// The Tree Planting Challenge//

Ontario has recently started a tree planting challenge across the province to help inform the general public not only about the benefits of having lots of green in the area but also about different species (especially species at risk), biodiversity and how different niches work.

A large amount of people are now living in newly zoned subdivisions and while I’m not the biggest fan or urban sprawl, a huge percent of these people are taking their new homes and lawns and planting trees, shrubs and gardens.

The MNR website has put up a tree atlas to help you determine which tree works best for your area across the province depending on soil type, sun availability, and personal needs as well as region. The site also offers information about which types of trees you shouldn’t be planting because they’re either invasive, and out compete native tree species, or a susceptible to different diseases.  As well, the website lists trees that are not readily available for purchase.

Maybe I can’t find a job because God thought I needed a break from ecology to let out my inner artist?

// A letter to diatoms//

I was on twitter a few minutes ago as per usual and a tweet team that I follow named “therightblue” had posted a link to a letter penned by Deep Sea News’ in residence Scientist Danny Richter, to the humble, lowly diatom.

I’m a huge diatom fan. I mean, they’re amazing, under appreciated, extremely vital aquatic organisms. I have one tattooed on my neck, that’s how much I like them. 

In his letter, Mr. Richter pointed out some very important things. Too many in fact that I decided to not dissect the letter and just post it in it’s entirety. It’s not very long but it packs a punch and warms my heart.

Read it and let me know what you think!

“Dear Diatoms,

You are pretty, and I like you. Haeckel liked you too, so did Gaudi. Obviously, they appreciated the little things in life. While you still make appearances now and again in modern life, let’s face it: being microscopic and aquatic, recognition is an up-current battle, and you can’t swim.

Perhaps obscurity suits you? Trees, after all, are also beautiful, and we tend to cut them down. Perhaps your fame as a pool filterer is enough for you. Forgive me diatoms, but you can do better. You should do better.

Humans should know who to thank for producing 20% of their oxygen [Kroger and Poulsen, 2008]. Heck, without you and your heavy frustules to help bury carbon, there might never have been enough oxygen for placental mammals to grow larger than shrews in the first place [Falkowski et al., 2005]! That’s right diatoms: no you, no us.

Being key to our past, you may also be key to our future. You see, we’re kind of sort of a little bit addicted to oil. Oil, as you know, comes from phytoplankton fat, and you are phytoplankton. Do your Bear Grylls-like survival skills in the face of toxicity (Brand et al., 1986), acidity (Warner, 1971), and unsurpassed ability for resource utilization (Boyd et al. 2007; Cullen 2006) make you the ultimate carbon-neutral source of oil? How will we know unless more people know enough about you to take an interest?

I like you diatoms, you are pretty. I have a lot to thank you for. You seem pretty happy with the fame you have, but I think it would help us out if you could try a little harder to get just a little bit more famous. Go on dancing with the stars, or Oprah. Something like that. Here, at least, is one person who would be very appreciative of your efforts.

Your admirer,
-Danny”

My heart is a happy heart.

// Angry Post Grad Rant of the Day//

It’s Thursday March 10th, 2011. As of today I have been finished University for…

321 days.

45 weeks and 6 days.

7704 hours.

Ha.That’s a pretty long time, don’t you think?

During that time I’ve done nothing whatsoever to further my career as an ecologist. What I have done instead? Worked on a boat, in an ice cream stand, gained 20lbs, and have been unemployed for far too long.

So you could imagine how elated I was when the first of March came around. March means the beginning of field season. The ice starts to melt, the trees start to come out of their resting stage, animals come out of their winter diapause and life starts to go again.

The MNR has multiple internships and summer positions that they open up to the public at the beginning of the season. A way to train students and recent graduates, a way to mould them into the ideal candidates for future positions within the ministry.

I woke up this morning to check the same 10 employment opportunity webpages I do on a weekly basis, and discovered that the MNR has listed all their summer student jobs on the Ontario GOJOBs website. I was so excited! So many opportunities, I was bound to get at least one right? As I read through the fine print nothing strikes me out of the blue, nothing at all, nothing until I see this line:

“You must be currently enrolled in a secondary or post secondary school, or have completed all academic requirements for graduation within 6 months prior to May 2011.”

Well strike me dead. Of course you have to have be in/going back to school come September or have graduated within 6 months. I tried my very best not to get discouraged and thought, ” Well you know what Bean, there are the 1-2 year internships that come out in a few weeks for the MNR. Those will be more curtailed towards you and you’ll probably enjoy them better anyhow”, and I moved on to the Conservation Ontario website.

I saw a ton of new listings on the page (it gets updated every Friday) and I was stoked. So I start scrolling through them. I see an amazing job with the Hamilton Conservation Authority and open the description. “have been registered as full-time students in the previous academic year and intend to return to school on a full-time basis in the next academic year”

… previous academic year… what does that mean? If you’re thinking oh, oh! 2009-2010 right!?

You’re wrong.

Head down again, I click on one for the Credit Valley Conservation in Mississauga. First bullet, “Enrollment in, or completion of a post secondary program in Ecology, Environmental Science or Environmental Engineering”. Finally! Someone who isn’t hoping that the government will subsidize 50% of the hired individual’s wages. Second bullet, “Valid Class “G” Ontario drivers license and access to a vehicle on a daily basis. The successful applicant will be required to provide a MTO Ontario Driver’s Abstract.”

