Canadian Geographic articles from May 1996

Canadian Geographic archives from May 1996

The killing fields. (death of Swainson's hawks)
May 1, 1996... Stuart Houston lifts a pair of well-worn binoculars to his face and scans the Saskatchewan horizon for Swainson's hawks. But his mind is more than 11,000 kilometres south in Argentina, where an estimated 40,000 to 100,000 Swainson's escape from...

Isle of memories. (Arvia'juaq, or Sentry Island of Hudson Bay)(Geo Watch)
May 1, 1996... Arvia'juaq is a rugged, rocky chunk of barren land rising out of the frigid waters off the western shores of Hudson Bay. For centuries, possibly millenniums, Inuit from the mainland have made a summer pilgrimage to this 2.5-square-kilometre...

River-long classroom. (project to revive Fraser River)(Geo Watch)
May 1, 1996... The Fraser River begins as a clear, ice-cold trickle in the Rocky Mountains near Mount Robson, flowing first to the northwest then looping back south on its way to British Columbia's lower mainland. By the time it empties into the Strait of...

Environmental troupers. (Caravan StageBarge)(Geo Watch)
May 1, 1996... Water and the open sky will be the backdrop for a floating theatre that will be launched this June in Kingston, Ont. The Caravan StageBarge will showcase the latest in environmentally friendly technology, and present provocative plays with an...

'He's got more tongue than a Mountie's boot.'(Column)
May 1, 1996... That "Mountie's boot" folk saying from Nova Scotia aptly labels a blabbermouth. On my recent travels across our country, I found 400 folksy Canadian expressions new to me that are "feisty as the mill-tails of Hell" (that one from Shelburne,...

Weathering heights: extreme conditions may be a global warning.
May 1, 1996... Depending on where you live, the summer of 1995 may be seared into your memory for its record heat, raging forest fires, tropical storms or torrential rains. Such events are a normal result of weather's natural extremes. But an increasing number...

Boreal forest. (northern Canada's forest)(Cover Story)
May 1, 1996... When Canadians speak of wilderness, they speak most often of the great northern forest - the vast tracts of trees that stretch in a broad, unbroken belt between the far northern barrens and the settled southern edge. This is the boreal forest...

It's not easy being green. (environmental activist Daniel Green)
May 1, 1996... Are environmental activists becoming an endangered species? On one of the first warm days of spring, Daniel Green pulls his car into Pancho's Fishing Paradise, a sport fishing outfitter near Maple Grove on the southern shore of Lac-Saint-Louis....

True grit: how two companies are working to clean up their act. (Pratt & Whitney; Noranda Metallurgy Inc.'s CCR Refinery)
May 1, 1996... Montreal's Pratt & Whitney was one of a large group of companies invited by the federal and provincial governments in June 1988 to send a representative to the Queen Elizabeth Hotel for an important announcement. The governments were making...

The book of the dead. (excerpt from 'Beluga: A Farewell to Whales')
May 1, 1996... While Daniel Green raises alarms about industrial polluters in the Montreal area, several hundred kilometres downstream research scientist Pierre Beland has been documenting the effects of that pollution on the beluga whales of the St. Lawrence....

Rethinking green logic. (changes in Canadian environmental policy designed to reduce Canada's energy usage)
May 1, 1996... As we rally around recycling, are we ignoring the global impact of our industrious lifestyle? Ten years ago, the environment was at the top of everyone's list of Things That Keep Us Awake at Night. Pollsters would stop us on the street and ask...

Shell game. (protecting the endangered Blanding's turtle)(includes related article on Nova Scotia's Kejimkujik National Park)
May 1, 1996... At stake is the survival of Nova Scotia's rare Blanding's turtle Darkness is beginning to settle like curative smoke, deepening the salmon-pink tones of Kejimkujik Lake, as Ian Morrison and I scramble onto the cobble beach of Glode Island....

Turf wars. (crested wheatgrass overtakes native grasslands)(includes related article on how to control the spread of crested wheatgrass)
May 1, 1996... Crested wheatgrass defended precious topsoil during the Dirty Thirties. Now it is invading what remains of our native grasslands The spring of 1995 was late arriving on the farm-lands and prairies of southern Alberta. Daytime highs hovering...

The twins who grew giants. (forest cultivators David and Peter Brown)
May 1, 1996... David and Peter Brown were strange recluses who shut out their disapproving neighbours by inhabiting a forest of their own design On the concrete slab that is David Brown's tombstone are the words, "A Martyr." And in a way he was. Persecuted...

In a Dark Wood: The Fight Over Forests and the Rising Tyranny of Ecology.
May 1, 1996... From wood-warmed hearths to finely crafted heirloom furniture; from the sylvan rites of spring in a maple grove to the staggering heights of a cathedral forest, trees envelop and define who we are, as Canadians, as North Americans, as dwellers of...

Pacific Spirit: The Forest Reborn.
May 1, 1996... From wood-warmed hearths to finely crafted heirloom furniture; from the sylvan rites of spring in a maple grove to the staggering heights of a cathedral forest, trees envelop and define who we are, as Canadians, as North Americans, as dwellers of...

Father Goose: The Adventures of a Wildlife Hero.
May 1, 1996... When I was a boy and a plane flew overhead, I would look up; I do that rarely these days. But even now, when I am inside my house in rural Ontario and hear or see migrating geese, I rush outside to pay homage. "How many centuries," asks Bill...

The Illustrated Father Goose.(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 1996... When I was a boy and a plane flew overhead, I would look up; I do that rarely these days. But even now, when I am inside my house in rural Ontario and hear or see migrating geese, I rush outside to pay homage. "How many centuries," asks Bill...

Bombardier Beetles and Fever Trees: A Close-Up Look at Chemical Warfare and Signals in Animals and Plants.
May 1, 1996... There is a species of termite that takes a no-nonsense approach to self-defence. When its nest is invaded, it simply contracts its abdomen and explodes, covering its aggressor with a stinging mixture of blood and viscous internal organs. When...

Park Prisoners: The Untold Story of Western Canada's National Parks, 1915-1946.
May 1, 1996... You can see them every summer if you visit a national park --young, suntanned park employees paid government wages to work in a beautiful outdoor setting. It seems like the ideal job. But in Park Prisoners author Bill Waiser, a professor of...

A new equation for a breath of fresh air. (Nicole Yantzi's research on asthma)
May 1, 1996... After a year of compiling data and number crunching, Nicole Yantzi hopes her undergraduate thesis will help some asthmatics in Ontario - including herself - breathe a little easier. Yantzi, a fourth-year geography and computer science student at...

Behind the scenes with the Challenge's quiz master. (Bob Goddard; Great Canadian Geography Challenge)
May 1, 1996... While students from across the country eagerly prepare for the final leg of The Great Canadian Geography Challenge, Bob Goddard can now. sit back, relax and wait for them to start answering the questions he has devised. Goddard single-handedly...

In the eye of the wind. (chinook winds)
May 1, 1996... Aspen Valley, Alta., is not a place on the map and if I had my way, it never would be. We came here 16 years ago, fleeing the developers who are still busily paving paradise around Banff and Canmore. Our place lies at the mountain foot, tucked in...