This year's annual environment issue will be printed on wheat straw. It's our message to magazine publishers and pulp-producers alike, that adding agricultural waste to pulp mix can offer farmers a new source of revenue and cut down on the demand of pulp from our boreal forests.

Also, writer Jeff Hull heads into B.C.'s Flathead River Valley and investigates the American discontent with a coal mine proposal near the Montana border. Writer Curtis Gillespie heads to Alberta's Tar Sands to discover what oil companies can do to preserve the area while extracting the coveted oil below. We also celebrate the work of biologists John Smol and Jules Blais, the 2008 Environmental Scientists of the year. PLUS: a pictorial of the new Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area.

Grab your sunglasses and explore 25 of Canada's hottest beaches. We'll take you to hideaways tucked along the Atlantic coast, splash spots in the cool sub-Arctic and gorgeous sandy stretches in British Columbia's Okanagan region.

Also in this issue: writer Lisa Gregoire explores the Edmonton Folk Music Festival; Erin Anderssen sets off down the Rideau Canal; Jerry Kobalenko ventures into Beijing as Olympic fever heats up. Plus: 24 hours in Charlottetown and Canada's 10 best fireworks displays.

In this issue, writer John Lorinc explores how Ontario is becoming the country's shining example as the first province to boost solar power. In the West, Katherine Gordon follows the controversy surrounding the settlement of Canada's first urban treaty with the Tsawwassen First Nation. Dive under the sea with oceanographers Annie Mercier and Francois Hamel as they explore the quirky creatures deep under the Atlantic, and see what's happened to the by-gone hippies of New Brunswick's Fundy Hills in our April edition of Canadian Geographic.

In this issue of Canadian Geographic Travel, follow writer Deborah Campbell into British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest as she tracks down the rarest bear on the planet, the elusive
Kermode. Toronto writer Lynn Coady heads to the unpredictable waters off the coast of Newfoundland for a whale-watching adventure, and Jennifer Wells steps into the Tuscan olive fields to harvest — and sample — the ripe Italian fruit.

In the January/February issue of Canadian Geographic, enjoy the stunning photography of Paul Nicklen as he records the impact of melting glaciers on wildlife in the Arctic and Antarctic. Writer Allan Casey visits southern Saskatchewan to see how scientists and an oil company are capturing fossil-fuel carbon emissions and injecting them deep underground. Snowmobile beyond Highway 138 with writer Christopher Frey, as he explores how a new highway could shape Quebec's Lower North Shore – an area disconnected from the rest of Canada.

Join writer Joel Yanofsky and his family at Carnaval de Quebec, and learn what's in store for Québec's 400th anniversary celebrations next year. Francesca LoDico dishes with some of the city's finest chefs about an eating experience known as nouvelle Quebec cuisine. And David Leach steps up for three days of snowshoeing in Whistler's backcountry.