Tag Archives: nature

When Bed Bugs Became Normal

Posted on by
Reply

Over Christmas, in the middle of one of those conversations that wander from politics to rent to the sheer exhaustion of trying to live well, one of my kids said something that stopped me cold.

“You boomers don’t really get it,” they said. “Bed bugs are just part of life now.”

I laughed at first, because that is what you do when something sounds exaggerated. Bed bugs, to me, belonged to a different era. Something from old boarding houses, wartime hostels, badly run hotels in novels. Not something you simply absorbed into your mental list of modern inconveniences, like delayed buses or terrible customer service.

But they were serious. Not alarmist, not dramatic. Just factual. Friends had dealt with them. Neighbours had dealt with them. People they knew moved, threw out furniture, slept with their clothes sealed in bags, and then went on with their lives. It was not a story. It was context.

I live in Ottawa. I pay attention to housing. I read the news. And yet this had somehow slid past me. So I did what I usually do when I suspect I am wrong. I went and looked it up.

What I learned was uncomfortable, not because bed bugs are especially dangerous, but because they are ordinary now in a way they were not when I was younger. Bed bugs were largely suppressed in North America by the late twentieth century. They never disappeared, but for a long while most people never encountered them. That changed in the early 2000s, and the change stuck.

Public health agencies, pest control data, and municipal reporting all tell the same story. Increased travel, dense urban housing, and widespread resistance to common insecticides have allowed bed bugs to rebound and spread efficiently. They do not care if a place is clean. They do not care about income. They move by hitching rides in luggage, backpacks, furniture, and clothing. Human mobility is their advantage.

Ottawa, it turns out, regularly appears near the top of Canadian city rankings for bed bug treatments. Not because it is uniquely dirty or negligent, but because it is dense, mobile, and full of multi unit housing. Apartments, dorms, shelters, hotels, and condos form a continuous ecosystem. Once bed bugs are established in a building, eradication is slow, expensive, and often incomplete.

What surprised me most was not the prevalence, but the tone of the official advice. Ottawa Public Health does not speak about bed bugs as a rare emergency. It speaks about them as a recurring condition. Something to be managed. Something residents should learn to identify, report, and respond to calmly.

They do not transmit disease. That is the reassurance. But they do transmit stress. Anxiety. Shame. Sleeplessness. Financial strain. Entire households reorganized around plastic bags and heat treatments and waiting.

When you grow up believing a problem has been solved, its return feels like failure. When you grow up with the problem already present, it feels like weather. Something you watch for and plan around, but do not expect to eliminate.

That, I think, is the generational divide my kid was pointing at.

For many people in their twenties, bed bugs are not a crisis story. They are part of the background risk of renting, traveling, and sharing space in a city. You do not panic. You check. You adapt. You hope you are lucky.

I still do not like the idea that this is “just how it is now.” But I understand why they said it. And I understand now that my shock said more about my assumptions than about their reality.

Sometimes the world does not change all at once. Sometimes it just quietly adds another thing you have to live with, and waits to see who notices.

PS I did wash their bedding and clean the rooms as soon as they left.

Sources: 
Ottawa Public Health. Bed Bugs.
https://www.ottawapublichealth.ca/en/public-health-topics/bed-bugs.aspx
CityNews Ottawa. Ottawa ranks among Canada’s bed buggiest cities.
https://ottawa.citynews.ca
Health Canada. Bed bugs.
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/pest-control-tips/bedbugs.html

Reshaping Watershed Governance: Evaluating Ontario’s Plan to Merge Conservation Authorities

Posted on by
Reply

Background updated to reflect the government announcement of October 31, 2025.

🔎 Background

On October 31, 2025 the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks announced its intention to introduce legislation to create a new Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency to provide province-wide leadership and oversight of conservation authorities. At the same time the government released a public consultation proposing to consolidate Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities into seven regional, watershed-based authorities.

