Happy World Bee Day! Many people love bees and want to help bees. More recently this help has come in the form of bee hotels/houses. These are meant to provide habitat for many solitary native bees. And it's great that people want to help these little guys out, but just Bee careful using bee houses. It can take more work than one might think to keep the bees happy and healthy. If not cleaned properly, fungus and bacteria can accumulate and make these places a vector for disea

Did you know that many mosses don't have any common names? When talking mosses, it is more normal to use their Latin names instead of a common name, especially compared to other groups of organisms. There are close to 12000 species of mosses that are usually just lumped into the category of "moss" without specifying the type of moss. Common names can be easier to remember for a lot of people, the problem is that language is always changing. One word may mean something one day

Today celebrates one of our world's greatest engineers- the beaver. These rodents have amazing capacity to accumulate water in an area and alter hydrology. As climate change affects our planet, areas are subject to desertification, with water sources becoming more scarce and dry areas become even more arid. Beavers help to mitigate some of these effects- beaver ponds store water during wet times of years, and as water recedes in the dry months, water is released slowly into s

When looking at healthy river systems, complexity is very important. Having different sections to a river will provide different habitat and functions. Here are some complexities that we look for in rivers: Riffles: The shallowest part where water is usually running over rocks. This is where water is the fastest and there is the most oxygen. Sometimes fish will wait downstream from riffles to wait for food to flow their way. Runs: This is when water flows at a more uniform pa

Cattails are an iconic part of many wetlands, and like anything, they are good in moderation. Cattails provide great habitat for many species, like red-wing blackbirds, Chorus frogs and Yellow-headed blackbirds. However, in certain ponds, cattails have taken over to the point that they are causing problems. They are prolific spreaders, reproducing via seeds and self-cloning. Because of this they can limit the diversity in the area and the amount of open water. The reason that

Nestled on the Naramata Bench, local growers are proving that agriculture and nature can thrive side by side. Along Aikins Loop, Elephant Island Winer y and JoieFarm Winer y are blending the art of winemaking with the science of stewardship—planting native vegetation, attracting beneficial insects, and strengthening their vineyards. Through the Farming With Wildlife initiative, a project led by Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship (OSS), the two vineyards partnered to install