Are. You. Kidding. Me.

I can’t catch a break. No I don’t have my license and yes at 23 that’s a cultural shame. However, even if I did have my license, I don’t have a car and couldn’t in my wildest dreams imagine being able to afford one. So I move on.

Next! Central Lake Conservation in Oshawa. They’ve got a ton of listings right now. In big old bold letters as soon as I open the job description: “To qualify for this program, participants must be: 1) between the ages of 15 and 30; 2) registered as full time students in the previous year and intend to return to school on a full time basis in the next academic year; 3) be Canadian citizen and be legally entitled to work in Canada; 4) position is dependent on confirmation of funding.”.

Dandy.

There always seems to be a giant gap for me to jump over to get to what I want. Last year there was the recession so no one hired anyone unless they had qualifications shooting out their every orifice. This year, I’ve been a graduate for too long. No one wants me anymore, I’m too old, too inexperienced, don’t have a car.

Well you know what. To those places I say, “You’re seriously missing out”. I don’t know a single person who is as passionate as I am about getting up at 4 in the morning and hoping into a boat to go sit there or be eaten by mosquitoes while trying to load up a van. I don’t know anyone who loves the feeling of a sore back after spending an entire day out in the field. I don’t know anyone who is excited about standing in a river rushing far too quickly for your own safety, waste deep in 4 degree water to get a stream flow reading.

All this passion is being eaten up by the bitterness of not being able to land a job. I can’t be the only one can I?

What I don’t understand is why it is so imperative to have the cut off be 6 months. I bet you a large sum of money, that I am a better candidate for the majority of these jobs than half the people who are eligible for them. Not only because I’ve retained just as much information as them, but because this time out of sync has made me realize just how much I want it.

These websites that post the jobs are not known to many university students and that really is a shame. I would have loved to work for the MNR all summer while I was in school but I never knew about it. Finally I found out about them last year just by chance and by then it was too late. Sure I was still in school, still within 6 months of graduating but it was too late.

You miss out once, looks like you miss out constantly.

It’s unfair, it’s discouraging and above all else it’s ridiculously frustrating. I’m starting to think that the past 5 years as amazing as they were, were a complete waste of time.

// Canadian Water Week!//

Today marks the one week mark until World Water Day and also marks the beginning of Canada’s Water Week. What is Water Week? What is World Water Day? Well, I’m here to tell you all about it.

Canada’s Water Week is an initiative to “raise the profile and understanding of water and its importance to Canada’s prosperity.”, essentially. It’s one way that Canadians can get involved in ensuring the health and safety of our lakes and rivers, a luxury that many of us take for granted.

World Water Day is celebrated on March 22nd and is a day developed by UN-Water to “to raise awareness about sustaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being through addressing the increasing water quality challenges in water management and to raise the profile of water quality by encouraging governments, organizations, communities, and individuals around the world to actively engage in proactively addressing water quality e.g. in pollution prevention, clean up and restoration.”.

The tl;dr version? It’s a day designed to raise awareness about the state of freshwater across the world.

The WWF, along with Living Lakes Canada and The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation are headlining the week and are really trying to encourage citizen involvement.

How can you get involved?

The easiest way is to inform yourself. There are an uncountable amount of issues surrounding Canada’s water. Not just the quality of it, but the politics behind it. Where it goes, what it is used for, where it is shipped and most importantly, who owns it. 

For those of you who would like a more hands on approach, the Canada Water Week website has a listing of events from coast to coast as well as ways you can plan your own water week celebration!

So if nothing else, take 10 minutes, watch this video, and read this article, then think about how you feel about the quality of Canadian waters.

// Day 3 of Canada’s Water Week//

Across the country, Canada is preparing for World Water Day next week. For more info on Canada’s Water Week and World Water Day, you can read my post here.

What a fantastic event to have occurred during the time when much of the country is criticizing the current government’s policies on policing and distributing water found within the country. At about 11:30pm Monday evening, the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station in Pickering, Ontario released 73,000 litres of demineralized water at the Pickering A nuclear generating station into Lake Ontario. 

The leak that occurred at the plant which has been in voluntary lay-up as part of what was then Ontario Hydro’s nuclear improvement program, was caused by a faulty seal pump. Apparently, this leak poses no radiological risk to organisms because radiation levels were ‘negligible’.

I hate that word. Like nanotechnology, it’s such a buzzword. Not everyone is familiar with scientific jargon so, let’s look it up.

negligible |ˈneglijəbəl|
adjective
so small or unimportant as to be not worth considering; insignificant : sound could at last be recorded with incredible ease and at negligible cost.

Insignificant, to be not worth considering hmmm… you tell that to the millions of people who live along Lake Ontario and look to it as their primary source for drinking water. You tell that to the millions of fish species living within the lake. You explain that to your children this summer that they can’t go swimming because the so called ‘negligible’ amounts of radiation have compounded with the ever increasing mercury levels and other environmental hazards that are found within that lake.

Nothing is negligible. Nothing at all.

With a spring election eminent, I would love to get Stephen Harper’s opinion about what is ‘negligible’.