SPRING 2024

Through
and through

Explore additional content for the spring 2024 issue of the Nature Conservancy of Canada Magazine

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Coast to coast

What’s in a name?

Migrating birds will soon be returning to Canadian skies. Let’s pause and think about what their names mean (page 4).

Recently, the American Ornithological Society (AOS) decided to rename birds named eponymously or that are currently named using offensive or derogatory terms. The effort has also been heralded as a great way to better reflect birds’ appearance, behaviour or habitat needs, essentially giving birds names that celebrate them for what they are. Renaming birds may also remove a barrier felt by people who have suffered from Western colonialism, hopefully going some way toward making birds, birding and the natural world more accessible and a safer place for individuals and communities who have suffered under systemic exclusion and racism.

Here are some of our suggestions for possible new names.

Feature story

Present and accounted for

Conserving areas of biodiversity that are representative of landscapes and species not yet protected is essential to creating resilient ecosystems (page 8).

Nowhere is the importance of representation in conservation more apparent than in the Coastal Douglas-fir (CDF) biogeoclimatic zone of southwestern British Columbia. NCC’s newest conservation area in British Columbia, Reginald Hill Conservation Area on Salt Spring Island, addresses this need.

Species profile

The beaver

Canada’s quintessential aquatic engineer and wetland manager (page 12).

Project Updates

Conserving a key migratory bird rest stop

The expansion of a globally important migratory stopover along the eastern shoreline of Chaplin Lake in Saskatchewan marks a significant milestone in grassland conservation in Canada. Now totalling 1,286 hectares, Mackie Ranch’s grasslands and wetlands provide habitat for a diversity of shorebirds, including sanderling, semipalmated sandpiper and piping plover (page 15).

Your voices

A passion for nature

Helen Salkeld, an entomologist for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, was a true naturalist and spent her life committed to caring for the natural environment around her. In 2002, she donated 20 hectares in eastern Ontario to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (page 15).

In 1954, Helen jumped in a station wagon and set off on an Ontario to British Columbia road trip with three of her girlfriends. This incredible journey took them from coast to coast, picnicking in fields, camping, and swimming in lakes and rivers. Check out the photos from her greate adventure.

Road trip - summer of ’54 / Road trip : été 1954

Your impact

Supporting threatened species

In Ham-Sud and Ham-Nord, in Quebec’s Estrie region, with your support, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) and partners protected a natural corridor that supports the survival and resilience of the region’s animals and plants, including threatened species like Van Brunt’s Jacob’s-ladder (back cover).