Chapter 14 – Nature and the Environment.

Last Updated: April 5^th, 2006

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The information on this page refers to flora & fauna that tree planters in Western Canada are likely to encounter in the bush.

Animals

Bears

There are several types of bears that are common to Canada. Black bears and Grizzly bears are the only species that tree planters need concern themselves with. Polar bears are found too far north to be a concern. I once saw a trio of bears on a block near Edson, Alberta. One was almost entirely white, except for the feet and nose being darker brown. We stared at it for a few minutes, quite puzzled (there were about half a dozen of us). Suddenly, I realized what the mystery was about when someone commented on how pink the eyes were. It was a rare albino bear (not an errant polar bear) and the reason for the brown paws and snout was the mud.

Anyway, black bears are a pretty common sight if you’ve planted for very long. The trick is to not let this familiarity with the species lead to complacency. Black bears are usually pretty shy around humans, although once they have been exposed to humans several times, they can quickly lose their fear. Normally, they are not aggressive towards humans, and in fact may be quite scared. However, there is always the small and seemingly random chance that a bear may decide it is not scared of people, and this can lead to dangerous situations if humans don’t steer clear of the animals. Black bears are usually classified as carnivores, although in truth they are omnivorous, eating a wide variety of meat and vegetation. In the spring, grasses, plants, and some green broadleafs may be consumed by the starving animals. In the summer, berries start to become abundant and become a major staple of the black bear’s diet, along with insects and fruit. In fact, they will search for nuts (among other things) to build up weight and fat reserves in preparation for dormancy (not hibernation). Although the distinction between dormancy and hibernation is not important to planters, it matters to seismic crews and other people who work in the woods during winter months. Black bears do not truly hibernate, and if disturbed, they can become fully awake within minutes.

The average litter size for a bear is probably two or three cubs, and I have seen mothers with four cubs. Cubs are usually produced (after the third to fifth year) every second year in a two year cycle, because the cubs are usually born one winter and then remain with the mother for the next winter when they reach one year of age. Male bears wander quite a bit further than females. Studies have suggested that females will usually wander within a range that spans three or four kilometers, while a male will usually wander within a range of seven to ten kilometers. Black bears often live to be about ten years old.

The grizzly bear is a type of brown bear, of which there are two main subspecies in North America – the grizzly and the Kodiak. Kodiak bears are geographically separate from other species, and are only found on certain islands in southwestern Alaska. Other possibly distinct subspecies are vague. Grizzlies are usually described in the interior, and as one gets closer to the west coast, what is probably the same species is increasingly referred to as a coastal bear. Since “coastal” bears and grizzlies interbreed when the opportunity permits, it may be smart to just think of them all as brown bears. However, in the planting world they are referred to as grizzly bears, so let’s not break tradition.

Grizzly bears are found in northwestern North America, from as far south as Idaho and Wyoming right up through BC and Alberta and into Alaska and the Territories. They range much farther than black bears, sometimes patrolling an area as much as thirty kilometers in diameter. They feed on many of the same foods as black bears, and their noses are so keen that they can locate dead animals (carrion) from several kilometers away. Grizzly bears may even prey on animals as large as moose, elk, deer, wild goats, and wild sheep, when they can be caught.

Grizzly Bear.

The biggest difference between grizzlies and black bears is not in the color, as some people mistakenly believe, but in the body features. The two most visible differences (from afar) lie in the “hump” and the snout. All brown bears have a distinguishing shoulder hump, which is a mass of muscle. This muscle is used by these bears to help them be able to dig better, and makes them stronger when swatting at things with their paws. Black bears are still able to dig without the hump, although not as well. As far as the snout goes, brown bears (grizzly bears) have a concave or rounded face, whereas black bears have a more extended and tapered snout. If you look carefully at the photos of the two types of bears, you will understand this difference more clearly.

There are many other differences between blacks and grizzlies, although the visible differences mentioned above are the most important for a planter who is trying to determine what kind of bear he or she is facing. For instance, grizzlies often get more uncomfortable when it is hot out, so you are less likely to see them moving around at midday. Grizzly bears can be a lot larger (up to 350 kilograms or 770 pounds for females and 500 kilograms or 1100 pounds for males) than black bears. Grizzly females may only breed once every three to five years, and may not even start reproducing until they reach between five and ten years of age. The young cubs will often remain with the mother for 1.5 to 3.5 years.

Knowing how to deal with bears is very important, as they are the only animal for which proactive risk-minimization techniques are taught to planters. Moose and elk and even smaller animals can still be dangerous to people, and in fact, I have even had a planter chased by a mad moose. Regardless, bears are the most dangerous animal to commonly watch for and be aware of.

If you see a bear at a medium distance and you are unprotected (ie. not in a vehicle or not with a large group of people), detour as far away from it as possible while keeping an eye on it. If the bear is located between you and a place of safety (such as a vehicle), wait for the bear to leave the area. If the bear is approaching you, make it aware of your presence by standing as tall as possible and waving your arms and shouting. Remember that bears do not have good hearing or vision, although their sense of smell is quite incredible. If you can make the bear realize that you are in its path, it will usually (hopefully) change direction.

If a bear stands on its hind legs, it is not an indication of aggressive behavior. It is probably trying to use its senses more effectively to try to identify you. Speak loudly and firmly and slowly back away. Never run from a bear – they can run about four times as fast as the fastest humans, and look upon flight as a sign of weakness. If you see a bear displaying strange behavior, such as turning sideways, snapping its teeth, slapping the ground with its paws, or laying its ears back, this is a sign of danger (for you) and a warning to leave the area – don’t assume that the bear is hurt and needs help, or is scared of you. The usual reason for unfavorable conflicts with bears (and other animals) is due by inappropriate human behavior. It is rarely the fault of the bear.

If contact is made with a bear (ie. you are attacked), the best thing to do is probably to drop to the ground and play dead. Lay on your stomach, clasp your hands behind your neck, and use your elbows and toes to avoid being rolled over, to prevent more vulnerable parts of your body from being exposed to the animal. Remain still and try not to struggle or scream (I would assume that this would be difficult). A bear acting defensively will not stop attacking until it is quite sure that the threat has been eliminated. If you have been attacked and the bear suddenly stops, do not move or make any noise for quite a while, until you are absolutely certain that the bear has completely left the area.

Some planters carry “bear mace.” This is a strong form of spray which is fairly similar to “personal defense” mace, however, the two types of spray are not the same. Bear sprays will clearly be labeled with the word “bear” on them – if the product that you are looking at doesn’t have the word “bear” on it, it is designed for people and will be far too weak for use on a bear. In the States, the EPA prohibits bear mace from being sold in containers of less than 225 grams, although I’m not sure about the CSA regulations. Optimally, your spray will last for at least six seconds (in case you are charged more than once). Also, under optimal conditions, you should be able to spray when the animal is between twenty and twenty-five feet away, so the bear has a chance to experience the effects of the spray and make a conscious decision to turn away before it reaches you. Be aware that mace is an effective deterrent under the right conditions, but that it can be adversely affected by wind, rain, temperature extremes, and the distance to the bear when the spray is discharged. If you have ever been hit by mace, you will know how strong it is. Never carry a can of bear mace casually in a vehicle (I can think of one busload of planters who had to wait 45 minutes for the air to clear before they could get back onto the bus), and most especially, never ever carry mace on a helicopter. If the can is accidentally punctured, the pilot will crash and you will probably die.

The behavior of bears varies widely, from species to species, and depending on whether the bear is acting defensively or in a predatory manner, and whether or not the bear is attacking for any rational or apparent reason. Although many people fear grizzly bears more than black bears, probably due to their larger size and power, others question this mentality. Black bears are more unpredictable, and this makes them more dangerous in my mind. Also, black bears are far more common than grizzlies. Regardless of what kind of bear you encounter in the bush, treat it with respect and caution.

A black bear – as you can see, they are not always black in color.

The biggest mistake that planters can make in camp is to store food, candy bars, toiletries, or other scented treats in their tents. Never store food in your tent (use common sense not only to prevent bears from visiting you, but also so that smaller animals don’t try to rip into your tent when you’re away). Make sure that you always wash your dishes with soap and water before you come back to your sleeping area – even traces of food can attract bears with their incredible sense of smell. The camp should also have a secure area for storage of bags of garbage, and the dish pit should be covered. Planters should take pride in their camp and not leave scraps of food around, and someone should be designated to empty all garbage cans each evening and throw the bags into the designated storage area (preferably a wooden trailer or stronger). The garbage trailer should be taken to town at least once per shift, at a minimum.

