Canadian Wildlife May June 2021

THE B.C. WOMAN WHO PROVED TREES COMMUNICATE + YOUR GARDEN FROM A WORM’S EYE VIEW

Muskoxen

A SHAGGY BEAST STORY

MAY + JUNE 2021
VOLUME 27, NUMBER 2

The Canadian
Wildlife Federation

Inspiring the next generation
of conservation leaders.

Here’s how to join other Canadian youth in ensuring
a brighter future for wildlife conservation.

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are two conservation leadership programs currently
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May + Jun 2021
Volume 27, Number 2
WildlifeMagazine.ca

16 26

Follow us on Instagram! Features
@canadianwildlifemagazine
The Curious Case
Cover photo by John E. Marriott of an Unlikely Creature 16

Muskoxen are a shaggy beast story several million years long

By Tim Falconer Photos by John E. Marriott

Mothers of the Forest 26

The groundbreaking work of ecologist Suzanne Simard shows
that forests are networked and that older trees care for the
younger ones. Don’t scoff (as many have) — she has proven it

By Kerry Banks Photography by Kari Medig

Finding the Mother Tree 32

Discovering the wisdom of the forest, an excerpt

By Suzanne Simard

MAY + JUN 2021 3

Front 12

6 In Focus Back

A wood duckling, still too young to fly, tests its 37 Urban Wildlife
scrawny wings
Photo by Jim Cumming In the face of their own possible extinction, Canada’s
zoos are trying to redefine themselves. What role can
9 Out There they play?
By Matthew Church
Virginia opossum, the size of a cat with the face
of a rat, is the only marsupial found in northern 38 Field Guide
North America
Text and photo by Wayne Lynch The Canadian population of slender mouse-ear-cress
is slender and becoming slenderer. Blame the historic
10 Dispatches bison slaughter for that
By Mel Walwyn
Keeping you up to date on what’s happening in
research, in conservation and in the wild right now 40 Birding
By CW Staff
A bird in the hand? Is it OK to feed a feathered friend
12 Bigger Picture in your palm? Our resident expert says yes — sometimes
By David Bird
The bison’s return to Banff is a reason for optimism
By Alanna Mitchell Illustration by Hawlii Pichette 42 Gardening

40 Earthworms are the unsung heroes of our gardens,
quietly aerating, feeding and fertilizing. Here’s what you
can do for them
By Selby Orr

44 Engage

News, events and updates on conservation,
education and engagement projects from the
Canadian Wildlife Federation

46 Right Here

46° 43' 38.5" N, 60° 51' 55.0" W: Moose, Sunday Lake,
Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia
Photo by Adam Hill

Editor Matthew Church Art Director Steven Balaban Publications Manager, CWF Fred T. Ouimette
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The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinions or official positions of CWF.

From CWF

Where Nature and Science Meet

The Canadian Wildlife Federation is dedicated N ature conservation is hardly a new has uncovered some astonishing truths
to ensuring an appreciation of our natural idea—the term has existed for cen- about forests and the trees within them. It
world and a lasting legacy of healthy wildlife turies. But the concept of conserva- is also groundbreaking work. We are pleased
and habitat by informing and educating tion science — where the disciplines of ecology, to include an excerpt from her new book.
Canadians, advocating responsible human biology and genetics are cross-pollinated with
actions and representing wildlife on the principles and practices of advocating on Underlying everything we do at CWF is
conservation issues. behalf of nature — is newer, perhaps 50 years science, the foundation of the work conserva-
in the making. This fact came to mind at press tionists and environmentalists do. As an or-
For donations and program information call time when I learned of the death of David ganization, CWF places a strong emphasis on
1-800-563-9453, email [email protected] or visit Schindler, arguably the greatest conservationist bringing scientific knowledge and approaches
this country has ever seen. to conservation problems. Our four senior
CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca conservation staff, all possessing PhDs in their
Over the course of his lengthy and varied fields, actively collaborate with colleagues in
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE career, Schindler was at the forefront as a sci- universities and in the private sector to advance
entist and as a nature-lover. He was commit- applied conservation research. And CWF is
President Guy Vézina ted to conservation policies based on good sci- helping train the next generation of conserva-
Past President John Ford ence, in turn supported by local, national and tion scientists by engaging and supporting the
1st Vice-President John Williams international advocacy. Raised in the woods work of graduate students.
2nd Vice-President Brad Leyte and on the waters of Minnesota lake country,
Treasurer David Pezderic he became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford Univer- CWF is equally proud of the evidence-
sity under Charles Elton, one of the early lead- based conservation work we do across Canada
DIRECTORS-AT-LARGE ers of the ecology movement. Schindler later with Indigenous Peoples, industry and others
served as initial surveyor and founding direc- to incorporate multiple types of knowledge
Ron Bjorge tor of Canada’s Experimental Lakes Area, then when creating real-world solutions. In addi-
Robert Carmichael (and still) a genuinely groundbreaking contri- tion, CWF is pleased to work with the Canadian
Louis Armand d’Entremont bution to freshwater research. And when his Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation,
work there demonstrated the overwhelming where we are called upon to contribute to the
Patricia Dwyer impact of phosphates on lake ecology, he be- expert review of government and academic
Brad Fairley came an omnipresent and compelling advo- research and policy on the conservation of
cate for change. Phosphates were soon banned wildlife and biodiversity.
George Greene from laundry soaps, preventing wholesale de-
Winifred Kessler struction of lakes throughout the world. His There is much work to be done. As David
Lori McCarthy later work on acid rain showed it was killing Schindler demonstrated, the future will be
lakes and everything that lived in them. That best served by bringing the best of scientific
Bill Snow led to the Canada-U.S. Air Quality Agreement research together with the passion and energy
in 1991 and the elimination of acid rain, a true of communities advocating for nature. CWF
DIRECTORS ecological success story. Winner in 1991 of the is proud to be part of it.
prestigious Stockholm Water Prize yet happi-
Prince Edward Island Kelli Miller Kickham, est when working in the field “doing science,” Rick J. Bates
Keila Miller Schindler was an inspiration to an entire gen- CEO, Canadian Wildlife Federation
eration of conservation scientists.
Newfoundland and Labrador Andrew Bouzan
Nova Scotia Mike Pollard, Shannon Cunningham On that thought, I would like to draw your
New Brunswick Nathalie Michaud, Dean Toole attention to the feature articles in this issue,
which focus on passionate scientists who ad-
Quebec Rodolphe La Salle, Pierre Caron vocate strenuously on behalf of their subjects
Ontario Rob Hare, Dan Elliott because they know them so intimately. In
our feature on muskoxen, author Tim Falconer
Manitoba Brian Strauman, Lewis Allen writes about these prehistoric beasts while
Saskatchewan Clark Shultz, Heath Dreger introducing us to the dedicated people who
study them, speak for them, even love them.
Alberta Doug Butler, Brian Dingreville Their efforts are also inspiring. In our pages
British Columbia Bill Bosch too is Kerry Banks’ profile of another accom-
Nunavut Jimmy Akavak plished Canadian advocate for nature. Suzanne
Simard of the University of British Columbia
Northwest Territories Gordon Van Tighem
Yukon Charles Shewen, Eric Schroff

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MAY + JUN 2021 5

In Focus

WOOD DUCKLING
Modelling behaviour of its
mother, this weeks-old duckling
(Aix sponsa) gives its wings a test.
Too young to fly, it is able to swim
and gather food. Until two months,
when it will take flight, it will
rely on its mother for warmth and
protection. Photo by Jim Cumming.
Originally submitted to a
Canadian Wildlife Federation
photo contest. Visit cwf-fcf.ca
to learn how to enter.

6 CANADIAN WILDLIFE



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Out There

Virginia opossum

WAYNE LYNCH SCIENTIFIC NAME COOL FACTS
Didelphis virginiana
The Virginia opossum, roughly the size of a domestic cat with a rat-like face
REGION and a scaly, prehensile tail, is the only marsupial found in North America north
Southern British Columbia of Mexico. The mother opossum gives birth to extremely tiny young that are
and Southern Ontario born after a short 12-13 days of gestation. At birth, the bee-size joeys—a dozen
of which could fit in a tablespoon—crawl through their mother’s fur and squeeze
CONSERVATION STATUS inside her belly pouch where they attach themselves to one of a dozen or so
Least concern (a southern nipples. They remain there continuously tethered, nursing for 50 to 60 days.
invader at the northern limit
of its range) A tropical mammal at heart, the Virginia opossum is especially sensitive to cold
temperatures. In Canada, its expansion farther north is limited by normally frigid
WHY SO SPECIAL? winters. The opossums that manage to survive a cold winter often sustain
Canada’s only marsupial frostbite damage to their ears and tails.—WAYNE LYNCH

MAY + JUN 2021 9

Dispatches

ON THE WATER

In the right direction Just Not Right: NOAA / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
An entangled North
The federal government recently Atlantic right whale
announced plans for protecting right
whales in Canadian waters in 2021.
Building on last year’s success (good
fortune?) when no right whale
entanglements or deaths by collision
were detected in Canadian waters
(25 died in the previous five years),
Fisheries and Oceans Canada and
Transport Canada will continue to
temporarily close fishing areas when
whales are spotted. This year though,
whales will be more closely monitored
and fishing closures more targeted
so that fisheries can be reopened
when whales vacate the area. While
it is disappointing that some speed
restrictions in area waters are still
voluntary, overall go-slow enforcement
starts earlier this year. The feds have
also agreed to improve communica-
tions and continue to pursue innova-
tive fishing equipment that will make
right whales safer in the future.