The stated aims are reducing fragmentation, improving consistency in permitting and services, freeing up resources for front-line conservation work and aligning watershed management with provincial priorities in housing, infrastructure, economic growth and climate resilience.

Note — The proposal retains watershed-based boundaries and envisions seven regional conservation authorities aligned with major watershed systems. Implementation would follow further legislation, regulation and a formal transition period.

✅ Advantages (Pros)

⚖️Consistency and Standardization

  • The current 36-authority system shows significant variation in policies, fees, processes and technical capacity. Consolidation seeks to standardize permitting and reduce duplication.
  • A more consistent system may speed approvals, improve service delivery and align permitting with broader provincial housing and infrastructure goals.

🛠️Scale and Capacity Building

  • Larger regional authorities can pool technical specialists in hydrology, ecology, GIS, modelling and flood forecasting.
  • A single digital permitting platform, improved data management and updated floodplain mapping could strengthen operational efficiency.

🧭Watershed-Scale Management

  • Environmental issues such as flood risk and source protection cross municipal boundaries; watershed-level jurisdictions better reflect ecological realities.
  • Regional governance may improve coordination between upstream and downstream communities and enable restoration at appropriate scales.

📈Uplift in Minimum Service Standards

  • Province-wide minimum standards could reduce disparities between well-resourced and under-resourced conservation authorities.
  • Improved mapping, monitoring and data systems may enhance hazard warnings and risk reduction for communities.

⚠️ Disadvantages (Cons)

🌾Loss of Local Knowledge and Relationships

  • Local conservation authorities often maintain deep, place-based knowledge and long-standing relationships with municipalities, landowners, volunteers and Indigenous communities.
  • Centralization may weaken local responsiveness and reduce the fine-grained understanding needed for small watershed issues.

👥Governance and Accountability Dilution

  • Shifting authority to regional boards or a provincial agency risks reducing municipal voice and local accountability.
  • Changes to levy systems, board appointments or decision-making structures could alter how closely governance reflects community priorities.

🔄Transition Risk, Disruption and Cost

  • Merging organizations requires complicated alignment of IT systems, budgets, staffing, policies and permitting processes.
  • Short-term disruption, backlog growth or staff uncertainty may affect performance even if long-term efficiencies are possible.

🏞️Threat to Locally-Tailored Programs

  • Education programs, stewardship initiatives, volunteer groups and recreation programming may be deprioritized in a larger regional authority.
  • Locally raised funds may be redistributed toward broader regional priorities, limiting community-specific flexibility.

🪶Indigenous Consultation and Place-Based Considerations

  • The restructuring spans multiple Indigenous territories; a one-size-fits-all model risks overlooking local priorities and cultural site protection.
  • Strong Indigenous partnerships are increasingly recognized as essential to watershed management and must be protected during transition.

❓ Key Uncertainties and Implementation Risks

  • How governance structures will be designed, including board composition and municipal representation.
  • How locally-generated funding will be treated and whether it will remain local during and after transition.
  • How IT migration, mapping, staffing and permitting backlogs will be managed to maintain service continuity.
  • How performance standards will be enforced and how regional authorities will be monitored.
  • How Indigenous and local stakeholder engagement will be maintained throughout the transition process.

🛡️ Recommendations and Mitigation Measures

  • Maintain local field offices, technical staff and advisory committees to preserve place-specific knowledge.
  • Ensure meaningful municipal representation on regional boards, including mechanisms for smaller communities’ voices.
  • Protect locally-generated revenues for an initial transition period to safeguard community programs.
  • Publish a transition plan with clear timelines, role protections and service-level guarantees.
  • Establish Indigenous participation protocols and co-governance options where desired.
  • Create province-wide standards with room for regional adaptation based on watershed differences.

🧾 Conclusion

The proposed consolidation provides opportunities to modernize Ontario’s conservation authority system, build technical capacity, improve consistency and align watershed management with provincial priorities. At the same time, the risks are substantial: loss of local stewardship, weakened accountability, transitional disruption and potential erosion of long-standing municipal and Indigenous partnerships.