NEVER approach, feed, or attempt to lure bears. No matter how innocent and small they may seem (some may only be the size of a large dog), remember that very occasionally they do kill people. To the best of my knowledge, the last time a planter was killed by a bear was in the early 1990’s outside of Fort Nelson, BC, so you should not be overly paranoid. As a planter, you are far, far more likely to be killed in a motor vehicle accident than you are to be even mauled by a bear. However, I can cite a few cases of mauling in the years since the incident in Fort Nelson. Nonetheless, if you treat bears with respect and leave them alone, you should be safe in almost all circumstances.

Beavers

The beaver, Castor canadiensis, is a well known symbol of Canada. It the largest rodent in North America and the largest rodent in the world save for the capybara of South America. The beaver is known for its engineering capabilities and its ability to live in both the water and on land.

An adult beaver weighs anywhere from 16 – 32 kg and with its tail can measure 1½ meters long. If you have ever seen a beaver move on land it would seems slow and awkward, however in the water a beaver can attain speeds of up to 7 km/hr. The beaver is well known for its tail which aids it in swimming underwater and in maintaining its balance on land. The beaver’s tail is also used to slap the water as a form of communication to warn others of danger. A beaver also has exceptional teeth. Its strong incisors grow continuously and as the top and bottom ones grind against each other it keeps the tips of the teeth super sharp. This allows the beaver to chew through very large trees.

Beavers commonly live in forested areas, and its life is inextricably connected to logging, for nourishment and habitat. A beaver can cut down up to 216 trees a year, and can fell a tree up to 40 cm in diameter. Beavers construct dams in order to provide a water well deep enough so that when the ice forms in the winter, it can still travel between its underwater food cache and its feeding and sleeping chambers.

A beaver takes only one mate, for life. The female beaver is the central figure of family. If the female dies, the male will abandon the site and move to a new location. Beavers mate in January and February and their young are called kits. These kits are usually born in May or June, following a 100 day gestation period. The kits stay with the family for two to three years and then move up to 250 km away to establish their own family.

A beaver dam in Swan Hills. They can get to be pretty big, far larger even than this one. I don’t have any good close-ups of a beaver yet, but I’ll try to get one next summer.

The Cats: Bobcats, Lynxes, and Cougars

The Canada Lynx, Lynx canadensis, is a creature of the boreal forest and resembles a large domestic cat. The lynx has a short tail, long legs, large feet (to help it travel over snow) and prominent ear tufts. Of the three Canadian members of the cat family (Felidae) the lynx and the bobcat are most alike and most closely related. It is thought that they both descended from the larger Eurasian lynx. Bobcats tend to be smaller on average, with smaller feet, making it harder for them to get food in deep snow. The tip of a lynx’s tail is solid black, where that of a bobcat has three or four narrow black bars. A bobcat’s fur also has more pronounced spotting. The third member of the family the cougar, is much larger and more powerful then either of them, and can be easily identified by its long tail.

Lynxes generally inhabit forested areas, but will populate other habitats as long as they contain an adequate amount of prey, in particular the snowshoe hare. Lynxes are fairly tolerant of human settlement, as long as they are not disturbed, however the territoriality of these mammals is poorly understood. The Canada Lynx is a very secretive animal and is most active at night, they are rarely seen in the wild. Even for people that have spent a lifetime in the woods, encounters with these predators are rare.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any clear full-body photos of a lynx yet.

The cougar, Felis concolor, is also know under names such as mountain lion, puma, and panther, are all the same species in Canada. The cougar is the second largest cat in the world (the Jaguar is the largest), and possesses a lithe, compact body with a rounded and shortened head. It uses its large tail for balance. In southwestern Alberta, average weights for adult males and females are 71 kg and 41 kg respectively, and they are more then 2m in length.

The cougar is an extremely elusive animal and usually avoids direct contact with people. They are masters of camouflage and often remain hidden when approached closely on foot. Usually the only sign of them is the tracks they leave in the snow. The range of the cougar used to extend as far east as New Brunswick, but now they are only common in the west. There are four Canadian subspecies of the cougar. Three of these are in western Canada : F. c. missoulensis ranges in southwestern Alberta and the interior of B.C., F. c. oregonensis is found along the coast range of B.C, and F. c. vancouverensis is native to only Vancouver Island. There is much debate about the validity of the fourth subspecies F. c. cougar in Canada as there is no objective evidence of the continuous presence of cougars in eastern Canada since the nineteenth century.

Cougars hunt mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk and moose calves although they are learning to be more opportunistic and have been known to prey on many other species of mammals and birds, including big horn sheep. Cougars rarely scavenge. Cougars are known to be polygamous which means that they have more than one mate. A male attempts to maintain exclusive breeding rights with any female that remains in his home range.

This photo of a cougar was taken at the Calgary Zoo. I’ve never actually run into a cougar up close in the wild, which is something that I’m pretty happy with, although I saw a wild cat from a distance in 1994 (near Edson, Alberta) that may have been a cougar.

The bobcat, Lynx rufus, has thrived with human settlement, unlike the Canada Lynx. It is able to adapt to a large number of habitat types including woodlots, agricultural lands and swamps. Its diet includes mice, rabbits, lizards, insects, house cats, and livestock. Unlike the common house cat, the bobcat likes to play and swim in the water.

The face of a bobcat, again a photo from the zoo. I see a lot of these in the bush, although I’ve never gotten a close photo of one.

The Canines: Coyotes, Foxes, and Wolves

The coyote, Canis latrans, is one of seven members of the Canidae (canine) family found in Canada. This family also includes the wolf, red fox, artic fox, grey fox, swift fox, and the dog. A coyote is smaller than its cousin, the wolf, and averages between 9 to 23 kg. A coyote’s fur tends to be a tawny grey, and its tail has a black tip. The coyote’s best known trait is its howling cry. If several coyotes are in the vicinity, the howling of one coyote can trigger several others. Scientists are still uncertain as to the exact meaning of the howl.

Coyotes tend to prefer open or semi-open habitats, and since the turn of the twentieth century the coyote has begun a dramatic range expansion that is still in progress today. The coyote’s expansion is not fully understood but it can be attributed to the clearing of the forests, the removal of the wolf and the provision of dead animals from domestic livestock. The coyote can run very hard; it can gallop at 40 km per hour but is quite capable of reaching over 60 km per hour, also if the need arises the coyote can swim quite well. The coyote’s expansion has been well documented. They entered Ontario at the turn of the century, Quebec in the 1940’s, and the Maritimes in the 1970’s. Coyotes have also recently been discovered in Western Newfoundland, having apparently crossed from Nova Scotia on the ice.

Coyotes will eat just about anything. They hunt small prey alone, but will form packs to take down larger animals. Coyotes are known to be monogamous creatures, taking only one mate for several years. Ninety percent of all adult coyote deaths are caused by people, and the coyotes have been persecuted since Europeans first settled in North America. The species has caused considerable damage to livestock over the centuries, and has been known to attack humans. The coyote does, however, have a valuable place amongst Canadian fauna as a scavenger and as a predator of rodents.

A coyote crossing a highway.

The red fox, Vulpes vulpes, has had a bad reputation among farmers as a chicken thief, but it is now appreciated for preying upon many small mammals and even insects that do even more than the fox itself to destroy crops. Red foxes have been known to emit a sharp bark when startled, or to warn other foxes of danger. Red foxes have been often depicted in children’s stories and cartoons as bold, cunning, and deceitful. In real life they are shy, secretive and nervous creatures, but are nonetheless very intelligent.

Red foxes are found all across Canada and their numbers are increasing. Female foxes (vixens) and male foxes (dogs) usually have only one mate. They breed in late December and in mid-March. Their litters range in between one to ten pups, but average around five. Foxes are known to be patient and playful parents, and they keep careful watch over their young until their eyes open. Foxes have occasionally been a menace to public health when epidemics of rabies would sweep through the wild mammal population. When rabid, the normally shy fox shows no fear of people and will appear during the day.

A red fox.

The arctic fox, Alopex lagopus, is the smallest member of the canidae family, it is about the size of a domestic cat. The population of the arctic fox tends to fluctuate alongside that of its principal prey, the lemming. The arctic fox lives in the circumpolar artic. In Canada that takes it from the northern tip of Ellesmere Island to the Southern Tip of James Bay. You won’t see any arctic foxes while planting.

The swift fox, Vulpes velox can be distinguished from the red fox by its small size and by the black spot on each side of its nose. Swift foxes prefer open short and mixed-grass prairie and they stay in dens year round. Some of these dens are simple in construction, with only a single burrow and entrance, other dens are very complex and have a maze of interconnected tunnels and openings. Of all of the foxes, the swift fox is thought to be the least intelligent, as their curious nature and ready attraction to bait has made them easy to trap and poison. The swift fox gets its name from its speed, as some individuals have been known to travel at more then 60 km per hour. Swift foxes prey mostly on mice, cottontail rabbits, and carrion. The swift fox is an endangered species.

