Re: “Do Green Frogs Get The Blues?” Hello: I have enjoyed yet another edition of Ontario Nature magazine. The article on page 13 “Do Green Frogs Get The Blues?” was especially appealing as the property we listed in your magazine’s spring edition did indeed have a blue frog on it. Refer to my website: pbase.com/snorkelady/image/170206425. Thank you […]
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Category: Letters to the Editor
We enjoy hearing from ON Nature readers. Please send letters by email to onnature@ontarionature.org or by mail c/o Editor, and include your full name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Letters should be 75 words or less and may be published on the website and/or in the printed magazine.
Neonic Lawsuit Ruling
Re: The Disappointing Decision on the Neonic Lawsuit To the Editor of ON Nature, Further to Anne Bell’s Neonic lawsuit article, the Blue Mountain Watershed Trust Foundation has monitored the use of pesticides applied by seven golf courses in the Collingwood area for over 10 years. The area golf courses are using Class 9 Pesticides […]
Norway Maples
Re: The Leafy Viking I read your article regarding Norway maple trees with interest. I am very interested in preserving our native caterpillar populations and support planting native tree species. To that end I have planted two paper birch trees, a swamp willow, a striped maple and a tamarack on my residential property. I also […]
Hemp
Dear Ontario Nature, it is more important now than ever before that we stop being afraid, we must stop living from a state of fear of hemp. Hemp is the most useful versatile plant in the world, you name it, hemp can do it, there is almost nothing this plant cannot do, thats why it […]
Forestry Policy
Re: Closing the Loop on Forest Protection? I am a retired forester and a long-time member of Ontario Nature. Concerning your recent article in the 2019 Spring issue of the ON Nature magazine, my take is this: You say that licenced companies under the Forest Stewardship Council certification process – by the way, American companies […]
New Year, New Look
Re: Have you read the new issue of ON Nature? I have indeed read the latest issue of ON Nature. I like the format of longer and shorter articles. The images are attractive. I was especially interested in the Plant Predators article as I am waiting impatiently for cottage season. We are on a lake […]
St. Joseph’s Donation
The Volunteer Services Department at St. Joseph’s Health Centre Toronto would like to thank Ontario Nature Magazine for your generous contribution of interesting reading material. We truly appreciate your support. In times of discomfort, your magazines really pulled through for patients who are in our hospital for long stays. We also distributed your magazines to […]
Single Use Plastic
Re: When Nature Calls I noticed in the picture on page 18 & 19 “When Nature Calls” in the Fall 2018 issue that it looks like the hiker is carrying a single-use plastic water bottle in her backpack. This may be getting picky, but it does not send the right message. I imagine it was […]
A Tale of Two Davids
Dear Editor, I am a long-standing member of Ontario Nature, and have been an active member and twice-President of Nature Barrie, one of the member organizations. I am very supportive and appreciative of the work our federation does. I also teach Conservation Biology to undergraduate students and I know from that experience that engaging people […]
Barn Swallows
Re: Nesting Instincts Dear ON Nature, We read with great interest the article on replacement nesting habitats for barn swallows. We were laughing out loud and shaking our heads at the arrogant hubris of those who would keep building structures that don’t work. Maybe they should have put up a sign (“Swallows Nest Here please”). […]
A Different Biodiversity
Re: A Different Kind of Biodiversity Dear Mike, I agree with your observations about the diversity of the membership of naturalist organizations. I have also seen the same membership bias and ageing effect in hiking clubs and hiking trail organizations. If you are involved in Ontario Nature in any of the southwestern Ontario clubs you […]
Environmental Education
Re: A Different Kind of Biodiversity The solution to getting ‘young, ethnically & culturally different people’ involved in the environmental movement is to educate them very young. Ontario Nature needs to take a look at the Ontario curriculum & then provide elementary teachers with resources that fit this curriculum. As a retired educator who is […]
American ginseng
Re: Root of Temptation There are many documented benefits to American ginseng, it is not necessary to discredit its proper medicinal use with the term “purported”. Of course poaching is not ok. Harald Dienes, Ontario