The outcome will depend on governance design, funding arrangements, transition planning and the strength of public and Indigenous engagement. With appropriate safeguards, the reforms could enhance watershed resilience and public service; without them, consolidation could undermine decades of community-led conservation work and trust.

References

  1. “Proposed boundaries for the regional consolidation of Ontario’s conservation authorities” (ERO 025-1257), Environmental Registry of Ontario.
  2. Ontario Government announcement on conservation authority restructuring, October 31, 2025.
  3. McMillan LLP analysis of proposed consolidation.
  4. Dentons LLP overview of amalgamation and the creation of the Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency.
  5. Reporting and analysis from conservation organizations and independent media regarding risks to local stewardship and watershed management.

How a 15-Acre Hobby Farm Near Ottawa Is Helping To Save the World

Posted on by
Reply

Tucked into the gently rolling landscape near Ottawa, where Canadian Hardiness Zone 5 cradles forests through cold winters and warm, green summers, a 15-acre hobby farm hums with quiet purpose. At first glance, it seems like a peaceful retreat, 11 acres of mixed forest, 4 acres of open land, but beneath the stillness lies a powerful, invisible engine of climate action.

This isn’t just a hobby farm. It’s a carbon sink, a micro-forest sanctuary, and a quietly defiant response to the global climate crisis.

The land is a mosaic of native species, maple, black cherry, beech, oak, and poplar stand shoulder to shoulder with pine, fir, and spruce. Half the forest is allowed to run wild, a dense tangle of trees and undergrowth where time and nature make their own rules. The other half is gently managed with selective thinning and nurturing to promote health and resilience. Together, they form a thriving biome that plays a vital role in absorbing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

In a world scrambling to limit greenhouse gas emissions, this modest forest is making a real difference.

Tree Math: Carbon Accounting for a Better Future
According to forest carbon research by Natural Resources Canada and other experts, mixed temperate forests like this one can sequester between 2.5 and 6.0 tonnes of CO₂ per acre per year, depending on age, species, and management.

Here, the forest has been evaluated more precisely:
• The 5.5 acres of managed forest, with its encouraged regrowth and carefully tended canopy, sequesters an estimated 5.5 tonnes of CO₂ per acre per year.
• The 5.5 acres of wild, dense forest, with its thick stands of aging trees and self-regulating ecosystems, sequesters a more modest, but still powerful 3.5 tonnes of CO₂ per acre.

Together, that means this forest is pulling approximately 49.5 tonnes of CO₂ out of the atmosphere every year. That’s not just a number – it’s a force.

It’s the equivalent of:
• Offsetting the annual carbon emissions of 10 passenger vehicles
• Neutralizing the electricity use of about 7 Canadian homes
• Canceling out the emissions of nearly 250 propane BBQ tanks or over 110,000 smartphone charges

Each year, the trees breathe in carbon, storing it in wood, roots, and soil. They do this without fanfare. They don’t ask for credit, but they are doing the slow, essential work of saving the planet – tree by tree.

Rooted in Regeneration: Permaculture and Agroforestry
Beyond the forest, the remaining four acres of the property form a living laboratory for regenerative land use, guided by the principles of permacultureand agroforestry.

Here, perennial fruit and vegetable beds are woven through flowering hedgerows and small windbreaks of nut and berry trees. Apple, plum, and pear trees grow beside hardy perennial crops like rhubarb, asparagus, and sun chokes. Herbs spiral outward in patterns that mimic natural ecosystems, encouraging pollinators and providing continuous yield with minimal intervention.

This is no ordinary garden, it’s a climate-positive food forest in the making. Carefully designed guilds of plants mimic the structure of natural woodland ecologies. Deep-rooted plants draw nutrients from the subsoil. Groundcovers protect against erosion. Legumes fix nitrogen. Every element supports another. Even fallen branches and leaf mulch are repurposed into hugelkultur mounds, which retain water and build soil carbon over time.