The grey fox, Urocyon cinereoargenteus, is distributed throughout southern Canada. They are the only canidae that are able to climb trees, which is mostly thought to be due to their shortened limbs. In the trees and on the ground they hunt squirrels, mice and birds, or forage for berries and other vegetation.

I think this might be a grey fox, but I’m not positive.

The grey wolf is the largest of the wild dogs, weighing in between forty-five and seventy kilograms when fully grown, and sometimes achieving almost two meters in length. Its name is somewhat deceiving, since it can range in colour from almost pure white to black. Although the grey wolf can be found across Canada and in some parts of the northern United States, the populations are struggling to survive in many areas.

Wolves are very organized predators, and hunt big game. Their primary prey includes deer, elk, bighorn sheep, and moose. Howeer, they may also occasionally kill mountain goats, bison, domestic cattle (rare), and more often will feed extensively on small mammals and rodents. They hunt cooperatively, often taking turns chasing down a single victim until they exhaust it. Wolves do not have great endurance, so this form of hunting proves to be very effective for them.

Mating takes place during the winter, with pups arriving about nine weeks later. The pups are nursed in the den for several weeks before emerging into the outside world. Although mature wolves have few natural predators other than man, the young pups can fall victim to bears, cougars, lynx/bobcats, and even eagles.

Wolves have a highly developed social structure, with intricate relationships between members of the pack. A typical pack may be comprised of anywhere from four to a dozen or more animals, and has a very defined social structure. A dominant male and dominant female are the primary members of the pack, and are always the first to feed. Often, these two will be the only pair that will mate. However, the entire pack assists in raising the pups. The dominance is not permanent, however. Eventually, younger and stronger wolves will challenge the dominant male and female, and if they succeed, the new wolves will take over the dominant place within the social hierarchy.

If you want to read an interesting book, get Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat. As a planter, you will occasionally run into wolves, although far less frequently than foxes or coyotes.

A small grey wolf, jumping over slash.

Deer

The white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, is well known to Canadians. The animal is well recognized by its habit of showing its tail over its back, showing a stark white underside and buttocks. A full grown male deer can exceed 110kg in weight with some exceptional individuals weighing up to 200 kg in the North. The white-tailed deer is hard to distinguish from the black-tailed deer common to Coastal B.C. and Vancouver Island. Luckily for identification purposes white-tailed deer are rare in those areas. White-tail’s are especially high-strung and nervous animals. Their best defense against predators lies in remaining undetected, and when that fails, they usually flee the scene immediately.

A unique characteristic of the white-tailed deer is that the doe often leaves her fawn unattended for long periods of time. The fawn’s spotted coat and unscented coat make for great natural camouflage from predators. People sometimes come across a fawn in their hiding place and think that they have been deserted by their mothers. However, the mother rarely deserts her young and the fawn should not be touched. The scent left by humans on the fawn may cause the doe to desert her baby when she returns.

There are sixteen recognized subspecies of white-tailed deer, but only three reside in Canada. In eastern Canada, from Cape Breton to Ontario, the northern white-tailed deer; from Manitoba to the foothills of the Rockies is the Dakota white-tailed deer. Finally in southeastern B.C. is the northwestern white-tailed deer. Human activities such as logging and burning forest blocks, as well as seeding agricultural crops, have reduced many of the white-tailed deer’s competitors. Dropping numbers of mule deer, elk, moose and bison have allowed this animal to expand its range northward.

The seasons have a marked effect on the diet of the white-tailed deer. Its food consists mainly of leafy materials and berries during the summer, and these are difficult to find in the winter. This food shortage problem, along with the difficulty of traveling through the deep snow, severely limits the white-tail’s chances for survival. Those animals that do make it through the season often are a pale shadow of their former sleek form.

A white-tailed deer looking curious but calm, with the tail still down.

The mule deer differs from the white-tail deer in two main respects. First, the ears are somewhat different, with those of the mule deer being broader and flatter, resembling the ears of a mule (hence the name). However, I have not been able to consistently tell the difference between the two species in the wild based on their ears. A better indication is the tail. Whereas the white-tail deer has a straight tail with a white underside that can be raised like a flag, the mule deer’s tail is shorter and marked with black, and does not rise to give off a warning signal. Instead, you will probably just see a large white or grayish patch on the deer’s rump. Once the mule deer becomes frightened and runs away, the difference between this animal and a white-tail becomes very obvious. A white-tail runs away in a traditional gait, almost like a cross between a dog and a horse running, but a mule deer actually hops away like a four-legged kangaroo. This hop was probably developed because the mule deer traditionally became better established in rough terrains.

The mule deer is typically found is western Canada, from Manitoba to B.C. As recently as a century ago, the mule deer and white-tailed deer each had very specific domains, with one species usually being absent from areas where the other was prevalent. However, the ranges are now somewhat intermixed, and it is possible to see both species grazing side by side. The mule deer is making especially good headway in migrating to areas that are further north than it inhabited historically.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any good pictures of a mule deer yet.

Moose

The moose is the largest member of the deer family, and is a very unique animal in the wild. A large moose can stand over three meters high at the head, and weigh over a thousand pounds. The moose is almost always dark brown, unless it has problems with ticks, which can make its fur have numerous whitish spots or patches. When the males (bulls) develop antlers, they are immense, and take the form of two plate with numerous sharp tines poking out. These antlers can each be more than a meter across, and can weigh more than thirty pounds apiece.

The moose can be found all across Canada, from coast to coast, although it is certainly far more common in the wilderness than in rural areas. Moose feed on a combination of twigs, stems, and buds over the winter, and the word “moose” is actually an Algonquin Indian term that translates to “twig-eater.” During the summer, moose love to play in wetlands, and the diet runs very heavy to aquatic plants, when possible.

Moose mate in the fall, just like other types of deer, and the cow (mother) gives birth in the spring after a long gestation of between seven and nine months. A baby moose, only a couple feet high, is one of the most ridiculous looking animals in the wild, but if you see one make sure you don’t get too close! The mother can be very dangerous if she actually stays to protect her calf, although she will often be the first to run if danger presents itself, leaving the calf behind.

The moose is one of the animals which is best suited to the coldest northern climates, because their long legs allow them to move effortlessly through deep snow. In addition, the moose can lower its own body temperature, which will reduce the amount of food required to keep it at the proper body temperature.

A moose standing in a stagnant pond.

Rabbits and Hares

Veterans planters will probably be surprised by this comment, but most planters should never see a rabbit in their entire planting career. This is because rabbits (cotton-tails), do not typically live in Western Canada, except in parts of southeastern Alberta and the very southern parts of BC, along the U.S. border. Actually, the jack rabbit, which does live in southern Alberta, is not a true rabbit despite the name, but is a species of hare. We see hundreds of what we call rabbits, but the species that we commonly see is actually the snowshoe hare. You may wonder what the difference is between a rabbit and hare. A hare (unlike a rabbit) is born fully furred, with eyes open, and is ready to hop around just a few minutes after birth. Also, hares usually change the color of their fur from season to season, to blend in with the background, unlike a cottontail.

The snowshow hare, Lepus americanus, is most famous for its cycle of population growth. Every eight to eleven years, there is a huge boom in the population, which is coordinated over huge regions. This boom is followed, a couple years later, by the species being almost completely decimated. The size of the population during the year when it is devastated is often less than 5% of the size during the peak years. As an example of how significant this is, during the fall of 1970 in central Alberta, the snowshoe hare often averaged over two thousand individuals for every square kilometer. Many predators follow this cycle of boom and bust (with a time lag of a year or so), including the lynx, great horned owls, coyotes, and red foxes.

Hares, like rabbits, are prolific breeders. Once a hare is pregnant, she will give birth about five weeks later to a litter of between eight and eighteen young. Within hours of their birth, she will get pregnant again, and can give birth to about four litters per year under good conditions. Within a local population, the breeding comes into synchronization, thus the young tend to be born in “waves”.

Snowshoe hares are very commonly found in the evening dusk and early morning hour sitting alongside the edge of logging roads, where they bask in the sun and relax. If you want to read a good book that will help you understand the behavior of rabbits and hares better, get Watership Down by Richard Adams.

Snowshoe hare looking watchful in the grass.

