Nature • Troy Media Digital Solutions

Common sunscreen ingredients dangerous for freshwater ecosystems

Reading Time: 2 minutes Research by U of A biologists shows detrimental effects on tiny water fleas that are fundamental to freshwater food chains

Jewelweed is a jewel of a weed

Reading Time: 3 minutes Herbalists have long espoused the benefits of jewelweed, primarily as a remedy for the treatment of poison ivy and poison oak rashes

B.C. rec sites a natural delight for hardy campers

An evening paddle on the still water of Lillooet Lake offers some respite from the bugs that await onshore

Reading Time: 8 minutes Visitors just have to be prepared to go with the flow, consider unconventional approaches and be flexible enough to adapt to travel with no reservations

Being careless around poison ivy can cost you

Reading Time: 4 minutes There’s a high likelihood of a rash arising as a result of contact with the plant. Have I mentioned I’m in agony?

Pollinators in peril and need our help

Reading Time: 4 minutes Pollinators are responsible for about one out of every three bites of food people eat. Without them, we would starve

No evidence predator control will save caribou: study

Reading Time: 2 minutes Scientists suggest renewed emphasis on securing habitat rather than culling wolves or fencing in pregnant caribou

Living close to green space benefits gut bacteria of infants: study

Reading Time: 4 minutes First study of its kind shows formula-fed babies’ gut microbiomes more like those of breastfed babies when they live near natural environments

Don’t squish that spider!

There’s a fascinating Ojibwa legend about how spiders came to build webs. Known as Manitoosh, spiders were starving as flies were difficult to catch. Eventually, Kitche Manitou, the Great Spirit, told the spider to use what they had but to use it better. Not understanding, Manitoosh sought council from Nanabush, another important spirit, who told them to use the thread the spider produces to travel from one place to another to weave a net to catch flies. And so they did and do so even today

Reading Time: 4 minutes We may be genetically programmed to fear spiders, but they’re here for a reason. Leave them alone to eat other insects

Isolation-ish escapes and one dreamy trip to save for 2021

Reading Time: 4 minutes The best little K-Country Lodge you may not know about, three mountain lodges made for escapism, Icelandic dreams

Serenaded by cicadas

The Cicada's song - a mating call - is produced by a complex vibrating membrane on their sides and a hollow resonant body cavity

Reading Time: 3 minutes Their song is produced by a complex vibrating membrane on their sides and a hollow resonant body cavity

Tag: Nature