ECOLANDSCAPES
Category: Gray Merriam’s Ecology Blog
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Treasures and Tankers: Great Bear Rainforest and Gateway Pipeline
There is nothing like the Great Bear Rainforest in the east but it should be treasured by all Canadians. The forest is a temperate rainforest – one of the largest temperate rainforests in the world. About 25,000 square miles, larger than Switzerland by half, of misty, rainy hemlock, western red cedar and yew. This is
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Green Steps
In today’s green discussions by politicians, the main focus seems to be, more and more, on global climate change and thus on use of energy. It has been a battle to get climate change recognized and it is an important focal point but it is only the top layer of an integrated chain of issues.
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This Land is Our Land: This Land is Your Land – Which?
When Woody Guthrie wrote his song “This Land is Your Land” his concern was that all the people should have some say in what happened on the land – a socialistic view. Now we see and hear “This Land is Our Land”. Is this the same philosophy? Maybe ‘Yes’, maybe ‘No’. Landowners following the slogan
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Pay for Your Own Environmental Footprint?
In a Nutshell: Land taxes and modern economic theory do not account for the environmental costs that we cause. Are you willing to pay your real costs? Here’s the idea. Ecological footprinting, an idea begun at the University of British Columbia, is a way to estimate how much demand on resources we generate by our
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Reflections on an Ecotourism Experience
I have visited four African countries since the early 80’s; two self-arranged visits and two commercial tours. My recent tour in Kenya raised serious issues for me. Several variables could have made the difference that affected me: different countries and national policies, changes over time, travelling companions, tour guides and companies. I also have ecotourism
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Biodiversity – All Listed Species are not Equal
“Biodiversity” is a popular notion. The intent is good but just counting species, often only charismatic ones, leads to dangerous conclusions. Just counting species is like just collecting any old stamps and then judging your collection simply by the number of different stamps you have. A fundamental hazard in such thinking is illustrated by the
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Carbon Sequestration
There are some questionable media reports and resulting public discussion of the role of forests in carbon storage (“sequestration”) and the balance of carbon stored and carbon released by our forest management practices. Perhaps a review of the variables and the processes will clarify this potentially biased discussion. All the carbon in trees came from
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Creeping Impacts
In a Nutshell: Habitat can be so severely degraded that some wildlife will no longer use it simply because of our presence and the activities that we consider normal. In a forest, add one house, one family, one dog and one cat along with the lights and hammering, and animals will vacate. Discussion of our
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The Snow that Warms
An article in Nature Sauvage, winter 2008 issue was entitled “le Froid qui Mord.” True biting cold can even kill but, for many organisms, the disabling effects of cold are the real problem. Species that can’t control their own body temperature internally, the ‘cold-blooded’ species. don’t die because the cold overpowers their abilities to control
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Environmentalism and Ecology — What’s the Difference?
In a Nutshell: Environmentalists are vital communicators of ecological knowledge to the public and to governments. But they should focus more widely than just amenities of human environments and they must communicate the ecological complexities accurately. Ecology is a science that deals with the interactions of all living things with all the variables in their