Small Rodents: Mice, Shrews, and Voles

Rodents are the most successful of mammals on the planets. Humans may be smarter, but amazingly, almost forty percent of all mammalian species on Earth are rodents. They have had a huge effect on history, probably more so than any other type of animal, by virtue of the trillions of dollars in damages that they do to crops worldwide on an annual basis. The rodents overwhelmingly owe their success to their teeth, which is the body feature that they all have in common (taxonomically speaking). All rodents (which include beavers, one of the largest rodents) have two pairs of self-sharpening and permanently growing incisors. In addition to the sharp incisors, the rodents have molars which are used to grind plant matter into a pulp that can be digested, and these animals have internal features that allow them to digest cellulose. A very interesting feature of rodents is that when food passes through their body the first time, it is not fully digested. The “first-round” feces is soft and full of vitamins, which is then eaten and re-digested. The second time it comes out, it is in the form of hard pellets that are not touched again.

There are thirty-four families of rodents. The larger animals in these families include chipmunks, woodchucks, marmots, squirrels, muskrats, porcupines, and beavers. The smaller rodents include rats, mice, and voles. Shrews, another type of small animal that seem like they should be clumped with the mice, are actually insectivores rather than rodents. They are so small that they have a wildly hyperactive metabolism, and spend most of their waking hours looking for and eating food.

The deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus, is one of the most adaptive species on Earth. It can thrive anywhere from the prairies to deep coniferous woods to human structures. Its diet prefers seeds and arthopods, but it can survive on just about anything from conifer seeds to spiders to beatles to wheat. The deer mouse can nest underground, or in bird nests in trees, or in walls, or just about anywhere else. Depending on weather conditions and food supply, the length and timing of the breeding season can change. Even mating behavior and reproduction is highly variable, depending upon the environmental conditions. The versatility of the deer mouse is incredible.

Rats are not seen so commonly. The common type of the species seen in farm yards and cities is the Norway rat, I think. I doubt you’ll ever see these rats on the block. Instead, on the planting blocks, you may see a bushy-tailed wood rat, which looks more like a cross between a mouse and small squirrel than like a rat, but you probably will just mistake it for a mouse.

The meadow vole is another common rodent, sometimes referred to as a field mouse, Microtus pennsylvanicus. This vole is usually found in dense grasslands or low-lying, humid meadows. The meadow vole, as with most small rodents, looks like a “generic mouse” and thus can be confused with deer mice and larger shrews. The vole can eat insects, clover, alfalfa, grasses, and much more. Most voles (over 98%) live less than one hundred days, but since females can produce three litters during that time, there is little danger of them becoming extinct.

All in all, mice and voles are incredibly important parts of the food chain. Although they are widely despised for humans due to the damage they do to crops and structures, and are somewhat feared (rightfully so) because they can carry a number of diseases which can afflict humans, the fact remains that they are very useful in a biological sense because they are the main level in the food chain at which plant matter is concentrated into other forms of food, and thus nearly all feathered or furred animals rely on them, to some extent, as a good source of food.

Planters will often see mice and voles scurrying around the block, escaping by running away underneath leaves and brush at extremely high speeds.

A nest of some sort of rodent, probably deer mice.

Birds

Crows and Ravens

The American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) is a black bird up to half a meter in length (wingspan up to one meter) with a thin beak and fan-shaped tail. The crow and the raven are often considered to be the same, but they are actually two different species. The crow has a slimmed bill, and more of a fan shape to its tail.

The American crow is found across most of Canada. In the Canadian Rockies, it is an occasional summer nester, but usually it leave the Rockies in the autumn to nest in mountains in the southern U.S. Crows are diverse and flexible, and very intelligent. They are fond of open areas for feeding, but will nest in more wooded sites.

The crow will eat just about anything, including carrion, insects, small mammals, eggs, nestlings, and many types of plants. Crows and ravens are excellent thieves, and many planters have fallen victim to these birds which will occasionally be so bold as to open knapsacks and kitbags at caches on the block, looking for food.

The common raven (Corvus corax), when fully grown, is usually much than a crow, and is very common in the mountains. They are a very large, black bird, with a heavier bill than the crow. Another point of difference is that the tail of the raven is more wedge shaped, rather than fan shaped.

The raven is very diverse in its choice of habitat, and lives anywhere from hilly country, to woods, to seaside habitats, to garbage dumps. The raven will eat almost anything that it can find. It feeds on carrion regularly, and most road-kill is eventually eaten by either coyotes or ravens. Ravens will also eat insects, small mammals, eggs, nestlings, seeds, and garbage. They seem to have an almost magical ability to sense where food is hidden, and once a single raven comes to the scene, others will quickly follow. Never underestimate the intelligence of these birds when it comes to protecting your lunch. I have actually seen a raven manage to undo the straps on a knapsack containing someone’s lunch. These birds are incredibly smart, and will fly through open windows into trucks to grab things off the dashboard or seats.

This is either a crow or a raven, I’m not sure which.

Osprey

The Osprey, Pandion haliaetus, is often referred to as the “fish-hawk.” It is most spectacular when it is diving to catch its prey, sometimes submerging completely beneath the water’s surface, although planters are more likely to see it circling overhead than actually hunting. The osprey’s feet are specially designed to grasp the slippery fish that constitute the majority of its diet; it has two claws facing forward, two facing backwards, and scaly soles in between. Male and female ospreys have similar plumage, except that the female has a fine dark band of feathers encircling her neck whilethe males have a throat that is all white.

Ospreys are easily spotted by their large stick nests (easily confused with eagle nests) which can commonly be seen on treetops as well as utility poles, and transmission towers. During incubation, the male osprey feeds the female and she does not leave the nest.

Eagles

The bald eagle, Haliaetus leucocephalus, builds the largest nest of any bird in North America. Its wing span is more than 2 meters and the bird is over 76 cm tall. An adult bald eagle can weigh over 7kg, and the females are larger then the males. Male and female bald eagles have identical plumage, but they do not achieve this plumage until five years of age. Immature bald eagles may be mistaken for golden eagles, because they do not yet have their distinctive plumage.

The bald eagle can see four times farther than humans and uses its keen eyesight to its advantage when tracking prey. The bald eagle is only found in North America. Many Canadian bald eagles only breed here, and fly south to feed during the winter months while their primary food source, the water, is frozen over. The majority of wintering bald eagles reside in British Columbia where the warmer temperatures cause them to congregate in groups of thousands. Bald eagles eat mostly fish, taking them out of lakes or even small streams. They are also fond of carrion and waterfowl.

Bald eagles build the largest nests of any bird in North America. They can be at least six feet across, and more than three feet high. Some pairs will mate for life, and keep returning to the same nest year after year, adding more material to the nest with each successive nesting. One record-setting nest was ten feet across and twenty feet high! Usually the female eagle will lay two eggs, and both the parent share in the duties of incubating the eggs. Sometimes the first eaglet will kill the second, or else it will be so much stronger that the second eaglet will starve to death. Until the eaglets leave the nest (usually almost three months after hatching), the parents will bring food to them in the nest.

A mature bald eagle – a common site in Canada.

Golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) are huge, and entirely dark in color. You can differentiate them from an immature bald eagle by a golden tint around the head and nape. The tail is also usually banded with light and dark bands, with a thick dark band at the end of the tail. Young golden eagles are lighter in color, but their feathers will turn darker with age.

Golden eagles are probably more common than bald eagles, and can be found all across Canada. However, in the Canadian Rockies, they may be less common than bald eagles. There is a well known migration route that runs parallel with the eastern-most mountain ranges of the Rockies, passing directly over Banff and Canmore.

Golden eagles are not big fish eaters like the bald eagles. Instead, they can be found far away from water, and will dive to attack squirrels, grouse, marmots, and even animals as large as young mountain goats as a source of food. They also feed on carrion. They prefer to nest on rocky ledges and outcrops, but will occasionally build their nests in trees. The female will usually lay two eggs, like the bald eagle, any time from February to May, depending on how far north the nest is. The female golden eagle is the only parent that incubates the eggs, which hatch in six to seven weeks. The younger of the two eaglets will usually die, unless food is extremely plentiful and the size of the eaglets is similar. The male parent will go hunting for food, which he brings back to the female parent, and the female then feeds the young eaglets.

Once the eaglets are about a month and a half old, they no longer require their mother to feed them. Within another month, they are first able to fly, although they will take several weeks to gather additional strength and practice before they actually leave the nest.

Grouse

There are many different types of grouse, but the ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) and spruce grouse (Falcipennis Canadensis) are the two species that planters are most likely to run into. The ruffed grouse is common through the Canadian Rockies, and can be found in mixed-wood forests and younger forests. This bird will search the ground for seeds, berries, and insects. A nest will be built on the ground, usually fairly well hidden at the base of a tree or stump. This nest will be very simple, comprised of just a bunch of leaves and needles lining a shallow scraping. The female, which lays anywhere from half a dozen to a dozen eggs, does all the incubating herself. The young hatch in a little over three weeks.

