April 2012 - Manitoba Museum

Posted on: Friday April 20, 2012

Nature preservation is often seen as something that is “nice” for people to do if they can afford to as it really isn’t all that important for the survival of humanity. Increasingly though scientific research is revealing that this attitude is based on an incomplete understanding of how the world works.

For the last several years I have been studying the interactions between insect pollinators and wild plants. I’ve discovered that plants do not depend on just one pollinator; they are pollinated by multiple species of insects. In turn, these pollinating insects depend on a multitude of plant species to help them survive. The end result is an intricate web of interactions, much like a social network, where the health of the entire system depends on the health of each individual species. If any species are lost, the web becomes weakened and less resilient in the face of unusual events, like severe droughts, and climatic changes. Computer models suggest that the loss of species engaging in the most interactions (such as bees) will result in a more rapid cascade of secondary extinctions than species with fewer interactions (1).

A flower with yellow petals, slightly curling at the edges, with an orange-brown centre on which there is a black and yellow striped bee.

Bees love wild sunflowers!

Honeybees pollinate crop plants like sunflowers.

View on the bank of a wetland, with buses and small trees on the side of a body of water.

Humans are also connected to this massive pollinator web. Wild bumblebees and honeybees feed on the nectar from wild plants as well as our crop plants, like canola, blueberries, strawberries, and sunflowers to name a few. In fact, one in every three bites of our food depends on a pollinator! The economic value of these wild pollinators in the U.S. alone is estimated to be at least $3.07 billion every year (2)! Evidence suggests that the current decline in bee populations is related to pesticide exposure and the loss of native habitat (3,4). Bee colonies, weakened and stressed by lack of food from wild plants and pesticide exposure appear to be more susceptible to attack by Varroa mites (4). If pollinators die off, crop production will decrease and humanity will suffer. However, reducing pesticide use or growing food organically can help protect pollinators (5,6). Conserving natural habitats like wild grasslands, and agricultural landscape features such as hedgerows and windbreaks, can help maintain pollinators by providing them with food and nesting areas (2,4). In this context we see that nature preservation is not really a luxury but an act of self preservation.

Image: Natural wetlands store water and help prevent catastrophic floods.

Measures that protect nature can also help to save human lives. Pesticides can negatively affect human health; measures that restrict or control their use are therefore of direct benefit to humans (7). Conservation of wetlands can help reduce flooding and improve air and water quality, outcomes that also help protect human health. Our species needs to protect and find ways to work with, not against, natural systems as doing so is ultimately in our own self-interest.

References

Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson

Curator of Botany

Dr. Bizecki Robson obtained a Master’s Degree in Plant Ecology at the University of Saskatchewan studying rare plants of the mixed grass prairies. After working as an environmental consultant and sessional lecturer…

Meet Dr. Bizecki Robson

Museum Stories: Botany

Botany

Wednesday September 25, 2024

Posted on: Thursday April 19, 2012

The Manitoba Museum uses a collections management database program called Cuadra STAR, licensed from Cuadra Associates, a California software company. The program is used for documenting the Museum’s permanent object collection.

The collections management work the Collections and Conservation Department does relies heavily on this database program. It is where we record all of our collection transactions, from the time an object is considered for acquisition to when it legally becomes Museum property; through its life here, any use for loan, exhibit, conservation, or research. Any information that we have about an object is contained in its STAR database record. There are more than 530,000 records to date.

Over the past year, the Manitoba Museum received grant funding from both The Winnipeg Foundation and the City of Winnipeg Museums Board to perform a technical upgrade to the program. The project focused on our inventory location system. First, our location descriptions were standardized, following discussion with and input from Curatorial staff. We were fortunate in having a summer student, partially funded by Young Canada Works, to complete the vast majority of work designing, printing and applying new labels in all our collection storage areas. She made almost 5000 labels!

Storage units in our 6th floor collection room.

Cabinet with location labelling.

In the meantime, consultation was underway with Cuadra Associates to determine required changes to the database. It took many months for the work to be completed. Collection Database Administrator Betty-Ann Penner liaised with Cuadra Associates staff to ensure a smooth process and minimize errors. The final product was delivered in March, and now our collection inventory location system is much improved.

The Museum’s collection database is vitally important to our mission and the work we do. It was a bit nerve-wracking during the upgrade; we had to work through glitches, but it is such a relief to have the improved system. We continue to examine our processes and look for more ways to improve our use of the database program.

The Manitoba Museum is extremely grateful for, and wishes to acknowledge the support it received from The Winnipeg Foundation Community Grants Program, and the City of Winnipeg Museums Board Special Project Grant Program. Without this funding assistance the work would not have been possible.

Museum Stories: Collections & Conservation

Collections & Conservation

Tuesday May 27, 2025

Meet Me at the Bug Light

Spring has finally arrived on the prairies! Trees are leafing out, flowers are in bloom, days are getting hotter, and, of course, the insects are back! They’re flying, swimming, and crawling around, playing important ecosystem roles that make…

Collections & Conservation

Thursday April 24, 2025

Tackling Dirty Data One Field at a Time

One prevailing comment I hear about my job, whether in person or via social media, is “your job sounds so cool!” And you know what? It is. But I’m about to reveal the dark underbelly of my job…

Collections & Conservation

Tuesday February 11, 2025

A Sticky Situation

Tape might seem like a good option when it comes to quick repairs of torn papers or fast mounting of photographs in an album, however, they age badly …

Posted on: Wednesday April 18, 2012

By Dr. Jamie Morton, past Curator of the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection

The impetus for the formation of the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection came from the celebrations surrounding the firm’s 250^th anniversary in 1920. The HBC was keenly aware of its role in the development of Canada since 1670, and commemorated the event with a variety of special events, re-enactments, and pageants across the western and northern regions of the country. Although the HBC “Historical Exhibit” was not created in time for the 1920 celebrations, the initiative continued, and the Exhibit was opened in the Winnipeg retail store of the HBC in June 1922.

