweed’s colours, height and flowering times are fairly familiar in the body of literature known as ‘northern knowledge’. Here is my attempt at expanding on this: When I think of a species of plant or animal I …
Set the Summer Calendar, as Fireweed Begins to Bloom Read More »
Yesterday I was amputating their little arms; Into a bag they went. If I worked fast, I could fill the bag in the hour. Delicate soft green nubs at the end of each branch were quickly added up in my Ziploc baggie. This micro-pruning of sorts was my first foray into spruce tip harvesting, among …
The last Au Naturel column looked at the sudden appearance of birds during spring migration. Today, when you walk along the Millennium Trail, look out for a white bird with pointed wings and a forked tail. It should be flying buoyantly over the river. At first glance you may think it’s a gull, but look closer …
The World’s Greatest Migrator: the Arctic tern flies over 45,000 kilometres each year Read More »
If you spend time at Marsh Lake’s M’Clintock Bay this week, you may see new visitors. At up to four-and-a-half feet tall, 35 pounds, with 8-foot wingspans, these visitors are hard to miss. Majestic swans: trumpeters arriving first, tundras shortly after. Both species are now in a holding pattern in this shallow bay as they …
As a new season approaches, have you ever asked yourself, “I wonder what’s up with the natural world, at this moment, where I live?” My name is Roy Jantzen and I am a professor of natural history, environmental interpretation, and stewardship. I live in Riverdale and find eternal excitement in the changes I witness each …