The ruffed grouse will have two different color schemes. The first phase has a slight red-brown tinge, while the second phase is a purer grey with no reddish tinting. The ruffed grouse is named because many of these birds have a patch of soft black feathers around the shoulder, which form a “ruff”. The nickname “prairie chicken” has often been applied to the grouse.

The spruce grouse is very similar to the ruffed grouse. It does not have the black ruff on its shoulders, but in other appearances is quite similar. The throat of the spruce grouse is usually outlined with white, and the tail will not have bands, whereas the tail of the ruffed grouse usually has bands. The spruce grouse will usually be found in coniferous and mixed wood forests, and will feed on the seeds and needles of coniferous trees when it is hungry, particularly in winter when more conventional foods are not readily available. The spruce grouse loves berries, when they can be found.

Both the ruffed grouse and the spruce grouse are fairly simple and seemingly unintelligent birds. They will rely on their natural coloring to blend in with their background, and when danger approaches, they will very often sit still and hope that whatever the danger is passes them by. Planters will often see them standing on the side of logging roads, and as a truck approaches, the most they may do is very slowly walk from their initial resting spot. Unfortunately, they aren’t that bright and often walk into the path of the truck. The spruce grouse especially has been nicknamed the “fool’s hen” because it seems to have an almost absolute lack of fear of man. It may continue to walk around calmly when humans walk within a few feet of it.

Seagulls

The Herring Gull, more commonly known as the seagull (Larus argentatus), is one of the most common gulls in North America. This is a very adaptive species and its population is increasing with human development. The herring gull is marked by the red spot on its lower beak. This spot shows the young chicks where to peck its parent. When pecked here, the gull instinctively feeds by regurgitation. Throughout their youth, the chicks go through no less then seven changes in plumage before obtaining the distinctive adult coloring seen below. When you see gulls at a local dump with a number of different types of plumage, they are not necessarily different species of gulls, just herring gulls at different levels of maturity. However, having said that, there are a number of varieties of gulls that you might run across.

A common seagull.

Insects

Bees

Bumblebees may look cute and fuzzy but they have a moderately painful sting. The Nevada bumblebee, Bombus nevadensis, is common throughout Alberta and the adults are approximately 2 cm in length. In the spring, a queen bumblebee will establish a new colony in a abandoned burrow, beginning the process of making wax pots and rearing her young, known as “grubs.” Once this first generation of grubs has grown to worker bee size, these bees will start specializing and expanding the colony. Some workers exclusively rear young, some make more wax pots, and others begin filling these pots with pollen or honey.

For a time scientists were puzzled at how the bumblebee could fly its large body around with such tiny wings, but they have come to realize that the bumblebee is covered in a large amount of hair – their bodies are a lot smaller than they look. The hair allows the bumblebee to fly at much lower temperatures than other bees.

Many people think of bees at the same time that they think of bears, because bees make honey and bears are rumored to be big fans of honey, thanks to Winnie-the-Pooh. In fact, bears definitely do eat honey, but they do not consider it a staple of their diet or a common food. However, interesting, it appears that bees are on a similar schedule to that of most bears, they emerge at the same time in spring and retreat in the winter at the same time.

Many people who get used to insects seem to notice that bees don’t sting very often. When they do sting, it is almost always because they feel that their nest is being threatened, or their own life is being threatened. The bee’s stinger has a hooked barb on the end, so when it stings a person, the stinger gets stuck in the person’s skin. When the bee tries to fly away, the stinger rips out of the bee, which then dies shortly thereafter. This is why the bee is usually slow to anger and only stings as a last resort. It is therefore pretty easy and safe to get a bee that is trapped in a car or trailer with you to land on your hand and carry it to safety outside. Of course, wasps and hornets are a different story, as you will see below, so make sure you know the difference between a bee and a wasp before you try anything brave! There is one bit of advice for you to remember, however. Bees (and wasps and hornets) are apparently agitated somewhat by carbon dioxide in large quantities, so if you have a bee flying close to your face, it might be wise to close your mouth and try not to exhale on it.

A common bumblebee, no need to be scared.

Butterflies/Moths

Butterflies and moths are types of insects which have more than 100,000 species worldwide, making them the second largest insect order, Lepidoptera. There are 292 species of butterflies in Canada, most of which can be seen in British Columbia (176). Adults range in size from a wing span of about 5 millimeters in the smallest moths to 30 centimeters (almost a foot!) in the largest moths and butterflies. Nearly all larvae feed on plant matter, chiefly green foliage, but in some groups they are wood borers or scavengers of dead plants. Rarely, some species will even eat animal matter.

The familiar butterflies are comprised of only about twelve different families, and the remainder of the insects that you will see are moths. In general, moths are duller in color than butterflies, have looser wing scales, fly at night, have a “frenulum” (a special mechanism for joining the fore and hind wings), and have threadlike and tapered/plumy antennae. Butterflies do not have lungs, as they breathe through openings in their stomachs called spiracles. Caterpillars that survive and develop over the winter avoid freezing by producing glycerol, a kind of antifreeze.

Living almost everywhere, and feeding on an enormous variety of plants, the Lepidoptera have an incredible ecological and economic importance. Their larvae transform millions of tons of plant matter into animal matter and wastes, which are then eaten by other animals or eventually recycled into plant matter. Inevitably, many of them are considered to be severe economic pests because they feed on plants which are valuable to humans. Among the most noted of these pests are: the spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) which attacks spruce trees, the gypsy moth (Porthetria dispar) which attacks many forests and cultivated trees; the army worm (Pseudaletia) which attacks grain and forage crops, tent caterpillars (Malacosoma), and many cutworms (Noctuidae). A few Lepidoptera are directly beneficial, for instance the silkworm (Bombyx mori). Many other species help control weed plants. Flower-visiting adults are second in importance only to bees in the cross-pollination of many flowering plants. In the laboratory, many species are used in important research in evolution, genetics, and physiology. All in all, although butterflies and moths can be significant pests in some respects, their overall importance to our lives is almost impossible to calculate and appreciate.

A pretty yellow butterfly.

A type of moth, blending in with the background where it is sitting in on some rocks.

Hornets and Wasps

The term wasp generally refers to all stinging members of the suborder Apocrita, belonging to the Hymenoptera, except for the bees and the ants. However Anglo-Saxons also used the word “wasp” to describe the insects that made the woven nests of the social paper wasps. This word had its origins in the root wefan (which means to weave). These insects, and the yellow jacket wasps, are the two insects most commonly associated with the term wasp. All wasps undergo a metamorphosis, like butterflies and moths. However, unlike caterpillars, wasp larvae are not commonly seen as they tend to be hidden in a nest or in a host insect.

In social wasps, a groups which consists mostly of the paper wasps, hornets and yellow jackets, the females construct the colony by making small paper cells of chewed plant material mixed with saliva. One egg is laid per cell and once hatched, they are fed chewed pieces of other insects, especially caterpillars.

Wasps do aid humans by destroying many insects that compete with humans for food. However, tree planters should be wary as social wasps are aggressive and easily provoked (especially if you tear a hole in their nest with your shovel!). Wasps and hornets do not have a barbed hook on the end of their stinger, unlike bees, and therefore a single wasp or hornet can retreat and sting a person over and over again with little risk to its own life. Because of this, they are much more likely to sting on the spur of the moment.

In my experience, there are a couple rumors about wasps that need to be dispelled. The first is that many rookie planters assume that all wasp nests are big grey balls hanging from branches, and that you will be able to see them fairly easily. This is not true. I would bet that less than a quarter of the nests that I have run into over the years have been traditional grey hanging nests. The rest are all constructed underground. This is bad because in July and August, depending on the block and area that you are planting in, it can be a fairly frequent occurrence to put your shovel into an underground nest, with this unfortunate event happening several times each day on the worst blocks. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to prevent this. You usually won’t know that you’ve hit a nest until you’ve cracked the hole open: you will just be bending over to stick the plug in the ground when all of a sudden you hear a harsh buzzing (another good reason not to wear a walkman while planting) and find wasps pouring out of the hole and swarming all over your hand and arm. To someone who hasn’t planted before, this sounds horrible. All I can say is that you’d better get used to it, keep your wits about you, and if you notice a nest try to hold onto your shovel while you are running away (twenty feet should be sufficient distance). If you are allergic to wasp stings, it is wise to carry an “epie pen,” which is a needle with epinephrine that should be self-injected in an emergency to minimize swelling and to maximize oxygen absorption by the aveoli in the lungs. Another useful remedy, for those who are stung but who only experience minor swelling, is to take antihistamines.

