Category Archives: Froggy Foibles

Froggy Foibles

Can Canadians get the world drinking tree sap?

By Keena Al-Wahaidi
BBC News
February 23, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: Canada

While drinking tree sap does not immediately sound appealing, Canadian producers are hoping that it will be the next must-try soft drink around the world. We have all heard of maple syrup, which is made by boiling down the sap of maple trees to produce a thick, sweet, golden-to-brown coloured syrup that is typically poured over pancakes. What is far less well known is that you can drink the sap itself, which is called maple water. Clear in colour, it contains just 2% natural sugars, so it is only slightly sweet. A small but growing number of producers in Canada are now selling this maple water in bottles or cartons, after first giving it a filter and pasteurisation to kill off any microbes. “People feel like they’re drinking the wild Canadian forest,” says Yannick Leclerc of Maple3, a producer of maple water drinks, based in Quebec City.

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Love rats: Canadians get chance to feed rodents named after old flames to owls

By Leyland Cecco
The Guardian
February 12, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: Canada

Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold. And for an endangered owl breeding program in Canada, it’s also a dish best served dead. For the price of a coffee, spurned and disgruntled lovers can revel in the satisfaction of having a dead rat named after an ex, before it is fed to a northern spotted owl. The British Columbia-based breeder is running its No regRATS campaign ahead of Valentine’s Day, promising a photo and video of one’s rat, named after a former lover – or arch-enemy – and the owl it has been fed to in exchange for at least a C$5 donation. …Predictably, the campaign has angered rat fans. …Others, however, were more than happy to fork over the cash. “The satisfaction of naming a rat after someone who has hurt you and having said rat get eaten!!!! And then to get a picture? Priceless,” wrote on user. “Love this more than I should. Perfect fundraiser. Money well spent.”

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Wood-chopping leads to social media success for B.C.’s Nicole Coenen

By Dana Gee
The Vancouver Sun
April 14, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: Canada, Canada West

Coenen’s road to social-media success — she has close to six million followers across platforms — began during COVID-19 when she was holed up in Rossland working remotely as a video creator and editor. Coenen, who grew up in London, Ont., and moved to B.C. five years ago, sees the act of chopping wood as a sustainable passion… “Personally, I find getting outside has been my safe place,” said Coenen. “When I lived in the Interior, wood-chopping and burning with firewood was always a community thing,” said Coenen. “You’d go with your friends to where there was a tree that fell during a storm on your other friend’s property. You’d buck it up and put it in your friend’s tractor or truck, and then they would go drop it off at another friend’s house, and then you’d have a wood-chopping party.”

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‘Holy smokes’: Huge log believed to be 50 million years old unearthed at N.W.T. mine

By Liny Lamberink
CBC News
March 26, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: Canada, Canada West

A log of wood believed to be 50 million years old has been hauled up from below ground at Diavik diamond mine in the N.W.T. — a find that researchers say is remarkable but not uncommon… the mine described it as a 136-kilogram (300-pound) log from a redwood tree that it found 240 metres below ground. In an email, a Diavik spokesperson said it was discovered on Feb. 20 during regular mining at the A21 pit while miners were scooping kimberlite ore.  The spokesperson said pieces of wood are regularly recovered from Diavik’s kimberlite pipes but this one is notable because of its size. Scientists know that 50 million years ago the region would have been a humid temperate forest ecosystem with metasequoia, hazel, chestnut and oak-like trees.”It would almost have looked like Nashville, Tennessee in a way, climate-wise.”

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A ‘moving forest’ featuring 50 maple trees in shopping carts is coming to Toronto

By Devon Banfield
Toronto Now
May 15, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: Canada East

An upcoming art installation in Toronto aims to spark city-wide engagement around greenery and draw attention to the way that trees impact physical and mental health in urban settings. Designed by architects from the Netherlands, the Moving Forest is a mobile project featuring 50 red, silver, sugar and Autumn Blaze maple trees planted in shopping carts travelling through the city for eight weeks, highlighting the importance of trees and shade. …“The project reminds us that as our cities continue to warm and densify, we must ensure that we are prioritizing green infrastructure along with grey,” the project website reads.

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This Toronto tree has nearly 200 Google reviews. How ‘Rodney’ became an international tourist attraction

By Mark Colley
The Toronto Star
March 18, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: Canada, Canada East

It just might be Toronto’s most unlikely tourist attraction. It is pipsqueak-ish in size, not much taller than a single storey of a house. Its branches are scrawny and, at this time of year, empty of leaves, buds or nesting birds. It even has steep competition from its own neighbours just south of Trinity Bellwoods, such as the towering maple across the road and the elegant evergreen up the street. But this young Eastern Redbud is the little tree that could. The tree — its name is Rodney, the owners will tell you — has become an oddball local celebrity. Since being planted less than five years ago, Rodney has already gotten its own Google Maps pin, visits from tourists around the world and a handful of viral social media posts in recent days that have sent this unsuspecting tree’s celebrity into the arboreal stratosphere.

