The Canadian Field-Naturalist (CFN) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing studies on ecology, behaviour, taxonomy, conservation, and other topics relevant to Canadian natural history. There are four issues per volume.

All members of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club have full access to CFN content. Simply register for an account on the CFN website, email the journal manager to let them know that you registered for an account, and then log in to access all content after the journal manager gives you access.

Latest issue:

Editor: Dr. Dwayne Lepitzki

Online Access

From the CFN website: Volume 117, Number 2 (2003) onwards. (Last four issues are only available to OFNC members and subscribers.)

From the Biodiversity Heritage Library:

Hard Copies

Hard copies of Volumes 109 (1995) to 123 (2009) are available for FREE*.
Hard copies of Volume 124 (2010) onwards are $10/issue*.

Special issues of The Canadian Field-Naturalist – free*
“The history of the exploration of the vascular flora of Canada, Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, and Greenland” by James S. Pringle
“A life with birds: Percy A. Taverner, Canadian ornithologist, 1875–1947” by John L. Cranmer-Byng

*Plus shipping fee if mailed

James Fletcher Award

The James Fletcher Award is awarded to the author or authors of the best paper published in a volume of The Canadian Field-Naturalist, as selected by the CFN editorial team.

Winners for Volume 135: “Hiding in plain sight: combining field-naturalist observations and herbarium records to reveal phenological change” by Emma S. Lehmberg, Graydon McKee, and Michael D. Rennie, published in CFN135(4).

Past recipients

“It is gratifying that there is still a publication venue for primary research that is not premised on testing an existing hypothesis but rather, as in the case of my study, for describing basic processes in an intact ecosystem and formulating a hypothesis. I wish to thank the Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club and the editorial board of The Canadian Field-Naturalist for selecting my paper on nutrient cycling for the James Fletcher Award in 2017.”
– Thomas E. Reimchen, winner of the 2017 James Fletcher Award for “Diverse Ecological Pathways of Salmon Nutrients Through an Intact Marine-terrestrial Interface“, published in CFN 131(4).