The second rumor that I’ve often run into is that wasps are white and hornets are yellow. I don’t think this is true. In the research I’ve done, and from my wise old grandmother, convention says that “yellow jackets” and wasps have yellow stripes on their backs, and hornets have white stripes. This probably is irrelevant, since they both hurt when they sting. Don’t confuse a wasp with the far more innocent horse fly, which is a common and embarrassing event. Both make a buzzing sound, and horseflies sometimes do have some sort of yellow banding on their body, although it is typically far less bright and colorful than the yellow on a wasp. Also, if you look closely, you’ll see that a horsefly has a solid body and is actually like a large housefly, whereas a wasp has a jointed abdomen, although that thin, jointed appearance is slightly disguised by the body hair in the photo below.

A wasp, sometimes referred to as a “yellow jacket”. Don’t get this close if you can avoid it. Wasps can have different striping patterns on their bodies, but are usually yellow, while hornets have white stripes.

Horseflies/Deerflies

The horsefly is the common name for a large family, Tabanidae, of flies in the order Diptera. There are over 150,000 different kinds of flies including 3,500 different kinds of horse flies. A fly goes through three stages before it becomes an adult: egg, larva, and pupa. The eggs hatch within one twelve to thirty-six hours. The larva, also called maggots, last from five to twenty six days and are aquatic. The pupa stage lasts from four to twenty-three days. The pupa is a sack or case that holds the developing fly. Then when the pupa stage is over the fly is an adult.

The body of an adult is made up of a thorax, head, and abdomen. The thorax has six legs, each of which has a pair of claws. There are sticky pads on the end of each foot to help them walk upside down. The wings are attached to the thorax. The head is mostly covered by the eyes. An eye is made up of hundreds of little facets. Most flies have green eyes. The male's eyes touch, but the female's are a tiny bit apart. The abdomen is the fly's stomach. Horse flies can grow up to one inch long and have a wing span of two inches. Large horse flies are gray or blackish, and sometimes have dull iridescent or color bands. They use their antennae to feel and smell.

Flies' tongues are tube shaped and are used as a pump. The males drink nectar from flowers. When the females bite they suck the victim’s blood. Females drink blood so they can get protein to develop their eggs. They lay eggs on the front legs of horses, mules, or donkeys. When the eggs hatch they cling to the animal’s tongue when the animal licks its leg, then find their way to the stomach for nine to ten months, and finally exit their host in the feces.

The deerfly is a member of the genus Chrysops in the horsefly family Tabanidae. Female deerflies are bloodsuckers and may be serious pests to humans and animals, for they are carriers of serious diseases such as anthrax and tularemia. Deerflies are about the size of houseflies, with dark brown or black bodies, dark markings on the wings, and brilliantly colored eyes.

Horseflies and deerflies cause the most problems for planters during hotter days in July and August. The heat doesn’t seem to bother them, and as the day gets really hot, the deerflies and horseflies seem to gather in strength and number as the mosquitoes and no-see-um’s go to bed for the day. Bug dope seems to deter these insects somewhat, but not completely.

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes belong to the insect order Diptera, family Culicidae. There are more than 2,600 species that are divided into 31 or more genera, about a third of which are found in North America. Mosquitoes are found worldwide in all but the most extreme habitats. They are small, delicate, two-winged flies.

Both males and females feed on flower nectar, but only females will feed on blood. Most females require a blood meal to produce a batch of eggs, although some can produce at least one batch of eggs with food reserves from the larval stage. A mosquito may be attracted to its victim by warmth, odor, moisture, and even the carbon dioxide of a sleeping person's breath. Because of this habit, several mosquitoes serve as carriers of diseases such as malaria, filariasis, dog heartworm, arboviral encephalitis, yellow fever, the West Nile virus, and dengue.

When a mosquito bites, it inserts the pointed, barbed pair of maxillae, to anchor the mouthparts in the skin and provide leverage for the insertion of the remaining parts. The sheath slides back as the other mouthparts pass through its tip. The mosquito's saliva, which contains several substances (including anticoagulants to stop the blood from clotting), is injected into the skin, causing the area around the bite to swell and itch.

This mosquito is locked on and full of blood already!

Spiders

Spiders are among the few things in the animal kingdom, along with snakes, that generate instinctive fear and loathing in people.

There are 35,000 known species of spider, and some scientists estimate that there may be as many as 100,000. Although they all produce venom to catch their prey, only about ten species are dangerous to humans. Spiders belong to the subdivision Arachnida of the class of arthropods, a subdivision which includes mites, ticks and scorpions. They are characterized by two body divisions, four pair of legs, no antennae, and most have eight eyes. Of all the arachnids, only spiders can spin silk, which they do by excreting a protein called fibroin from glands or spinnerets in their abdomen. Spiders are predators and produce venom which they use to paralyze their prey. The spider then inoculates the victim with digestive enzymes, which turns the inner parts into a nutrient broth which the spider can then drink.

Spiders hatch from eggs and, except for a change of size, they change little in appearance as they grow, which they do by shedding their outer skin seven or eight times before maturity. If a spider loses a leg, it can grow another at the next molt. In fact, if a spider is stung in the leg by another venomous insect, it can shed its leg within a few seconds before the venom has a chance to spread throughout its body.

Only about half of the species of spiders use their silk spinning ability to make webs. The web is actually a great energy saver. The energy cost to the spider in spinning a web is about equivalent to the food energy found in three of its prey, but on an average day, the web may catch as many as thirty victims without the spider having had to roam in search of them. Many spiders also recycle the web by eating most of it at the end of the day. Building a web is not a learned skill; newly hatched spiders can spin perfect webs and so the web-building ability is encoded in the spider’s genes. The best known web is the cobweb of the common house spider, Arachnida tepidariorum. Interestingly, the word "cob" is an old English word for spider. Before you sweep away your next cobweb, you might reflect on the fact that it can catch over one thousand household insects per year. About 2,500 species build the characteristic and beautiful orb webs. These are built with up to one hundred dry filaments which radiate out from a single point like spokes on a wheel. Over this sheet, the spider lays a continuous inward traveling spiral mode of a single sticky filament. While waiting for prey to be captured, the spider may remain in a position on the web, or it may retreat to a nearby station while remaining in contact with the web by a thread, which allows it to detect motion caused by captured prey.

The life of the male spider is very hazardous, and the chance of survival is small. Even the chance of surviving courtship is not perfect. Some males pluck at the web in a characteristic way to inform the female that they are not lunch. Others will attach a filament of their own to vibrate the web, then if things get too hot to handle, he can cut the rope and run. Some males actually use silk to immobilize the female, and others just wait until she has eaten and is less hungry and/or active.

There is a tradition that the bite of the European tarantula is fatal and that the cure is vigorous dancing. It has since been shown that the tarantula's bite, while painful, is not serious. The venom in a single tarantula’s bite is adequate to kill a mammal the size of a mouse, but not much larger than that. The real culprit of the spider world is really the black widow spider, whose venom is ten times more lethal than that of the rattlesnake. One effect of black widow venom is to make the body's nerve endings release a supply of chemicals which are involved in the transmission of nerve impulses. This has the effect of causing acute pain, which seems to be alleviated by physical exercise. The “tarantella” is actually a lively, whirling form of Italian dance, which was rumored to be a cure for a spider bite. Black widow venom may have positive effects, however. For instance, it is currently being investigated as a potential treatment for botulism and muscular dystrophy, which are two types of medical conditions which are characterized by the inability of the nerves to emit neuro-transmitter chemicals.

A spider sitting in the center of his web, the strands of which are barely visible in this photo.

Plants and Flowers

Arnica

The arnica (Arnica cordifolia) or heart-leaved arnica grows in both the shade and in sunlight, but the plants look significantly different depending upon the amount of direct sunlight that they receive. Those in the shade have large leaves that are light green in color. Those growing in the open will exhibit smaller leaves, which are much darker in color.

Heart-Leaved Arnica.

Baneberry

Baneberry (Actaea rubra) is a tall and bushy plant (up to about a meter in height) which is familiar to planters. It has a branched stem, and the branches form “Y” junctions. Early in the life cycle, white flowers occur in dense clumps. Later, these flowers are replaced by bright red berries. Don’t eat the berries even though they look good – they’re poisonous! Interesting, there is another form of the baneberry that has bright white berries. The two plants are exactly the same except for the color, and scientists have no idea why some berries are red and some are white. The plants are either one color or the other, never both, and never shades of pink in-between.

I think this is baneberry, although I’m not positive. They may actually be False Salomon’s Seal.

