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I genuinely hope the little bit of noise I'm making could result in positive change. We'll have to wait and see.

A close-up of a red-sided garter snake as it basks on the wooded platform near one of the dens at Narcisse Snake Dens.

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Rather than exploring Winnipeg last night, I wrote a letter to the Minister of Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures, ccing the deputy minister, MLA, municipality, CPAWS and WCS. It's not right to have the Dens as a destination if it results in the slaughter of snakes. They need to do something.

My entire visit was clouded by the fact that I needed to drive back down that same 26 km stretch, where yes, I saw more snakes on the road and watched as drivers passed me with little regard for the little lives they were snuffing out as they sped ahead of me. I have never witnessed such carnage.

Again, broken or damaged exclusion fencing can almost be worse than none at all because it may trap and funnel wildlife into the road corridor, where it's more challenging to escape.

Warped and broken exclusion fencing with a clear footpath going through it, right in front of the big Narcisse Snake Dens sign.

I was, I am, furious at the fact that the government of Manitoba would promote this site as a destination for visitors and do nothing to prevent the deaths of the snakes trying to return to their wintering habitat. No "slow down for wildlife" signs, no info in the park about road mortality.

Even the driveway itself had 3 crushed snakes. One was rolling around after a car hit it for the second or third time. An injured snake can take hours or days to die if its head is not crushed, due to their ectothermic biology and slow metabolism.

I was so upset by the time I reached the entrance to the Narcisse Snake Dens. Walking back down the road 150 m, I counted 35 dead snakes and 2 alive, with old bent and broken wildlife exclusion fencing on either side of the road. Broken fencing often traps wildlife in the road corridor.

The stretch of road that I walked down. Here, the shoulder is wider and trimmed of vegetation, unlike much of the rest of the highway. A sign indicates "no stopping".

Dear reader, it was too many. I slowed down immediately to try to navigate around the snakes I saw, alive, dead, and somewhere in-between. Without a clear shoulder, my only choice was to pop over into the opposing lane. To anyone watching, I probably looked drunk.

I thought, oh, yes, I suppose that can happen on a warm sunny day in the fall as they try to heat up their little bodies and move to their wintering destination. But then, with 26 km to go, and no wildlife exclusion fencing on either side of the road, I wondered how many more I might see.

Inwood is about 26 km from the Dens. They even have small, faded green signs indicating the Dens are ahead with arrows to guide you around a bend to go north on Highway 17. That's when I saw the first dead snake.

I picked up a rental car and drove off on my own, full of excitement. The highway out there is 2 lanes and 100 km/h, with little to no shoulder. Quite unlike the rural roads I know in Ontario. Nonetheless it wasn't busy and the weather was gorgeous, so I was enjoying the drive. Until I hit Inwood.

I love snakes, perhaps in part because of the bullying I experienced in grade school and I somewhat know what it feels like to be hated for no reason. Getting to visit the dens in the right weather & season while in Winnipeg for a transportation conference was a little dream come true.

The Narcisse Snake Dens, 1.5 hours north of Winnipeg, MB, are world-famous for the opportunity to witness tens of thousands of snakes at once in the springtime when they emerge from overwintering and begin to mate. In autumn, you can see hundreds as they return to the dens for the winter.

Alison 🇨🇦 @n8rnerd.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Good morning Bluesky. Let me tell you about a trip I took this week that should have been, for me, a visit to the "happiest place on Earth" and instead was a bit more like a house of horrors. CW: snakes

A large sign composed of vertical wooden boards displaying an illustration of a red-sided garter snake in the upper left, and the text "Narcisse Snake Dens", with slightly smaller text beneath reading "Narcisse Wildlife Management Area" and also "Manitoba" with small bison silhouette in the bottom right corner.

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18C is our threshold, although at night I let it go colder for sleep comfort.

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Gail Simone @gailsimone.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

You guys want to hear a short but adorable story that happened right in front of me at the baggage claim in NYC yesterday? I wasn't part of it and there are bits I didn't catch but holy crap, I can't stop thinking about it.

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jess m. ☕🍂 @jametc.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Something AI is responsible for that doesn't get enough talk: How, when it scrapes a website to illegally steal everything on it, it uses up a ton of its bandwidth allotment, crashing it or racking up massive fees for site owners.

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Senator Kim Pate @kpateonthehill.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

October 4th is the National Day of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit folks.

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Alison 🇨🇦 @n8rnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Thoroughly enjoyed the native plant sale put on by @hamiltonnature.org this morning! I took home 15 plants, including 6 species new to my yard. That brings my total planted native species up to 73! Probably done for this year, and I'm excited to see how these fall plantings establish next year.

A mulched area with new native plantings including bearberry, pearly everlasting, poke milkweed, blue wood aster, blue-stemmed goldenrod, and New Jersey tea. Wood piles interspersed throughout the area add shelter for small animals.

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Justin Ling @justinling.ca · 01/10/2026

I spent the summer trying to understand what makes Mark Carney's government tick. What I found is a C-Suite obsessed with efficiency — which is trying to ignore what's deeply broken. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...

thestar.com

Justin Ling: Who does Mark Carney really listen to? I asked the insiders

It’s become clear that the prime minister would much rather circumvent problems than fix them.

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Alison 🇨🇦 @n8rnerd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

When I was in grad school (2010-12) I had a textbook published in 1999 for philosophy of biology.

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Dr Charlie Gardner @charliejgardner.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Fantastic that the government plans to increase tree cover But trees live a long time, and our climate will be very different by the time they mature So do we plant species thriving here now, or species that will thrive in future conditions? It's not a simple question, but we should be asking it!

theguardian.com

As the world gets hotter, could helping trees migrate northwards protect them?

With the climate changing, many species are marching towards cooler climes – but trees are being outpaced. Some ecologists say assisted movement is the answer

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The Tyee @thetyee.ca · 28/09/2026

A Canadian scientist says Mark Carney's government is subsidizing the destruction of nature, contravening Canada's global biodiversity commitments. @sarahkcox.bsky.social reports. thetyee.ca/News/2026/09...

thetyee.ca

Carney’s Push to Fund Industry Imperils Canada’s Nature Promises | The Tyee

Canada participated in a ‘historic’ global moment for biodiversity. Experts say we’re not following through.

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Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" was released on this day 62 years ago. I have a first edition & come back to it often, including this paragraph in the chapter "Obligation to Endure." It's worth reading. "We urgently need an end to these false assurances, to the sugar coating of unpalatable facts."

The last paragraph in the Silent Spring chapter Obligation to Endure, reads, in part, " We urgently need an end to these false assurances, to the sugar coating of unpalatable facts... The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can do so only when in full possession of the facts. In the words of Jean Rostand, "The obligation to endure gives us the right to know."

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D. Patrick Rodgers @dpatrickrodgers.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Look at this absurdly well-behaved collie I met today. Looks like a book jacket author photo.

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Alison 🇨🇦 @n8rnerd.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Very cool to see the Canadian National Men's team play Chile at BMO Field in Toronto tonight - and win! They put on an excellent performance and kept up the energy all game.

The view facing west near centre field at BMO Field in Toronto. Canada is on the left and Chile on the right. The sky in the background has an array of colours at sunset.

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Alison 🇨🇦 @n8rnerd.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I think Halifax is a serious contender for a future expansion! Hopefully at least the takeover tour returns this season!