to know the land

While looking into possible Red Wolf (Canis rufus) genetics found in a Coastal Louisiana Coyote (Canis latrans) populations, biologist Dr. Joseph Hinton set a trap. Sadly, when a Coyote, later named LA25M was caught in this trap, his leg was irreversibly damaged. Joe decided to bring this Coyote to a vet and get the leg amputated, an unusual procedure when working with study animals, but possibly better than euthanizing the canid. Shortly after the surgery, the LA25M was released with a radio collar and monitored to determine his use of territories. Turns out this Coyote did quite well, regardless of the amputation.

When I read Joe’s paper, I was intrigued and had to ask about an interview. Graciously, he replied and we set one up.

Joe and I discuss his working getting to know Red Wolf genetics present in Gulf Coast Coyotes, why it may be important to keep track of the mixing of Red Wolf and Coyote DNA, and what a three-legged Coyote may get up to on their home range, and off of it, once released. It’s a pretty cool story. Worth a listen.

To learn more :
Space use and fate of a three-legged coyote – a case study by Joseph W. Hinton, Kelsey San Martin, Kristin E. Brzeski, Jazmin J. Murphy, & Amy C. ShuttWolf Conservation Center

Every year I get the privilege of co-leading a spiritual retreat weekend with the wonderful Greg Kennedy at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre. This year we revamped the “Trees” retreat from a couple of years ago and I switched it up, including a talk on Friday night on “What is a Forest : Of exclusion and of Community”.

This wasn’t a talk about a particular ecosystem necessarily. Instead it was an exploration of the shady history of the word and concept of “forest”, The first English use of the word forest doesn’t describe a specific ecozone; instead it was the place where royalty and gentry removed the people to keep exclusive regal hunting grounds for them and their noble guests. It meant the expulsion of peoples, and the emergence of the enclosure movement (so incitefully taught to me by Rain Crowe and Sylvia Federici many years ago), and plausible contribution to the witch hunts across Europe. “The forest” is not neutral territory. It is a contested zone.

This topic is significant to me, as in, it’s important to remember the contexts of where these exclusionary ways of interacting with the land have come from and how the plans and technologies of power were then exported, and are used with colonial intent on different lands and different people. It is important to remember how those who came before resisted this theft of the commons, and it is important to remember that we are as connected to those ancestor as we are to the trees, screes and seas.

To learn more :
Caliban and the Witch by Sylvia Federici. Autonomedia, 2004. (pdf link)
The Once and Future Great Lakes Country : An Ecological History by John L. Riley. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014.
The World Turned Upside Down by Leon Rosselson, performed by Billy Bragg

I have been feeling a little bit distant lately. Like some sort of anxious attachment distant. Avoidant even. While trying to not be too clingy or handsy with the land, I have slipped into a disconnection, being one that just observes but doesn’t participate in the ways that brought me into relationship with so many plants in the first place. I have been feeling this disconnect, and recognizing something had to be done. Then along comes Red Clover.

After attending a workshop on edible and medicinal plants I felt called by the Red Clover (Trifolium pratense). Here was a plant that I felt I could harvest without much impact on the populations, or harm to local species who depend on T. pratense. It felt like I could relearn relationships with the broader landscape, incorporating components of taking and consuming - components of relationship making with plants that I have felt conflicted on recently - and therefore helping to heal that separation which has been sneaking in. Since harvesting, I have also been doing deep dives into Red Clover natural history, and ecofunction. It has been a gift from this special plant to learn from them, harvest them, teach about them and drink the tea made from the flowers.

That’s what this week’s show is all about.

To learn more :
The ROM Field Guide to Wildflowers of Ontario by Timothy Dickinson, Deborah Metsger, Jenny Bull, and Richard Dickinson. ROM, 2004.
The Book of Field and Roadside by John Eastman and Amelia Hansen. Stackpole Books, 2003.
American Wildlife & Plants : A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits by Alexander C Martin, Herbert S Zim, Arnold L. Nelson. Dover, 1951.Incredible Wild Edibles by Samuel Thayer. Forager’s Harvest, 2017.
Held By The Land by Leigh Joseph. Wellfleet Press, 2023.
The Earthwise Herbal vol. 1 by Matthew Wood. North Atlantic Books, 2008.
Rhizobium leguminosarum wikipedia page

In the midst of a lowland forest at the edge of town, out for a slow walk with a pal, we heard the calls of Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) and started looking for them. We saw them first in an Eastern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis) tree, as they were quickly making their way towards the South. Then when we turned a corner we got to witness some courting behaviours which somehow reached deep and woke me from a slow low mood I was in.