Blueberry

Blueberry is the common name of various shrubs of the genus Vaccinium in the family Ericaceae. About twenty-four recognized species of blueberries exist, varying from shrubs less than 0.3 meters tall to large bushes more than 5.0 meters in height, and differing in habitat from marshy bogs to dry upland mineral soils. The blue or dark navy to black colored and sweet-tasting berry contains forty to fifty small, soft seeds, and often has a powdery coating. Most blueberry species are indigenous to eastern North America, and commercial culture of the crop is largely limited to that area. The berries have been used since early days, but the cultivated blueberry industry has developed entirely in the 20th century. Lowbush blueberries are harvested commercially from natural stands in Maine and Eastern Canadian provinces. Many blueberry species are erroneously called huckleberries, which are closely related plants. Planters will occasionally see blueberries growing on blocks if planting is still going on in August. I have seen a couple blocks in Alberta in late August and early September which had so many berries that a planter could sit down and eat for hours. On one of those blocks, we sat (cautiously) about twenty feet from a bear which we hadn’t noticed at first, and continued to eat enormous handfuls for another fifteen minutes. The bear had looked up at us briefly, then went right back to his happy meal, and our presence and conversation did not seem to bother him in the slightest.

Buttercups

The buttercup (Ranunculus sp.) is a familiar yellow flower that is a favorite among children. There are quite a few different species of buttercups in Western Canada, ranging from low to moderate (subalpine) elevations. Some types grow to well over a foot in height. There are other species of flowers, such as members of the Potentilla species, which are often confused with buttercups. Buttercups have a greenish centre in the flowers, and Potentilla species have a yellow centre. Some people also confuse the Yellow Avens with buttercups. To distinguish between the two, you should remember that the Avens has a set of leaves directly below the flowers, while a buttercup does not. Buttercup flowers have five petals.

Cow Parsnip

The cow parsnip (Heracleum lanatum) is one of the tallest flowers that you will come across, and can grow to over two meters in height – taller than some planters! This plant has a thick, hairy stem with groups of leaves that branch off the stem in an alternating pattern, rather than in layers. The flowers on this plant grow in groups called “umbels” (which are umbrella-shaped) of up to about a foot in diameter. All of the leaf-stocks that support the flowers on the umbels are attached to the stem in one big clump.

Cow Parsnip.

Crowberry

Crowberry (Empetrum nigrum) is a low shrub which has small pink flowers which eventually turn into small edible black berries. The berries provide a valuable winter food for many birds and animals.

Dandelions

This flower is know to almost everyone, as it is a common pest which drives lawn care-takers crazy. The dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) can grow to over a foot in height. Its leaves are shaped in a rosette at the base of the flower. Each leaf is linear in layout, with jagged edges and a deeply incised center line that terminates in a point. The stem is slightly hairy and can be different shades of purplish or greenish white. At the top of the stem there is a single yellow flower head, which can be up to two inches in diameter. Later in the life cycle of the dandelion, the flower gives way to a ball of fluffy seeds, which can travel great distances on the wind once they become airborne.

There are, as with many types of flowers, several other species that closely resemble the dandelion, and which are often confused with that plant. To differentiate between the species, look at the flower. Just underneath the flower there are blades called “bracts”. These bracts curve downward and point to the base of the stem. None of the imitators that look like dandelions have this same feature. The dandelion is not a flower that is restricted to a narrow growth window, and thus may be found in various growth stages from the spring to the early fall.

Devil’s Club

Devil’s club (Oplapanax harridum) is the bane of tree planters in some parts of some blocks at the right time of year. Devil’s club is hard to miss, even when you’re trying, because the stems can be almost four meters in length when lying along the ground, and often grow straight up in the air to be as tall as any planter. The problem with these long and thick (half an inch or so) stems is that they are covered with long spines or thorns which can be very sharp at times. The broad leaves on the devil’s club are fairly large, often reaching a diameter of twelve inches or more. The stalk leading to the leaf has thorny spines on it too, as do the main veins on the leaf itself. One of the main claims to fame of this plant is that it was so frustrating to workers building the Canadian Pacific Railroad that in places, the route of the CPR was altered to avoid particularly thick patches of the plant. Devil’s club is a highly shade-tolerant species, which starts to become quite noticeable to planters in June through August. Late in the life cycle of the plant, the leaves are replaced by a cluster of bright, red berries, but this occurs fairly late in the year, so planters normally don’t see these berries.

Devil’s club is also famous for its medicinal uses among Native peoples. Many different indigenous communities looked upon the plant as being a source of a huge variety of medicines and cures.

Ferns

There are about ten to twelve thousand species of ferns, of the division Filicophyta. Ferns are non-flowering vascular plants that have true roots, stems, and complex leaves, and which reproduce by spores.

Though ferns were once classified with primitive horsetails and club mosses, botanists have since made a clear distinction between the scale-like, one-veined leaves of those plants, and the more complexly veined fronds of the ferns. Ferns are more closely related to the leaves of seed plants. Ferns come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. Many are small, fragile plants, but others are treelike. The life cycle is characterized by an alternation of generations between the mature, fronded form (the sporophyte) familiar in greenhouses and gardens, and the form that strongly resembles a moss or liverwort (the gametophyte). Ferns are popular houseplants, but contrary to popular belief they are NOT edible. In fact, ingesting large quantities of ferns can be carcinogenic (cancer causing).

The two most common types of ferns seen by tree planters are the bracken fern and the cinnamon fern. The bracken fern is the adult form of the “fiddlehead,” and the cinnamon fern is found in very swampy areas and has an edible root. In some areas (coastal BC and parts of the southern interior especially), planters may be required to tell the difference between bracken ferns and other types of ferns, because patches of ground with bracken ferns must be treated differently by the planter. It has been quite a number of years since I was on that type of contract, and at the time, I never did understand the difference between the various types of ferns, and the reason why the difference was important. If anybody knows, I would be glad to hear, so I can update this section.

Fireweed

Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) is a tallish plant with narrow leaves. The flowers, which are a bright pink or slightly purplish, grow in a tall, dense spike. Not all of the flowers bloom at the same time, and they often start blooming at the bottom, and over a few days will start blooming toward the top of the spike.

Fireweed has a growing season of several months, but on the Western Canadian planting blocks, it seems to start becoming predominant around mid to late July. In early to mid-August, entire blocks can have a purplish sheen to them from the massive quantities of fireweed that grow. Later in the season, especially towards the end of August, the flowers will disappear to be replaced by fluffy dander. This stuff will get in your eyes, your ears, your nose, your mouth, and just about everywhere else, floating around the blocks like white dandelion dander.

Fireweed is annoying by virtue of how thick it gets on the blocks. However, it is pretty easy to knock down and is not a thick or woody weed, nor does it have any thorns. It does grow pretty tall in places though, and planters often get frustrated and have trouble following lines of planted trees through fields of fireweed.

Fireweed, before it has turned to dander.

Goldenrod (Canadian)

The goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) is a familiar plant to most people who suffer from allergies, being one of the plants which traditionally cause the worst allergic reactions for people. Goldenrod grows to a variety of heights, from as short as one foot, to well over a meter in height. It is a tall, thin plant with very distinctive yellow or orange flowers, which can grow on open plains or partly shaded slopes, but which prefers a moist environment.

Harebell

The harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), also known as the bluebell, has five-part bell-shaped blue flowers. The buds stand erect, while the flowers nod sideways and downward. The stems are stiff with linear, smooth-margined, alternating leaves.

Hooker’s Thistle

This thistle is a sharp and strong plant. Interestingly, the life of the hooker’s thistle (Cirsium hookerianum) is sharply entwined with that of the painted lady butterfly, which is a relatively rare butterfly in Canada. Every few years, depending on climate conditions, there is a large migration of painted lady butterflies from Mexico, where they are widespread. When the butterflies come to Canada, they eat the leaves of these thistles and build their cocoons at the tops of the plants. Once the caterpillars have turned into the butterflies, they gather nectar from the thistles, pollinating them as they go.

Indian Paintbrush

The red paintbrush (Castilleja miniata) is one of the few flowers in the Rockies that is visited regularly by hummingbirds. The red paintbrush has no scent, but the red color attracts the hummingbirds, which then drink the sweet nectar. Luckily for this plant, the flowers are long and narrow and strong, so the bill of the hummingbird does not damage it..

Indian’s Paintbrush, also known as Devil’s Paintbrush.

Lungwort

The lungwort/lousewort (Bracted lousewort) is not a flower which is of particular importance to planters, although it can be commonly seen in late July and August. The lungwort has a number of small yellow (or orange) flowers, arranged in a terminal spike. These tubular flowers push their way out from behind dense green “bracts,” and there may be a reddish tinge on the flower-heads. The flowers do not bloom simultaneously. The leaves, which are fern-like, are alternating and coarsely toothed. This plant grows at higher elevations, particularly in the subalpine regions and slightly above.

