Month: February 2022

Cities, along with the buildings and communities within them, are often seen as concrete jungles – and concrete contributes to environmental problems, such as increased carbon dioxide emissions. While we can’t take away all the concrete, there are ways to mitigate the problems it causes.

One way is to add plants, or green infrastructure, to roofs, walls, streets and other areas. Vegetation increases air quality, energy efficiency and stormwater management, while also bringing life to neighbourhoods and commercial buildings.

“Concrete absorbs a lot of heat, so greenery on roofs, which is wasted space, would be beneficial for cooling,” says Rushil Malik, marketing coordinator at Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.

Examples of green infrastructure include the Podium Green Roof at Toronto’s City Hall and Devonian Gardens inside The Core building in Calgary. While there are examples of such infrastructure in most cities, many people are unaware of the huge benefits.

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities is a non-profit association based in Toronto and working across North America. It increases awareness of living architecture, offering educational courses and conferences about green roofs and walls.

Through Nature Canada’s Work to Grow program, Malik works for the association to raise awareness and educate people about green infrastructure and how it benefits communities.

“Whenever I go out into the world, I notice green walls,” she says. “I love seeing ivy on top of brick buildings, going to gardens, or seeing patios that have gardens, and things of that nature in places that are more urban.”

It’s a niche, according to Malik, and not many people are aware of green roofs or walls, but when they see it implemented in local buildings, they see the value in it.

“That kind of design speaks to me, and I think it speaks to a lot of people, especially when you’re in places that are urban and have a lot of concrete,” she explains. “Greenery is important for everyone’s mental state. It’s just something that makes us feel calm.”

Various benefits of green roofs include retaining 70 to 90 per cent of the precipitation that falls on them, reducing greenhouse gases and smog, serving as a recreational space, and reducing daily energy demand for air conditioning.

The amount or carbon sequestered by a green roof depends on factors like size and what type of plants are present. Regardless, it still makes a notable difference.

Green roofs inspired Malik to start her career at Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. She wanted to work for a place that cares about local communities—and that offers something attainable to them. Her decision to work for an environmental cause is because of climate change and how it affects people of colour.

“Climate change will end up hurting people who have less power and less privilege,” she says. “I want to be able to help people and want to be able to implement things that I think are important in the world.”

Green infrastructure can be widely implemented through legislation and financial aid, as in the U.S., where Bill 1863, the Public School Green Rooftops program, will encourage schools to grow green roofs.

“Being able to make real change and encourage corporations, organizations and architecture firms to implement more green spaces is cool—and seeing how this industry has implemented policy around North America is really cool,” Malik says.

The post Work to Grow: The Benefits of Green Infrastructure appeared first on Nature Canada.

There are many barriers that Black, Indigenous and other people face when it comes to accessing nature spaces. Major barriers include physical distance, financial costs and barriers related to normalizing “whiteness” in environmental culture.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), in Alberta, launched the bioDIVERSITY project this summer to help reduce barriers faced by racialized communities and immigrant groups. The CPAWS team is passionate about social justice, and movements like Black Lives Matter were a factor in making bioDIVERSITY happen. The project is unique to the CPAWS Southern Alberta chapter – and in the region.

Jaclyn Angotti, co-lead of the project, says CPAWS wanted to introduce programs that would be more inclusive for all Albertans who want to engage in conservation, environmental education and outdoor recreation.

“We recognize that there are many voices and faces that are traditionally excluded from these spaces. And so, the point of the project is to really break down barriers, and invite folks into the [eco-justice] conversations.”

Hira Shah, also co-lead of the project, says that the people who interact with CPAWS are usually a very white audience, and it can be harder for racialized people to interact with CPAWS programs, but the organization is working to change that.

Some of the activities include Indigenous-led nature walks, with Indigenous speakers and elders to present the walks. Shah says that people were very interested in learning about Indigenous perspectives on nature and what they can do to support Indigenous communities.

“Being a person of colour, I know that, as I’m looking for activities here, around Calgary, it does make me feel a bit more welcome by seeing diverse faces in nature,” Shah says.

