Canadian Geographic articles from May 2002

Canadian Geographic archives from May 2002

Treading lightly. (Looking Back).
May 1, 2002... LANDSCAPES DON'T get much grander than this splendid prospect (ABOVe) high in the Selkirk Mounrains of southeastern British Columbia: rugged peaks, dramatic clouds, towering evergreens and an alpine meadow in dazzling wildflower finery. ...

World-wise web. (Geography Challenge).(www.worldwiseworldwide.com)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... WHEN YOU HAVE reached the pinnacle of geographic competition, what comes next? If you're former participants in the 2001 International Geographic Olympiad, you start a geography website. Launched in February, www.worldwiseworldwide.com is a...

Saving Sutton. (Research).(Sutton Mountains, Quebec)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... IN QUEBEC'S EASTERN Townships, volunteers are aiming to protect a 40,500-hectare tract of the Sutton Mountains. It is a lofty undertaking, but what makes their task more formidable is that 95 percent of the area, about an hour's drive southeast...

Cyber-mapping. (Websites).(www.canadiangeographic.ca)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... NO MORE LEAFING through cumbersome atlases for maps to copy for projects, lesson plans or demonstrations. A new online Map Maker tool is now available through www.canadiangeographic.ca -- just click on "Mapping." Developed by ESRI Canada...

Speaking for the commons. (Editor's Notebook).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... "THERE'S AN OCEAN OUT THERE that can't speak. I am ready to speak for it." So says Sanford Atwood, who is 53 years old and has been a Nova Scotia hook-and-line fisherman all his life. As stubborn as the tides, Atwood (BOTTOM) has pestered...

Reverberations.
May 1, 2002... Ellesmere on my mind THE ARTICLE on trekking Ellesmere Island was fantastic ("Extremophile on Ellesmere," CG Mar/Apr 2002). Wonderful photographs and even more: wit and philosophy and psychology wrapped in with adventure. I'll look forward...

Green Atlas. (Herpetology).(distribution of amphibians and reptiles in Nova Scotia to be charted in new publication)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... WHILE CHASING frogs through a pond or peering under a moist log in search of a slick-sided yellow-spotted salamander (ABOVE) may seem like the stuff of distant childhood memories, one group of Maritimers has turned its affinity for amphibians...

Now you see us. (Endangered Species).(biologists try to understand why burrowing owls disappearing)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... AFTER MORE than 10 years of painstakingly trying to unravel the mysterious disappearing act of the burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia), Geoff Holroyd of the Canadian Wildlife Service finally caught a break. Over the past decade, the owls'...

Future fuel? (Energy).(Natural Resources Canada research on deposits of gas hydrates)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... TWENTY-FOUR hours a day, seven days a week, the frozen northern edge of the Mackenzie Delta is abuzz with scientists investigating what may be the most concentrated deposit of gas hydrates on Earth, Led by Natural Resources Canada, the...

Porcelain payback. (Water Use).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... AN INNOVATIVE program encouraging lower water usage in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ont., is giving a whole new meaning to the term pay toilets. The Toilet Replacement Program offers $40 rebates to those replacing their...

Shadfly invasion. (Natural History).(occurs every summer in North Bay, Ontario; may-flies)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... VISIT NORTH BAY, ONT., in late June or early July and you'll be crunching bugs underfoot and clearing insects off your windshield with a snow brush. It's shadfly season. For two weeks every year, shadflies (also known as mayflies) invade...

Toxic troublemaker. (Pollutants).(dangers of polybrominated biphenyls ethers studied)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A NEW TOXIC MENACE is climbing food chains across the country, escaping from loveseats, couches and chairs into fish, birds, whales and even people. Canadian researchers are discovering that polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), used...

Trudeau falls. (National Parks).(movement to rename Nahanni National Park in the Northwest Territories after late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... IN THE SUMMER at 1970, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau paddled down the South Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories on a trip that proved to be a pivotal point in the history of the storied wilderness waterway. He was evidently so impressed...

Garry oak saviours. (Habitat Conservation).(British Columbia)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... THE IVY WAS ARM-THICK and the Scotch broom well above head height when a team of volunteers began hacking away at a nine-hectare parcel of land full of the invasive plants behind Government House in Victoria. Thanks to a decade of effort by...

Healthy living. (Cities).(Mississauga, Ontario)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... IT LOOKS AS IF southern Ontario has another world-class city: humble Mississauga. The municipality of 623,000 has been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a model city for efforts to improve the health of its citizens. ...

Sewage happens. (Discovery).(waste treatment systems in Canadian cities and towns)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... WHEN IT COMES to treating sewage, Canada stinks. Seventy-eight percent of us are served by treatment systems, but more than 90 municipalities still dump raw sewage into waterways. And sewage is not just human waste -- it can also contain...

Home. (Eco-Audit).(environmental and energy statistics)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... * Loads of laundry done in a year by the average Canadian family: 392 * Approximate litres of water that takes: 81,700 * Amount of garbage the average Canadian throws away each year: 0.5 tonnes * Amount of garbage he or she throws...

Work. (Eco-Audit).(energy consumption and waste management in the workplace)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... * Percentage of urban dwellers who drove to work in 1998: 80 * Percentage who used urban transit: 10 * Percentage who walked: 7 * Average time Vancouverites spend getting to and from their jobs (the highest in Canada): 1 hour ...

Play. (Eco-Audit).
May 1, 2002... * Percentage of fuel from two-stroke outboards and personal watercraft that passes through the motor unburned and is released into the water, contaminating it with benzene, toluene and the gasoline additive methyl tertbutyl ether, all possible...

Future extremes: predicting Canada's climate in 2050. (A La Carte).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... AS CANADA DEBATES its pledge to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which commits signatory nations to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions, opponents claim that climate models are too uncertain to underpin our energy policies. What, then, do we know,...