Mosses/Lichen

Moss is a common name for a division of plants known as the Bryophytes. Mosses grow on soil, rocks, and the bark of trees, and in bogs and shallow streams. Moss plants consist of small, slender stalks and leaves, and vascular tissue is not present. The mosses lack true roots, and therefore the functions of underground support and conduction are carried on by filamentous structures called rhizoids. Many moss-like plants, unrelated to the moss division, are commonly called mosses. These include Irish moss, or carrageen, which is a red alga. Iceland moss is a common name applied to lichen, and “rock moss” is a common name applied to several lichens that grow on rocks. Plants known as club moss are related to the ferns.

A lichen is a living partnership of a fungus and an alga. The fungus component is called the mycobiont and is composed of intertwined, threadlike fibers called hyphae that are tightly packed into a tissue-like sheet. The fungus uses these hyphae to absorb food from its surroundings. The algal component, called the photobiont, makes its own food through photosynthesis and grows as a mass of green cells dispersed among the fungal hyphae. Lichens survive in a wide variety of environments by forming small crusts and leaf-like structures attached to bark, rocks, or soil, or by sometimes forming hair-like structures hanging from tree branches. Their ability to grow in severe conditions often makes lichens the pioneers in plant succession, the process in which plants colonize bare rock or soil. Lichens release acids that break down inhospitable rock, permitting soil-trapping mosses and grasses to grab hold. In areas where soil gradually accumulates, such as a forest floor, the pioneering lichens are eventually replaced by plants and trees, although other lichens may then grow on these plants and trees.

Sphagnum Moss, commonly known as Bog Moss, is the only true Moss that has yet proved itself to be of appreciable economic value. It is found in wet and boggy spots, preferably on peat soil, mostly near heather, on all our mountains and moors, usually in water free from lime, and growing so close together that it often forms large cushions or clumps. It is seldom found in woods as it grows best on heath moors and in water holes. Spaghnum is easily distinguished from other mosses by its soft thick fullness and sometimes by its vividly pale-green color. Though the pale-green species is the most common, there are several others, large and small, varying in color from the very light green (never dark green) to yellow, and all shades of pink to deep red and brown. The Moss often attracts attention by its display of beautiful shades of color. Every part of the moss is permeated with minute tubes and spaces, resulting in a system of delicate capillary tubes, having the effect of a very fine sponge. The cells readily absorb water and retain it. The water can be squeezed out, but the Moss does not collapse and is ready to take in fluid again. The plant is not dependent on soil water, but also absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, and is laden throughout with water retained in its delicate cells. The presence of these capillary cells makes Sphagnum economically useful. In recent years, the light-brown layer of semi-decayed Sphagnum Moss deposits that lies above the peat on bogs and moors has been employed as valuable stable litter in the place of straw, under the name of Moss Litter, entirely on account of its great absorptive powers. In fact, sphagnum has also been used extensively for dressing wounds in hospitals in many countries. A two ounce dressing of sphagnum can absorb up to two pounds of fluids!

Sphagnum moss is interesting in that it can be chopped into a number of tiny pieces, and in the proper environment, each piece will grow and form a new head. Sphagnum only thrives in relatively clean water and soil, and it does not do well when manure-like fertilizers are present. On some planting contracts, the rules for dealing with sphagnum are different than for other mosses and lichens. For instance, in many areas, planters are required to screef through all mosses and lichens except sphagnum, however, it is permitted to plant through sphagnum because generally, there isn’t anything underneath but more sphagnum. Nonetheless, the trees planted in the sphagnum will find themselves in an environment that is conducive to growth.

Purple Clematis

The blue clematis (Clematis occidentalis), also sometimes called the purple clematis, is another flower that is of little importance to planters except for its curiosity value. It is a climbing vine that does not reach a great height when found in open fields. This bright wildflower is often found within trembling aspen and balsam poplar forests. The blue or purple flowers are obviously the most unique feature about this plant, but if you look closely, you’ll also see that there is a smaller yellow flower eventually revealed when the “sepals” open widely.

Raspberry

The wild raspberry (Rubus idaeus) is easily identified, and very difficult to miss later in the summer once the tall green bushes become heavy with bright red berries. If you’ve ever seen raspberries as a child, either in pictures or in stores, you’ll recognize these plants once the berries start to ripen. Just don’t spend too much time eating them when you should be planting!

Delicious red raspberries, which I ate shortly after taking this photo.

Saskatoon

The saskatoon (Amelanchier alnifolia) is easily identified by almost perfectly oval, slightly toothed leaves. White flowers will appear, which have five long showy petals. Saskatoon berries are deep purple, and are quite tasty after they appear and ripen in late July through early August. These berries have large seeds within, but regardless, are commonly used in prairie provinces for making treats such as jams and pies.

Stingy Nettle

The stingy nettle (Urtica dioica) ranks with the devil’s club as one of the two plants that particularly should be avoided whenever possible! Stingy nettles are not well known by sight, and many planters can go through one or several seasons without ever identifying the plant. This is partly because the plant is very unobtrusive, and blends in quite well with the background, despite its moderate height. There are small green flowers on this plant, which are long and stringy masses growing from the leaflets, but which do not have petals.

The problem with this plant is that the leaves have very tiny sharp spines, which when brushed against with bare skin, will stick to the skin and release chemical irritants. The rash from these irritants may last for up to several hours, and an interesting characteristic is that moisture (including sweat) often magnifies the effects of the poison/irritants and makes the itch more severe.

The stingy nettle is most commonly found on previously disturbed ground (ie. cut-blocks) or wooded slopes, and can grow up to two meters in height. More commonly though, in my personal experience, stingy nettles usually only grow to a meter or so in height when growing on open cut-blocks. These plants are usually first encountered in June, and remain problematic in certain areas until late August.

Western Wood Lily

The Western wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum) is a bright orange flower. Unfortunately, due to it being such a pretty plant, it often gets picked, and as a result the numbers of these plants growing in the wild has been decreasing in civilized areas. However, it is still fairly easy to find this flower growing on the blocks, and its bright orange color makes it stand out when you come across one.

The Western Wood Lily.

Wild Strawberry

The wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) is often seen as a prize when discovered by planters. Although this plant is actually quite rare, the sight of a bright red strawberry on the ground will usually catch a planter’s attention. Quite often, if the strawberry is ripe, the planter will eat it, despite the fact that wild strawberries rarely reach even a fraction of the size of conventional “cultivated” strawberries. The plant is often found in flatter or rolling, open fields, and may ripen as early as the late spring.

The leaves of the strawberry are very distinctive, growing from a hairy stem and then fanning into three small toothed leaflets (usually about an inch long) with a common base. If you look closely, you will see a long red runner trailing along the ground to join the various plants. The flowers of the strawberry are white and showy with a yellowish center, and each stem will probably have several flowers. The berries are shaped in the very distinctive conventional strawberry shape.

Yarrow (Milfoil)

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is also commonly known as Western milfoil, or just plain milfoil. It is not of much interest to planters except as an item of curiosity. Milfoil has alternatively arranged clasping leaves, which are intricately cut so they look similar to ferns. The species name “millefolium” actually translates from the Latin to mean “one thousand leaves” because of the leaf structure. At the top of the plant, between ten and thirty tiny flowers are arranged in a dense cluster, each situated individually at the end of short branches. Often, the top of the cluster of flowers is almost flat or umbrella shaped. This plant has a fairly distinct scent, which is often compared to the scent of sage (an unrelated flower).

The genus name for this plant, “Achillea,” is a tribute to Achilles (of Greek mythology) who historians believe to have used this plant to heal his soldiers. Certainly it has some medicinal properties – Native groups used teas made of yarrow to induce labor in pregnant women. The oil found in yarrow is a very effective form of insecticide, which kills mosquito larvae.

Yarrow, also known as European Milfoil.

Conclusions

If you have any suggestions or additions to the above information, please send an email to djbolivia@gmail.com or post feedback in the appropriate thread of the training forum on the Replant Message Boards at www.replant.ca/board

Also, please feel free to print this page and pass the information along to other potential planters, and let them know the link to www.replant.ca

Special thanks to Shelley Harding, who helped significantly with research for this and other chapters, and Mike “Scirolli” Hoar, a forestry consultant in Prince George who gave me a lot of background (especially on the plants) over the years while we planted together. Thanks also to the authors of about a dozen different books on botany, biology, mammals, birds, and much more, from whom I learned additional information.

- Jonathan Clark (Scooter), author.

Copyright 1990-2004, Jonathan Clark.