Latest news with #wildlifehabitat
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Here's how you can make your garden a safe and biodiverse space for urban wildlife
Biodiversity is essential to mitigating and adapting to climate change, enhancing the resilience of ecosystems and safeguarding the ecological functions that all living beings depend on for survival. There is little doubt that we are at a critical point in the loss of biodiversity in Canada with thousands of species currently in danger of disappearing, while global experts continue to warn about Earth's ongoing sixth mass extinction. As a response to the cascading climate crisis, wildlife habitat gardens have grown in popularity. These are spaces designed to attract and sustain local wildlife, and include efforts such as rewilded meadows, pollinator patches, rain gardens, naturalized lawns and others. Cultivating a garden for biodiversity is not an all-in or nothing task. In fact, there is a wide range of simple actions anyone can take to regenerate and conserve biodiversity right at home. We are currently organizing a biodiversity public literacy campaign at the National Environmental Treasure, a people's trust fund devoted to funding Canadian environmental organizations. Last year, we partnered with Prof. Nina-Marie Lister and the Ecological Design Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University on their Bylaws for Biodiversity research, along with Nature Canada and FLAP Canada, to develop Gardening for Biodiversity resources. Supporting biodiversity in your garden Together, we've created a series of free, fact-based guides to help people learn how to cultivate biodiversity and support for wildlife habitat in private gardens. This series currently includes four comprehensive booklets, each focusing on key aspects of biodiversity gardening: Yard Naturalization: A How-to Guide Myths & Misconceptions: Naturalized Gardens, Ticks, Mice, Rats & Other Pests Bird-Friendly Gardens: Supporting Bird Habitat in Every Season Good Garden Practices: Underrated Practices & Top Plant Picks. While there are plenty of great garden practices out there, these are five easy and impactful ways to boost biodiversity and cultivate a garden safe for urban wildlife, taken directly from our booklets. Use alternatives to pesticides Pesticides in your garden can harm beneficial insects and can be detrimental to the environment, wildlife and human health. Instead of using chemical-based pesticides, try natural alternatives like biopesticides, horticultural oils and insecticidal soaps that can be just as effective. Likewise, attracting predatory insects and wildlife into your garden who will actively feed on the harmful pest is also an effective starting point as this is a process of pest-control that occurs naturally in healthy ecosystems. There are also DIY pesticides, such as sea salt spray, water-vinegar mixtures and coffee grounds. Leave the leaves Decomposing plant litter, like fallen dead leaves, tree bark, needles and twigs, is an important component of maintaining soil health, nutrient cycling and biodiversity. By choosing to leave the leaves in your garden, you will support the variety of species who overwinter in them, from bees and caterpillars, to butterflies, spiders and more. Prioritize pollinator-attractive plants In addition to pollination, insects are beneficial for a variety of other reasons including for pest control, seed dispersal and decomposition. The best way to attract insects largely depends on which insect you are trying to attract. But as a general rule, it is always a good practice to source plants locally and prioritize native species. Next best to native plants are benign ornamentals and non-natives. Cultivating a diverse range of flowers, especially native plants and herbs, promotes a resilient ecosystem. It also helps natives out-compete invasive species and to reverse the downward trends of mass species decline. Read more: Make your garden safe for birds Birds contribute to healthy ecosystems: they pollinate plants, disperse seeds and prey on insects. Unfortunately, North American bird populations are experiencing a rapid decline due to habitat loss, degradation and other global pressures. Aadopting bird-safe gardening practices offers a powerful way to combat these threats and support biodiversity conservation on a local scale. Beyond core habitat elements, additional practices can enhance the garden's appeal to birds. Organic gardening without pesticides or herbicides, keeping cats indoors, removing potential entanglement hazards and using bird-collision prevention markers on reflective surfaces can not only attract birds, but also ensure their safety as well. Advocate for biodiversity Although there's been a growing movement toward more biodiversity-supporting practices, outdated municipal bylaws and enforcement policies continue to limit the potential of habitat gardens. These disputes over the scope and application of bylaws have brought attention to various legal contradictions and outcomes that negatively impact progress on biodiversity recovery, all the while undermining and negating related environmental objectives on private land. By advocating and encouraging your municipal leaders to adopt science-based biodiversity-supportive bylaws, you help to establish the legal frameworks and political agendas that directly impact long-term ecological health and promote sustainable development and the regeneration of biodiversity. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organisation bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Ann Dale, Royal Roads University and Sabrina Careri, Toronto Metropolitan University Read more: The golden oyster mushroom craze unleashed an invasive species – and a worrying new study shows it's harming native fungi Hosepipe ban survival guide: which garden plants to save and which to sacrifice Livestock and lions make uneasy neighbours: how a fence upgrade helped protect domestic and wild animals in Tanzania Ann Dale receives funding from the CRC Secretariat, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Hewlett Foundation. Sabrina Careri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
CTV News
16-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
New provincial park protects over 150K acres in northern Alberta
The province has allocated over 150,000 acres of land for Gipsy-Gordon Wildland Provincial Park southeast of Fort McMurray near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. The park includes the former 86,000-acre Gipsy Lake Wildland Provincial Park, changing the name to Gipsy-Gordon Wildland Provincial Park. 'This park will help protect our forests, preserve important habitat for wildlife and provide recreation opportunities for Albertans, all while supporting the exercise of Treaty rights by Indigenous peoples,' said Rebecca Schulz, minister of Environment and Protected Areas, in a statement Wednesday. New industrial and commercial land disturbances – including oil sands and mineral development – are prohibited in the park. Existing agreements will continue to operate. Forestry is also prohibited, except for management of wildfires, insects and disease. The park includes ranges for 28 provincially or federally designated species at risk, including 18 bird species, one fish and one amphibian species, five invertebrates and five mammals. The park was originally established as a conservation area under the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan, which guides future resource decisions while considering environmental, social and economic impacts.
