Rather than request the latest toys or trendy clothes for her tenth birthday party, Candice asked six friends to follow her example and donate to the Canadian Wildlife Federation. The troupe of fourth graders raised a whopping $100 — a sum that will assist CWF’s wildlife conservation efforts. 

With only two subpopulations in Canada, habitat for the spiny softshell turtle (Apalone spinifera) is crucial to its survival. However, this reptile has a long must-have list before it moves into its habitat and human impacts can leave it homeless. As it stands, the spiny softshell turtle has been listed as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) since 1991.

It’s your quintessential good-news/bad-news story. The good news? Emission-control legislation enacted in Canada and the U.S. over the last three decades has resulted in significant acid rain declines in this country. The bad? Despite those efforts, much of Atlantic Canada still gets more acid precipitation than local ecosystems can bear.

Q. I hear a lot about aquatic alien invasive species. Are they really that harmful? 

The assessment of 28 wildlife species by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) in November verified what many of us already knew.  Without significant efforts, more and more of our native species are at risk of becoming extinct. Habitat loss, climate change and human activity are increasingly threatening their worlds, making survival an even greater challenge.
 

this secretive, hard-to-spot resident of Canada's boreal forests is likely a descendant of the Eurasian lynx..

By Leigh Edgar

Extinction isn't exclusive to species on remote tropical islands, or in the lush rainforests of South America. You might be surprised to learn that we’ve lost species in our own country. While the rates and causes of extinction in developed countries differ from those in developing countries, nations like Canada certainly aren't immune to species loss. Species that have gone extinct in Canada largely fell victim to a time when land was being conquered for human settlement, natural resources were being overharvested, and few – if any – conservation laws existed.

By Louise Hanlon
This year during National Wildlife Week, CWF is urging Canadians from coast to coast to get outside and go for a walk. It’s as simple as that—where you walk, or how far, is up to you. But no matter if that walk is one kilometre long or 100, log that walk at NationalWildlifeWeek.com. You can log as many walks as you like. As the tally grows, native Canadian species will move across the map. With your help, we hope to make it across the country.

Launched during National Wildlife Week 2009, CWF’s Quebec-based program Pollinators Habitat-Challenge (Défi-Habitat Pollinisateurs) has created quite a buzz. The aim of the program is to increase awareness about the decline in the number of pollinators and to encourage the creation of new pollinator habitats.

As a national wildlife conservation organization, the Canadian Wildlife Federation’s overarching objective is to prevent more of Canada’s fish, wildlife and plant species from being at risk. For the 585 species already at some degree of risk in Canada, we aim to reverse the threatening conditions that have lead to their decline.