Manitoba documentary focuses lens on environmental defenders, beauty of prairies

Everything We Need Is Here is the latest sumptuously shot Manitoba film rooted in the Prairie landscape.

Though totally unrelated in subject matter, the documentary recalls the 2024 Daughters of the Sun with its saturated and slow-mo sweeps across boreal forests and limestone tinted lakes.

But while Daughters has much murmured narration and arthouse flair, Everything is a plucky film, a can-do sort of doc about the land and its grassroots defenders.

Their voices resonate strong and clear across storylines that weave together the joys of foraging and local environmental protests.

Federal researchers using driftwood to study and track seabird deaths off N.S. coast

HALIFAX - Federal researchers want to know where dead seabirds off the coast of Nova Scotia are most likely to wash up, and they’re using a low-tech solution to find out: driftwood.

Environment and Climate Change Canada has dropped about 600 wooden blocks in the ocean this summer. Coated in non-toxic, bright orange paint and affixed with contact information, the floating blocks are essentially standing in for bird carcasses.

Researchers are hoping birders and beachcombers who find them will report their date and location, ultimately helping to create a picture of where seabirds might drift after a mass death in the ocean.

“So you release these blocks and they help you figure out where carcasses could drift and what proportion of the carcasses end up on shore," Rob Ronconi, a biologist and wildlife emergency response coordinator for the federal environment department, said in an interview.

When it comes to our city’s tree canopy, Winnipeggers stand tall

For over 50 years, we’ve watched trees slowly vanish from the core neighbourhoods of the city. There’s no way to put a price tag on that loss, in either beauty or environmental value. But the trees of Winnipeg have many allies.

Mayor flip-flops on cutting tree-planting budget after intense criticism

Public opposition has prompted Mayor Scott Gillingham to change his mind about chopping $1.2 million from the city’s tree-planting program.

Keeping cool: How Meta plans to cut down on water use at its Alberta data centre

CALGARY - A Meta Platforms Inc. executive garnered applause at a news conference this week after he boasted that a gargantuan data centre planned for north of Edmonton would use less water annually than a typical Alberta golf course.

The tech behemoth was announcing a $13-billion-plus investment in a complex the size of 33 Canadian Football League fields. It will be powered by a new natural gas plant that could eventually produce more electricity than what the City of Edmonton uses.

The data centre in Sturgeon County, like other hyperscale proposals in Canada, is to use what's known as a closed-loop cooling system to keep servers from overheating. That differs from an evaporative cooling system, which requires enormous amounts of cool water that is not reused.

Gary Demasi, vice-president of data centre strategy and development at Meta, told a news conference Wednesday that no water will be needed for regular cooling operations.

Mosquito-free summers nice while they lasted

It was nice while it lasted, wasn’t it? And it certainly seemed to last a long, lovely time. But with this spring and early summer’s unusually heavy rainfall and significant standing-water accumulation, our blissful vacation from mosquito swarming and swatting is most definitely over.

What can you do with $200 million?

Let’s see if I’ve got this right. In the article Carbon capture project gains support (June 30), Julia-Simone Rutgers writes that the direct carbon capture facility proposed by Deep Sky for construction in southwestern Manitoba will cost $200 million to build.

The company claims the facility will scrub 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year and inject it 1,000 metres into the ground. To do this, it will need to draw up to 15 megawatts of power from the Manitoba Hydro grid for the first stage of the project. The project will be financed by selling carbon credits.

To put this into perspective, the Canadian industrial carbon price is set at $130 per tonne. At that price, Deep Sky will have to sell more than 1.5 million tonnes of carbon just to cover the upfront cost of building the plant. That’s over 51 years’ worth of carbon credits. And that doesn’t even cover the everyday operating costs, such as the electricity needed to run the plant.

Some studies suggest it requires about 2,000-2,500 kilowatt hours to electricity to capture one tonne of CO2 and inject it into the ground. To capture 30,000 tonnes, that’s about 60 million kWh. Even if Manitoba Hydro sells it to the facility for only $0.035/kWh, that’s an additional $70 per tonne.

