Gaia College Climate Change

Native Plants - Wherever you can

Ann Moolin — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 23:47:48 GMT

Native plants are having their moment. You may have come across an article, a book or a website recently on native plants highlighting their benefits and why you should plant them in your garden. In fact, you may have come across something about native plants and their benefits on this blog. We’re glad everyone else is talking about them now too, including our CBC: The case for growing native plants in your pots and gardens.

What are “native plants”?

Just so we’re all on the same page, an native plant is a species that has occurred in an area naturally since the beginning of time. Native plants naturally become part of the local ecosystem without human intervention.

Benefits

The benefits are extensive, including water retention, food and water for native species, and more. But importantly, native plants support biodiversity.

Biodiversity above ground

One of the greatest benefits of native plants is that they attract native insects. Biodiversity in our world is declining and native plants attract native insects. Native insects are an important part of biodiversity and provide essential ecosystem services. Without native insects, invasive species can overtake our ecosystems, possibly doing irreparable damage. Native insects are also native plant pollinators and play a significant role in pollination and food production.

Biodiversity below ground

When the number of species above ground increases the number of species below ground also increases. Below ground biodiversity is just as important as above ground biodiversity. The below ground species help to absorb heavy rains, keep the soil maintained and aerated for plants, make nutrients available for plants, and keep the basis of an ecosystem in good health. Like plants, below ground species also attract more above ground insects, fueling a positive biodiversity feedback loop.

Pest control

There are many native plant species that deter pesky mosquitoes, including purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) (pictured left) which is native to much of North America. Increasing plant diversity increases insect diversity, including pest eating insects. Attracting a myriad of insects to your garden may result in your own pest control methods.

Incorporating native plants

Pollinator gardens have replaced butterfly gardens in popular media. Regardless of what you want to call it, any garden can be a pollinator garden. Many vegetable plants attract pollinators just like flowering plants do, and interspersing them throughout the garden can offer greater benefits. Ornamental flowers may offer a scent or colour that attracts pollinators to the area, but with a buffet of food from different types of plants, who wants to leave? Instead of gearing up to install a “native plant garden”, try incorporating native species into any garden and observe the change over the summer. Containers can also be used for native plants, on a balcony, a patio, or doorstep.

Getting started

There is a wealth of information available on native plants and it can get quite overwhelming. When doing your research, choose reputable sources or those knowledgeable of your specific ecoregion. The North American Native Plant Society (NANPS) has a wealth of information on their website - nanps.org that is relevant to all ecoregions of North America. Provincial or regional groups can also help. Many books on native plants have been published in recent years, and most local libraries will only have books relevant to the ecoregion. Gaia College’s course Ecological Plant Knowledge 1 - Natives will teach you how to identify native plants in your ecoregion, and how these plants thrive in communities. Learn more: Ecological Plant Knowledge 1 - Native

Gardening as a Practice of Belonging

Ann Moolin — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 23:38:23 GMT

Gardeners are ever keen to discuss the “how” of our curious obsession. Tell me you have a new strategy for slugs or any story with compost in the lead and I’m all in. One bonus in joining a community garden with people from everywhere is seeing generosity become the language of communication, not just through extra armloads of zucchini but also in shared tips and tricks, tries and fails. I like to think I add to my personal knowledge bank every growing season with what I do and see but also what I learn from my garden neighbours.

For some reason we spend much less time discussing what may be an even more intriguing feature of the gardening experience: not how to garden but why we do it.

Why spend so much time, energy, money and thought on this quest to convince plants to behave?

You might think the question would come up at the most obvious times. When weevils have turned your veggie plot into a smorgasbord or the weeds you only noticed a few days ago are now waist high. But even then, gardeners aren’t the kind to give up. We know we’ve signed on to a lifetime of challenges, one disappointment after another, perfection eternally out of reach. We don’t despair because we also know the rewards are just as reliable and may be earned as soon as we step outside and pick up a shovel. A bad mood indoors can fester for days but take it outside for garden chores and see how quickly it vanishes.

We garden for countless reasons, perhaps as many as there are gardeners, but some seem general. They come from and continue to inform our history.

Humans have forever lived in deep relations with plants. Our survival as a species has been guided by our ability to immerse into the living world. We grow or gather plants as food, medicine, shelter, tools and more. Our bodies themselves, built by everything we eat, are plant-based, even if that means we eat the animals, birds or fish that eat plants first.