Stop the scrape!

You read about the appalling devasta-
tion of bottom trawling in our recent
profile of Amanda Vincent (November/
December 2020) and the work she is
leading to curb it. Now a new study in
Nature magazine highlights the urgency.
Besides wiping out marine biodiversity,
the process of scraping the ocean
floor releases vast amounts of carbon
stored safely in the seabed. As a result,
bottom trawling generates more
harmful carbon emissions than the
entire aviation industry, considered one
of the worst contributors. The authors
argue that establishing protected
maritime zones would result in greater
biodiversity, reduced carbon release
and, importantly, increased and
sustainable yields for fisheries.

10 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

CALENDAR

A week’s worth of important causes

IN THE WILD MAY 8 JUNE 8

Flying biters that drive Canadians crazy every World Migratory Bird Day World Oceans Day
spring and summer This time of year, Canada’s Oceans are central to all
migratory birds are filling the life on Earth, not just the
Mosquitoes (Culicidae) skies as they travel thousands creatures that live in them.
of kilometres north to their The entire planet benefits
Roughly half of the 82 species of mosquitoes in Canada torment humans. breeding grounds. The from oceans’ climate
Busy at dawn and dusk, they are not picky but are drawn to high body challenges they face — here, regulation and oxygen
temperatures and to pregnant women. The mouth of the female mosquito down south and en route creation. About 30 per cent
has six parts: flexible jaws, tiny blades and needles to pierce the skin, and between the two — demand of carbon dioxide produced
a long, hollow proboscis that squirts chemicals to keep blood flowing, the public’s attention. (If you by humans is absorbed by
then starts sucking. The saliva also elicits a delayed allergic reaction on miss this one, wait until oceans. And oceans feed
your skin, the tiny bump and persistent, irritating itch we all know. Initial October 10; “migbirds” get the world. Human activity
response: ice, if you’ve got it. a second special day during is compromising these crucial
their fall migration.) functions. Learn what you
Black flies (Simuliidae) can do by visiting the
MAY 20 official website.
Terrifying fact: one kilometre of river and shoreline can produce close to a
billion adult black flies –– every day. Our sweat attracts them, and clothing World JUNE 17
is the best way to repel them. They attack during daytime only, targeting Bee Day
thin skin at the neck and ears, wrists and ankles. They land and quickly Launched World Day to Combat
latch on to stretch the skin before using their mandibles to bite, tapping by Slovenia Desertification and Drought
into surface capillaries. Saliva numbs the area, extending their time to eat. in 2017, this Drought is a global threat,
Swelling and intense itching result and can last weeks. Initial response: ice day is an and ongoing desertification
it; wash with soap and water. important needs to be slowed and
reminder of the profound reversed. Visit the official
Deer flies (Tabanidae) importance of bees to page online to learn about
biodiversity. Visit cwf-fcf.org za’atar production in Lebanon
These fast, strong flyers can keep up with paddlers, runners and cyclists, to find resources and and other cool initiatives. But
swirling about their heads maddeningly. They prefer to get beneath your activities to help conserve remember this is a domestic
hair and feast on your scalp. Because they use motion detection to locate these crucial pollinators. problem too: drought is
you, insect repellents are largely useless. They scissor into your skin in increasing on the drylands of
a distinctive cross-shape before gorging. Their sharp, painful bite introduces MAY 22 the Canadian Prairie, about
saliva, an anti-coagulant and an irritant that causes itching and swelling. 60 per cent of the cropland
Upside: their larvae eat mosquito larvae. Initial response: ice, wash with soap International Day for and 80 per cent of the
and water. Antihistamine will help with intense itchiness. Biodiversity rangeland in this country.
As people around the planet
No-see-ums (Ceratopogonidae) re-examine our relationship JUNE 5
with nature in the shadow
There’s nothing more infuriating than an aggressive pest that you never see, of the COVID-19 pandemic, International Day for
even as it takes a painful bite. That would be your “no-see-ums,” properly crucially one reality has the Fight against Illegal,
known as biting midges, of which there are 263 known species in Canada, emerged: we are dependent Unreported and
and likely double that. They tend to appear in hot, humid conditions, on robust and protected Unregulated Fishing
generally at dawn or dusk. Despite being less than two millimetres long, ecosystems to ensure global Perhaps not as inspiring
they deliver a burning painful bite followed by small, very itchy bumps, health. And there is so much or as celebratory as World
often red, occasionally blistering. One positive thing: they will draw blood each of us can do. Environment Day, it is
from a newly charged mosquito, sinking its razorish jaws into its belly. Initial nonetheless very important.
response: ice; antihistamine if severe. JUNE 5 The UN set 2020 (last year)
as the time by which
World Environment Day destructive fishing practices
This is the big one. From would be abolished with
forests to farmlands, rivers plans in place to restore fish
and lakes to oceans and seas, stocks. There is still much to
the Earth’s ecosystems are be done; the unseen
being degraded every day. devastation continues.
This day is a call to change
GETTY IMAGES. the story and start creating
a sustainable future. This
year it is also the kickoff to
the UN’s Decade on
Ecosystem Restoration.

MAY + JUN 2021 11

Bigger Picture

UNDOING
SOME
DAMAGE

Our always-skeptical columnist sees a reason for hope in the returned
bison herds of Banff

By Alanna Mitchell Illustration by Hawlii Pichette

W E LIVE IN A SYMBOLIC TIME. of 30 million or so. As a child growing up in Regina, I used to imagine what
That’s especially true when it would have sounded like to hear them thunder across the grasslands
it comes to wild creatures. It in vast herds, hooves ploughing the land, pugnacious heads bent into the
feels like a gut punch to hear about an winds. I could almost hear their grunts of satisfaction as they stopped to
ancient Douglas fir that falls to a chainsaw, wallow in prairie sloughs to cool off and keep the bugs at bay, only to rise
or a snowy owl that fails to lay eggs, or once more dripping with mud as they feasted on the sedges. They were
another North Atlantic right whale calf a force on the land, sculpting it for the other creatures that lived there —
lacerated by a ship. Each event is about until we drove them almost to extinction in the late 1800s. Things got so
so much more than a single individual. It’s bad here that the federal government bought 700 bison from a rancher in
a reminder that the human hand is every- Montana in the early 1900s to re-establish the species, sending a group of
where and that it is rarely benevolent. them to Elk Island National Park east of Edmonton.

Maybe that’s why it is so compelling And there’s the age-old link between bison and Indigenous peoples who
to hear about experiments to put species relied on them for food, warmth, spiritual connection and kinship. As the
back where they used to be before we drove bison vanished, as the prairies were colonized, as Indigenous families were
them out. For me, that means tracking torn apart by government fiat and severed from their hunting grounds,
the reintroduction into Banff National Park those connections became that much more prized.
of the plains bison (Bison bison bison),
a subspecies of the American bison. Then there’s Banff. Canada’s first national park, it was established in 1887
in concert with the forces that drove the bison to the edge of extinction
It’s like a triple whammy, metaphor-wise. and Indigenous peoples off their lands. It is a heartbreakingly beautiful site.
There’s the beast itself. The largest With its iconic snow-capped Rocky Mountains, lush valleys, jewel-like lakes
land mammal in North America, it once and sacred hot springs, it holds a special place in the hearts of Canadians.
roamed this continent with a population I once read — perhaps an apocryphal story — that it was a more favoured

12 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

MAY + JUN 2021 13

IN MAY 2017, THE FIRST BISON IN OVER A CENTURY
WAS BORN IN BANFF. NOW THERE ARE MORE THAN
FOUR DOZEN ‘LOCALS’ ROAMING THE BACKCOUNTRY

Canadian honeymoon destination than They make up one of just a handful of wild subpopulations in Canada, PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
even the mighty Niagara Falls. each of whose numbers is fewer than 1,000. Though small, this Banff herd
is considered a globally significant addition to the wild bison population.
These metaphoric forces merged in It could become more important. Eventually, Banff could support as many
February 2017. Indigenous representatives
at Elk Island National Park sang as 1,000 bison, potentially becoming one of the largest wild herds in
blessings for the safe journey North America, according to a paper published in the
south to Banff of 16 scientific journal PLOS One.
bison — offspring Banff now has every single large carnivore that
of those animals was there before Europeans settled North America:
bought more wolf, grizzly bear, black bear and cougar. Now
than a century that the bison has returned, it has every big
earlier from grass-eater except the caribou. That tapestry
Montana. of creatures, which evolved to co-exist, is
By May that nearly whole once more. Once again, the
year, the bison, such a superb landscape engineer, is
herd had shaping the land. Banff is getting a little
grown to closer to ecological balance.
26 as calves And some Indigenous peoples are making
arrived in a trips back to Banff to bear witness to the bison,
paddock in including filmmakers from the Napi Collective
Panther Valley, and the Nakoda. They’re telling stories about how
the first bison born Indigenous ancestors and the bison were connected
in Banff for more than with each other, reminding us how things used to work.
a century. Today, there are Listening to the stories is one way the non-Indigenous can
about four dozen, and they’re out
of the paddock and roaming free in honour the past. That’s a balance of another type.
Banff’s backcountry. To me, all of this feels like healing. It’s a symbol of what’s possible when
we decide, as a society, to make things right.a
14 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

HOW DOES A RIVER JUST DISAPPEAR? + WHY WALKING IN THE WOODS MAKES YOU HAPPY THE INCREDIBLENESS OF HUMMINGBIRDS + URBAN EQUITY: OUR CITIES’ NEED FOR GREEN WILD AT HOME: LIVING WITH INDOOR FAUNA + PLAN YOUR PLOT: TIME TO THINK ABOUT YOUR GARDEN

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n3m0ewp%orsrSiosceatfevtfahentahdne Explore the
Wonders
of Canada’s
Wilderness

Each issue of Canadian Wildlife boasts
phenomenal photography, celebrates
the country’s unique species and
habitats, and explores the conservation
issues affecting our natural world. Plus,
get exclusive columns by Canada’s
best-known environmental journalists
and hands-on experts.