Together, the forest and farm create a system that captures carbon, regenerates soil, and produces food, not in spite of nature, but in deep collaboration with it.

A Local Action With Global Implications
Climate action often feels like something that happens elsewhere, in government chambers, UN conferences, or corporate boardrooms. But on this hobby farm, the frontlines are right here, in bark and branches, under loamy soil and perennial cover. While politicians debate net-zero goals and global emissions caps, these 15 acres are already doing their part.

And the story doesn’t end with sequestration. The whole property becomes a model, not of scale, but of intentionality. It proves that one person, on one piece of land, can be part of the solution.

A Blueprint for the Future
If every small landowner in Ontario set aside just part of their land for forest preservation, regenerative farming, or agroecological food production, the collective carbon sink would grow exponentially. The 49.5 tonnes of CO₂ absorbed here could be multiplied by thousands of similar efforts. This hobby farm is not just saving the world, it’s showing others how to do it too.

So next time someone says the climate crisis is too big for individuals to affect, point them to this patch of trees and garden beds outside Ottawa. Tell them about the forest that quietly pulls nearly 50 tonnes of CO₂ from the sky every year. Tell them about the permaculture orchard that feeds people and soil alike. Tell them about the hobby farm that’s making a difference.

Because real change doesn’t always look like a protest march or a giant wind turbine. Sometimes, it looks like a sapling taking root in Zone 5, and being given the time and space to grow.

Mount Paektu: The Sleeping Giant of East Asia 

Posted on by
Reply

Mount Paektu, also known as Changbai Mountain in China, is an awe-inspiring stratovolcano straddling the border between North Korea and China. Towering at 2,744 meters (9,003 feet), it is the highest peak on the Korean Peninsula and holds profound cultural and historical significance. Revered in Korean and Manchu mythology, it is considered the mythical birthplace of the Korean people and an important symbol of national identity. However, beyond its legendary status lies a geological powerhouse with a history of catastrophic eruptions, the most infamous of which – known as the Millennium Eruption – ranks among the most extreme volcanic events of the past two millennia.

The Millennium Eruption of 946 CE was a cataclysmic event that ejected an estimated 100 cubic kilometers of pyroclastic material into the atmosphere. The eruption is thought to have been comparable in magnitude to the 1815 Tambora eruption, which triggered a global “year without a summer.” Ash from Paektu has been discovered in sediment cores as far away as Japan and even Greenland, underscoring the immense dispersal of volcanic material. This eruption reshaped the summit, forming the massive crater that now cradles Heaven Lake, a pristine but ominous caldera lake over two kilometers in diameter. The Millennium Eruption’s impact on regional populations remains the subject of archaeological and historical inquiry, with evidence suggesting widespread agricultural disruption and social upheaval in Korea, China, and Japan.

Despite its apparent dormancy, Mount Paektu is anything, but extinct. The volcano remains active, with geophysical studies indicating the presence of a sizable magma reservoir beneath its surface. Since its last recorded eruption in 1903, Mount Paektu has experienced episodic unrest. Between 2002 and 2005, significant seismic activity was detected in the region, accompanied by signs of crustal deformation and anomalous gas emissions. These indicators suggest that magma movement beneath the volcano is ongoing, increasing the likelihood of future eruptions. However, since that period, there have been no significant signs indicating an imminent eruption. As of early 2025, there are no reports of current eruptions or lava flows, and monitoring data has not shown any drastic changes in volcanic activity. Nonetheless, the volcano’s unpredictable nature means that continued vigilance is essential.

One of the primary concerns for volcanologists is the inflation of the underlying magma chamber. Ground deformation data, obtained through satellite radar and GPS measurements, suggest that pressure is gradually accumulating within the system. Additionally, increased concentrations of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide have been detected in the region, indicative of magma degassing at depth. Periodic low-magnitude earthquakes beneath the volcano further suggest that the subsurface magmatic system remains dynamic. Such activity is reminiscent of the precursory signals observed at other caldera-forming volcanoes, raising the possibility of a future eruption, though the timeline remains uncertain.

