Learning Botanical Words with the Toronto Botanical Garden

The Toronto Botanical Garden's Weston Family Library publishes weekly "Botanical Nerd Word" posts to help spruce up your vocabulary.

Each word is defined, and accompanied by a photo to help illustrate the word.  You can check out their website for their postings, or subscribe to the Toronto Botanical Garden's newsletter to receive these postings in your inbox.

This is a great site for the garden enthusiast, or anyone who wants to learn more about botany in bite-size words.

Engaging the Mind with Lectures

Attending lectures is an activity that delights me.  Though I've graduated from post secondary school and graduate school, I continue to attend lectures, because I enjoy learning.

There are many places that organizes talks.

If you are a graduate of a post secondary institution, subscribe to their alumni emails (if you are not already on their listservs) to receive information about upcoming talks for alumni.

The Toronto Public Library hosts a variety of programs within their branches throughout the city.  You can check out upcoming programs on their website, or pick up their quarterly publication What's On, available from their branches.

Depending on your interests, you can check associations and groups to see if they host lectures.

Here are some nature-related lectures you can check out in the city of Toronto, many of which are free:

• Toronto Public Library's Our Fragile Planet
• High Park Stewards
• Toronto Botanical Garden's Lecture Series
• Toronto Entomologists' Association
• Toronto Field Naturalists

Recycling Plastics: Decoding Plastic Symbols

Look at any plastic item, and you will most likely see 3 arrows circling a number, with letters underneath. Have you ever wondered, or rather, been confused by what these symbols are?  These are resin identification codes.  

This code system was developed by the Society of the Plastics Industry to identify the type of plastic from which the item was made, and to help facilitate sorting for recycling.  As these arrows are similar to the mobius loop symbol for recycling, these resin identification codes are commonly mistaken as the item being recyclable.  This is not the case.  Not all plastics are recyclable; they are only recyclable where facilities and markets exist as recycling facilities vary in the types of plastics they accept.

As a consumer, it can be confusing to know what is recyclable or not.   You will have to check with your own municipality's recycling program to determine what is accepted for recycling.  For example, the City of Toronto lists the types of plastic items they accept, rather than by the resin identification code, to make recycling as easy and convenient as possible.

For more information:

• Resin identification code
• Canadian Plastics Industry Association 
• "In your blue box, not all plastics are created equal"

Leaves of Change: Fall Foliage

The changing colours of leaves from the greens of summer to the bright colours of reds, yellows, and oranges, means that fall is coming.

Plants convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar through the process of photosynthesis.  Chlorophyll is the pigment that does this, and that is what makes leaves green.  When the days get shorter, as it does going into fall, this pigment breaks down and the underlying colours reveal themselves.  The different shades of red, purple, orange, and yellow from the anthocyanin and carotenoid pigments, make up the beautiful fall foliage.

The leaves changes colour around late September to October, which makes this the best time to go for a road trip to check out this splendor.  The Internet is bursting with articles and sites that report fall foliage, so check them out first before heading out the door.

To get you started, here are a few sites you can check out:

• fall colour report from Ontario Parks
• a guide to the best places to see fall colours in Canada by The Weather Network

Seeing the World, One Street at a Time

In my previous post, I wrote about using Google Street View to explore Parks Canada's parks and historic sites.

You can also use this tool to explore the world.  Google has, and continues to traverse and photograph the globe, bringing the world to your fingertips.  You may be viewing these images already through Google Maps, by entering the location, and then viewing the streets from there.  But you can also browse their collection of photographed sites here.

You can explore natural wonders, cities, cultural sites, and attractions, discovering, or rediscovering new and familiar places through these collections of photos.  You can also check out where Google will be heading to next.

Whether you're looking for inspiration for your next adventure, or want to explore them from the comfort of your own home, Google Street View is a good resource to start.

Exploring Parks Canada Online with Street View

Canadian national parks and historic sites can be explored online, thanks to a partnership between Parks Canada and Google.

This project began in 2013, where staff from Parks Canada and Google travelled across Canada to photograph the country's landscape.  It started out with over 50 sites, and have grown since then.

To explore, enter the name of the Parks Canada site into Google Maps or Google Earth, and then view the panoramic images through Street View, or browse the Parks Canada website for a list of what's currently available, and access the sites from here.

This virtual experience can help you plan your next outdoor adventure.  But it can also bring the experience to those who may not be able to physically visit the sites due to their remoteness or challenging terrain.

Approximately 75 percent of Parks Canada's sites have already been mapped onto Google Street View, and more is being planned.

For more information about the project, check the Parks Canada website. 

Hunting for Treasure with Geocaching

Geocaching is an outdoor, modern day treasure hunting activity.  Instead of a treasure map, Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates are used to locate the treasure. 

These treasures, or geocaches, are hidden containers that typically contain a logbook and pencil, as well as small trinket trade items.  With these trade items, you can leave them or swap one with an item of your own.  So come prepared!