BARBARA CALLANDER Subscribe online at Canadianwildlifemagazine.ca

16 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

The
Curious Case
of an
Unlikely
Creature

Muskoxen are a Shaggy Beast
Story Several Million Years Long

By Tim Falconer Photos by John E. Marriott

MAY + JUN 2021 17

W anything.” In the early 1990s, he was working on his PhD,
e spent the first few days fishing and hanging researching muskoxen on Victoria Island in the Arctic and at
out on Great Bear Lake, across the bay from Délįnę, North- the University of Saskatchewan, which had a herd in those
west Territories. Then my three old high school pals and days. In Saskatoon, he spent time with the calves from the
I began a 185-kilometre paddle west to the town of day they were born, and they quickly became comfortable
Norman Wells. As we came around a bend in the Great with humans. He put horse halters on them and took them
Bear River, Steve and I were stunned to find a small for strolls. “I can remember walking down the sidewalk in
muskox herd along the bank. Large, shaggy creatures with front of the vet college on the university campus with a
humped shoulders and long horns that curve down and muskox just walking along beside me like somebody’s dog.”
then up towards the sky, they look as if something out of He loved how social they were and how much they craved
The Flintstones had come to life. Having only ever seen a good scratch. “If I could have spent the rest of my career
these animals in photos, we were thrilled. I dug out my working with them, I would have done that. Just knowing
camera as Steve edged us back a bit so we didn’t startle how marvellous and gentle they can be has stayed with me
them. Then we heard the always talkative second canoe forever.” We were talking on the phone, so I don’t know if
before we saw it. So did the muskoxen: they quickly he was getting misty-eyed as he told me this.
retreated out of sight. Half a dozen years later, the story of
how the second canoe missed a chance to see them is a Adamczewski almost never had a chance to nuzzle
camping trip tale that still cracks us up. More than that, a muskox. Known as umingmak, or the bearded one, in
though, the incident left me with a muskox fascination. Inuktitut, the species has survived more than one ice age
Apparently, I am not alone. As the chief ungulate and may be three to five million years old. But North
biologist for the Northwest Territories, Jan Adamczewski Americans nearly hunted them to extinction early in the
devotes much of his time to caribou, but the muskox 20th century. That was after we’d killed all the bison on
remains his favourite animal. When I asked what fascinates the prairies, largely for the hides Europeans were so fond
him about them, he admitted, “It’s not very scientific or of. With the bison gone, muskox hides were the next best

18 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

Banks WHERE THEY ROAM
Island Endemic populations roam traditional
ranges. Translocated populations are those
Victoria introduced or re-introduced to a recent or
Island long-ago range; “Mixed” means animals
were translocated to an area with endemic
Muskox Range muskoxen. Boundaries are estimates
• Endemic because muskoxen do travel and will cross
• Translocated sea-ice (so even islands are not restricted)
• Mixed

thing. It didn’t help that shooting them was so easy. live on tundra, though they’re increasingly showing
When threatened by predators, they don’t scatter, leaving up below the treeline and occasionally even south of
calves and weaker members of the herd exposed and in the territories. In 2019, a hunter killed one near Fort
danger. Instead, they typically form a tight circle facing Chipewyan, Alberta.
out with their rumps together. This tactic works well
against wolves, their main predator, and bears. It’s less While muskoxen are particularly vulnerable to
effective against guns. Extirpated in Alaska and down to climate change, other Arctic species get more attention.
perhaps a few hundred on the Canadian mainland, the Muskoxen can’t compete with the high profile of polar
muskox was in trouble. bears, which are charismatic megafauna, or the enduring
significance of caribou as a life-sustaining resource to
After the federal government banned non-Indigenous the people of the North. In much of the mainland, there
hunting in 1917 and then ordered a complete moratorium isn’t a muskox-hunting tradition, either because it never
in 1924, their numbers remained low until the ’70s. existed or because it was lost when the animal disappeared

Muskoxen are particularly vulnerable to climate change, but other Arctic species
get the world’s attention. They can’t compete with polar bears and caribou

Then populations began to expand rapidly for a variety of from the landscape for half a century. Not so with caribou.
reasons; exactly why “seems like a simple question, but the
answer is not that simple,” Adamczewski says. Eventually, “We have several Indigenous cultures that identify
they resumed their previous range and even moved further
south than biologists had thought possible. with caribou and have quite possibly hunted caribou for

Ovibos moschatus is also native to Greenland and has a few thousand years,” says Adamczewski. “That’s a very
been reintroduced to Alaska. Introduced populations
also exist in Norway and Russia. But the majority of the important animal for most of our communities, probably
world’s muskoxen live in Canada. Today, Nunavut, the
Northwest Territories and, to a lesser extent, northern the single most important wildlife that we have.… We
Yukon are home to an estimated 85,000 of them. Most
don’t see the same kind of attachment to muskoxen.”

MAP: CORY PROULX Various populations of caribou are officially listed in this

country as threatened or endangered, meaning there is

more urgency and more funding to study them than the

shaggy beasts. (continued on next page)

MAY + JUN 2021 19

“T QIVIUT EMPTOR
he muskoxen are the neglected cousin,” BUYING THE WARMEST
says Dr. Susan Kutz. After completing veterinary school, WOOL IN THE WORLD
she practised in Yellowknife for a year before returning to
the University of Saskatchewan to do a PhD in wildlife A significant industry has built up around
parasitology, focusing on muskox lungworm. Today, she processing qiviut, the ultra-strong, super-fine,
heads the Kutz Research Group at the University of Calgary. incredibly warm insulating layer next to the
When I asked what fascinates her about these animals, she muskox’s skin. It surpasses any other natural
said, “They’re just too cool,” and laughed really hard. Then fibre for warmth and has been Arctic
she explained that it wasn’t simply one thing that appealed inhabitants’ traditional defence against the
to her about these ice age relics. “Scientifically, they’re profound cold for thousands of years.
really interesting and different.” They are the only species
in the genus Ovibos. Their closest relatives are the goral and In summer, muskoxen lose their woolly
the serow, which are goat-like mountain ungulates in Japan undercoats. During moulting, the qiviut
and the Himalayas that look completely different from the separates from the skin and falls to the
muskox (except at birth). And “they’re very personable and ground. It can be harvested by brushing the
clever animals,” says Kutz, who, like Adamczewski, worked docile animals until large “sheets” can be
with the captive herd while in Saskatoon. removed intact. Another source is from
Researchers marvel at how well adapted muskoxen are hides purchased from subsistence hunters.
to life in the Arctic. They don’t migrate the way caribou
do; in fact, if the food’s good where they are, they won’t Most of the raw wool is shipped overseas
waste energy going somewhere else. “The adaptation the for spinning, Peru particularly, where there
muskox has is to get really, really fat, have short stubby is a long-established industry processing
legs, have an amazing hair coat and slow their metabolism vicuña wool, which is similarly fine. Only
way down in the wintertime,” says Kutz. Their coat has about 25 per cent of qiviut is processed in
two layers: the long guard hair on the outside and an Nunavut. Numerous online businesses now
undercoat of fine-fibred wool called qiviut, which they specialize in qiviut hats, scarves and other
shed in the spring. Lightweight, strong and remarkably winter fashion, luxury items in the south
soft, qiviut is the warmest natural fibre in the world, making where they tend to be expensive. If you are
it ideal for luxury clothing. Adult bulls typically weigh shopping online, look for Nunavut firms
about 300 kilograms, though some reach 400 kilograms, that emphasize sustainable harvesting
and all that hair makes them look even bigger. Yet they eat and ethical business practices, companies
surprisingly little for their size. They keep food fermenting that work hand in warm glove with their
in their large rumen for many hours, allowing them to local communities.
extract as many nutrients as possible.
Unfortunately, the Arctic is increasingly not the Arctic
of the last 10,000 years. To find food in the winter, muskox
hooves are adept at digging through snow to reach vegeta-
tion such as grasses, sedges and roots. If there’s a crust on
the snow, they will butt their heads against it. But rain in
the winter — or even if it just warms up enough — followed
by a plunge in the temperature can leave a rock-hard layer
of ice that’s difficult to get through. In the past, rain-on-snow
events have led to die-offs, fewer calves and lower birth
weights. Climate change also is leading to more develop-
ment in the North. New resource projects destroy habitats,
while new roads lead to more vehicle-on-wildlife collisions.
Disease, though, is the biggest concern. The species has
often suffered die-offs due to viruses, bacteria and parasites.
These pathogens are often temperature-dependent, making
them an even bigger threat as the planet heats up. Take the
devastating effect of muskox lungworm, a parasite that
Kutz describes as a “charismatic worm,” which enters the

20 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

TKTK Muskoxen are surprisingly gentle. One researcher recalls being “on the university
campus with a muskox just walking along beside me like somebody’s dog”

MAY + JUN 2021 21

UMINGMAK | MUSKOX TKTK

Ovibos moschatus
At about 125 cm high, bulls weigh
275 to 310 kg (females 35 per cent less).
With double layers of super-warm
wool and very long outer hair,
muskoxen can thrive in temperatures
as low as -40 C.
Males’ pungent musky odour comes
from secretions in their urine, part of
a superiority display that also includes
strutting, charging and head-butting
to establish mating dominance.
When healthy, cows produce one
calf each year, starting at about
age 4. Born with a thick coat and
soon ready to stand, calves move
with the herd within hours.
Life expectancy is between 12 and
20 years.
Arctic wolves are the muskox’s main
natural predator.
Their keen eyesight is useful in the
prolonged darkness of Arctic winters.
Horizontal pupils help to reduce the
sun’s glare.
Their acute sense of smell detects
food beneath deep snow.
Muskoxen can reach speeds up to
60 km/h running over short distances.
Herds number 10 to 24 in the winter;
eight to 20 in the summer.

