Sharon Oosthoek
Magazines and newspapers
Why Haiti’s quake was so devastating
CBC.CA January 13, 2010 by Sharon Oosthoek Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti was especially destructive because its epicentre was close to a major city and its hypocentre, or focal point, was close to the Earth’s surface, says a Canadian seismologist familiar with the area. Natural Resources Canada seismologist John Cassidy says the 7.0 quake — centred [...]
Ski industry lagging behind public on helmet issue
CBC.CA January 8, 2010 by Sharon Oosthoek As the ski season hits its stride across Canada, the issue of mandatory helmets on the slopes is once again gaining traction. “The market demand is out there,” says Anthony Toderian, spokesman for the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). “It’s really up to the manufacturers now.” The CSA, which [...]
Climate change turns conservationists into triage doctors
CBC.CA December 1, 2009 by Sharon Oosthoek Deep in the wilds of northern British Columbia, people are trying to imagine what the region’s forests, salmon streams and alpine meadows will look like by 2050, when climate change is expected to have drastically altered the ecosystem. The Taku River Tlingit First Nation and the province are [...]
Boreal forests ignored in climate change fight
CBC.CA November 11, 2009 by Sharon Oosthoek Boreal forests store more than double the carbon originally thought, yet policy-makers overlook their role in fighting climate change, says a report released Thursday by an international conservation group. “For reasons that are unclear, boreal forests seem to be the carbon the world forgot,” write the authors [...]
Unwelcome visitors
ON Nature, Winter 2009/2010 by Sharon Oosthoek Fisheries biologists have unexpectedly discovered round gobies in the Thames, Sydenham, Ausable and Grand rivers and are now sounding the alarm over how this invasive fish may affect endangered species. The Great Lakes tributaries were long thought to be immune to such an invasion thanks to their status [...]
Drawing the line
Canadian Wildlife September/October 2009 Just how much should we do for species at risk? By Sharon Oosthoek Rappelling down an oceanside cliff in the Bay of Fundy to secure peregrine falcon nesting boxes may seem an extreme way to restore an extirpated species. Ditto herding massive plains bison onto huge cattle trucks and shipping them [...]
Bird migration: why do they do it?
CBC.CA September 21, 2009 by Sharon Oosthoek Bird migration looks like a bad idea at first glance — all that energy needed to fly thousands of kilometres, all those predators along the way and the promise of doing it all over again just a few months later. But of course Mother Nature knows exactly what [...]
Predatory wasp gives early warning of beetle infestation
CBC.CA September 19, 2009 By Sharon Oosthoek A centimetre-long wasp is poised to become a lead investigator of potential infestations by emerald ash borers, a beetle that is destroying swaths of trees across eastern North America. Researchers at Ontario’s University of Guelph say Cerceris fumipennis — a wasp native to the region — can determine [...]
CONSERVATION: Human intervention gone awry
The Globe and Mail, Saturday, August 22, 2009 Condemned to death: What happens when a rescue plan works too well By Sharon Oosthoek Thirty years ago, the cormorant was a poster bird for the campaign to clean up DDT, the pesticide killing creatures here and abroad. The Great Lakes, home to 900 nesting pairs in [...]
Animal boot camp
The Globe and Mail Saturday, July 4, 2009 by Sharon Oosthoek Twenty-eight years ago, a Wyoming rancher’s dog carried a strange-looking dead animal home to its master. The cream-coloured creature was about the size of a house cat, with a slim body and black feet, face and tail tip. Puzzled, the rancher took it to [...]
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