CPAWS also runs education programs and summer camps, during which youth learn about eco-justice and green spaces. Soon, the organization will start the Changemakers project, which encourages people to take eco-actions, such as helping in a community garden and buying an environmentally friendly car.

“We really want to make sure that all of these actions are seen as equally important, and as equally contributing to our natural environment as well,” Shaw says.

CPAWS is focused on tackling the history of racism in Canada. Through the bioDIVERSITY project, Angotti says that they want to help shift perspectives in Alberta and across Canada about what is environmentalism and who is an environmentalist.

“We’re trying to look at how we [as a country] have been wrong in the past,” she says.

Connecting with nature is the driving force for people to be inspired to take environmental action. Shah adds that we won’t be able to reach any of our conservation goals on a municipal, provincial or federal level if racialized communities aren’t involved.

“It’s not possible without having everyone on board,” she says. “The goals that we’re aiming for, the steps that we’re trying to achieve, all of these things require full community level participation.”

The post CPAWS Southern Alberta Makes Nature More Accessible to Racialized Communities appeared first on Nature Canada.

About 400,000 tonnes of food waste is thrown out every year in Newfoundland and Labrador, and 3F Waste Recovery, a startup of 11 people in St. Anthony, Newfoundland, wants to decrease that number. The three F’s in the company’s name stand for farm, fish and forestry — the main areas in which they’re trying to reduce waste.

Jonathan Yick is a natural product bioengineer with 3F, working there through Nature Canada’s Work to Grow program. He’s involved in multiple projects that try to reduce waste from the environment – such as dealing with cod by-products and repurposing farm waste.

“I find, especially in Newfoundland, that waste reduction is an issue. Our recycling program, our environmental programs aren’t that great,” Yick said. “Given the way the world is going, we need to start reducing waste now, or else we might not have a world to live in.”

Yick helps with anything related to research and development, such as determining equipment needs, setting up job sites, and other engineering-related tasks.

When it comes to waste that industries produce, Yick gave the example of cod fish. When it’s filleted, only 40 percent of the fish is used. The remaining 60 percent is dumped back into the ocean or sent to a landfill.

“We’re trying to make it so that the by-products, or what you would consider waste, is actually going to be more valuable than the fish fillets,” he said. “By doing that, it will create an incentive for people to develop less waste or find a new use for it.”

As part of the company’s Zero Waste Farms project, the hope is to divert more than 200 metric tons of Newfoundland farm waste.

Dedicated to working in zero waste

Yick said that he always considered a career in the biomedical or environmental field, even though that’s uncommon for his degree.

“Going through mechanical engineering, I always knew that I wanted to steer away from oil and gas, which is one of the main fields for a mechanical engineer, mainly because I didn’t want to contribute to that kind of industry,” he explained.

“When I was told about 3F Waste Recovery, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity. While it doesn’t pay as well as an oil and gas company, I feel like I’m doing something substantial and something meaningful. That’s the main thing.”

Although the Work to Grow position is temporary, he’ll have the opportunity to continue his work with the company afterwards.

“We’re such a small company, so we rely heavily on funding sources, such as Work to Grow,” he said. “It’s pretty amazing to have those opportunities. Otherwise. I don’t think I would have been taken on in the first place.”

Yick hopes that the job will inspire others as well.

“I do believe that our initiatives to approach zero waste will make a huge difference, at least to Newfoundland, and hopefully to the rest of Atlantic Canada. Maybe it can be a model that can be approached by the rest of Canada and even the world.”

The post Work to Grow: A Vision to Reduce and Repurpose Waste in Newfoundland appeared first on Nature Canada.

Countries around the globe need to do more to stop the destruction of ecosystems and rescue the planet from human-caused mass extinction. That’s the core message of a major new report written by over 50 researchers from 23 countries.

The report assesses the science underpinning the draft Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, the basis for a new 10-year plan to stem biodiversity loss that will be the focus of discussions at this year’s COP15 Biodiversity Summit in Kunming, China.

The new report concludes that global commitments to protect 30% of land and ocean by 2030 are essential, but insufficient on their own, to address the multiple threats driving species extinction, including pollution, climate change, overharvesting and invasive species.

To address these threats, the authors call for a transformative change in how humanity uses the planet’s resources.