A view of some of the HBC’s 250th anniversary celebrations at Lower Fort Garry, May 1920. Photo by M. Lindenberg, TMM HBC 2562.

The HBC Historical Exhibit in 1922. Catalogue of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Historical Exhibit at Winnipeg, Third Edition, 1923, 1. TMM HBC 007-208.

The object of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Historical Exhibit at Winnipeg is to depict by means of relics, pictures, documents, models, etcetera, the history of the Hudson’s Bay Company, life in the fur trade, the story of the pioneer settlers, and the customs, dress and industries of the aboriginal tribes. (1921 approved statement, quoted in Hudson’s Bay Company, “Catalogue of Historical Relics,” 1935, 6)

With the cooperation of his employer, the federal Minister of Mines, Harlan I. Smith, an ethnologist at the Victoria Memorial Museum in Ottawa, travelled to Winnipeg in 1921-22 to assist in organizing the Historical Exhibit, selecting objects for display and writing text “to interest visitors.” The Exhibit’s mandate to depict aboriginal life and culture corresponded well to Smith’s own anthropological work for the federal government.

These and the following objects were collected by Harlan I. Smith in Bella Coola. At the top is part of a climbing harness, for harvesting the inner bark of hemlock trees, in the middle is a yew wedge, used for splitting planks, and at the bottom is a bark pounder or hackler used to prepare cedar bark. TMM, HBC 1530, HBC 1531, HBC1508.

Eulachon strainer, used to extract the grease from eulachon, a smelt-like fish. The eulachon grease was a valuable commodity, used as a condiment for various dried foods, such as the inner bark of the hemlock tree. TMM HBC1512.

Detail of an open weave spruce root basket used to transport fern roots, clams, and other foodstuffs. TMM HBC 1514.

In 1920-21, he was engaged in fieldwork among the Nuxalk and Tsilqot’in people in the Bella Coola Valley of British Columbia, focusing on the traditional uses of plant and animal materials. For his 1922 fieldwork season, Smith “kindly offered to secure for the Hudson’s Bay Historical Exhibit typical specimens of Indian work in that District.” These objects form an interesting assemblage within the HBC collection, reflecting Smith’s interest in traditional Nuxalk culture and society – objects chosen more for their functional than aesthetic value. This is enhanced by the field notes and visual records Smith obtained at the same time. A pioneer in using film in ethnology, the objects he collected for the HBC Museum Collection are complemented by the still and moving images held today in the collections of the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. The clear provenance [information about the origin and ownership of an object] and complementary documentation transforms this small collection, assembled to represent everyday life for the Nuxalk people, into another treasure within the HBC Museum Collection.

Rack made of red cedar used to dry food such as berry cakes and fish, for preservation. TMM HBC 1504.

Museum Stories: HBC Museum Collection

HBC Museum Collection

Friday April 25, 2025

The HBC Museum Collection at the Manitoba Museum

There’s a lot of buzz in the news right now surrounding the future of the Hudson’s Bay Company and their heritage collection, and it has brought up a lot of questions regarding the beloved HBC Museum Collection here…

HBC Museum Collection

Tuesday October 31, 2023

Fakes & Forgeries: Buyer Beware!

The month of October is affectionately called ‘spooky season’ by many folks. While the word spooky…

HBC Museum Collection

Monday December 5, 2022

Shedding Light on the Darker History of Nonsuch

I recently wrote a fun little article with some facts about Nonsuch for the local newspaper, but I…

Posted on: Monday April 16, 2012

For many Manitobans, the only connection we might have with Arizona involves a certain hockey team that left Winnipeg in 1996 for warmer climes. There are, though, other connections that involve organisms from the natural world other than coyotes as mascots!

I recently returned from a family vacation to southern Arizona where we were hoping to catch up with some of the local bird and lizard specialties, as well as enjoy the truly incredible environment that Sonoran desert has to offer.

What possible connection might there be between the Sonoran desert and Manitoba’s boreal forest?

Rufous-crowned Sparrow (left) and Chuckwalla (right), special but expected desert denizens.

Although we were a little early because of the mid-March timing forced by the school break, we had several species of hummingbirds, and I finally managed to see roadrunner – a “jinx” bird that I had missed on previous trips.

Southern specialties, a Broad-billed Hummingbird (left) and an Ash-throated Flycatcher (right).

Lincoln’s Sparrow (left) and White-crowned Sparrow (right), two species that occur in Manitoba but spend time in the Arizona desert, along with (occasionally) Manitoba Museum zoology curators.

A White-crowned Sparrow nest found in July 2008 at Nueltin Lake, Manitoba near the border with Nunavut, a long way and a very different place than the Arizona desert where they spend part of the non-breeding season. An arrow points to the well-concealed nest in subarctic scrub (left), and the nest with four eggs revealed (right).

So the Arizona/Manitoba connection runs deep on many fronts. Much as humans find a way to chase a puck in the frozen north and the Phoenix desert, our sparrows manage to raise a family in the north every summer and eke out a living in the desert in winter. But unlike the puck chasers, the sparrows haven’t decided to move down to Arizona permanently.

Dr. Randy Mooi

Curator of Zoology

Dr. Mooi received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Toronto working on the evolutionary history of coral reef fishes. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Fishes of the Smithsonian Institution…

Meet Dr. Randy Mooi