The prospect of a major eruption from Mount Paektu carries profound implications, both geologically and geopolitically. Given the volcano’s location along the North Korea-China border, coordinated scientific research and disaster preparedness efforts are challenging. North Korea’s political isolation severely restricts the ability of international researchers to conduct comprehensive studies, though limited collaborations have occurred, notably with the United Kingdom’s Cambridge University in the early 2010s. Despite these efforts, much remains unknown about the full extent of the magma system and the probability of a large-scale eruption.

A future eruption, particularly one on the scale of the Millennium Eruption, would have dire consequences for the region. Volcanic ashfall could devastate agriculture in northeastern China and the Korean Peninsula, leading to food shortages. Lahars and pyroclastic flows would pose immediate threats to settlements and infrastructure in the surrounding area. Air travel across East Asia would be severely disrupted, particularly if an eruption injected significant quantities of ash into the stratosphere. Furthermore, a high-volume ejection of sulfur dioxide could lead to temporary global cooling, disrupting weather patterns and monsoonal systems that are critical to agriculture in Asia.

Despite these risks, active monitoring efforts remain limited. While China operates seismic and gas monitoring stations on its side of the border, North Korea’s capabilities are largely unknown. Given the potential for widespread devastation, increased international cooperation in volcanic research and early warning systems is crucial. Mount Paektu is a sleeping giant, and while it may remain quiescent for decades or even centuries, history has shown that its eruptions can be both sudden and catastrophic. The scientific community must remain vigilant, ensuring that when the mountain awakens once more, humanity is as prepared as possible.

Securing the Future of Freshwater

Posted on by
Reply

This is the first in a series of articles on freshwater—our most essential and increasingly fragile resource. Potable water is the foundation of any thriving community, yet it faces mounting threats from rising demand, population growth, mismanagement, and climate change. Water scarcity is no longer a distant concern; it is a present reality affecting billions worldwide, including regions of the United States. The urgent challenge is to adopt sustainable practices and modern infrastructure to ensure long-term water security.

The widening gap between supply and demand is at the heart of the global water crisis. Expanding urban populations and agriculture—by far the largest consumer of freshwater—are pushing resources to their limits. This strain is worsened by inefficiencies such as outdated irrigation techniques and aging, leaky infrastructure that wastes millions of gallons daily. Industrial and domestic waste further degrade freshwater sources, as pollutants like heavy metals, pesticides, hydrocarbons, and microplastics seep into rivers and lakes, transforming them from lifelines into health hazards.

Groundwater depletion is an equally pressing concern. Aquifers, the vast underground reserves that sustain millions, are being extracted at unsustainable rates, often faster than they can naturally recharge. In many regions, these reserves are the sole source of drinking water, making their preservation critical. Overpumping leads to land subsidence, ecosystem damage, and in coastal areas, saltwater intrusion, rendering once-pure water undrinkable. Without intervention, many communities risk losing their most reliable water source.

Climate change amplifies these threats. Shifting precipitation patterns disrupt the natural replenishment of freshwater supplies, while glacier retreat and prolonged droughts further reduce available water. The consequences are most severe in arid and semi-arid regions, where communities already struggle with limited access to clean water. Extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and floods, can also overwhelm infrastructure, contaminating water supplies with pollutants and pathogens.

Addressing these challenges requires a fundamental shift in water management. Advanced technologies such as drip irrigation, wastewater recycling, and desalination offer viable solutions to improve efficiency and expand supply. Equally important is public engagement—education and incentives can promote conservation at the household and community levels. Governments, industries, and local communities must work together to develop policies that prioritize equitable water distribution, pollution control, and long-term sustainability.

Freshwater is our most valuable natural resource, yet it is treated as an afterthought. Without immediate action, shortages will become more frequent and severe, threatening food production, public health, and economic stability. In the coming articles, we will explore the key dimensions of this crisis in greater depth, examining solutions that can secure a sustainable water future.