While action at the international level is critical, the authors are clear that many of the day-to-day decisions that affect biodiversity occur at the national level.

Canada can play a critical role in turning the tide on species loss as the home to biodiverse and carbon-rich oceans, forests, wetlands, and grasslands.

We are already providing leadership by investing in the most significant expansion of protected areas on land and ocean in Canadian history and by committing to make Indigenous-led conservation central to this strategy. 

But as the report notes, protecting habitat is not enough to address biodiversity loss. We need comprehensive action to halt and reverse the free fall of species across the country. 

The challenge is that our current biodiversity laws and policies are ineffective and badly out of date. Canada’s Biodiversity Strategy dates from 1995 and remains largely unimplemented. We have fallen short of achieving most of the Biodiversity Goals and Targets set by the federal government in 2015. Biodiversity data and inventories are fragmented, and biodiversity knowledge is not well-integrated or readily accessible to Canadians. 

And much of our data and accounting for nature is just wrong. For example, the government continues to undervalue the climate and ecological importance of ecosystems like primary forests while turning a blind eye to the impacts of industrial logging. 

In its 2021 election platform, the Liberal Party promised to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030, and after forming government, it mandated its Ministers to deliver on this goal. 

We’ll need a national action plan to make this happen with strong Indigenous engagement and rigorous monitoring and accountability.

From the scientists mobilized by the recent UN report to Indigenous leadership across the country and an impressive array of conservation experts across sectors–Canada has the know-how to take this commitment seriously.  

By advancing a domestic action plan to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030, Canada strengthens its position to play a leadership role at COP15. All while helping achieve a 10-year global biodiversity framework to address the threat of mass extinction and putting the world on the path to support the full recovery of nature. 

Future generations and our fellow species deserve no less.

The post New Report Urges Transformative Change to Halt and Reverse Biodiversity Loss by 2030 appeared first on Nature Canada.

The Canadian red fox typically weighs from 3.6 to 6.8 kg and has the appearance of a small dog. These mammals have an average lifespan of 3 to 6 years old and tend to be diligent and nurturing parents. Kits will often practice hunting under adult supervision and leave the den site alone once capable of feeding independently, usually at about three months of age. 

Red foxes are also great hunters. Although their usual prey consists of some seriously fast critters (including rabbits, squirrels, and mice), their acute eyesight and incredible sense of smell and hearing allow them to detect the slightest movements. But their diet doesn’t consist solely of meat; red foxes like to eat plants, fruits, insects, and berries, particularly during the summer months. 

Did you know?

Red foxes are found in all of Canada’s provinces and territories, making them one of the most widespread mammals in the country. Contrary to their name, red foxes actually come in all colours, varying from brown to silver and black. 

Red foxes tend to be timid animals. They are often described as nervous and prefer remaining hidden, but they are still curious animals that love to explore. 

Where are they found?

Being one of the most widespread mammals, red foxes are found everywhere except in unwelcoming landscapes for the species like the high arctic and the islands off the coast of B.C. Instead, woodland edges, farmlands and prairies seem to be some of their favourite spots for habitation.

Contrary to popular belief, foxes only use dens when breeding. It’s very typical to find a fox asleep in the open, but this doesn’t mean you’ll find a red fox anywhere at any time of the day. Although they venture out occasionally during the daytime, red foxes are nocturnal.

Foxes Throughout Time

Red foxes have a history of being treated as pests in North America because of their infamous reputation of being chicken thieves. In the past, hunting bounties have been used to cull their population. Over time, the red fox has been recognized as a valuable part of the ecosystem—often hunting small crop-destroying critters and insects to farmers’ benefit. 

But foxes can also be prey. Wolves, coyotes, and even dogs will sometimes chase and kill foxes when the opportunity arises. In some cases, red foxes are victims of interspecific strife and forced outside their territory when overpowered for resources by competing species. It’s one of the main reasons why you might find a fox close to human habitation. 

During the winter, red foxes are also vulnerable to fur trapping—especially for silver foxes, who are black with white-tipped guard hairs. Silver foxes are greatly valued by the fur trade and were bred in captivity back when fox fur clothing was popular. 

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The post The Timid and Curious Red Fox appeared first on Nature Canada.