A piece of airport land plagued by both invasive plants and human trash is looking to spruce up with the help of a herd of goats hired on to eat for two weeks. “As long as many folks here can recall, the woods have been infested with English ivy,” explained Allison Waldick, environment officer for the Victoria Airport Authority. …The goal is to protect the trees and other native species in the 30 acres of wooded area adjacent to the Victoria International Airport in North Saanich. Inspired by a Ladysmith Chronicle story detailing how a homeowner hired a herd of goats to clear a boulevard overrun with ivy and more, Waldick set out in search of goats for hire. …“You can’t program a goat and tell them exactly what they should be eating,” she said. “They eat everything in order of tastiness and tenderness, and ivy is like Brussels sprouts.”
The future of the world’s largest hockey stick (66 meters) is questioned. …Last year, the Duncan-based stick made headlines after 
What looks a lot like a frog but doesn’t jump like a frog or eat like a frog? A toad. Frogs and toads are both amphibians, and they are closely related. So closely related that all toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. Toads belong to the family Bufonidae, which in taxonomy falls under the order of Anura, or frogs, in the amphibian class. Compared to frogs, which mostly live in and near water, adult toads are most often found on land. In addition, toads are noted for their bumpy, warty skin, while most frogs have smooth skin. Frogs are known for their jumping ability and toads are not, their legs are shorter than frogs, which limits their leaping ability. All toads have parotoid glands that secrete a toxin that makes toads poisonous. Frogs ribbit and toads sing, and each species has its own distinct calling sound. [One of the Tree Frog editors just can’t resist a story about frogs!]
California is close to having two new state symbols — a famous slug and an expensive crab. UC Santa Cruz students and alums have something to celebrate. Their mascot, the banana slug, is about to become the official state slug. You can find the slugs in coastal lowlands, where they have a symbiotic relationship with redwood trees. Banana slugs cut down their competition by eating young shoots of other trees. Redwoods reciprocate by creating a cooler climate on the forest floor. But the slug isn’t the only new official state symbol. California will also have a state crustacean — the Dungeness crab.
Have you ever wondered why pre-grated cheese doesn’t stick together in the bag? It turns out that the secret ingredient behind this is an added substance called cellulose. …A natural substance found in plants and trees, cellulose is commonly used in the food industry as a food additive. Even though it is considered safe for consumption, many have still questioned its health implications and the safe amounts that should be consumed. …“Cellulose is generally recognised as safe by the FDA when used in food,” Ipsita Chakraborty, senior nutritionist at Hungry Koala remarks. It is a non-digestible plant fibre – which means it passes through the human digestive system without being broken down. It can aid in digestion by contributing to bulk in the diet.
You can mend a broken heart this Valentine’s Day now that researchers invented a new hydrogel that can be used to heal damaged heart tissue and improve cancer treatments. University of Waterloo chemical engineering researcher Dr. Elisabeth Prince teamed up with researchers from the University of Toronto and Duke University to design the synthetic material made using cellulose nanocrystals, which are derived from wood pulp. The material is engineered to replicate the fibrous nanostructures and properties of human tissues, thereby recreating its unique biomechanical properties. …Prince’s research is unique as most gels currently used in tissue engineering or 3D cell culture don’t possess this nanofibrous architecture. Prince’s group uses nanoparticles and polymers as building blocks for materials and develops chemistry for nanostructures that accurately mimic human tissues.
The origin of the pumpkin jack-o’-lantern is found in Celtic Ireland and has always been wrapped up in Halloween, a festival known in the Irish language as Samhain. …In order to prevent unwelcome guests entering their homes at Samhain, the Celts created menacing faces out of turnips and left them on their doorsteps. …In modern times, pumpkins, rather than turnips, perform the same duties. …According to legend, the origin of the Halloween lantern can be found in the tale of a young blacksmith called Jack O’Lantern who made a pact with the Devil during a gambling session. He managed to thwart the Devil and extracted a promise from him that he would never take his soul. When he eventually died, Jack was refused entry to heaven on account of his drunken, lewd and miserly ways. The Devil, remembering his earlier promise, also refused to allow him into hell. So Jack was condemned to roam the dark hills and lanes of Ireland for eternity. His only possessions were a turnip with a gouged out centre and a burning coal, thrown to him by the Devil.