But plants throughout our modern evolution have been about more than just sustenance or utility. This is most evident when it comes to gardening, the practice of tending plants in a defined space.

Ancient Persians developed gardens as walled enclosures, bringing water and plants into spaces they called “paridaeza,” the root of our word “paradise.” Is there any better way to describe that charmed patch of earth you have the good fortune to tend?

Gardens in ancient China were made as sanctuaries. They were opportunities to withdraw from the stresses of urban life into serene moments of contemplation. Later this idea flourished in Japan where Zen monks treated garden design as a way to express the inexpressible. They understood that a garden exists in two places, the site itself and the mind of the visitor. These original Japanese garden designers, called “ishitate-so” or “stone-placing monks,” used materials from nature to create spaces that can evoke profound notions such as interdependence based on emptiness. This key to Buddhist thought holds that all things are empty of solid, separate, permanent existence. Everything, including ourselves, is made “real” only by relationship.

This is one thing to get as a concept but difficult to achieve as a realization, a life journey typically requiring much mental effort through meditation. Zen gardens were created as spaces where the environment itself, the stones, water, trees and plants, as well as the harmony between them, all contribute to the pursuit. One measure of the success of these master works is their longevity. Most artists we admire today will be forgotten along with their art in a matter of years. A few, like Shakespeare or Beethoven, produced art so compelling it can last centuries. In Japan there are gardens more than 700 years old where visitors can experience the same effect the original designers intended.

Zen in the West now gets marketed into everything from soap to resort hotels. Today even in Japan historic Zen temples are more like museums than refuges for enlightenment. But there is one Zen monk keeping the stone-laying tradition alive. Shunmyo Masuno is head of the 450-year-old Kenkoji Temple in Yokohama. He’s also a landscape designer sought by clients worldwide who want his contemporary Zen take on creating garden spaces with meaning.

Masuno’s method calls back to an earlier age when artists and craftsmen poured themselves into their work. He says he begins each new garden project by first meditating on the site. This calms his mind and enables him to “become totally absorbed in the dialogue taking place between the elements.”

The idea, he explains, is to discover the essence of every material in the garden, then place it to its advantage. “Just as every person has his own face and his own character, every tree and every stone is also unique. The question is how to extract the essence of a thing to make it fit properly.” He advises gardeners to “talk” to the stones and plants to hear what they have to say about the right way to be placed. A garden creator must understand the heart or essence of any site they hope to reshape, not simply through data collection but by experiencing it as a whole.

Tying one’s work to the spirit of a place calls for something we’ve largely lost since the Industrial Era, a kinship with all living things. This thinking erases the border between nature and us. With this we can see the parallels between ancient wisdom traditions of the East and Indigenous ways of knowing from Turtle Island. Both can be seen as rooted in ecology, the study of the relationships between living things and their environment. Powatani botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer writes in “Braiding Sweetgrass” of the “honorable harvest,” a set of guidelines based on the notion of plants as kin. Before gathering in the wild, we are to introduce ourselves and ask permission. We never take the first plant we see, that way ensuring we won’t take the last. We offer thanks and a resolve to share. This counter to the capitalist notion of land as resource and plants as products also suggests a deeper relationship with the earth is possible, if one opens to the possibilities of connection. “One thing I’ve learned in the woods is that there is no such thing as random,” writes Kimmerer. “Everything is steeped in meaning, colored by relationships, one thing with another.”

We may not think of it often or try to capture it with words but I believe we garden to feel alive. We know in our hearts we are a part of all things. Sometimes it takes being in the garden to prove it.

If all that isn’t enough, science has recently uncovered another explanation for why many of us find respite in our green growing spaces. Put your bare hands into the soil or breathe deeply while working the ground and you will absorb Mycobacterium vaccae, a soil-derived bacterium. First isolated in Uganda where locals reported the mud seemed to help them recover from sickness, M. vaccae has been clinically tested for properties that appear to boost immunity, reduce stress and increase our production of serotonin, a chemical that helps fight off depression.

More trials are being conducted to look for connections between working with the living soil and reducing asthma, countering inflammation, combatting cancer and improving cognitive function. Results so far seem impressive. They would mean the practice of gardening not only makes us physically better, it makes us feel better at the same time.

Yes, something you knew already and didn’t need lab results to confirm. But it can be comforting to see the list of reasons why we garden get longer. There must be others. Feel free to share yours in the comments below.

Garden tips to be drawn from all this are many. Offhand I can think of three.