Sometimes Cedar Waxwings are regarded as a “just a..” bird. “It’s just a Cedar Waxwing”, you might hear from another birder who is looking for some elusive flycatcher or late migrant. But if we take the time to pay attention to the mundane, we sometimes see some magic in elusive or even commonplace behaviours.

Finding the magic in the everyday is one of the beautiful parts of paying attention to our wild neighbours. The small moves sometimes mean the most. These small moves are what inspired this week’s show.

Image of Waxwings : Alan Rice, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

To learn more :

Birds of Ontario by Andy Bezener. Lone Pine, 2000.
Bird Song : Identification Made Easy by Ernie Jardine. Natural Heritage, 1996.
Stokes Guide to Bird Behavior Vol. 2 by Donald and Lillian Stokes. Little Brown and Company, 1983.
Peterson Field Guide to North American Bird Nests by Casey McFarland, Matthew Monjello and David Moskowitz. Houghton Mifflin Harcout, 2021.
American Wildlife & Plants : A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits by Alexander C Martin, Herbert S Zim, Arnold L. Nelson. Dover, 1951.
Life Histories of North American Wagtails, Shrikes, Vireos, and Their Allies by Arthur Cleveland Bent. Dover, 1965.
Birds of Forest, Yard & Thicket by John Eastman. Stackpole Books, 1997.

For the past few years I have been going out at night in May to record the calls of American Toads (Anaxyrus americanus) and Leopard Frogs (Lithobates pipiens) by the Eramosa River. I used to live much closer to the river and I could hear the songs from my window at night. When I heard those songs, I knew it was time to go record, and that the radio show that week was going to be the calls of the Anurans.

The problem was that lately, it has been pretty quiet on the home front. Maybe it was a bit too chilly for the Anurans to sing, or the rain has prevented me from bringing my recorders out, lest they get destroyed. But there have also been some really good nights, quite suitable for toad and frog song, but still it was quiet but for the Canada Geese (Branta canadensis). What was going on?

Turns out that the frogs just aren’t in the river where they usually are, probably due to an oil spill last April in the spot where I usually go record. I ended up going to a small wetland with a friend and there we recorded a different species, the Northern Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans melanota) calling in a small Cattail (Typha sp.) swamp.

There’s a profound beauty in allowing the non-human world to articulate themselves, and to give language voice, sharing their expression on platforms often dominated by our human-centric narratives. Collaborating with other life forms for my show allows me to fill in some details here and there from my books, but really, the other life has other language to carry the show and I don’t need to interfere.

It really is a gift to listen in on these non-human conversations, and I think we should practice that listening as much as possible. I recognize that traipsing about the river at night is not a sport everyone can enjoy; it may not be safe or may not be fun, but getting the chance to tune into the voices and songs of other animals is definitely a chance to learn. By offering our platforms to amplify the voices of other beings, we can not only expand our awareness of the world, but I believe it helps to promote their selfhood and agency, and remind us all of the inherent worth and value of all the others who take up space, and make place on the lands, and in the waters, we share. And when it comes to us humans, by practicing the art of listening, we are also working to kick at the bounds which isolate us from the rest of the world.

Listen in and hear what the Green Frogs have to say.

To learn more :
Herpetology (3rd ed.) by Laurie J. Vitt and Janalee P. Caldwell. Elsevier, 2009.

The Eramosa River Valley is the place where I live, play and work. Having spent roughly the last 20 years along the banks of the river, sitting, running, riding, and learning about the lives lived along the shores and walls, there are many days where I just sit back and realize how much I love this place.

When I heard about a group of folks who were working to conserve the land as a national urban park, I admit I got a little wary. Who were they? Do they care about this place as much as I do? What is their motive? How will this change my relationship with this place? Will it change the landscape of the valley? How will the river be affected?

I ended up doing some research into the campaign and decided the best thing to do would be to just reach out and ask about an interview… and nearly right away, Brian Skerrett, spokesperson for National Urban Park Guelph got back to me, and we made the plan.

Brian enthusiastically answered my questions and helped me understand the hope and scope of the proposed park and taught me a lot about the land I love. I realized that he too really appreciates this place and wants to see the valley cared for and protected. The National Urban Park Guelph folks are really focused on building community awareness and community participation in developing this park idea, and doing so in a good way.

I asked a lot of questions throughout our interview, including some I had never thought about before.. How do you build a national park located in the middle of the growing city? How can a park be a tool for healing and reconciliation? How can an old prison become a tool for social change and the protection of a beloved of a river valley?

Hopefully this episode helps build the possibility of a healing place to visit, sit and learn to fall deeper in love with the river I long to know more.

To learn more :
UrbanParkGuelph.com
Urban Park Guelph on Instagram
Urban Park Guelph on Facebook

This past weekend I got to participate in my second track and sign evaluation with Tracker Certification North America and one of the most interesting things I learned was some new Earthworm sign which triggered the thought… I really don’t know much about Earthworms (class Oligochaeta), but I want to start digging in.