22 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

animals after they ingest a slug that acts as the intermediate there. The two largest populations in the world were on
host. (Discovered in 1995, the parasite has the first-ever Banks Island, where 2015 surveys show they’ve decreased
scientific binomial derived from the northern language of from 72,000 to about 15,000, and Victoria Island, where
Inuinnaqtun: Umingmakstrongylus pallikuukensis.) It was they’ve gone from roughly 40,000 to 10,000. On Victoria
originally limited to the western mainland, but rising Island in particular, there have been large summer die-offs,
northern temperatures mean the lungworm has spread to and the remaining animals have low reproduction rates, are
the Arctic island populations of muskoxen. skinny and generally suffer poor health. Although their
numbers have fluctuated on these islands for decades, the
The loss of sea ice, which cools the air, compounds the situation is alarming. “I would like to better understand the
problem in the Far North. Adapted to survival in extreme complex interactions driving the population dynamics on
cold, muskoxen suffer heat stress in warmer temperatures, Banks and Victoria islands,” says Kutz. “What is happening
weakening them and reducing their ability to survive with climate, with vegetation, with infectious diseases that
disease. Researchers in Norway attributed a die-off there to these populations are doing so poorly? What’s driving that?”
heat stress-related pneumonia.

Confronted by danger, muskoxen form a tight circle facing out, rumps together.
This works well against wolves and bears. Less so against guns

The low genetic diversity of muskoxen doesn’t help And yet, another mystery is that muskoxen appear to be
them cope with more adversity. They’ve survived doing surprisingly well in the southern parts of their range.
bottlenecks — population decreases that reduce a species’ In the east arm of Great Slave Lake, for example, they’ve
diversity — in the past, including during the last ice age. almost doubled in numbers in eight years. But Adamczew-
This makes them more vulnerable. “They’re probably ski is cautious about what that means. “Climate change is
exquisitely sensitive to the changes,” says Kutz. “I think a reality in the North. Everybody knows it here,” he says.
they are at risk under the current climate change scenarios “If we see more warm, dry summers, then that may just
in large part because of low genetic diversity. What we increase the likelihood that we’ll get further outbreaks and
have seen is a high sensitivity to diseases.” mortality. We haven’t seen those kinds of die-offs on the
mainland, but there’s no guarantee that it couldn’t happen
Despite their abundance on the Arctic islands in the there as well.”
1990s, they’ve recently experienced dramatic declines
MAY + JUN 2021 23

M worries about losing the human element. “I’m kind of
uskoxen inhabit three mainland regions in in the later stages of my career here, but I have to say as
the Northwest Territories: North Slave, the Beaufort Delta a biologist, when we do fly surveys, we get to see animals
and the Sahtu. Kevin Chan, the territorial government’s and landscapes,” he says, adding that community observers
biologist for the Sahtu region, is newer to muskoxen often join them. “There’s still a lot to be said for actually
research than Adamczewski or Kutz but is equally fascin- seeing things yourself. To lose that completely, I guess for
ated by them. “They are an animal from the ice age that somebody like me, would be a sad day.”
continues to exist here,” he says. And while there’s plenty
of good basic research on them, biologists now study them To help with research beyond flight surveys, Kutz’s lab
less than caribou or wolves, so “we’re constantly finding works with subsistence hunters (who frequently now
new things about them. That’s what really interests me receive their own funding for the work) as well as guides
about this species. You would just not expect an animal and outfitters. “Fundamental to our program is working
that is suited to the High Arctic to be able to survive below with the communities,” she says. “We don’t have all the
treeline but also do extremely well below treeline.” money in the world to go by helicopter and catch musk-
While caribou surveys take place every year or two, oxen and sample them, and even if you did, the number of
muskox surveys have been few and far between. There animals you could handle is limited.” Instead, Kutz’s team
hadn’t been one in the Sahtu since 1997 until Chan’s recent provides testing kits to local hunters. Because collecting
survey of the southern part of the region. He’s completing blood samples is messy at the best of times and imprac-
the rest in 2021. The territorial government covered North tical in the winter, the kits include strips of filter paper
Slave in 2018 and is also doing the Beaufort Delta in 2021. that soak up blood, and it’s no problem when they freeze.
Frances Stewart, an adjunct professor at Wilfrid Laurier The hunters also collect and submit each animal’s lower
University, is collaborating on the project. left leg, which the lab uses to measure bone marrow fat,
The vast distances in the North make studying wildlife assess hoof health, check for parasites and compare body
a challenge, especially since flight surveys are expensive. size to historical data.
Technology may offer valuable alternatives. Drones can
fly long distances while taking video and high-resolution Qiviut is useful for measuring trace minerals, which say
photos, but Transport Canada currently allows their a lot about diet and stress levels. But since the muskoxen
operation only within line-of-sight. That’s about one shed the qiviut every year, the lab is contemplating studying
kilometre, which is not much help when Chan and his guard hair, which can offer a longer-term perspective.
colleagues are surveying 190,000 square kilometres.
Satellite imagery is another possibility. But for now, The hunters also report other observations, including
high-resolution images are more expensive than aerial the location of the animals, their body condition and the
surveys. As the price comes down, the technology could number of calves and yearlings, as well as information on
prove useful, at least on the barren lands. Still, Adamczewski predator numbers. “By using this harvester-based sampling
and knowledge, we can monitor every year,” says Kutz,
who hopes the findings will reveal not just what happened
in the past but what may happen in the future. The com-
munity also benefits. “We’re working up in that area where
it’s an important species to them,” she says. “And they
get answers. They learn if that abnormality they saw is
something they need to worry about for food safety or is
it just normal and not to worry.”

Meanwhile, the mainland surveys are a rare opportun-
ity to understand a species’ declining numbers by studying
locations where they are increasing. Once researchers have
a more accurate estimate of the abundance and distribution,
they can project where populations are likely to expand.
“We always study animals when they’re declining,” says
Kutz. “We never figure out what the conditions are for
them to increase.”

When I spoke with Frances Stewart last fall, she was
looking for a grad student to accompany Chan on the flight
surveys and then analyze the data as part of a master’s
thesis. It sounded like an amazing opportunity. “I wish
I were qualified,” I said.

“I’d accept your application no matter what,” she said
and laughed. While I knew I didn’t have a chance, I suspect-
ed some lucky biologist would soon be developing a passion
for the muskox.a

Tim Falconer’s latest book, Klondikers: Dawson City’s Stanley
Cup Challenge and How a Nation Fell in Love with Hockey, will
be published this fall by ECW Press

24 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

Why did the turtle

cross the road?

If it’s May or June, it’s likely because she wants to lay eggs. Turtle nesting
season is under way and many turtles must cross roads to find nesting
sites. Road mortality is a major reason why all eight of Canada’s freshwater
turtles are at risk. Keep an eye out for turtles while driving this spring,
especially near wetlands. If you see a turtle on the road, move it in the
direction it was headed. Let’s help turtles get to the other side safely.