Try groundtruthing. Like the monk Masuno, before creating a garden take the time to truly know it, not just biologically or chemically, but as an experience. A slow breathing exercise, four beats in and six beats out, may ease you through the transition from a stressful normal life to magical garden time.
Mind the connections. Ecology is a modern study that tells us what Indigenous wisdom holders have always known. Everything is connected, also known as “all my relations.” Use this to help with all kinds of decisions through every stage of the gardening process from planning to overwintering.
Add life. There are plenty of excellent articles and books on gardening techniques; one day I hope to read them. Meanwhile I prefer the simple route. I know there’s a continuum from weak to strong - monoculture to biodiversity, so I choose whatever will add the most life. This includes work below ground where my default strategy – add more organics – is based on the fact soil is alive.

Submitted by David Tracey. David is writer, designer and community ecologist who works to connect people with nature. You can learn more about his work on his website.

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Mini-Forest Revolution-Using the Miyawaki Method to Rapidly Rewild the World

Ann Moolin — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 16:29:32 GMT

Mini-Forest Revolution-Using the Miyawaki Method to Rapidly Rewild the World

By Hannah Lewis

I am always looking for achievable climate change solutions that anyone can do.

In this award winning book, Mini-Forest Revolution, author Hannah Lewis describes practical, restorative pathways for an ailing planet using the Miyawaki Mini-Forest Method. Lewis repeatedly emphasizes through the book that these micro-forests in contrast to large-scale tree plantations, are not simply carbon offsetting landscaping but “accelerated ecosystem restorations”. The method was developed by the late Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki (1928-2021) as a way to create a biodiverse, working, indigenous forest ecosystem in decades instead of over hundreds of years.

This popular, globally inspired initiative to transform empty lots and degraded land in our cities and towns into rapidly growing, tiny, biodiverse forests as small as six parking spaces is celebrated in the book’s forward by the environmentalist, entrepreneur, author and activist Paul Hawken. Mini-forests in our urban spaces offer accessible solutions to both biodiversity loss and climate change. They also provide opportunities for humans to reconnect with nature. Hawkens feels that mini-forests offer the most impactful benefit of all climate change solutions since it involves planting biodiverse forests that anyone, anywhere can participate in.

In the first three chapters Lewis introduces the fundamentals of the Miyawaki Method. She emphasizes using indigenous, longer living climax species to accelerate the process of natural ecological succession. She elaborates on Miyawaki’s life, philosophy and scientific foundation and provides examples of his early successful mini-forests established in Japan and India.

Lewis highlights the ecological relationship between forests and soil and water cycles using case studies from places like India, Cameroon and Iran.

The next three chapters shift to cities around the world in places like Paris that are implementing mini-forests for education, ecology and cooling hot urban streets. Lewis shares personal stories from community organizers, volunteers and local governments about overcoming challenges both bureaucratically and ecologically when planting mini-forests. She provides examples of case studies using mini-forest projects along highways in Europe, neighborhoods in the United States and land spaces in India.

In chapter seven which is beautifully titled “Earth’s Living Tissue”, Lewis explores the structure and function of ecosystems. She discusses important topics of biodiversity, soil ecology and the resilience created in ecosystems through species interaction. She highlights the important role humans play through honouring these ecosystems and by viewing Earth’s biosphere as a whole.

This delightful book is both fascinating in its storytelling as well as its practicality as a “how to” and reference source. Lewis ends the book with a step by step Mini-Forest field guide including beautiful coloured pictures of various projects. The detailed index at the end makes this book perfect as a resource for planting your own Miyawaki Method mini-forest.

May the forest be with you.

Submitted by Ann Moolin

Book Review: "Our Green Heart: The Soul and Science of Forests"

Ann Moolin — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:42:02 GMT

I am a chemist at heart. I was turned off biology back in my first year of university, but since my first time gardening almost 15 years ago, I have made an effort to learn more about what I’m growing. After recalling and refreshing on high school teachings about photosynthesis and plant vacuoles, I developed an understanding of how soil conditions support or inhibit plant growth and development. Plant biology suddenly became much more intriguing and I turned to books to further my understanding of plants including Braiding Sweetgrass and Finding the Mother Tree. In fact, both made me wish I had spent more time in a biology lab instead of an inorganic chemistry lab in university. As someone who has never formally studied biology or trees, I feel like my understanding is slowly coming together through self-teaching. Until I read Our Green Heart: The Soul and Science of Forests. Now I realize there is no way any formal education could possibly deliver what the author, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, has come to understand about nature.

