Karstad Biodiversity Paintings: adventures in the colour of Canada

31 October 2014  found me watching rhythms in the rushing water of Aidie Creek at Highway 11, 9.5 km north north-west of Englehart. The air was calm and new snow clung to branches, whitening the leaf litter and melting on the rocks. In May of 2002 Fred and I stopped briefly here, taking note of the lovely rapids, but since we were hurrying up to cover our Cochrane area study site for the James Bay Expedition it was a short visit, with a shelly drift sample and photos of the low stepped falls. This time again our stop was brief, as we were headed south along Highway 11 to a meeting of the Ontario Rivers Alliance in North Bay. We pulled into the entrance to the picnic area just upstream of the Highway 11 bridge, and toured the extensive network of laneways among the rocks and trees, to find a spot to park near the river. We passed a lovely natural arrangement of Virgin's Bower ( Clematis virginiana ) sporting its ivory puff-balls among the

We are pleased to announce the fifth annual calendar of my paintings. This year it features 12 paintings from our Fragile Crossings expedition, from Alberta to New Brunswick.  The 13th month features an essay on the Energy East pipeline, the text of which we have posted at  our Vunlerable Watersheds blog.  Sales of the calendar help to support our Fragile Crossings project. Through the winter Aleta will produce more paintings, and Fred will curate specimens and work on our report, posted at  www.pinicola.ca/crossings/ The calendar is available for online purchase at  Lulu.com

23 October 2014  finds me at a boat launch on the Winnipeg River, at the end of the Miller Rapids Road, north of Kenora, Ontario, looking upstream toward "Tunnel Island" and admiring the contrasting colour bands of the late afternoon sky to the west. Fred and Teika Newton are inspecting the shore of the bay on my left, picking up handsfulls of rich snail drift and observing Deer, Beaver, Raccoon, and  Canada Goose tracks in the mud.  A pair of  Bald Eagles whimper-chirp to each other