EcoWest News, October 20, 2026

Welcome to EcoWest News, a weekly round-up of news and resources that you can put to use in addressing environmental issues and protecting the wild in your community.

Biodiversity

Manitoba moose populations have plummeted from 45,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 20,000 today. For any population to remain stable or grow, total mortality cannot exceed recruitment – the survival of calves to breeding age. More data is required to judge the population’s resilience. [Winnipeg Free Press]

Saskatchewan's Sturgeon River Plains Bison are a wild, free-roaming herd that inhabits areas where people live and work. The bison forage seasonally on agricultural land, damaging crops and infrastructure and creating economic costs and frustration for producers. Several strategies have been used to reduce conflict between the herd and local landowners. [Discover Humboldt]

Loss of plant diversity inhibits grasslands’ ability to adapt to climate change, harming their productivity and their resistance and resilience to climate change. [PNAS]

Trees

Cities that expand their tree canopy are saving lives. For instance, city dwellers who live in neighborhoods with more trees (and often more resources) tend to have lower dementia risk, better heart and lung health, and as a result are less likely to die prematurely. [bioGraphic]

80% of Winnipeg’s trees are on private property. Trees Please Winnipeg is urging candidates in the upcoming municipal election to support a bylaw that would control the removal of all trees more than 15 centimetres in diameter on private property. [CBC]

Volunteers are planting trees in Tynehead Regional Park, Surrey, BC, to build a natural buffer between the park and Highway 1. The goal is to reduce noise, increase shade along trails, and expand wildlife habitats. [CBC]

Fracking

The fracking industry in Alberta consumes almost 30 billion litres of water each year, and the heavy equipment destroys the roads. Frustration is growing in rural areas with an industry that fails to pay its share. [The Narwhal]

A US researcher has mapped higher rates of several cancers near oil and gas fracking sites and refineries. “We have humanly significant evidence of these elevations, and not just in adults, but also in children and youth.” [The Energy Mix]

Choices

IKEA has launched a second-hand marketplace in the UK, providing customers with a new way to buy and sell pre-loved furniture. But each year, IKEA reportedly introduces 2,000 new products. It’s why the Swedish firm is often referred to as a ‘fast furniture’ brand and has garnered heavy criticism from environmentalists. [EuroNews]

Canada’s Climate Action Network has launched the Yes Agenda cataloguing 110 clean energy and transmission infrastructure projects at various stages of development. “The question is no longer whether we can build a clean energy future,” the report states, “but whether we will say yes, together, and build it well.” [The Energy Mix]

Making a Difference

Saskatchewan farmer Lorne Scott leaves more than a quarter of his farm wild to protect disappearing wildlife. Scott protects his land through a conservation easement and manages a tree and shrub sanctuary with 80 different species near Indian Head, serving as a seed bank for native plants. [Ground News]

Nature’s Wonders

In Bogland: The Secret World that Defies Death and Protects Life, Merritt R. Turetsky says, “At first glance, the surface appears solid, but stepping onto a quaking bog feels like walking on a vast, trembling waterbed. Each step sends a ripple through the spongy, thin mat, a slow undulating motion beneath your feet that surprises the senses, disorienting yet simultaneously strangely delightful.” [Literary Hub]

This year's winners of the Wildlife Photographers of the Year competition showcase powerful stories from the natural world and the urgent need to protect it. [EuroNews]

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/apmckinlay/55595904545/

EcoFriendly West informs and encourages initiatives that support Western Canada’s natural environment through its online publication and the Nature Companion website/app. Like us on Facebook, follow us on BlueSky, X, and Mastodon, or subscribe by email.