City considers million-dollar chop to tree planting program

The City of Winnipeg is one step away from chopping $1.2 million from its tree planting program to fill a separate budget gap.

The Manitoba government recently directed the city to spend an additional $1.236 million of its provincial “strategic infrastructure basket” funding on the Assiniboine Park Conservancy Journey to Churchill Exhibit, according to a city finance report.

Finance officials recommend the city fill that budget gap by transferring the same amount from the urban forest tree planting budget, which council’s executive policy committee voted in favour of Tuesday.

A local tree protection group said any funding loss would hurt an already ailing city canopy.

Vaping: a clear and present danger

The numbers are startling. According to a recent Free Press story, nearly one-fifth (18.4 per cent) of Manitoba teens in grades 7 to 12 reported using ‘vapes’, known more formally as e-cigarettes, within the month prior to answering a Health Canada survey in 2023-24.

Zebra mussels found in Lake of the Prairies

Lake lovers in Manitoba are worried the detection of zebra mussels in Lake of the Prairies could result in restrictions that give the local economy a rough ride.

Environmental officials have found samples of zebra mussels in the larval stage in Lake of the Prairies, a manmade reservoir on the Assiniboine River that straddles the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border.

Multiple zebra mussel veligers were detected in the lake as part of Manitoba’s routine monitoring program, and corroborated by followup sampling, said the provincial environment department on Friday.

All boats and any water-related equipment of any kind used on the Lake of the Prairies, also known as the Shellmouth Reservoir, must be decontaminated before being used on another body of water, officials said.

A California farmer is giving away tons of nectarines that he’s not allowed to sell

Thousands of visitors have flocked to Cesar Mora's farm in central California this week to gather free nectarines.

He's giving his harvest away rather than watching it rot as he's locked in a legal battle with a company that claims exclusive rights over the variety of white nectarine he grows. He's shared more than 100,000 pounds (45,359 kilograms) since Monday.

“It was really just a thought of not wasting a perfectly good product,” Mora said. “It does make a grower feel good, being able to share my fruit with people and see their immediate reaction that they love it. It’s a little bit of good in this tough situation that I’ve been dealing with.”

The legal dispute highlights the tension that can emerge between farmers and the plant breeders and large industrial food marketers that create new varieties of plants and obtain the exclusive rights to sell them.

Mosquito surge expected after heavy rainfall

Winnipeggers may want to keep the bug spray close at hand.

Intense rainfall in recent weeks has created ideal conditions for mosquitoes to breed across Winnipeg, including in backyards where standing water can quickly become a source of larvae.

“With all the rain we’ve received, I fully expect to see an increase,” entomologist Taz Stuart said.

Just over two weeks ago, Winnipeg was pummelled with more than 122 millimetres of rain.

Wonders of science never cease

Scientific study, however specialized, can bring a huge variety of benefits — sometimes, from something as simple (and occasionally irritating) as a ground squirrel.

Fish handling tips for fishes’ welfare and better photos

Most of us who spend any appreciable time fishing have encountered those special moments when we want to capture a photograph of the catch that has just made it into the boat.

Numerous circumstances might be driving our desire to get that photo: a neophyte’s first fish, an exceptional catch, the so called “fish of a lifetime,” or any number of other factors that really can be determined only by the angler and the photographer.

Regrettably, many of us have also experienced varying levels of satisfaction with the images captured after we have released the fish to swim free, leaving the angler wishing for more, at which time it’s too late.

The good news is that with a little bit of forethought and planning, we can consistently take great photos of the fish we catch — with the fishes’ welfare of utmost interest, of course.

St. Bernard dogs still roam the Swiss Alps as part of this ‘living museum’ and its breeding program

At the Great St. Bernard Pass high in the Swiss Alps, the eponymous dogs still walk the same mountain paths their ancestors patrolled for hundreds of years to find travelers buried beneath the snow.

Growing number of Manitoba youths are addicted to vaping

A few minutes after the final classes of the day end at Grant Park High School on a recent afternoon, students stream out of the building, headed in myriad directions.