North French River
The article, River of Life, in the Spring 2018 issue, did a great disservice to the readers, setting a new low in biased journalism. Long on emotion and bereft of facts, the article gave the reader no information on which to judge possible development in the North French River watershed. It starts with the bias […]
Fixing the Nest
Re: Nesting Instincts I read with great interest the article “Nesting Instincts” in your recent Spring 2018 ON Nature magazine about the barn swallows. The new structures built to replace existing barns/bridges/etc. have been erected with ready to occupy nesting cups. As the article states, instinct would lead swallows to build where and how they […]
Monarch Butterfly Update
RE: Tracking Monarch Habitat I signed up for milkweed watch as encouraged on page 6 of your Spring 2018 issue. 2017 seemed to be a very good year for Monarch butterflies here. And as I have done for many years, I scattered the seeds as best I could on the property. – Phelps Goodman Monarch […]
Phragmites Control
What to do about phragmites is difficult and controversial, so we hoped to sparked a dialogue. We have received some thoughtful responses to Brad Badelt’s feature article “Killer weed.” Here are several letters from readers who care deeply about the environment, but hold different perspectives on phragmites. Where do you stand? John, In 1993 I […]
Coyotes Conjecture
Re: Coyotes’s bad rap A little while ago, I read the article about coyotes in our midst. I have ambiguous feelings towards the measures recommended to discourage coyotes: fruit tree and fruit removal, bird feeder removal, etc. We know coyotes will always be there, as we know they adapt. So, if they can survive near us, why […]
Energy East Cancellation
We should not be happy that Energy East was cancelled. We will use the same amount of oil either way, except now we will support some foreign dictators with terrible environmental controls in their country, have the risk of tanker accidents and possibly killing whales, rail road accidents, etc. New pipeline technology has made the […]
Wind Power Cancellation
Re: Another win for the county The celebratory tone in this article is not appropriate. Granted, turbines shouldn’t be placed in Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas. But cancellation of wind projects is also cause for concern. Wind is crucial in addressing climate change and as environmentalists we need to be careful that, in critiquing a […]
Cambridge Pollinator Preserve
Hello fellow Pollinators, Having read articles in the spring (Pollinator campaign targets schools) and summer issues (Stratford joins Bee City program) of ON Nature magazine about pollination – I would like to take the opportunity to advise that the Ancient Mariners Canoe Club in Cambridge, Ontario have developed over the past several years a 1-hectare […]
Second Reply to Dr. Foster
Re: “Letters – a rebuttal to a Randy Eshenroder’s May 17th sea lamprey letter”, Re: “Letters – Reply to Dr. Foster RE: sea lampreys“, Re: “Rethinking sea lamprey control” (Earth Watch, Spring 2016) This is my second reply to Dr. Foster concerning his proposal to experimentally cut back on sea lamprey control in Lake Superior […]
Too Much Tourism?
Dear Editor, In a day and age where money basically runs society it’s surprising just how many people can afford to travel. Thanks partly to online “deal finders” and the low Canadian dollar, visitors have all the more incentive to stay north of the border this summer season. But is this an issue? It is […]
Sea lamprey Rebuttal
Re: “Letters – Reply to Dr. Foster RE: sea lampreys” I have enormous respect for Randy Eshenroder’s fisheries expertise and experience, and I am not surprised by his views. I am sure they are shared by many of his colleagues at the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, not to mention a good number of other fisheries […]
Reply RE: Sea Lampreys
Re: “Rethinking sea lamprey control” (Earth Watch, Spring 2016) In the Spring 2016 issue, Dr. Foster reviewed tradeoffs between maintaining suppression (control) of sea lamprey in the Great Lakes and alleviating its impacts on non-target organisms, suggesting the time had come to consider allowing sea lamprey to “reach a point of natural equilibrium.” Dr. Foster’s […]
Guild Woods
Re: “City approves 68 new environmentally protected areas“(Toronto Star, November 2015) I represent a group called APESA: Alliance to Protect Environmentally Significant Areas. We are based in Scarborough, specifically Guildwood. I have just read an article published by Ontario Nature – in November of last year, I believe – regarding the designation of ESAs in […]
Leapfrog Development
