Environment

Hot rocks, put it off, a passing thought, war flags and Holy typo! Miscellany from Douglas G. Pearce’s Countryside Digest.

There are probably more deer now than there were before European settlement.

Most of our butternuts are dead or dying, stricken by a fungal disease called butternut canker.

Help the turtles by signing a petition being circulated by Friends of Ontario Snapping Turtles.

An incisive account of the global food crisis—and how it can be solved.

Protect Ontario’s land and drinking water, stop the Melancthon mega quarry. View Adrienne Arsenault’s report from CBC’s The National.

Cardinals appear at feeders most frequently at dusk and dawn. Perhaps during the twilight hours they are less visible to predators.

A lovely shrub that waxwings find irresistible in late fall and early winter is a native holly called “winterberry”.

Birds are drawn to feeders like Saturday morning coffee drinkers to Tim Hortons. The presence of birds in the winter landscape is life-affirming.

In a move reminiscent of the infamous family-planning measures introduced in 1976, residents of Shanghai are only allowed one dog per household.

Our rural roads and historic schoolhouses may have ended up as dull as suburbia in the fall.

Consider giving a holiday gift as vast and beautiful as our Canadian wilderness – beautifully packaged and small enough to fit under a tree!