Association for Canadian Educational Resources

03/09/2026

Want to help our native pollinators survive and thrive? Learn how to plant a native pollinator garden from Blooming Boulevards! Read more below!

☀Does the warm weather have you dreaming of your garden? 😎

Sign up for the next Blooming Boulevards webinar: Design Your Own Native Pollinator Garden. The webinar will be on Zoom from 10-11am EST on Saturday, March 14. Pre-registration is required, so head over to our website and look under Workshop/News/Events. https://www.bloomingboulevards.org/

🌱Welcome pollinators to your garden with ready-to-use design templates provided at the workshop.
⏰Sign up today!

03/09/2026

Happy International Women's Day! The Convention on Biological Diversity wishes the same, read more below!!!



International Women’s Day-- 8 March 2025 | Convention on Biological Diversity

“For all women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment” "On this International Women’s Day, we at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity join the global call to promote equal rights, empowerment and opportunities for all women and girls. Almost three decades ago, the world ...

03/03/2026

Tree Tuesdays are BACK! This week we revisit Canada’s national tree, the sugar maple (Acer saccharum)! This deciduous tree native to eastern Canada is loved for its glorious fall colours, valued for its hardwood and treasured for its sweet sap used to make the delicious maple syrup so beloved throughout Canada and across the globe! But...did you know that the sugar maple is also a key environmental indicator species used to track ecosystem changes driven by environmental factors such as climate change, air pollution and soil acidification? This is one of the reasons why ACER includes the sugar maple in all of our tree-planting initiatives! Fun fact: it takes approximately 40 litres of sap to produce 1 litre of maple syrup! Another sweet fact: Maple sap only flows when temperatures fluctuate between warm days (above 0°C) and freezing nights (below 0°C)—this freeze-thaw cycle creates the pressure needed for the sap to flow, which is why maple syrup season typically kicks-off in early spring! Interested in testing your knowledge of sugar maples? Check out our maple activity suite here: https://www.acer-acre.ca/acer-maple-suite-v05-18-2023!

02/27/2026

🌳Latest Posts from ACER - 02/27/2026🌳 -

01/20/2026

Happy Tree Tuesday! In honour of this snowy time of year, we’re trying something a little different—a mini primer on identifying trees in winter! While leaves may mostly be gone, trees still have plenty of clues to help you tell them apart if you know where to look!

Key features to look for include:
🌱Bark – notice the colour, texture, and any peeling or patterns
🌱Leaves or needles (or their absence!) – look for leaves lingering on deciduous trees, or the needle forms of coniferous trees
🌱Twigs and buds – their shape, colour, and arrangement
🌱Nuts, fruits, or seed pods – often found on the ground nearby or still clinging to branches
🌱Silhouette – the overall shape of the tree against the winter sky

There are lots of great tools to help you sharpen your winter tree-ID skills, including ACER’s Trees in Winter ID cards, which you can find here:https://www.acer-acre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Trees-in-Winter-ID-9-species.pdf and ACER’s Winter Discovery Walk found here: https://www.acer-acre.ca/winter-discovery-walk

So next time you’re out in nature this winter, take a closer look at the trees around you—you might be surprised how many trees you can identify!

Other helpful online resources include:
https://forestscanada.ca/en/resource/winter-tree-key
https://cvc.ca/conversations/winter-tree-identification/
https://ontariotrees.com/id/wintertreeidfeb2001.php

01/17/2026

Getting outdoors in nature has been proven to enhance both physical and mental wellbeing, and spending time outdoors in winter is no exception! And while you are out, you may even spot subtle signs of life, including the tracks of wildlife out foraging for their next meal! Today’s challenge—this or that: the tracks shown are the tracks of which animal? Add your guess to the comments and check back on Monday for the answer!
a) Hare
b) Rabbit

01/15/2026

It’s Throwback Thursday! ❄️
Just under a year ago, we launched our Winter Discovery Walk as part of our Exploring the Outdoors resource collection—perfect for anyone who loves getting outside to explore the beauty of winter. Next time you bundle up and head outdoors in nature this winter, turn your walk into a nature scavenger hunt, keeping an eye out for trees, shrubs, seed pods, animal tracks, and other hidden signs of life. Find the full walk here: https://www.acer-acre.ca/winter-discovery-walk

01/15/2026

Calling all Ontario high school students and educators 📣

Ontario Envirothon registration is now open! This unique, environmentally-themed academic competition immerses students in hands-on learning and discovery, and the team-based activities are designed to help them develop critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, leadership, and communication skills.

Learn more and register now - https://forestscanada.ca/en/program/ontario-envirothon

01/15/2026

01/14/2026

Did you know? Through our Riparian Rangers program and biodiversity projects at the Humber Arboretum, ACER has helped restore and enhance watersheds across the Golden Horseshoe for over 25 years! Want to learn more about watersheds and why they matter? Check out the full Spotlight article here: https://www.acer-acre.ca/spotlight-2/in-the-spotlight-watersheds-why-they-matter.

01/14/2026