Re: “Urban sprawl leaps over the Greenbelt” (Earth Watch, Spring 2016) I have just read “Urban Sprawl Leaps Over The Greenbelt” in the current (Spring 2016) issue of ON Nature. It is alarming. Midhurst is close to Barrie where I live and development is spreading in all directions from what were the boundaries of the […]
Bird and Hay
Re: “The cutting edge” (Feature, Spring 2016) With regard to the photo on the title page of the article “Cutting Edge” in the Spring 2016 edition of ON Nature: I am a farmer, and I can recognized good — and bad — haying practices when I see them. The aforementioned photo illustrates a number of […]
Black Bear Hunt
Re: “Under the gun“, (Feature, Spring 2016) Am writing from Grey Bruce – home of a unique variation on Black Bears – and so read with interest, the piece by Conor re: Under the Gun. I attempted to find the Ted Talk (2013) that he spoke about toward the end of the article – but […]
Urban Rivers
Re: “A river runs through it” in ON Nature, fall 2014 When I was taking night courses at the University of Toronto in the early 60s, I took a birding course with Professor Baillie. To get to this and my other courses, I rode the subway from Etobicoke, got off at St. George station, crossed Bloor […]
Bank Swallow
Re: “Over a burrow” in ON Nature, fall 2014 I am encouraged by the enlightened attitude of Canada Building Materials towards the bank swallows nesting in their sand and gravel pits. The company’s “live and let live” policy serves as a model for other aggregate operations. Perhaps though, in concert with bank-swallow friendly aggregate policies, […]
Unfinished Business
Re: “Unfinished Business” [Spring 2010] The Guelph Field Naturalists (GFN) would like to express our disappointment with your article “Risky Business” [Autumn 2009], which reported on the proposed Hanlon Creek Business Park (HCBP) development in Guelph. The article is riddled with misinformation and was written in a biased manner. In addition, neither City of Guelph […]
A Low Bar
Re: “The Killing Fields” [Spring 2010] Kudos to Paul Webster [“The Killing Fields,” Autumn 2009] for alerting us to the devastating impact of pesticides on birds. I had not realized the numbers killed were in the hundreds of millions. This is truly a tragedy. It’s also true, of course, that pesticides harm people, and here […]
Wasted resources
Re: “Power Struggles” [Winter 2009] As a long time observer of climate change and occasional lobbyist, I commend you on the Winter 2009/2010 issue of ON Nature. I share Anne Bell’s concern about burning wood “waste,” a source of biomass, to produce energy [“Power struggles,” page 22]. Plants have lots of carbon dioxide, oxygen, water […]
Good Forestry
Douglas Hunter’s fascinating piece “Temperature Rising” [Spring 2007] contained a sidebar that made my temperature rise. The sidebar promotes the erroneous idea that uncontrolled, rapacious logging operations in the boreal forest must be stopped because they are “a cause of global warming.” Included in the sidebar is the statement, “At the same time that greenhouse […]
Litter
It came as no surprise to me that smoking detritus topped “Canada’s Dirty Dozen,” the littering list featured in Janice Weaver’s “The Beachcombers” [Autumn 2007]. I have been observing the sneaky little habits of smokers since the sixties and long ago concluded that smoking is like a PhD course in littering. Smokers not only rationalize […]
Wheels of progress
Re: “Some tough love” [Summer 2008] As was illustrated in Edward Keenan’s “Some tough love” [Summer 2008], ATVs are a controversial topic. As landowners of a 2,100-hectare forest on the Oak Ridges Moraine, it goes without saying that we are very aware of them. I would like to take this opportunity to provide an update […]
Flying Squirrels
In the article “Land before time” [Summer 2007], it is stated that “the northern flying squirrel, a creature typical of northern boreal forests, reach their southern limits in the [Frontenac] arch.” This statement, as I read it, is not correct. The northern flying squirrel is found farther south than the Frontenac Arch. In Ontario, the […]
Adaptive behaviour
Re: “Deadwood forest” [Autumn 2006] The print and broadcast coverage of this spring’s garlic mustard story was disheartening, to say the least. Dawn Bazely, a York University biologist and an expert on invasive plants, has been keeping a close eye on garlic mustard for more than a decade, watching as it marches inland from the […]
Fine dining
Re: “Fine dining” [Autumn 2006] You are to be congratulated on your outstanding Autumn 2006 issue, which focuses on the important relationship between food production and ecology. As a retired social science teacher and as an organic farmer with 37 years of experience, I know how critical it is for people of all ages to […]