Browse "Nature & Geography"

Buckwheat (genus Fagopyrum), broad-leaved, erect annual belonging to the buckwheat family (Polygonaceae).

Bug is the name properly applied to a member of the order Hemiptera, the most diverse order of insects having incomplete metamorphosis.

Bunting is a common name for several not particularly closely related members of the order Passeriformes (perching birds).

Buttercup is a common name for several herbaceous plants of the genus Ranunculus, family Ranunculaceae.

Butterfly, term referring to insects of order Lepidoptera [Gk "scaly wings"]. The Canadian fauna includes 272 known species, compared to 695 known from North America as a whole, and over 20 000 worldwide.

Bylot Island, 11 067 km2, is nestled into the northeastern corner of Baffin Island at the entrance to Lancaster Sound.

Cabbage (Brassica oleracea, Capitata Group) is a biennial vegetable of the Cruciferae family, which is usually grown as an annual.

Succulent plants of the family Cactaceae which consists of approximately 1600 species in 104 genera.

The caddisfly is a small (1.5-40 mm), drab insect of order Trichoptera ["hairy wings"].

Cadmium (Cd) is a soft, ductile, silvery white metal that melts at 320.9°C and is present in the earth's crust at 0.1-0.5 parts per million. The most common cadmium MINERAL, greenockite (CdS), is generally found in zinc-bearing ores and is recovered as a by-product during processing.

Canada Centre for Inland Waters One of the world's leading water-research complexes, the Canada Centre for Inland Waters (CCIW), is owned and managed by Environment Canada (EC).

VICTORIA'S churning river of effluent does not look as awful as you'd think, considering the unholy reputation that precedes it.

Canada Goose, see GOOSE.

Canada Land Inventory is a comprehensive federal-provincial survey of LAND capability and use for regional resource and land-use planning established under the Agricultural Rehabilitation and Development Act in 1961.

CANADIANS ARE masters of the universe. Just look at the numbers. Sure, the U.S. leads the world in spending on space research, laying out roughly US$7 per American each year, while Britain, France and Germany budget between US$4 and US$5 for every citizen.

Rivers are part of our lives and our heritage. They are the threads that bind the fabric of nature and humanity together.

The Canadian Shield refers to the exposed portion of the continental crust underlying the majority of North America. The crust, also known as the North American Craton, extends from northern Mexico to Greenland and consists of hard rocks at least 1 billion years old. With the exception of the Canadian Shield, the rocks of the North American Craton are buried deep within the continent and covered by soil and other material. At 5 million km2, the Shield makes up roughly 50 per cent of Canada’s land mass. Shaped like a horseshoe — or the shields carried during hand-to-hand combat — the Canadian Shield extends from Labrador in the east to include nearly all of Québec, much of Ontario and Manitoba, the northern portion of Saskatchewan, the northeast corner of Alberta, much of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut and into the Arctic Archipelago. (It also reaches into parts of the United States, in New York, Wisconsin and Minnesota.) While at times a barrier to settlement, the Shield has also yielded great resources, including minerals, coniferous forests and the capacity for hydroelectric developments.

Canadian Wildlife Federation, national, nonprofit, nongovernmental conservation organization founded in 1961 and chartered in 1962.

The CWS focuses on 3 key areas reflecting its legislative mandate: migratory birds, species at risk and habitat.