I ended up crawling through all of my books to see what I had on the topic, but there wasn’t much. A couple paragraphs here, a photo or two there, but there was enough to tickle my curiosity. They are a slippery group of species to distinguish but there are at least some common characteristics across them.

Really this is a good reminder that we often take some of the more common species for granted, ignoring the usual, rather than deepening that already accessible and immediately present relationship.

Listen to the show if you want to learn more, too. These worms have a lot of interesting things going for them.

Some resources I used include:
Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Forests by John C. Kricher and Gordon Morrison. Houghton Mifflin, 1988.
Nature’s Year by Drew Monkman. Dundurn 2012.
Tracks and Sign of Insect and Other Invertebrates by Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney. Stackpole Books, 2010.
A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America by J. Reese Vashell, Jr.

I have been thinking a lot about the diversity of sexuality and gender in nature. Wondering about how different animals, plants, and fungi present sexually. How do different species mate? What characteristics are considered belonging to one sex, but in reality, may be shared by many sexes? Many sexes? How many are there? Why do some species have thousands of sexes, and some species only have one?

Maxwell Matchim (they/them) has been asking some similar questions but through a different lens, thinking “about the ways in which Trans people exist between worlds, much like amphibians. The way in which Trans people change their bodies over time as means of survival.” And with these questions, they have been making a documentary. When my pal Miki told me about this, my first thought was “this is a conversation I am looking for”. When I reached out, Maxwell was game and we set up the interview.

We talked about Maxwell’s experience so far in producing the documentary, unisexual Ambystoma salamanders, gynandromorphism (having characteristics of two sexes) in birds, classification of species which might not actually make sense, and so many other queer natural histories and how we might relate to them in the context of the present social political world.

This is a conversation I would love to be having all of the time, looking at the parts of life which just don’t abide by the dominant narratives. If you’re into that, you’ll like the show.

To learn more:
Understanding Myself as an Amphibian gofundmeMaxwell Matchim’s instagram
Queer Forest Club instagram
Feminist Bird Club instagram
Biological Exuberance by Bruce Bagemihl
Queer Ducks (and Other Animals) by Eliot Schrefer
Evolution's Rainbow Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People by Joan Roughgarden
How Far the Light Reaches : A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler

When I look into the authors who wrote most of the naturalist, ecology, natural history books on my shelves, I mostly see white people, especially the older books. When I do interviews with folks in the field, I still find a majority of those who I am talking with are white folks. I wholly recognize that is on me in a lot of ways, but I also recognize that historically, access to these fields has been gatekept by and for white folks, mostly men.

When I come across initiatives that challenge that dynamic, I get stoked. When I find out they are taking students out to some of the places I have and continue to go to to learn about the natural world, I get really stoked, so much so, that I reached out to see about an interview.

Alannah Grant and Jonathan Chu are graduate students in Integrative Biology at Guelph. They are also the University of Guelph liaisons for FREED where they lead the organization and fund-raising (amongst other things) for UoG students to participate in FREED excursions. I wanted to ask them about recent movements to bring awareness to and correct the lack of representation of Black, Indigenous, and people of colour in environmental sciences, how they organize themselves, what is working and what they do on these excursions?

I am always excited when the things I love are made more accessible, so more folks can appreciate, participate, teach and learn. We all live on this wild planet and we should all be able to take part in the profound experiences of exploring, examining and connecting with the land, on the land. This is what FREED helps folks do.

To learn more :
FREED website
FREED instagram

Ok, so this is weird, but I love death.

Dying, decay, decomposition, breakdown.. synonyms that sort of warm my heart in a strange kinda way. When I think of death I think of nutrients breaking down into small parts, making it easier for other things to consume and to continue to grow and live. I think of how death makes all life possible. How without consuming things like veggies, grains, fruits, mushrooms, and maybe even meats, all things which were once alive, we could never live. I am grateful to death so that I may live. I too am grateful to those things which help break things down. The decomposers which turn trees into soil and enable all the plants to grow, soil bacteria to thrive and create suitable substrates to all the fungal bodies in the dirt.

Today’s show is all about those fungal forms which help breakdown trees into consumable soil nutrients; white rot and brown rot. I have talked about them before on the show, but I wanted to dig in a little bit more. I hope you enjoy it!

To Learn More :
Field Guide to Tree Diseases of Ontario (pdf)
Polypores and Similar Fungi of Eastern and Central North America by Alan E. Bessette, Dianna G. Smith, and Arleen R Bessette. University of Texas Press, 2021.
Plant Pathology by George N. Agrios. Harcourt Academic Press, 1997.
Disgustipated by Tool