Friend or foe? With serious outbreaks predicted this summer, Canada's foremost grasshopper expert is saving harmless hoppers from the war on crop-eaters.(Dan Johnson)
May 1, 2002... DAN JOHNSON holds 50 million years of evolution between his forefinger and thumb. "It's Psoloessa delicatula, the brown-spotted range grasshopper," he says. "A female. See?" The entomologist upends the small, delicately barred insect and...

Coral champions: two fishermen convince the world's leading marine biologists to probe the damage trawlers are inflicting on ancient coral.(Nova Scotians Sanford Atwood and Derek Jones)
May 1, 2002... ONE DAY OUT from Halifax, the Coast Guard research vessel Martha L. Black came about and began a delicate dance with the winds and the waves, while her crane gently lowered a four-tonne mechanical beetle into a deep undersea canyon known to...

Lost rivers: storm sewers swallowed many of the streams and brooks that once meandered through our cities. Now, a new movement is aiming to 'daylight' those forgotten watercourses.
May 1, 2002... CALL IT A LITTLE PIECE of urban no man's land: a poured-concrete apron in midtown Toronto off University Avenue, neither parking lot nor plaza. If you look down through a grate set in the concrete, you can see, on this bone-dry summer Sunday, a...

Water wanderers.(plankton)
May 1, 2002... From microscopic algae to giant jellyfish, plankton are the building blocks of ocean life. EVERY SPRING, as the days lengthen and the waters warm, life returns to the sea with vigour. For centuries, Atlantic fishermen have believed that...

Northern Wild: Best Contemporary Canadian Nature Writing. (Nature Writing).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Edited by David R Boyd Greystone Books 278 pp., $22.95 softcover A COMMON appreciation of the land binds the essays in this fine anthology. Wade Davis, Sharon Butala, Sid Marty and David Adams Richards are but a few of the authors...

Good News for a Change: Hope for a Troubled Planet. (Advocacy).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... By David Suzuki and Holly Dressel Stoddart 398 pp., $36.95 hardcover JUST WHEN we thought our planet's health was irreparably doomed, David Suzuki and Holly Dressel give us cause for optimism. Suzuki has spent the better part of the...

The Great Northern Kingdom: Life in the Boreal Forest. (Wildlife).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... By Wayne Lynch Firzhenry & Whiteside 160 pp., $39.95 hardcover FOR THE PAST 20 years, photographer and writer Wayne Lynch has spent much of his time huddled behind blinds, trudging through marshes and crawling into dens to...

Power: Journeys Across an Energy Nation. (Issues).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... By Gordon Laird Viking/Penguin Books Canada 347 pp., $35 hardcover THE DEBATE over whether Canada should ratify the Kyoto Protocol underscores once again how critical energy is to our domestic and international relations. Gordon...

An Eclectic Guide to Trees East of the Rockies. (Reference).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... By Glen Blouin The Boston Mills Press/Stoddart 280 pp., $29.95 softcover AS THE TITLE implies, this is not your average field guide. Glen Blouin, a former executive director of the Canadian Forestry Association, goes beyond the...

Troubled waters.(Well of Lies)
May 1, 2002... WE CAN TAKE cold comfort from the fact that the Walkerton water tragedy of May 2000, in which seven people died and as many as 2,300 fell ill, was the result not of a single mistake but of the unlikely combination of several bizarre factors: a...

Sowing the seeds of a healthier world.(Tending the Earth: A Gardener's Manifesto)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... GARDENING can be seductive. You can start off innocently planting a few annuals and end up with an all-consuming one-hectare garden. Or, like Lorraine Johnson, you can begin by trying to sprout morning glories in an old egg carton and end up...

The War on Weeds in the Prairie West: An Environmental History. (Briefly Noted).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... By Clinton L. Evans University of Calgary Press 309 pp., $29.95 softcover IN THIS HISTORICAL overview of the evolving relationship between weeds and farmers on the Canadian Prairies, Clinton Evans examines how our definition of...

Lichens of North America. (Briefly Noted).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... By Irwin Brodo, Sylvia Duran Sharnoff and Stephen Sharnoff Yale University Press 795 pp., $69.95 hardcover UBIQUITOUS and delicate, beautiful and strange, lichens are important but curiously overlooked members of the biosphere....

Hummingbirds: A Beginner's Guide. (Briefly Noted).(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... By Laurel Aziz Firefly Books 64 pp., $9.95 softcover HUMMINGBIRDS, as Laurel Aziz aptly points out, evoke splendour, down to their variously hued names: ruby-throated, berylline and emerald, to mention a few. Her wonderful guide...

The Quirks & Quarks Question Book: 101 Answers to Listeners' Questions. (Briefly Noted).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Introduced by Bob McDonald McClelland & Stewart 198 pp., $19.99 softcover HAVE YOU EVER wondered how fast raindrops fall or how a woodpecker manages to pound on a tree without getting a concussion? The answers to these and many...

Eagle highway. (On the Horizon).(protecting eagles)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... EVERY FALL, along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in southern Alberta, as many as 1,000 golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) may pass overhead on the best days. Soaring to their winter ranges throughout western North America, they...

Anglers of mercy. (Mosaic).(Trout Unlimited Canada)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... ENDURING SUB-ZERO temperatures and the season's first snowfall, volunteers and staff of Trout Unlimited Canada (TUC) haul bucketfuls of stranded trout and other sport fish from an irrigation canal near Carseland, Alta., southeast of Calgary...

Untamed world. (In Habitat).(taming nature)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... TEENAGE BOYS PERFORM a natural primordial ballet. Walking, running, spinning wildly, leaping over great distances, lightly lingering on street corners, insouciantly slouched wherever they land, elegant and yielding as a pair of grey flannel...