Stacey Wood

Learn how to safely move a turtle across the road at

HelpTheTurtles.ca. #HelpTheTurtles

26 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

Mothers

Fooftrheest

The groundbreaking work of ecologist Suzanne Simard shows
that forests are networks and that older trees actually care
for younger ones. Including an excerpt from her new book

By Kerry Banks Photography by Kari Medig

AS A CHILD, SUZANNE SIMARD SPENT A ecology and caused people to compare her to Rachel Carson, the American
biologist whose 1962 book Silent Spring launched the modern environ-
lot of time in the moss-laden, old-growth mental movement.
forests of British Columbia’s Interior. Her
grandfather was a horse logger who would Like Carson, who challenged widely accepted beliefs that human
selectively cut cedar poles, and her entire domination over nature was the ordained course for the future, Simard’s
family was involved in the business. Simard research has toppled entrenched theories about how forests function and
can recall lying on her back staring up how silviculture and logging should be practised. And like Carson, who
at the crowns of the towering giants that was accused of being radical, unscientific and hysterical, Simard has had
surrounded her and letting her mind to endure her share of attacks.
wander. It was easy for her to imagine
there was a secret world lurking just out of In a phone conversation, Simard, who is a professor at the University
sight in the mist, populated by a race of of British Columbia, explains that such attacks “go with the territory”
fairies who protected the forest from harm. when you challenge the status quo. Her path from forest sprite to danger-
ous disruptor began after she graduated from UBC with a degree in
Simard was wrong about the fairies, forestry and found employment with a logging company. As a woman,
but she was right about the secret world. she was an anomaly in the industry and was assigned to the silviculture
Years later, while pursuing a PhD in forest division — “sillyculture” as her male co-workers dubbed it, implying
ecology, she would discover that hidden that women weren’t really suited for the important work.
reality, an incredibly complex network of
roots that extends beneath the forest floor Simard spent three years in the logging world before taking a job
in all directions, a biological pipeline that with the B.C. Ministry of Forests, where she specialized in the science
connects trees, conveys nutrients and of growing trees. She spent a decade at that post, and her experiences
signals, and enables the forest to behave caused her to have misgivings about what she was doing. “I grew alarmed
as if it was a single organism. by the clearcutting and the wholesale destruction of the unwanted
species — the alder, birch and aspen — which were regarded as weeds.”
By uncovering this network and A relentless quest for cash drove the industrial machine. “Each year,
unravelling its mysteries, Simard has timber firms would spend millions of dollars on herbicides destroying
revolutionized the science of forest the undergrowth to create these shiny new plantations filled with

MAY + JUN 2021 27

To test underground transmission, Simard infused seedlings with radioactive
isotopes and tracked the flow from tree to tree. The results were astonishing...

orderly rows of the most lucrative trees, The 19th-century German biologist Albert Bernhard Frank coined the
the fast-growing firs and pines.” word “mycorrhiza” to describe these partnerships, in which the fungus
colonizes the roots. It was recognized that such exchanges might serve
According to veteran foresters, trees important ecological functions, but they had not been extensively studied,
were like isolated loners engaged in a and all the research had been confined to labs and greenhouses. Simard
cutthroat competition for water, sunlight decided to investigate fungal links between Douglas fir and paper birch,
and nutrients, with the winners shading not in the lab but out in the forests of B.C.
out the losers and sucking them dry. It’s
a Darwinian perspective that had guided She had little money so had to buy much of her gear on the cheap, with
silviculture strategies and timber industry many items borrowed. In the field, she had to contend with mosquitos,
practices for decades. To Simard, plantation chiggers and foraging grizzlies, which periodically chased her away from
forests looked anything but fit. They were her makeshift plots. But she persevered, driven by an innate curiosity
often sickly and vulnerable to disease and about this dark and invisible realm.
insect infestations. She noted that up to
10 per cent of newly planted Douglas fir To test the transmission capabilities of the seedlings, Simard injected
would falter and die whenever nearby aspen, radioactive carbon isotopes into bags installed around pint-size birch trees
paper birch and cottonwood were eradicated. and Douglas fir seedlings. Using mass spectrometers and scintillation
counters, she was then able to track the underground flow of carbon
It caused her to wonder what aspects of isotopes from tree to tree.
Mother Nature’s evolutionary genius had
been lost in the shift to this new agricultur- The results were astonishing. The isotopes did not stay confined to the
al model. Was it possible the birches were individual trees into which they were injected. Instead, they moved down
somehow helping rather than hindering the the trees’ vascular systems to their root tips and passed into the fungal
firs? Simard decided to go back to school and mycelium that was intertwined with those tips. They then travelled along
pursue her PhD. The questions she had been this network to the root tips of another tree, where they entered its
juggling in her mind about interspecies vascular system. It was a symbiotic relationship. From the trees, the fungi
aid-giving became the basis of her thesis. extracted sugars that they can’t produce on their own. In return, they
ferried water and nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous from tree to tree.
Simard was especially curious about
the role of fungi. Although most of us This subterranean shuffling of resources was not random. Simard’s
know fungi only as mushrooms, the visible birch and fir trees were engaged in a “lively two-way conversation,” she
mushroom is just a tiny part of the plant’s says, transferring carbon to one another in varying ratios throughout the
totality. Most of their bodies are made up of year, depending upon a neighbouring tree’s needs. Instead of competition,
a mass of thin threads, known as a myceli- Simard had found evidence of cooperation.
um, that stretch for kilometres beneath the
forest floor, where they envelop and fuse Her findings were published in the prestigious journal Nature in 1997.
with tree roots. The paper, featured on the cover with the title “The Wood-Wide Web,”
created a stir, generating international enthusiasm but also provoking
blowback. A number of her colleagues rejected the notion that trees of

28 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

MAY + JUN 2021 29

TKTK

30 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

“The underlying message,” says Simard, “is that we
are all in this together, that we are all one”

different species would help one another we have a mother tree, a kin seedling and a stranger seedling. The mother
at their own expense. It ran counter to the tree can choose which one to provide for. We found that she’ll provide for
core tenets of Darwinian evolution. her own kin over something that’s not her kin,” explains Simard. “Another
experiment is where a mother tree is ill and providing resources for
Some attacks were cutting. One strangers versus kin. There’s differentiation there, too. As she’s ill and
reviewer described her work as “a dog’s dying, she provides more for her kin.”
breakfast.” It became commonplace to
see references to her studies immediately It took a decade, but Simard’s concepts took root. Other scientists began
followed by citations of published rebuttals. confirming and expanding on her efforts. Today, her studies appear in
“A few well-established individuals did textbooks and are taught in graduate-level classes on forestry and ecology.
everything in their power to trash my Her ideas have also percolated into popular culture. Simard’s insights
work,” recalls Simard. “As a young research- fuelled the 2009 film Avatar, in which tree roots are linked to the souls of
er, you can get hurt easily by that sort of an alien race through a “biological neural network.” Her research was a
thing. It slowed down my science. When driving force behind Peter Wohlleben’s 2015 best-seller The Hidden Life of
your work is regarded as controversial, it’s Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate, and she served as the model
harder to get grants, harder to find funding, for Patricia Westerford, a scientist obsessed with tree communication, in
harder to get money for talks. At one point, Richard Powers’ 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Overstory.
I was ready to give it all up.”
Interestingly, none of these people ever contacted Simard before
But Simard persisted, surviving the releasing their work. Even so, as a scientist she harbours no bitterness
breakdown of her marriage and a chilling about others profiting from her labour. She is encouraged to see her
bout of cancer, while pioneering cutting- ideas spreading through society and finds the notoriety “kind of cool.”
edge investigations into how these
fungal filigrees help trees relay distress In recent years, Simard has reached out to the public through illumin-
signals about drought and disease, search ating and inspiring TED talks, which have attracted millions of views on
for offspring and transfer nutrients to YouTube. Her fame is sure to grow even further now that her first book,
neighbouring plants before they die, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, is being
an elaborate system that she compares published (an excerpt follows). The beautifully written book combines
to neural networks in human brains. details from her life story, her discoveries and her philosophy.

By analyzing the DNA in root tips and Simard is also forging ahead with the Mother Tree Project, a massive
tracing the movement of molecules through endeavour taking place in nine experimental forests in B.C. that she
underground channels, Simard also helped says, “will last 100 years.” Conducted in tandem with other scientists,
identify “mother trees” — older trees that timber companies and several First Nations, its main goal is finding more
act as central hubs for the mycorrhizal sustainable methods of harvesting trees, but other areas of inquiry
networks. These trees support seedlings by include gaining a better understanding of the resilience of forests to
infecting them with fungi and sending human and natural disturbances and climate change. 
them the nutrients they need to grow.
One question Simard hopes to answer is whether preserving some
Simard was startled to discover that hub older trees in areas that are logged will improve the health of future
trees can recognize which seedlings are saplings. She believes that retaining some mother trees, which have the
products of their own seed. “We have done most robust and diverse mycorrhizal networks, will improve the health
what we call choice experiments, in which and survival of future seedlings — both those planted by foresters and
those that germinate on their own. Mother trees share their information
and nutrients before they die natural deaths. However, if chopped down,
all this knowledge is lost.

Despite having published more than 100 papers detailing her experi-
ments, Simard still has detractors, fellow scientists offended by any
suggestion of the possibility of intelligence being attached to trees and
those unwilling to accept the notion of interspecies cooperation. But
the impact of her critics pales in comparison with the overwhelmingly
positive response she has received from the public, which finds comfort
in her message of the interconnectedness of nature.

Simard believes that her work resonates strongly with people because
it confirms what they instinctively feel — a spiritual connection with
the forest. “The underlying message is that we are all in this together, that
we are all one,” she says. “We depend on one another and we have to love
our plants.”1

MAY + JUN 2021 31

[EXCERPT]

Finding the
Mother Tree

By Suzanne Simard

32 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

Suzanne Simard in or generations, my
the forest near her family has made its living
home in Nelson, B.C. cutting down forests. Our
survival has depended on
this humble trade.