I’m the daughter of a microbiologist – which is why this crusade against unseen germs doesn’t impress me. …I hold to the notion that, broadly speaking, wood is naturally antibacterial. I’ve had the same chopping board for more than 15 years, and I’ve only ever wiped it with a damp, soapy cloth; no one has died so far. The creepy trend for boiling spoons – it is said to result in gruesome excretions – began on TikTok. …I read about this, and even as I rolled my eyes – how utterly deranged, I thought. …Our attitude to hygiene, and by extension to dirt in all its multifarious forms, is increasingly strange and stupid. I’ve never known our city streets to look more filthy. But while this seems to induce no disgust whatsoever in most people… much of the rest of life induces rank nausea. 
Forestry Corporation ecologists have spent the week walking through Bondo State Forest near Tumut calling ‘hey frog’ – The most effective survey technique for detecting the critically endangered Northern Corroboree Frog. Amazingly, yelling ‘Hey Frog’ elicits a response from the frogs, which call out in response. Without this technique, the frogs would otherwise remain hidden in the wetlands, said Rohan Bilney, Senior Field Ecologist with Forestry Corporation. …“In late summer, the male corroboree frogs will call out in response to us bellowing “Hey frog” in a deep voice — they are usually sitting in their nest defending their territory,” Dr Bilney said. “So the survey method involves our ecology team essentially wandering through the swamps and bogs in the forest calling ‘hey frog’ to see how many we get calling back.”
Researchers filmed five tree frogs making hundreds of jumps in the lab onto poles of various diameters—ranging from dime-size to the width of a toilet paper roll. The amphibians made split-second adjustments depending on the pole’s diameter and how far off course they had veered. They either sailed past their targets before grabbing on with a sticky-padded hand or foot at the last moment, or belly-flopped heavily against the surface and embraced it… Force sensors under the poles showed that landing on vertical surfaces puts the least stress on the leaping frogs’ bodies. This raises the broader ecological question of whether sticky-footed animals prefer a vertical landing zone when one’s available, the team says.
Spanish police have arrested five members of a drugs gang… whose members had hit upon a “very sophisticated method” to hide the drugs by impregnating 16 tonnes of wood pellets used as fuel for wood burning stoves with liquid cocaine, local paper Diari de Tarragona said. Police discovered that the pellets, which had entered the country legally from South America to Spain in sea containers, were stored for three months to “cool off” before being taken to a place where the drugs were extracted. The premises had been watched for months when a lorry with a foreign number plate arrived to pick up a load of pellets and police sprung into action. In all, 920 bags of pellets, each weighing 18 kilos, were found. 
NAV CANADA has become the first Air Navigation Service Provider worldwide to sign an agreement with Santa Claus to provide priority status on the night of December 24th to 25th for safe, orderly and expeditious gift delivery. NAV CANADA commits to provide top-notch, up-to-date technologies, advanced communication systems and modern carrot-efficient approaches to facilitate this high-speed flight serving millions of destinations. Based on this agreement, Santa Claus has implemented an ADS-B antenna to his sleigh and now complies with the Canadian ADS-B mandate which will ensure safe deliveries, especially from the North Pole. Rudolph, when reached for comment, said, “We’re all aware that my nose guides the sleigh, but it’s nice to know the folks at NAV CANADA support our operation with this great technology. I oversaw installation of the two-way antenna myself – and if anyone’s an expert on navigation, it’s me.” This is the first time in history that NAV CANADA and Santa Claus have reached a formal agreement.
In the world of sustainable living, coffee grounds are basically low-waste gold. After they’ve been used to brew the perfect cup of java, they can be given a second life in your compost, as part of various recipes, and even as a bug repellent. But beyond that, they can be used to heat your home. …There are a number of reasons why you might want to opt for wood pellets that contain coffee grounds — far beyond the fact that the smell of the pellets themselves is reminiscent of your morning cuppa. …The real reason is because the coffee makes your pellets burn more efficiently. According to Material District, coffee grounds add more caloric value to your regular sawdust-based wood pellet, which means they are more dense… and contain about 25 percent more energy than other types of pellets.