In Canada, at least 200 active mines and 6500 quarries produce 60 commodities. Many proposed mines and quarries undergo impact assessment (IA) to predict potential impacts and inform final decision-ma...

Several groups are working to preserve webpages, tools and data – some of which have already gone missing from government webpages since the start of the Trump administration.

Energy Minister Brian Jean said in a letter to the Alberta Energy Regulator that he was rescinding ministerial orders which directed the agency to suspend approvals and refuse new applications for coa...

Fieldwork-based research and education in ecology are under multiple threats and are progressively declining. We call for greater attention to this ongoing loss of direct field experience within the ecology community, as it could have widespread consequences for science and education, ultimately hindering efforts to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis.

A list of conservation-related scholarships, fellowships, funding, and awards.

Freshwater shorelines, including adjacent riparian habitats, are dynamic intersections between land and water that contribute to the maintenance of biodiversity in both realms. These areas are also affected by multiple stressors at local and global scales, from development to climate impacts. Despite increasing alterations to these areas, often to the detriment of connected ecosystems, and despite many regulations for residential and commercial development, there are no established thresholds across countries and governance levels for how much shoreline or riparian development is too much to maintain freshwater ecosystem function. The urgent need to identify thresholds for shoreline and riparian development in freshwater systems is complicated by a number of challenges, yet there is evidence that threshold effects occur after only a small area of a watershed is developed. Here, we summarize current information on development thresholds for shoreline and riparian areas of freshwater systems. We then discuss the inherent challenges in assigning numeric values to such a diverse set of ecosystems (spanning wetlands, lakes, streams, and more), including considerations such as temporal lags, spatial scales, and cumulative effects. We conclude with a call for research needed to overcome knowledge gaps that will enable practitioners to apply scientifically-robust thresholds to decisions regarding shoreline and riparian development. Doing so will benefit all actors by providing evidence to support shoreline policies and development guidelines that are inclusive of the aesthetic, recreational, and functional aspects of freshwater systems.

Alberta’s move to lift restrictions on trapping activities is scientifically unsound and will hasten population decline across the province.

Ben Collison, a PhD candidate at the school for resource and environmental studies at Dalhousie University, provided the following opinion ...