It is my legacy.
I have cut down my
fair share of trees as well.
But nothing lives
on our planet without
death and decay. From
this springs new life,
and from this birth will come new death. This spiral of
living taught me to become a sower of seeds too, a planter
of seedlings, a keeper of saplings, a part of the cycle. The
forest itself is part of much larger cycles, the building of
soil and migration of species and circulation of oceans. The
source of clean air and pure water and good food. There is
a necessary wisdom in the give-and-take of nature — its
quiet agreements and search for balance.
There is an extraordinary generosity.
Working to solve the mysteries of what made the
forests tick, and how they are linked to the earth and fire
and water, made me a scientist. I watched the forest, and
I listened. I followed where my curiosity led me, I listened
to the stories of my family and people, and I learned from
the scholars. Step by step — puzzle by puzzle — I poured
everything I had into becoming a sleuth of what it takes to
heal the natural world.
I was lucky to become one of the first in the new
generation of women in the logging industry, but what
I found was not what I had grown up to understand.
Instead I discovered vast landscapes cleared of trees, soils
stripped of nature’s complexity, a persistent harshness of
elements, communities devoid of old trees, leaving the
young ones vulnerable, and an industrial order that felt
hugely, terribly misguided. The industry had declared war
on those parts of the ecosystem — the leafy plants and
broadleaf trees, the nibblers, gleaners and infesters — that
were seen as competitors and parasites on cash crops but
that I was discovering were necessary for healing the earth.
The whole forest — central to my being and sense of the
universe — was suffering from this disruption, and
because of that, all else suffered too.
I set out on scientific expeditions to figure out where
we had gone so very wrong and to unlock the mysteries
of why the land mended itself when left to its own devices
— as I’d seen happen when my ancestors logged with
a lighter touch. Along the way, it became uncanny, almost
eerie, the way my work unfolded in lockstep with my
personal life, entwined as intimately as the parts of the
ecosystem I was studying.

MAY + JUN 2021 33

I uncovered the lessons of tree-to-tree
communication… At first highly
controversial, the science is now
known to be rigorous, peer-reviewed
and widely published. It is no fairy tale

The trees soon revealed startling secrets. I discovered children. It is enough to make one pause, take a deep
that they are in a web of interdependence, linked by breath and contemplate the social nature of the forest and
a system of underground channels, where they perceive how this is critical for evolution. The fungal network
and connect and relate with an ancient intricacy and appears to wire the trees for fitness. And more. These old
wisdom that can no longer be denied. I conducted hundreds trees are mothering their children.
of experiments, with one discovery leading to the next,
and through this quest I uncovered the lessons of The Mother Trees.
tree-to-tree communication, of the relationships that When Mother Trees — the majestic hubs at the centre
create a forest society. The evidence was at first highly of forest communication, protection and sentience — die,
controversial, but the science is now known to be rigorous, they pass their wisdom to their kin, generation after
peer-reviewed and widely published. It is no fairy tale, generation, sharing the knowledge of what helps and what
no flight of fancy, no magical unicorn and no fiction in harms, who is friend or foe, and how to adapt and survive
a Hollywood movie. in an ever-changing landscape. It’s what all parents do.

These discoveries are challenging many of the manage- How is it possible for them to send warning signals,
ment practices that threaten the survival of our forests, recognition messages and safety dispatches as rapidly as
especially as nature struggles to adapt to a warming world. telephone calls? How do they help one another through
distress and sickness? Why do they have human-like
My queries started from a place of solemn concern behaviours, and why do they work like civil societies?
for the future of our forests but grew into an intense After a lifetime as a forest detective, my perception of
curiosity, one clue leading to another, about how the forest the woods has been turned upside down. With each new
was more than just a collection of trees. In this search for revelation, I am more deeply embedded in the forest.
the truth, the trees have shown me their perceptiveness The scientific evidence is impossible to ignore: the forest
and responsiveness, connections and conversations. What is wired for wisdom, sentience and healing.1
started as a legacy, and then a place of childhood home,
solace and adventure in western Canada, has grown into a Excerpted from Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the
fuller understanding of the intelligence of the forest and, Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard. Copyright © 2021
further, an exploration of how we can regain our respect Suzanne Simard. Published by Allen Lane Canada, an imprint
for this wisdom and heal our relationship with nature. of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House
Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the
One of the first clues came while I was tapping into publisher. All rights reserved.
the messages that the trees were relaying back and forth
through a cryptic underground fungal network. When
I followed the clandestine path of the conversations,
I learned that this network is pervasive through the entire
forest floor, connecting all the trees in a constellation of
tree hubs and fungal links. A crude map revealed, stunning-
ly, that the biggest, oldest timbers are the sources of fungal
connections to regenerating seedlings. Not only that, they
connect to all neighbours, young and old, serving as the
linchpins for a jungle of threads and synapses and nodes.
I’ll take you through the journey that revealed the most
shocking aspect of this pattern — that it has similarities
with our own human brains. In it, the old and young are
perceiving, communicating and responding to one another
by emitting chemical signals. Chemicals identical to our own
neurotransmitters. Signals created by ions cascading across
fungal membranes.

The older trees are able to discern which seedlings are
their own kin. The old trees nurture the young ones and
provide them food and water just as we do with our own

34 CANADIAN WILDLIFE



Your Legacy can Change the Future

By creating your legacy to support the future work of the Canadian Wildlife
Federation, you can help CWF continue its critical conservation work and education
programs without affecting your current finances or financial plans. There are many
ways to create a Legacy Gift in your estate planning, allowing you to choose the one
that is best for you.
Make this decisive act to conserve Canadian wildlife and its habitat far into the future.
Canadians deeply value our inspiring wildlife and its natural habitat.
It is our legacy. It defines who we are; it defines who you are.

Getty Images

For more information, contact:
[email protected] | 1.877.599.5777
CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca/Legacy-Giving

FELIX CHOO / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO | OutdoorsURBAN WILDLIFE + FIELD GUIDE + BIRDING + GARDENING

Whooping crane (Grus americana) in
the Canadian Wilds exhibit at the
Calgary Zoo, part of their endangered-
species breeding program

URBAN WILDLIFE

Zoo Logic

In the face of their own possible
extinction, Canada’s zoos are
trying to redefine themselves.
What role can they play?

Sometimes it takes a catastrophe to make
existing systemic failures obvious. Consider
Canada’s zoos. During a wholesale social lock-
down lasting more than a year, already-
declining visits and revenues simply ceased.
Spending didn’t, of course. The care and
feeding of their many inhabitants had to
continue even as costs for foods increased.
Zoos called for government support and the
public’s cash to keep the zookeepers on the
job. Emergency donations and grants kept the
lights on, but COVID-19 has made clear that
city zoos are anachronistic and unsustainable.
For the past several decades, Canada’s urban
zoos have struggled to survive. Visitor numbers
have dropped. The global pandemic served
to highlight the question many were already
trying to answer: do zoos have a role in
our future?
They have a long history, dating to the private
menageries of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia,
in China, Greece and Rome. By the 18th century,

MAY + JUN 2021 37

Outdoors

FIELD GUIDE

Slendsr mouse-ear-cress

Halimolobos virgata

Panda and fans at the Toronto Zoo Is it the mouse that is slender, or the mouse’s ear? It’s not clear. We do know

collections of exotic animals were de rigueur that the Canadian population of slender mouse-ear-cress is slender and becoming
in European courts, most particularly that of slenderer, limited to a shrinking patchwork on the Prairies. For the last two
Louis XIV who installed a grand menagerie at decades, it has been listed as threatened in Canada. As to why it is disappearing,
the Palais de Versailles. one intriguing theory involves an iconic Canadian megafauna species whose
number also dwindled almost to nothing.
The first “zoological garden” opened in Paris in
1793, post revolution, when Versailles’ and other Halimolobos is a flowering plant genus in the Brassicaceae family, which includes
animal collections of the aristocracy were moved mustards, cabbages and crucifers such as broccoli. This branch of the family sticks
to a central garden accessible to the public. out like a straggly weed. A forb as opposed to a grass, it grows from a slender
London’s famous zoo opened in 1847. The notion taproot and woody base, with a solitary stem that’s sometimes branched and
spread to North America’s burgeoning cities, always covered with fine grey hairs. Narrow spoon-like basal leaves (also hairy)
driven more by municipal vanity and one-upman- contrast with alternating, stalkless stem leaves, often with attached lobes that
ship than an interest in nature. These zoos were really do resemble mouse ears. Charming tiny flowers with pink-veined white petals
often indifferent to the animals’ welfare, from and purplish sepals create its attractive if weedy look. Preferring silty or sandy soil
the dismal cages, inappropriate food and casual amid grazed grassland, this biennial herb once proliferated throughout the North
cruelties by the visiting public. American plains. Now it is limited in Canada to a handful of locations in Alberta
and Saskatchewan and is prone to sudden disappearance. (One grouping near
It was only about 100 years ago that any Canadian Forces Base Suffield, Canada’s largest military base, 50 kilometres from
concerted attention was paid to animals’ right Medicine Hat, went from 400 plants to zero in only six years, with no obvious signs
to humane treatment. The debate about zoos of trauma — as a paramedic might say). Numerous experts have speculated why.
has continued and intensified into the present. The most compelling explanation to date links this cress to the fortunes of the
Recently, two commercial zoos in Canada were mighty bison that roamed the vast prairie for millennia before the arrival of
cited on the World Animal Protection website European settlers and their bloodthirst.
for cruel conditions.
Slender mouse-ear-cress's best friend In February 2019, a biogeographer in
The pandemic has brought it all into high relief. Alberta named Cheryl Hendrickson,
Attendance at Toronto’s municipally owned, articulated a fascinating theory in Iris,
284-hectare facility, home to 5,000 animals, has the newsletter of the Alberta Native
been sagging for much of the last three decades. Plant Council. Attempting to account
In its 2020 Strategic Plan, there is a promise to for the great distances between slender
“ignite the passion,” to “create wow” as they “save mouse-ear-cress colonies, Hendrickson
wildlife,” but few details. Locked down in November blamed the decline of the bison.
2020, at press time it was still closed.
Bison love wallowing, rolling on the ground and kicking up masses of dust as they
Also in November, the Calgary Zoo was forced writhe on their backs. It looks playful, like an excited labradoodle in the local park,
to return loaned pandas early due to bamboo except an adult bison weighs a ton. The scrubbing helps them shed winter hair,
sourcing issues related to the pandemic. (Pandas soothes insect wounds and creates a protective coating. When massive numbers
are one of the few money-makers in Canada’s (28 million, says one estimate) of bison roamed the continental grasslands, the
zoo business; before arriving in Calgary, they had land would have been covered with wallows as common as gopher holes.
been propping up Toronto attendance for five
years.) Exotic celebrity species from China aside, Epizoochory — when seeds such as burrs attach to the exterior of an animal for PORTIS IMAGING / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO. GETTY IMAGES.
the Calgary Zoo is trying to move into a local dispersal — is the least common of the five ways plants spread their seeds. As a
conservation role. Among its research and means of propagation, it is a sketchy one, compared with the efficacy of the seed
conservation projects are breeding whooping being eaten, moistened and later excreted in a fertilizer and growth medium. But
cranes for release and researching the dependent bison don’t eat forbs like this cress. Our plant shows an adaptation: in spring,
relationship of black-tailed prairie dogs and despite snow loads and desiccation, the previous year’s stems stand tall amid the
black-footed ferrets. flattened grasses, retaining a healthy number of seeds. Passing bison would pick
up the seeds in their hair and hooves. The much-travelled beasts dispersed these
Is this the future of zoos? With their expertise, seeds some distance along, planting the seeds as they wallowed. Without bison,
facilities, fundraising capacity and public face, seeds fall only centimetres from the plant base and struggle to grow.
Canadian zoos could be in the vanguard of local
conservation. —MATTHEW CHURCH Biologists today look to that ancient pattern of wallows as a lost archipelago of
biodiversity, tiny rain-filled reservoirs that supported multiple species of creatures
38 CANADIAN WILDLIFE and were rich with pioneer plant species. With the disappearance of bison, this
plant's primary dispersal vector collapsed and with it many species that relied on
it for propagation. Slender mouse-ear-cress is a casualty of the slaughter of bison
a century ago, as is our country’s biodiversity. —MEL WALWYN

