Hamilton's urban tree canopy currently sits at about 18 per cent, and the City has set a goal of increasing that to 40 per cent by 2050.

That matters for people — but it also matters for wildlife. Trees provide food, shelter and movement corridors for many of the fur-bearing animals who share our urban neighbourhoods, from squirrels and raccoons to skunks and other species.

A new pilot project from the City of Hamilton and the Hamilton Naturalists' Club is helping grow that habitat by bringing free, professionally planted native trees into backyards in lower-canopy neighbourhoods.

To learn more about the program, I spoke with Jen Baker, General Manager at the Hamilton Naturalists' Club, and Louise Thomassin, Senior Project Manager, Forestry and Horticulture with the City of Hamilton.

SHOW NOTES

Hamilton Naturalist's Club: https://hamiltonnature.org/
City of Hamilton' Urban Forest Strategy: https://www.hamilton.ca/home-neighbourhood/environmental-stewardship/environmental-plans-strategies/urban-forest-strategy
HNC Backyard Tree Planting Pilot: https://hamiltonnature.org/backyard-tree-planting/

Want to suggest topics for Defender Radio? Reach out to us at info@TheFurBearers.com, by visiting DefenderRadio.com or engaging host Michael Howie on social media via Instagram (www.instagram.com/howiemichael) or Facebook (www.Facebook.com/DefenderRadio).

Defender Radio is produced by The Fur-Bearers (www.TheFurBearers.com), a charitable non-partisan organization whose mandate is to advocate on behalf of fur-bearing animals in the wild and in confinement, promote coexistence solutions in communities and protect the habitats of fur-bearing animals across Canada. You can follow The Fur-Bearers on Instagram (www.instagram.com/furbearers), Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/thefurbearers.bsky.social) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FurFree).

For more than 60 years, researchers have been studying generations of yellow-bellied marmots in Colorado, creating one of the longest-running studies of wild mammals in the world. Dr. Julien Martin is a professor of biology at the University of Ottawa and one of the researchers now leading that project, studying how marmots respond and adapt to changes in their environment.

But keeping a decades-long research project going takes more than good science. When traditional research funding became uncertain, Julien and his colleagues tried something a little different: they launched OnlyMarms, an OnlyFans account dedicated entirely to marmots.

What followed was a surprisingly successful experiment in science communication, fundraising and the internet's apparently limitless appetite for charismatic rodents.

In this episode of Defender Radio, we talk with Dr. Julien Martin about the value of long-term wildlife research, what marmots can teach us, and what happens when scientists have to get creative to keep their work going.

SHOW NOTES:

Episode Art of Kite the Yellow-Bellied Marmot by Laura Green / Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory

Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory Marmots Page: https://sites.lifesci.ucla.edu/eeb-rmbl-marmots/

RMBL Marmots on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rmblmarmotproject/

OnlyMarms main page: https://onlymarmssolana.org/

Dr. Julien Martin's OnlyMarms GitHub: https://juliengamartin.github.io/onlymarms/

UCLA Coverage of OnlyMarms: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/onlymarms-rodents-are-baring-a-bit-of-fur-for-science

Winner of Fat Marmot Week Coverage: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/fat-marmot-week-9.7327200

Dr. Julien Martin's University of Ottawa page: https://www.uottawa.ca/faculty-science/professors/julien-martin

The Fur-Bearers' Wildlife Campaigns and Advocacy Manager Tijana S and Science Communicator and Researcher Dr. Valli Fraser-Celin join the Defender Radio podcast to talk Jimothy, wild animal welfare science, how our use of space impacts wildlife, and a new study on coexistence stats worldwide. Plus a bit of fun and laughter as host Michael Howie is taught more about science, as always.

SHOW NOTES:

Screengrab of Jimothy by Instagram user c1vrgr1 with permission.

Etymology: https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/language-and-linguistics/etymology
Entomology: https://entsoc.org/about/what-is-entomology
Ethology: https://www.britannica.com/science/ethology

More about Jimothy: https://thefurbearers.com/blog/jimothy-captured-our-hearts-now-we-need-to-give-him-space/

More about grizzly bears and how our space impacts them: https://thefurbearers.com/blog/sharing-space-with-bears-how-our-behaviour-shapes-encounters/

Sci Comm article, Whose Welfare Counts? The Science of Wild Animal Welfare: https://thefurbearers.com/blog/whose-welfare-counts-the-science-of-wild-animal-welfare/

Sci Comm article, Human–Wildlife Conflict: Insights from 220 Studies in 47 Countries: https://thefurbearers.com/blog/human-wildlife-conflict-insights-from-220-studies-in-47-countries/

Want to suggest topics for Defender Radio? Reach out to us at info@TheFurBearers.com, by visiting DefenderRadio.com or engaging host Michael Howie on social media via Instagram (www.instagram.com/howiemichael) or Facebook (www.Facebook.com/DefenderRadio).

Defender Radio is produced by The Fur-Bearers (www.TheFurBearers.com), a charitable non-partisan organization whose mandate is to advocate on behalf of fur-bearing animals in the wild and in confinement, promote coexistence solutions in communities and protect the habitats of fur-bearing animals across Canada. You can follow The Fur-Bearers on Instagram (www.instagram.com/furbearers), Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/thefurbearers.bsky.social) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FurFree).