These geocaches are hidden all over the world, and in varying degrees of difficulty of locating them, or terrain.  According to a 2013 statistic, Canada is third in the world for active geocaches. 

Places may have guidelines about caches in their area, such as Parks Canada, or may have activity sheets, such as Banff, so it's best to check their websites first for more information.

Other than that, make sure you have a GPS device or smartphone, register at Geocaching.com, and then hit the trails!

Tracking Milkweed, Habitats of the Monarch Butterfly

The monarch butterfly is quite the sight to see.  It is probably the most well-known butterfly, recognizable by its orange, black, and white markings.

Their population has been declining over the years, and an online tool has been created in the hopes that engagement of citizen scientists can help researchers track and conserve their habitat.

This tool is MilkweedWatch.  The public can report locations of the milkweed plant, which the monarch butterfly relies upon for food and shelter throughout their reproductive cycle.  While the decline of the monarch butterfly is attributable to a variety of factors, such as habitat loss in their wintering grounds in the US and Mexico, and pesticides, the decline in milkweed is also a factor.  Milkweed is crucial to the monarch butterfly, and having more data and mapping out locations of these plants through MilkweedWatch is one way citizen scientists can help researchers.

MilkweedWatch is part of NatureWatch, which engages Canadians to submit observations to track the changing environment.  NatureWatch was first launched in 2000 as a partnership between Environment Canada, Nature Canada, and other organizations.  It has grown to include ArcticWildlifeWatch, FrogWatch, IceWatch, PlantWatch, and WormWatch.

Poetry in Nature with Haiku

Nature can inspire the poets in us.  We want to express how beautiful nature is, and how joyful and uplifted we feel when we are immersed in it.

Haiku, a type of Japanese poetry, has been around for centuries in Japan, and made popular by the poet Matsuo Bashō.  It includes these elements:  has 17 morae (which is loosely translated as syllables) in three lines of 5, 7, 5; incorporates nature and the seasons; and juxtaposes two ideas.  Haiku conveys in brevity, and using descriptive words, the fleeting moment and essence of nature.

Haiku has become popularized around the world.  While traditional haiku is rooted in nature, these days, people have adapted it to write just about anything.  Anyone can learn how to write haiku.  Have a go, and see what you can come up with!

Spring is upon us
Flowers blooming, birds chirping
My soul awakens

Saving the World's Food Supply with the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

I was fascinated many years ago upon learning about a place in Norway that collects and preserves the world's seeds.  This place is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, and it provides long-term storage and protection of the world's agricultural history and diversity.  It is located in Spitsbergen, Norway's Svalbard archipelago, between mainland Norway and the North Pole.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault officially opened and started collecting seeds in 2008.  It has the capacity to store 4.5 million seed samples, with each sample containing an average of 500 seeds.  Any country or organization can send seeds to store here.

What makes this vault important when there are so many seed banks around the world?  This seed vault serves as a worldwide insurance for food supply.  Dubbed the "doomsday" vault, we don't need to imagine a doomsday futuristic scenario where seed banks are catastrophically destroyed.  In 2015, seeds were withdrawn for the first time to replace a seed bank that was destroyed near the Syrian city of Aleppo, as a result of the civil war.  The seeds were grown, and then redeposited back into the vault.

The latest news about the vault is that Norway plans to spend about 100 million Norwegian crowns to upgrade it, following water flow into the entrance of the tunnel to the vault in 2016 due to an unexpected thawing of permafrost.

As worldwide threats to plant diversity intensifies from habitat destruction, invasive species, war, climate change, and natural disasters, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault becomes ever more important to preserve to ensure food supply for the future.

Magazines through the Toronto Public Library

There are a variety of magazines about science and nature - Canadian Wildlife, Science News, Scientific American, ON Nature, Canadian Geographic, National Geographic to name some.

These may be available to you for free at your public library, which subscribes to a wide range of resources.  At the Toronto Public Library (TPL), print titles of magazines are available at select branches (you would have to check the library catalogue to see the branch(es) where they're located), and digital issues of these titles are offered through online magazine services.  All you need is a library card!

Celebrating Science and Nature in Doodles

Google has a fun way to celebrate holidays, events, anniversaries, and the lives of people who have made an impact in our world.  They do this through their doodles.

Google Doodles has celebrated many science and nature related anniversaries over the years, including: Rachel Carson (Silent Spring), Jan Ingenhousz (photosynthesis), Gregor Mendel (genetics), Earth Day, Julius Petri (petri dish), Charles Darwin (evolution through natural selection), Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (microbiology and bacteria), John James Audubon (Birds of America), and the overwintering place of the monarch butterfly.

Each day I check out Google's home page for any newly created designs.  It’s a delight to see the creations they come up with, and learn about significant dates.

You can search or browse through their archives to see what they have done, as well as submit ideas to the Doodle team for suggestions for future doodles.