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Legendary TV prop emerges from closet for Portland forestry exhibit

By Samantha Swindler
The Oregonian
May 3, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: US West

Stacked doughnuts and “damn fine coffee” welcomed a small but eager group of visitors Thursday morning to the World Forestry Center. These die-hard fans had traveled — at least one from out of state — to see the log. But not just any log. This lump of ponderosa pine, hand selected by David Lynch, is the most famous prop from his cult classic TV series, “Twin Peaks.” It was lovingly carried by actress Catherine Coulson, who portrayed the wise and mysterious Margaret “The Log Lady” Lanterman on the show. The pop-up exhibit, “What the Log Saw: Honoring the legacy of Catherine ‘The Log Lady’ Coulson,” celebrates both the on-screen character and the woman who portrayed her, while making connections between “The Log Lady” and sustainable forestry practices. …Coulson’s daughter, Zoey Yinger of Portland, approached the World Forest Center in January about displaying the log after the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.

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Uli Kirchler carves whimsical telescoping castles out of gnarly pieces of burl wood

By Geneva Chin
Oregon Public Broadcasting
April 24, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: US West

“How do you do that?” It’s the question Uli Kirchler hears most often when people see his intricate castles suddenly popping up from pieces of burl wood with a flip of a wrist. Many assume advanced tools — lasers or 3D printing — must be at work. But Kirchler credits the scroll saw, invented hundreds of years ago. Cutting the castles is a precise dance of angles and friction. He uses a scroll saw to cut several conical wedges that nest within themselves. When the tapered castle pieces fly up, friction holds them in place. “It makes me smile a little bit because friction in this case just makes life run so smoothly,” Kirchler says.

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This National Park uses a ‘Skeeter Meter’ to inform visitors about mosquitoes

By Laura Baisas
Popular Science
June 16, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: United States, US East

Taking a peek at the UV index to gauge how much sunscreen and protective clothing to wear is par for the course during the summer. But predicting just how bad mosquitoes might be is another story. For visitors to the National Park unfairly voted the worst to visit due to its many mosquitoes, there is a way to anticipate just how bad these biters may be. The Mosquito Meter or “Skeeter Meter” at Congaree National Park near Columbia, South Carolina has six levels: All Clear, Mild, Moderate, Severe, Ruthless, and War Zone. …With the Skeeter Meter and educating people about safely visiting Congaree, the park has embraced their reputation for mosquitoes instead of fighting it. At least 20 different mosquito species are found in this park, which includes the largest remaining intact expanse of old growth bottomland hardwood forest in the southeastern United States. …To protect wildlife and biodiversity in the park, it will not spray pesticides to control the mosquito population.

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Smell something fishy? It may be this invasive tree that’s blooming in Ohio

By Ava Boldizar
WDTN.com
April 2, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: United States, US East

An invasive tree species that is illegal to plant in Ohio has begun to bloom, and will soon fill the air with a distinctive odor that many liken to rotting fish. Callery pear trees – which come in multiple varieties including “Bradford” pear, “Autumn Blaze” and “Cleveland Select” – typically begin to bloom in the state in late March to early April, according the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The species was brought to North America from Asia in the 1900s with the goal of combatting fire blight, a bacterial disease among common pear trees. The tree quickly become popular in landscaping due to its adaptability, white flowers and shape. It has also since become well-known for another one of its qualities – its odor. The tree’s blooms typically have a strong aroma, which has been likened to a variety of unpleasant scents, including rotting fish, puke and animal waste.

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April Fools’ Day is celebrated with pranks and hoaxes worldwide

By Hallie Golden
Associated Press
April 1, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: International

The April Fool

From France to Iceland to the United States, April Fools’ Day will be celebrated on Tuesday with practical jokes and elaborate hoaxes, so make sure to triple check viral posts and don’t leave your back open to any stray sticky notes. The jokesters’ custom has been around for hundreds of years, although its exact birth is difficult to pinpoint. These days, depending on your location, it could be marked with a fish secretly pinned to someone’s back or a whoopee cushion or even news reports of flying penguins (yes, that actually happened). In the U.S., the pranks are typically followed by screams of “April Fools!” to make sure all are aware that they were the unsuspecting recipient of a practical joke. Here are some thing to know about April Fools’ Day and its history…

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Meet the tree that likes being struck by lightning

By Cheryl Santa Maria
The Weather Network
March 27, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: International

The intense electrical charge delivered by a lightning strike can obliterate most foliage, especially in tropical regions where research suggests more than 800 million trees are destroyed each year due to lightning strikes. But …in some cases, lightning might benefit certain trees and provide a competitive advantage. Researchers, led by Evan Gora, a forest ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies …examined 93 trees that had been struck by lightning in central Panama. …According to the study, each lightning strike to a Dipteryx oleifera tree killed approximately 9.2 neighbouring trees due to the electricity traveling between branches or vines. This creates more space and resources for the Dipteryx oleifera. The trees also benefit from strikes because it helps remove parasitic vines called lianas, which can reduce light and nutrient availability. …In the long term, the lightning-strike tolerance of these trees could play a key role in forest planning and restoration efforts.

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