EARLY BLOOMS SPRING UP + CAN YOUR PLANTS HEAR YOU? + GET KIDS OUTSIDE Killer whales are invading Hudson Bay + Grizzly behaviour — nature vs nurture Insects Are First Responders in Fort McMurray + Climate Change: Poetry Behind the Data

BUSY CWF
CONSERVATION
BEES
AWARDS
Marianne and Matt
Gee are working for Let’s Give Them All
pollinators — one A Big Hand
hive at a time
OUR GUIDE TO BECOMING A
Depths of GARDEN VARIETIES Your
Great Canadian
DESPAIR 6 Public BEST
Whales are suffering, dying slow Spaces SHOTS Camper
deaths entangled and maimed You’ll Love
by fishing gear. In the Bay of Fundy, GET A FRESH VIEW OF CANADA’S NATURAL WORLD—THROUGH WELCOME HOME
a community responds SAVE THE KING THE EYES OF THE WINNERS OF CWF’S ANNUAL PHOTO CONTEST On Vancouver Island, a dedicated group
is working to bring the bluebirds back
You are the JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2017
Endangered VOLUME 22, NUMBER 6 JULY + AUGUST 2016
Monarch’s VOLUME 22, NUMBER 3
Last Chance
n3m0ewp%orsrSiosceatfevtfahentahdne
MARCH + APRL 2017
VOLUME 23, NUMBER 1

SUZANNE SOUTHON Explore the
Wonders
of Canada’s
Wilderness

Each issue of Canadian Wildlife
boasts phenomenal photography,
celebrates the country’s unique
species and habitats, and explores
the conservation issues affecting
our natural world. Plus, get exclusive
columns by Canada’s best-known
environmental journalists and
hands-on experts.

Subscribe online at Canadianwildlifemagazine.ca

Outdoors

BIRDING

Birds in the Hand?

Is it OK to feed a feathered friend in your palm?
Our resident expert says yes, but only in the
right circumstances

It is well known that certain bird species can be enticed So, when is it OK to hand-feed birds? Well, since we already GETTY IMAGES
to take various kinds of food items right out of your hand. offer various healthy foods to our backyard birds via our
Bluebirds, chickadees, jays and nuthatches, to name a few, can feeders, I personally see no wrong in them getting food from
be trained to take mealworms or seeds from your palm. You our hands too. What about hand-feeding birds in public parks?
can feed several hummingbirds at once from sugar water held I know of no scientific studies supporting the notion that
in your hand. these birds become entrained to expect to be fed and then
stressed in some manner when food is not forthcoming.
But just because we can, does that mean we should? Here are I believe birds that willingly come to humans, whether it be
my thoughts. to a feeder or a hand, merely treat them as fast-food outlets,
always reverting to natural foods when available.
Allow me to first draw my lines in the sand. First, I am against
offering mice, live or dead, to any bird of prey for any reason, I leave you with one last example — offering breadcrumbs,
because the raptor being fed could end up associating all cheese, raisins, granola or pet kibble to Canada jays (hopefully,
humans with food offerings, a bad thing for all concerned. our future national bird) at a road stop, at a campsite or on
What’s more, certain species, like barred owls, that will take a hiking or ski trail. While this activity evokes much pleasure
live mice from the hand also are known to strike humans and even nurtures a love for nature, experiments conducted in
while defending their nests. Besides potential physical injury to Algonquin Park by Dan Strickland, Canada’s foremost expert
both parties, you can imagine the lifelong trauma suffered by a on the species, also demonstrated that “providing winter
child after such an attack. And there’s the reputational damage supplements causes breeding jays to raise more and healthier
to raptorial birds in the public eye at a time when they need nestlings.” As for such out-of-ordinary foods perhaps being
our protection. It has also been shown that feeding raptors live harmful to the jays, Dan tells me that “Canada jays normally
prey near a road can lead to collisions with vehicles. subsist all winter on semi-rotten bits of raw, vertebrate flesh,
insects, spiders, berries and mushrooms, and all in various
Second, I am opposed to hand-feeding ducks, geese, swans stages of decay, especially if there have been winter thaws
and gulls in parks and especially on public beaches. Besides that encourage even more than the usual amount of bacterial
their growing numbers annoying beachgoers, their copious growth.” If that won’t hurt them, would a raisin?
feces in the water can cause disease like Escherichia coli in
bathers. I speak from experience. Gulls and swans can also My bottom line on the question of hand-feeding birds is that
become dangerously aggressive. until further studies have been done, offering healthy food
in your hand to various non-aggressive songbirds in public
Third, feeding threatened or endangered species from the greenspaces or in your backyard is not likely to cause them
hand is not recommended. For instance, supplementing the any harm. Moreover, the benefits (again, to all parties) appear
food of endangered Florida scrub-jays may harm their breeding to outweigh the risks. —DAVID M. BIRD
success by affecting the timing of fledging their young.

40 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

NATURAL IS BEAUTIFUL.

Healthy shorelines for healthy lakes.

Natural is beautiful, especially along your shoreline.
Planting a naturalized shoreline rich in native vegetation
helps restore and maintain lake health, improve lake water
quality, minimize erosion and create new wildlife habitat.
Conserve the health of your lake and contribute to a
thriving wildlife population by naturalizing your shoreline.

Check out before and after Your
photos including planting
resources at LoveYourLake.ca. The Love Your Lake program is coordinated by

Photo: CWF

Outdoors

GARDENING WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING FOR GETTY IMAGES.
YOUR EARTHWORMS
The Way We Worm
We know they start getting active when
Earthworms are the unsung heroes of our gardens, temperatures start heading up from 15 C and
quietly aerating, feeding and fertilizing. Here’s what that they require soil with a neutral pH level.
you can do to ensure your wrigglers are happy And they need moisture — though too much
will kill them.
When it comes to appreciating your garden, by all means give yourself
a pat on the back while you thank the pollinators. But save a kudo for the Before planting each spring: mix in lots of
hidden workers that toil in your soil constantly. There is no single greater organic matter and add more on top. Use
contributor to the health and success of your garden than its earthworms. rotting plant material (clover, vetch, rye and
Few Canadian worm species are native. Those here today, the best known buckwheat are preferred when available) and
of which is the familiar largish red Lumbricus terrestris, were brought from mulched leaves, straw and grass clippings.
Europe over the last five centuries as silent hitchhikers. Today, there is real
and growing concern about the role of invasive earthworms in harming Cut back on tilling your garden: it reduces
Canadian forests. (See Dispatches, p. 11.) Still, the positive function they the worm population. The less you till, the
perform in Canadian gardens is impossible to overstate. more help you get. Best to reduce any traffic
Earthworms work the soil. Pulling pieces of leaves and compost below in your growing areas: compacted soil slows
the surface, these sightless invertebrates consume the surface fungi and your earthworms down, and your soil suffers.
bacteria, and leave the shredded organic matter to decompose. But they
don’t just consume bits of old plant material; they also eat and digest Good drainage is another necessity:
earth, sand and various mineral grits. What is later excreted is a paste called earthworms definitely need moisture, but
cast. This grey and gritty detritus, found in tiny piles sprinkled around any too much kills them or drives them to the
healthy garden, is in essence plant superfood. Aristotle wasn’t far off when surface where they are vulnerable. In areas
he referred to worms as “intestines of the soil.” After all, it is the worm’s that tend to be wet, mounding soil to drain it
digestive processes that break the essential nutrients down into easily is a smart way to prevent waterlogged worms.
absorbed, bioavailable forms of the key building blocks of a healthy garden,
including nitrogen, potassium and phosphates. Skip the synthetics. Balanced soil pH levels
A single hectare of farmland in this country is home to as many as 500,000 — between 6 and 8 — are optimal for your
earthworms. In your garden, the hundreds or thousands burrowing in your worms’ health, so don’t use chemical
topsoil create a sprawling network of tiny tunnels that both aerate it and fertilizers because they’ll make the soil too
open up channels for surface water to soak in and disperse evenly, while acidic. Many popular fungicides decimate
reducing run-off and erosion damage. Deeper worms leave channels lined worm populations.
with their nutritious castings that benefit and encourage root growth,
fostering overall plant health. Give them manure; they love it.

