-
1 week ago | 
cottagelife.com | Andrew Cruickshank
After years of political feet dragging and destructive logging, the federal government has released a plan to protect one of Canada’s rarest birds. On June 5, the government published a final recovery strategy for the spotted owl. Native to the old growth forests of southwestern B.C., there’s only one known spotted owl left in the wild in Canada. “The first interview I did on spotted owls was back around 1993,” says Joe Foy, a protected areas campaigner for the Wilderness Committee.
-
1 week ago | 
cottagelife.com | Andrew Cruickshank
They’re small, they’re furry, and they can strip a forest of leaves in a matter of weeks. Thousands of forest tent caterpillars are invading Sudbury and other northeastern Ontario areas this summer. The two-inch insect is known for its population outbreaks. Every 10 or so years, forest tent caterpillar populations boom with the critters coating boreal forest trees like wallpaper.
-
1 week ago | 
cottagelife.com | Andrew Cruickshank
As our neighbours to the south see visitor numbers declining, Canada is positioning itself as a go-to tourism destination for both locals and foreigners. In a press conference at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa on Monday, Steven Guilbeault, the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, launched the Canada Strong Pass, a new tourism initiative intended to make it easier to vacation in Canada this summer.
-
1 week ago | 
cottagelife.com | Andrew Cruickshank
Despite Indigenous protests, pleas for endangered species, and a late-night filibuster, Ontario’s Bill 5 received royal assent on June 5. Known as the Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act, the Ontario government intends to use Bill 5 to fast track infrastructure projects such as mining and resource development.
-
1 week ago | 
cottagelife.com | Andrew Cruickshank
Muskoka residents are voicing concerns about a new development slated for the shores of Lake Muskoka. On May 27, Zeidler Architecture and Cliff Bay Resorts and Residences hosted a Zoom meeting to show the public their plans for the Muskoka Centre property. Previously a sanitorium, the Muskoka Centre lies just north of Gravenhurst, Ont., on a peninsula that juts out into Cliff Bay. The provincially owned building has been abandoned since the 1990s.
-
1 week ago | 
cottagelife.com | Andrew Cruickshank
Trekking through high grass at the cottage could come with a cost this summer. Tick bites are on the rise, and the microscopic menace is moving north, says the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Black-legged ticks and deer ticks are the ones to watch out for. They’re the main culprits in spreading lyme disease, a bacterial infection that if left untreated can cause symptoms such as facial palsy, swollen joints, and inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.
-
4 weeks ago | 
cottagelife.com | Andrew Cruickshank
On May 20, cottage owner George Dark stood in front of the Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh, Ont., municipal council. He had 15 minutes to convince the councillors to take ownership over a private access road that has slipped into disrepair. This was not the first time George or the property owners he represents have made this argument. They’ve been fighting this battle for 32 years.
-
1 month ago | 
cottagelife.com | Andrew Cruickshank
Bed bugs are the original human pest. They’ve been chomping down on people since ancient times. A new study out of Virginia Tech in the U.S. reveals they may also be getting harder to kill. In April, associate professor Warren Booth and graduate student Camille Block discovered a gene mutation in certain bed bugs that made them resistant to an array of insecticides. It was proof that bed bugs are adapting.
-
1 month ago | 
cottagelife.com | Andrew Cruickshank
Cottage owners may have a new option for bypassing Highway 401 traffic on their cottage commutes. During a May 13 press conference in Pickering, Ont., Premier Doug Ford announced that he would be removing tolls from the provincially owned section of Highway 407. The announcement came as part of the Ontario government’s 2025 budget, which also included a permanent cut to the gas and fuel tax rate, keeping the provincial rates of tax at nine cents per litre.
-
1 month ago | 
cottagelife.com | Andrew Cruickshank
On May 14, a man walking his dog along the shores of Port McNeill Bay on Vancouver Island, B.C., stumbled across the washed-up body of a Bryde’s whale—possibly the first-ever sighting of the species in B.C.From initial photographs, the Marine Education and Research Society (MERS), a non-profit dedicated to the conservation of marine life, believed the animal was a minke whale, occasionally seen in coastal waters off B.C. during summer months. This was due to the whale’s appearance and size.