At the railing outside the front doors, several teens stop to vape.

Classmates and teachers walk past without a second glance. Behaviour that once might have raised eyebrows now barely registers.

For many Manitoba teens, vaping — using a battery-powered device to heat flavoured “juice,” most often containing highly addictive nicotine, into an inhalable vapour — is a habit deeply woven into their daily lives.

Montana DEQ works toward impairment designation for Big Hole River

The Big Hole River, a blue-ribbon fishery that’s become a focal point in a years-long debate over nuisance algae growth, is poised to receive an impairment designation.

At an open-house meeting in Divide on Tuesday, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality announced that the Big Hole, a mellow freestone river critical to southwest Montana’s outdoor recreation and agriculture economies, is struggling as a result of ecologically detrimental nutrient loading.

The term DEQ is using in its discussion of the Big Hole is eutrophication, which describes the link between algae growth and excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. When there’s too much algae in a river or lake, dissolved oxygen falls, imperiling fish and the aquatic life they feed on.

Algal growth is also unpopular with members of the recreating public because it can make wade-fishing a slipperier — and therefore more perilous — endeavor. And it drives down biodiversity in the macroinvertebrate population, which has repercussions for fish and other species higher up the aquatic food web. Andy Ulven, who leads DEQ’s water quality division, told Montana Free Press on Tuesday that a eutrophication listing would “formalize that there is an issue on the mainstem” of the Big Hole. He added that the agency proposal is still in draft stage and he doesn’t anticipate a final designation for the Big Hole until 2027 at the earliest.

Get a load of this: Humans and great apes share similar giggles

Humans and great apes have been giggling in similar ways since branching off the evolutionary tree, a new study suggests. How do we know this? Researchers tickled 13 captive apes — including gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos — and recorded the results.

Grade 7 students learn about environment in Seine River cleanup

On a rainy Wednesday morning, Grade 7 students from École Lacerte traded their classroom desks for rubber boots as they headed out along the Seine River to help plant native shrubs, test water quality, and clean up the riverbank.

JJ Swidersky, one of about 40 students taking part in the work, says protecting the environment is important to him and his classmates.

“Planting the trees, planting the shrubs,” Swidersky said when asked about his favourite part of the effort. “Just trying to keep the river clean, trying to keep it as clean as we possibly can.”

The planting Swidersky is referring to is part of the Niakwa Trail Rain Garden, which is located next to the St. Anne’s Superstore.

A giraffe named Gracie escaped in Texas. No one can seem to find her

Gracie the giraffe has been missing from her Texas home for nearly two weeks, despite helicopter searches, a few sightings, and a $5,000 reward.

AI is an energy and water hog, here’s what you can do to counter that

As the world tries to curb human-caused climate change and not run dry of water, every online query is increasing our environmental footprint and exacerbating the problem.

In a visit to Capitol, Jessie Diggins and other Olympians push for climate change solutions

Olympian Jessie Diggins visited Capitol Hill with her four medals in hand Wednesday to advocate for clean air, clean water and a healthy planet.

America’s most decorated cross-country skier is part of “Protect Our Winters,” an athlete-driven environmental group that sent a coalition to Washington to meet with lawmakers Tuesday and Wednesday. The group is most concerned with how the Environmental Protection Agency has weakened key climate, water and pollution regulations since President Donald Trump returned to office.

“I don’t want to stick my head in the sand and ignore the world burning,” Diggins said in an interview. “I feel like I have a responsibility to use my voice to advocate for change. And so that’s why it’s so important to me, because I want my great-grandkids to be able to build a snowman and try cross-country skiing someday, and be able go hiking and fishing and camping in the summer, and breathe clean air. I want that for them very badly.”

Diggins retired from professional ski racing this year after earning bronze in the women’s 10‑kilometer interval start at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. Many skiers expressed concern during these Olympic Games about climate change and the accelerating melt of the world’s glaciers. A warming world jeopardizes the future of their sport.