'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Indigenous fire stewardship could help protect the world from the type of severe wildfires that have been occurring more frequently in recent years, a University of Waterloo study has found.
Researchers suggest that cultural burning, purposefully burning away entire patches of trees and dry vegetation, could also help promote greater biodiversity. And while some countries and cultures are embracing these practices, Canada has fallen behind, says Kira Hoffman, a co-author of the study.
Australia, Brazil and California are good examples of places using Indigenous-burning programs, she said.
“Around the world we’re seeing a lot of examples of moving back to more fire-dependent cultures,” Hoffman told CTVNews.ca by phone Tuesday.
According to Hoffman, Indigenous knowledge not only helps preserve culture, but it helps the entire ecosystem. Yet researchers say it’s been overlooked for a long time.
“The importance of trying to include Indigenous voices in this is key,” said Hoffman, who is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry and who worked as a firefighter in the province for five seasons.
“I think we need to make changes this fall,” she said. “We need to shift the conversation around what fire is and how we live with it.”
The study points out that since colonization over a century ago, a focus on fire suppression – rather than how to live harmoniously with fire - combined with warmer and drier conditions has led to increasingly severe wildfires and plummeting biodiversity.
“Importantly, Indigenous-led fire stewardship continues to demonstrate the value of routinely applying controlled fire to adapt to changing environments while promoting desired landscapes, habitats, and species while also supporting subsistence practices, communities and livelihoods,” Hoffman said.
Andrew Trant, an associate professor of environmental resources at the University of Waterloo and co-author of the study, agrees that change is needed.
“Identifying and implementing human-fire interactions supporting a variety of valuable social and ecological outcomes is becoming increasingly urgent,” he said. “Given what we’re seeing in Western Canada, Manitoba, and Ontario, our forest fire situation that can only go from bad to worse without changes to existing strategies.”
The findings of the study were published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.