Alberta's huge beaver dam sparks media buzz

Wednesday, May 05 2010 @ 06:05 PM EDT

Contributed by: jkr

Last Updated: Wednesday, May 5, 2010 | 1:57 PM ET

CBC News

British and American media are buzzing about the world's largest beaver dam, which is in northern Alberta and was first found using Google Earth in 2007.

The dam on the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park is about 850 metres long. It's common for beaver dams in Canada to reach 500 metres in length.

Park officials said the dam is in an inaccessible part of the park just south of Lac Clair, about 190 kilometres northeast of Fort McMurray.

Biologists estimate the dam would have taken at least 20 years to build. It is visible in NASA satellite imagery from 1990.

The dam first jumped into the global spotlight a few years back.

"[Beavers] are one of the few species that really leave a footprint on the Earth that is visible from satellite," ecologist Jean Thie told CBC News in an interview in 2008.

Thie said he discovered the dam while scanning satellite images for signs of climate change.

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Protection for lesser spotted eagles in Estonia

Tuesday, May 04 2010 @ 05:46 AM EDT

Contributed by: terrytvgal

Submitted by Looduskalender on 1 May 2010 - 11:52pm

Information from Estonian Ministry of the Environment

Photo: Arne Ader

Translation: Liis

source: http://www.looduskalender.ee/en

Lesser spotted eagle.

15 breeding territories of the lesser spotted eagle in Estonia will be declared as protected sites. The total area is 222 hectares, mostly on state-owned land and included in the Natura 2000 network.

According to the regulation from the Ministry of the Environment, fishing and hunting is allowed on the lesser spotted eagle nesting territories from September 1 to March 14, that is, during a period when this does not disturb the nesting or the growing up of the young of the lesser spotted eagles. During the same period berry and mushroom picking is also allowed in the protected zones of the nesting sites.

Warming Arctic disrupts birds' breeding

Tuesday, April 27 2010 @ 03:09 PM EDT

Contributed by: jkr

Some species arriving from south a month ahead of schedule

By Jane George, Nunatsiaq NewsApril 27, 2010

Snow geese land on a pond about 100 kilometres southeast of Edmonton on the weekend.

Photograph by: Chris Schwarz, The Journal, Nunatsiaq News

As Arctic temperatures warm and weather becomes less predictable, migratory birds may face new challenges and some nasty surprises when they return North, researchers with the Canadian Wildlife Service say.

Birds sometimes arrive at their northern breeding grounds earlier than they used to, driven by warm weather in the South, only to find no food there when they arrive.

And, once they are in the Arctic, increasingly unpredictable weather can cause them additional misery.

Due to higher than average temperatures in many parts of Nunavut this past winter, birds are already flocking back to the High Arctic.

A people’s movement to protect the fish that built BC – wild salmon

Saturday, April 24 2010 @ 05:46 AM EDT

Contributed by: terrytvgal

The Get Out Migration Begins

Source: salmonaresacred.org

(April 22, 2010, Sointula, BC) After 20 years of expressing concern to governments that won’t listen and have shielded Norwegian salmon farms from the laws of Canada, the public of British Columbia is taking to the streets to get industrial salmon farming out of the ocean andaway from their wild salmon.

The Get Out Migration begins today with an evening send-off from the fishing village of Sointula. Tomorrow morning the Namgis First Nation will perform a ceremony at the Nimpkish River at 10am for the group walking into the mountains.

“Get Out for Wild Salmon” released today on www.salmonaresacred.org shows Biologist Alexandra Morton leaving the Meetup River with the young wild salmon and a send off by the Broughton First Nation village Gwa'yasdams Village. “When International companies come in here and lay waste to our territory we have a problem with that,” said elected chief Bob Chamberlin.

Anissa Reed of Ocean Aura and one of the planners says, “people absolutely hold salmon sacred. The outpouring to the Get Out Migration of artwork, volunteers organizing awesome events in every town, offering us shelter in their homes is a demonstration of the attachment British Columbians have to wild salmon. We expect thousands to participate.”

“Government has ignored its own studies on salmon farming since 1989. This is exactly how we lost the food security, thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars that the North Atlantic cod brought to Canada. “We in BC do not intend to play out this tragedy again,” says Alexandra Morton, “government must support the families dependant on this industry as it is removed from the ocean onto land.”

B.C.'s largest fish-farming company facing charges

Wednesday, April 21 2010 @ 08:29 PM EDT

Contributed by: terrytvgal

Justice Department takes over private prosecution launched by biologist

By Judith Lavoie,

Victoria Times Colonist

April 21, 2010 2:05 PM

Photograph: Bill Keay, PNG

source: The Province

Researcher Alexandra Morton checks out young salmon just netted in Fife Sound for sea lice.

VICTORIA — Charges of unlawful possession of wild salmon and herring have been laid against Marine Harvest Canada, the largest fish-farming company in British Columbia.

What began as a private prosecution — initiated by biologist and activist Alexandra Morton — was taken over by the federal Justice Department on Tuesday, said federal prosecutor Todd Gerhart.

"New information charges Marine Harvest with four counts and deals with two incidents," he said.

The first incident involves juvenile wild pink salmon. It's alleged the wild fish were mixed in with farmed Atlantic salmon as they were taken off a Marine Harvest vessel in June.

The second incident involves herring, which, it's alleged, were discarded from pens in October.

Birds of a feather

Sunday, April 18 2010 @ 10:59 PM EDT

Contributed by: karenbills

The millions glued to computers watching nature would agree that the allure is ‘real wildlife’

Heather Reid, Weekend Post Published: Friday, April 16, 2010

National Post “You feel like you get to know them,” Karen Bills of the Hancock Wildlife Federation says of the webcast eagles. “This is nature’s reality show.”

On a sunny Wednesday afternoon in March, 198 people watched a bald eagle sitting motionless in its nest. The viewers weren't outside though; likely they were equally still, sitting by themselves as three video cameras fed the inner lives of the eagle from British Columbia on to computer screens around the world.

The first shots of the Hornby Island nest came in 2006. Since then, 15 million people have watched these birds do, well, bird things. Television executives would kill for viewership like that.

The Hancock Wildlife Foundation website (hancockwildlife.org) broadcasts a live feed from the B.C. nests and has added other wildlife cams of bears and salmon.

Read the rest of story here in the National Post:

http://www.nationalpost.com/life/story.html?id=2916133#ixzz0lV1xIGqW

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Stork Travels 8000 Miles to Be Reunited with Injured Lover

Saturday, April 17 2010 @ 08:14 PM EDT

Contributed by: terrytvgal

Source: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/stork-travels-8000-miles-to-be-reunited-with-injured-lover.html

With thanks to 'MaryF'

No distance is too far for Rodan, the lovesick stork.

Making the trip from South Africa to Croatia every spring, the male bird travels 13,000 km to see his beloved female partner, Malena, who is disabled and unable to fly, reports Britain’s Metro.

The loving storks cozy up, mating and raising their new chicks (they have produced 32 offspring so far) and teaching them how to fly. Rodan then departs to spend the winter months in South Africa and returns on exactly the same day, the following spring.

UK's oldest breeding osprey returns to Dunkeld

Wednesday, April 14 2010 @ 03:42 PM EDT

Contributed by: Junie

Article in The Scotsman Newspaper...

I hope you enjoy this short and sweet amazing story....Slainte Junie

The grand old lady of Scotland's Loch Lowes ospreys' has astounded wildlife experts by returning to her summer home at the wildlife reserve in Perthshire and producing an egg for a record breaking 20th consecutive year.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/UK39s-oldest--breeding-osprey.6224138.jp