42 CANADIAN WILDLIFE Keep mulching, maintaining good surface
coverage. It keeps the soil moist and cool,
just as the worms like it. By throwing on leaf
litter, dead roots and desiccated plants, you
are feeding earthworms as you mulch. As you
add it, aerate the soil with a fork (but don’t
turn the soil).

Follow these basic steps to fully realize the
benefits of a healthy worm population. And,
so you know, the idea that you can cut a
worm in half and have two living worms is a
myth; you’ll likely end up with one dead
worm in two pieces. It is true that if you chop
off a worm’s tail, it will grow back. But try to
avoid that too. After all, they are working
their tails off for you already. —SELBY ORR

The Canadian Wildlife Federation’s magazine for kids

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aAreninmoacltsutrhnaatl

Skipping CiHnloetauhddes Shell-ebrate
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Sperm Whales don’t Turtle
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16 17

ASHLEY BARRON 2018-01-18 10:05 PM
PAUL ROBERT

2018-01-18 10:05 PM

CWF CWF’s
Magazine for Kids

WILD introduces kids,
ages 5 to 12, to the
wonders of Canada’s
natural world with
engaging wildlife
stories, tales of outdoor
adventures, projects,
trivia, games and so
much more.

Subscribe today at
shop.cwf-fcf.org

iFnAreEvananncidglhalib!slhe

WITH CWF

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH
NICOLAS LAPOINTE, CWF SENIOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGIST, FRESHWATER ECOLOGY,
AND BETTY REBELLATO, CWF NATIONAL FISH PASSAGE IMPROVEMENT CO-ORDINATOR.

Bringing Back the Salmon

As we celebrate Rivers to Oceans week each June, we are reminded of the incredible
migrations many fish make from fresh waters to ocean habitats and back again. Pacific
Salmon jump to mind. These incredible species travel thousands of kilometres battling
natural obstacles, currents and predators, but they still face many barriers along their epic
journeys to and from their spawning and rearing habitats. With so much on the line, how
can we help bring back the salmon?

1. NICK: WHY IS FISH PASSAGE A PRIORITY FOR THE 2. BETTY: HOW DID YOU GET INTERESTED IN GETTY IMAGES. MICHELLE VALBERG. SICILIA BRUM.
CANADIAN WILDLIFE FEDERATION? FISH CONSERVATION?
Nearly one-third of the world’s freshwater fish are facing I have been working to restore fish habitat in BC for over 15 years
extinction. This is primarily due to human activities such as dams, on behalf of governments, non-profits, First Nations and industry.
pollution, climate change, overfishing and development. The All of our activities on the land connect with the challenges facing
situation for anadromous fish like salmon that are born in fresh Pacific salmon. Roads and railways built decades ago are preventing
water, live for years in the ocean and then return to freshwater salmon from reaching their spawning and rearing grounds. Some
to reproduce is just as shocking. We have over 15,000 dams in of these structures were installed prior to legislation protecting fish
Canada, but less than 400 have ladders or other fishways to pass habitat. Many of the barriers have been abandoned. But we cannot
fish. Our freshwater species evolved to use streams and rivers like leave the fish stranded. We need to work collaboratively to
highways to move about. We cannot afford to stand by and allow determine which barriers to prioritize and how best to step up
these species to be blocked by human-made barriers. to the challenge and help as many fish as possible.

44 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

TAKING

ACTION

SAVING THE RIGHT WHALE … FROM SPACE?

The newest addition to the toolbox of North Atlantic Right Whale monitor-
ing are satellites. SmartWhales is a detection system that is being designed
to spot Right Whales from outer space. The Canadian Wildlife Federation is
participating as a partner to help design the SmartWhales program. The data
we receive from the program will be used in Right Whale research.

WILL YOU HELP US REACH OUR GOAL OF
5 MILLION?

CWF has set a goal of five million wildlife observations on iNaturalist Canada
by May 22, International Day of Biodiversity. Wildlife photos and sound
recordings posted by everyday people are reviewed by scientists online. We
now have more than 4.2 million observations and counting. It’s easy and fun
so we’d love for you to join in! With your help, we can reach five million
wildlife observations! Visit iNaturalist.ca to download the app or submit your
observations on-line.

BETTY REBELLATO. GETTY IMAGES. 3. NICK: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE FISH PASSAGE STAYING

PROJECTS CWF HAS SUPPORTED? ACTIVE

Between 2019 and 2020, CWF helped to restore fish passage at PLANTING SEEDS FOR WILDLIFE
eight streams in BC: we supported the removal of closed-bottom
culverts and construction of clearspan bridges at creeks near We plant seeds every single day. With every thought and every action we take.
Barriere and Yahk, BC. In addition, we helped install a fish ladder Join the Canadian Wildlife as we plant seeds that will have a lasting impact
in West Vancouver, tackled landslide damage on Vancouver on conservation in Canada. No matter your interests, there are so many ways
Island, helped juvenile fish reach the Squamish Estuary, and to help our wildlife and provide them with the wild spaces they so desperately
removed several culvert barriers in other parts of the province. need to thrive. Visit PlantingSeedsforWildlife.ca to explore all the personal
These projects were made possible in part by funding provided actions we can take and then make your pledge to #DoMoreForWildlife.
by Fisheries and Oceans Canada through the Canada Nature
Fund for Aquatic Species at Risk, and the BC Salmon Restoration To thank you for your pledge, we will send you a free Black-Eyed Susan
and Innovation Fund, which is also supported by the province of (Rudbeckia Hirta) seed packet. These bright golden yellow blooms are
British Columbia. a lovely addition to any backyard or container garden and are a favourite
for attracting birds, butterflies and other nectar-loving pollinators and
4. BETTY: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? insects. Make your pledge at PlantingSeedsforWildlife.ca

This year, we have several additional projects in the planning HELPING YOUR GARDEN GROW
stages. Each of these initiatives involves detailed construction
projects undertaken by professional contractors. We engage Want to know how to support your local and migratory wildlife, right
multiple partners to ensure project success. Take Ginlulak Creek outside your door? The Canadian Wildlife Federation can help you make
for example: an undersized and raised culvert along a forest your outdoor space both beautiful and beneficial with a variety of online
service road posed a partial barrier to fish passage, especially resources, videos, posters and handouts. Whether you’re a novice gardener
during low flows. At high flows, the road flooded. This road or a seasoned green thumb, you can select your starting point to become
crossing is located within a tidally- influenced zone of the Nass part of CWF’s gardening pathway and help make your backyard or balcony
River. However, there is a large wetland complex upstream of an oasis for butterflies, bees, birds and other wildlife. Get started at
the road crossing that provides high-quality rearing habitat to CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca/gardening
juvenile Coho Salmon. By replacing the road crossing with
a clearspan bridge, fish passage is now restored. MAY + JUN 2021 45

5. NICK: HOW CAN I FIND OUT MORE AND

GET INVOLVED?

To learn more about our work in BC, visit fishpassage.ca. If there
is a barrier blocking fish movements in your neighbourhood,
send us an email and let us know! To share photos of salmon
and other fish and the wildlife and habitats they support, check
out iNaturalist.ca.

Right Here

46° 43' 38.5" N
60° 51' 55.0" W

Moose, Sunday Lake, Cape Breton
Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia
Photo by Adam Hill
46 CANADIAN WILDLIFE

OverBcoAmiRngRIERS

No matter where you live in Canada, we’re all connected to
the oceans. Some species can literally make the journey from
freshwater to salt water or vice versa. Discover the great
threats they face along the way and learn how you can help.
It’s up to us to give safe passage for our migratory species!

Learn more at RiverstoOceans.ca.

RIVERS TO OCEANS WEEK | JUNE 8 TO 14

GETTY IMAGES

A clear SIGN

you’ve planted a
wildlife-friendly garden.

Have a positive impact on the environments around you.
Plant a wildlife-friendly garden and earn your CWF Garden
Habitat Certification. When you certify your garden, we’ll add
your wildlife-friendly habitat to our map of certified gardens
to show the collective impact across the country. Join home
owners, schools, businesses and communities that have
certified their space by planting wildlife-friendly habitat.

Learn more at
CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca/certification

Stacey Wood
Frank McHarg