Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦
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marcofesta.bsky.social
Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦
@marcofesta.bsky.social

🇨🇦🇨🇦 Retired ecology prof in Sherbrooke, Canada. Evidence-based wildlife conservation, mountain ungulates, kangaroos, ice fishing. 🇨🇦 elbows up!

Environmental science 41%
Biology 27%

Good. This is the ONLY way the Species at Risk Act is enforced in Canada, when the key issue is habitat. Someone must sue the feds for breaking their own law. Otherwise they just do nothing, ignoring the legislated deadlines. Because they are scared of the provinces.
Conservation groups have filed a lawsuit against the federal government over delayed critical habitat mapping for southern mountain caribou.

The federal government first promised to complete that mapping in 2014, but it has not yet been released. thenarwhal.ca/bc-caribou-h... #bcpoli
Ottawa sued for delayed action to protect caribou | The Narwhal
Conservation groups warn extinction ‘is a political choice’ as they ask the Federal Court to rule on overdue caribou habitat maps
thenarwhal.ca
Conservation groups have filed a lawsuit against the federal government over delayed critical habitat mapping for southern mountain caribou.

The federal government first promised to complete that mapping in 2014, but it has not yet been released. thenarwhal.ca/bc-caribou-h... #bcpoli
Ottawa sued for delayed action to protect caribou | The Narwhal
Conservation groups warn extinction ‘is a political choice’ as they ask the Federal Court to rule on overdue caribou habitat maps
thenarwhal.ca
Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Brendan Loper. #NewYorkerCartoons
Rien ne prouve qu’il est possible de compenser la destruction de l’habitat protégé du chevalier cuivré, affirment des scientifiques du gouvernement du Québec. C’est pourtant ce que soutient Ottawa dans l’autorisation du port de Contrecœur. www.ledevoir.com/actualites/e...
Est-il possible de compenser la destruction de l’habitat du chevalier cuivré?
Le type de projet prévu pour autoriser le port de Contrecœur «n’est pas une méthode éprouvée».
www.ledevoir.com

Like, really a lot. I can see 21
Everyone making noise about Olympic Skater Ilia Malinin (a white dude) pulling off the first legal backflip in competition as if he is a revolutionary skater needs to remember Surya Bonaly (black girl) completed a backflip in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics and was penalized for it
I call Bullshit

Lotsa deer this evening

What's the betting that this important source of data will be shut down within a year?
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) averaged about 429 ppm in January 2026

10 years ago January averaged about 403 ppm

Data available at gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/

Very grateful to whoever found my keys on the ski trail today and hung them on my rearview mirror. I did an extra 8 km looking for them. All's well that ends pas pire.
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) averaged about 429 ppm in January 2026

10 years ago January averaged about 403 ppm

Data available at gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/

In plain English: xenophobe spreads bullshit to leverage anti-immigrant bigotry in Québec. A province with shrinking demographics needs immigrants, especially highly educated ones, even if they look different.
ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/222...
Fin du PEQ : Roberge accusé de répandre des faussetés
Le ministre a fait « plusieurs affirmations trompeuses » ces derniers temps, soulignent des avocats spécialisés en droit de l'immigration.
ici.radio-canada.ca

Strychnine is awful stuff, the feds are right in not allowing its use. Dangerous, kills carnivores that feed on poisoned squirrels, and could be used for illicit purposes. Alberta ministers must be getting desperate to find fake fights to pick with Canada www.stalbertgazette.com/beyond-local...
Beyond Local: Alberta ag minister urges feds to allow strychnine for gopher control
A request from Alberta and Saskatchewan to allow emergency use of strychnine was denied by the federal government
www.stalbertgazette.com
New study on mule deer in Wyoming reveals that migration is critical to maintain a robust population. I got the chance to chat with lead author Anna Ortega and @wyokauffman.bsky.social about their recent @currentbiology.bsky.social research: www.uwyo.edu/news/2026/02...
Migration Pays Off: Study Links Long-Distance Movement of Mule Deer to Robust Population Growth
Ungulate migration has fascinated people for millennia. In the Western United States, ungulates such as elk, bison and mule deer migrate each spring and fall, navigating snow, predators and human infr...
www.uwyo.edu
Tiens, tiens, tiens.

"Après avoir écarté une clause de droit acquis pour les travailleurs étrangers déjà au Québec, Jean-François Roberge s’engage maintenant à admettre les 6300 employés du réseau de la santé visés par l’abolition du PEQ."

www.lapresse.ca/actualites/s...

Milan-Cortina makes about as much sense as Toronto-Iqaluit. Milan is as 'winter sports' as Croydon.
Maybe we shouldn't be accepting climate policy advice from two Epstein Files alumni (courtesy of @desmog.com):
www.desmog.com/2025/11/05/b...
Bill Gates Gave $3.5M to Think Tank Run by Climate Crisis Denier Bjorn Lomborg
Tax records reveal that the billionaire’s foundation has donated for years to Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Center.
www.desmog.com
What is she talking about?!?!
Here’s a useful reminder of what our federal courts SHOULD be doing to uphold our constitutional traditions:
Annotating the Judge’s Decision in the Case of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-Year-Old Detained by ICE (Gift Article)
Our critic annotates the barbed wordplay of a decision challenging the Trump administration’s theory of executive power.
www.nytimes.com

Snow bunting impression in snow.

The recent work of a pileated woodpecker on my ski trail.

Indeed, except for Haliffax.
This is a really good map.
This is a really good map.

Interesting. In Sherbrooke, we have not gotten above -8˚C for 12 days, coldest -32˚... It's chilly
With cold outbreaks sweeping parts of the US, some have argued that climate change is to blame. But the proposed mechanism remains quite controversial in the scientific community, and the number of extreme cold events have been decreasing almost everywhere: www.theclimatebrink....
With cold outbreaks sweeping parts of the US, some have argued that climate change is to blame. But the proposed mechanism remains quite controversial in the scientific community, and the number of extreme cold events have been decreasing almost everywhere: www.theclimatebrink....

Academic freedom disappearing from red states
www.economist.com/united-state...
Republican states are censoring universities
New laws restrict what professors can teach
www.economist.com

No, not fries (I hope), thinly sliced roasted potatoes with rosemary and cheese. Very good. Another very well kept secret is pears and gorgonzola. Anyway, it's a 'Naples' dish, not an 'Italy' dish.

I love the stuff and I am Canadian and Italian.
We must never let it revealed to the world that Hawaiian pizza is a Canadian invention
We must never let it revealed to the world that Hawaiian pizza is a Canadian invention

A bit chilly but the snow is great. #XCountrySki