Well, somehow another September has rolled along. The heat of the summer has broken and it’s time to again look toward pursuits of the harvest season. We’ve all seen the back-to-school supplies signs up in store windows. Of course, they’ve been there since July, when the kids first got out of school, but that’s another… Read more »
Our garden is beautiful right now, just bursting with its first ripe fruit. The cucumbers are the show-offs: with only two plants they are producing madly, competing with one another to fill the fridge and the baskets of friends and family. The peas were marvellous, but are now petering off as their season comes to… Read more »
Have you ever looked at an echinoderm and thought: is that really an animal? Actually, maybe your first thought is – what the heck is an echinoderm, anyway? The group of animals known as Phylum Echinodermata includes such familiar creatures as star fish, brittle stars, sea urchins and the less familiar sea cucumbers and sea… Read more »
When most of us hear the word endangered, the free-flowing waters of North America’s rivers do not come to mind. Instead, we tend to think of a species of plant or animal in danger of extinction. But increasingly, conservation biology is centering on the health and integrity of whole ecosystems rather than focussing on only… Read more »
Welcome to the Voice’s newest column – Nature Notes: From the Backyard to the Biosphere. The title is deliberately broad, representing my attempt to link environmental issues at the largest scale with natural goings-on at the smallest scale. Check in each month for a quick nature fix – a highlighting of a few of the… Read more »