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Conservation group has secured an additional 55 acres in this Bucks County township
As more swaths of land across Bucks County are slated for development, Heritage Conservancy just secured protection for a 55-acre property in Springfield Township. Now protected by a conservation easement, the entirely wooded 55-acre Staff property is part of the 175-acre Kirkland Farm, where 120 acres were preserved last year through a Bucks County agricultural easement. "The Staff property and adjacent farm have a big 'footprint' in Springfield Township, and the easement assures that the property and its natural resources remain intact," Heritage Conservancy CEO and President Bill Kunze said in an email. "The land can never be developed." The newly protected land is "located within the ecologically important Cooks Creek Conservation Landscape and Watershed, an area vital for local wildlife habitat," Kunze added. "It has an 'exceptional value stream' that is a tributary to Cooks Creek." A conservation easement is a voluntary, legally binding agreement between a landowner and a land trust or government agency that permanently limits the use of the land to protect its conservation values such as open space, natural habitats or historical features. To ensure compliance with these conservation easements, Heritage Conservancy staff monitor their protected properties across the region to ensure the land is being preserved appropriately. Over the last 67 years, the organization's members have protected more than 17,000 acres of land across Bucks, Montgomery and Northampton counties. They're on track to preserve an additional 600 acres by the end of the year, Kunze said. "Bucks County is known nationally for its bucolic views, rolling farmland, and forests," he added. "Our work protects the natural beauty that makes this place special. Beyond the preservation of natural beauty, projects like this have a deeper impact on the local environment, protecting and attracting local wildlife, contributing to clean air and water in the community, and helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change." Lacey Latch is the development reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer. She can be reached at LLatch@ This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Heritage Conservancy obtains easement near Crooks Creek
The Guardian
07-07-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Country diary: Bird cherries, caterpillar silk and a beautiful dead hedge
A ghost tree shines silver against the greenery of the hillside wood. Sheathed in silk from its trunk to the tips of its branches, this bird cherry has been completely defoliated by caterpillars. These are the overwintered larvae of bird cherry ermine moths, Yponomeuta evonymella, which, having spun their protective webbing, can devour the leaves, safe from blue tits and parasitic wasps, before pupating. Some weeks later, thousands of slender moths will emerge, their white wings speckled with tiny black dots. Bird cherries abound in this valley. Fast-growing, often multi-trunked trees, one once stood by our boundary wall that had grown so tall it rocked in the winds, the movement of its roots bringing down the stonework. When it demolished the wall for the fifth time, we reluctantly had it felled in late winter before birds started nesting. As well as logs, this left a huge pile of brash. In another part of the garden, those same winter gales, pummelling down the valley from the west, had brought down a hazel hurdle. My husband decided to turn the bird cherry branches into a dead hedge, a wind-filtering wildlife habitat, practical barrier and cost-free fence. Having driven in a double row of round wooden stakes, he laid horizontal lengths of bird cherry, interweaving them for solidity. Twisting and looping the most flexible branches, he pinned some vertically and, as the mass grew, interspersed it with heavier wood for weight. At 2ft wide, it absorbed a surprising amount of material that can be topped up with further prunings as it decomposes. What he has made is beautiful to look at. The bark varies in colour from soft grey, speckled with lichens, to shiny, rich warm brown. A squirrel runs fluidly along the top, a wren forages in its density for tiny insects. The dead hedge is a shelter for mice and voles, beetles and bees, amphibians, fungi and mosses. It has made use of something that might otherwise have gone to waste. Meanwhile, on the hillside, the silver-wrapped ghost tree will recover, new leaves will grow before autumn and birds will distribute its seeds along the valley. Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian's Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at and get a 15% discount
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Plans for 20,000 plot natural burial ground
A "natural burial ground" containing about 20,000 plots could be built, if plans are approved by a local authority. Forever Green Fields has submitted the application to Gateshead Council for the site between Crawcrook and Prudhoe, on land north of Hexham Road near Bradley Hall Farm. Natural burial grounds, which are different to more traditional cemeteries, require bodies to be buried with biodegradable coffins and without embalming treatments, the plans said. In its application, the company said the plots were needed because "burial space in the UK is becoming scarce at an ever-increasing rate". It citied figures from the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICM), which it said had "estimated that within the next five to 10 years, 30% of UK local authorities will have run out of burial space." "These calculations only consider current rates of burial and do not allow for the increasing number of total deaths arising from the nationally expanding population and ageing population nor shortages of burial space in neighbour council areas," the application added. The plans state the new grounds would contain between 18,871 to 22,287 plots, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. They also said natural burial grounds "promote natural landscape" by using native foliage to encourage habitats for wildlife, and use natural memorials such as trees or wooden markers. Four similar burial grounds have opened in the North East over the last 20 years, the application said, which are located at: Seven Penny Meadow, Durham Belsay Woodland Burials, Northumberland Northumberland Woodland Burials, Northumberland Blue House Woodland Burials, Durham Gateshead Council received the application on 24 April, which is awaiting a decision from council planners. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook and Instagram. Row over woodlands burial ground plan intensifies Quaker burial ground recognised for its importance Gateshead Council