Part of me wants to go back to the beginning and start again. But I don’t think that would get me much closer. What is most fascinating about the book is that the author’s formative years were among elders, learning the Brehon laws of the Celts. The ancient Druidic knowledge of the Celtic culture, encompassing thousands of years of wisdom, was instilled in the author’s young mind. The simplicity of passing stories and knowledge down through generations while observing the outside world, taking time to explore and understand nature, has allowed the author to develop an incredible understanding of the natural world.

Historical evidence shows that early European settlers tried to eliminate traditional knowledge. While we are working to reconcile this, we need to understand that the English monarchy wasn’t just responsible for limiting traditional knowledge in Canada, but in other parts of the world as well, including Ireland. Traditional knowledge may be our best guide for education. Whether it be Indigenous knowledge, or Celtic knowledge, there must be credence to knowledge that survived and practices that worked for thousands of years.

When one’s learning starts with traditional knowledge that has been tested and supplemented for generations, the fundamentals make sense. Take that same knowledge and apply it to a different region, with different landscapes, plants, animals, etc. and it no longer aligns. Beresford-Kroeger’s foundational knowledge was beyond what most of us can possibly obtain. Building on that strong foundation for years contributed to her developing a better understanding of the natural world; while her passion for this natural world - one of her first classrooms - enabled her to share her knowledge and observations clearly to people without a background in biology.

Throughout Our Green Heart: The Soul and Science of Forests, Beresford-Kroeger introduces new observations and new topics in each chapter. Never once repeating the same message but sharing new insights each time. The book is incredibly well written. A word of caution though - don’t plan to breeze through it. While it is under 200 pages, give yourself time to fully absorb and reflect on what you have read. This is not a book that should be rushed. It is a book that can be enjoyed all summer in your garden, opening your eyes to new ideas each time you read it.

submitted by Julia Dupuis

Book Review: "How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard"

Julia Dupuis — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 15:15:46 GMT

Tallamy, Dr. Douglas W. “How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard”. Timber Press, Portland, OR, 2025

Dr. Tallamy’s latest book, “How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard” is no less powerful and compelling than his previous tomes which include “Bringing Nature Home” and “Nature’s Best Hope”. This multi-chapter book is formatted as 499 questions commonly asked at his lectures with his detailed answers. He covers inquiries on topics such as biodiversity, native/non-native/invasive plants, pest control, home landscapes, keystone species, supporting wildlife, conservation and restoration. His photographs of plants, caterpillars and insects are impressive and accompany the broad range of topics.

The well-organized format of the book allows the reader to flip through the questions and then to peruse the ones of personal relevance or interest. For my part, reading about restoration and wildlife support options in urban centres was of particular interest as an actionable item, given that I am a high-rise dweller in an area dotted with boulevard plantings and patio container gardens.

Dr. Tallamy’s message is loud and clear: we have to live with Nature instead of pushing it to “somewhere else”: only 5% of land in the USA remains as wilderness*, and in Canada this amount accounts for 23% of land area. (* undeveloped and largely free from human interference). Our terrestrial food webs depend on thriving populations of insects, and when these populations are imperilled or extirpated, we lose biodiversity, ecological stability, food security and many other benefits provided by their ecosystem services.

Tallamy’s movement “Homegrown National Park” invites every citizen to participate in large or small ways to coexist with the myriad other creatures who call this planet home. I strongly encourage you to explore this movement and add your yard or patio to the growing list of property areas which support the wellbeing of all Earth dwellers!

Additional references:

https://research.fs.usda.gov/managingland/wilderness

https://www.thelandbetween.ca/2024/06/unveiling-the-silent-crisis-the-decline-of-earths-vital-insects/

https://homegrownnationalpark.org

Thoughts from OPA Education Forum

Julia Dupuis — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 13:31:20 GMT

On Friday, September 26 I had the pleasure of attending the Ontario Parks Association Educational Forum as a tradeshow vendor. It was truly a pleasure to talk to municipal employees about how Gaia College can educate their young employees on sustainable land care practices to enable cities to be more resilient to climate events and to our changing climate and forward thinking when planning parks and recreation.

One presentation was delivered by two people from two different conservation authorities in the province. Words like conservation, biodiversity, and climate change were dispersed throughout their presentation. It was incredibly uplifting to learn that conservation authorities are incorporating these ideas into their plans. But further conversations suggested that this may not be the norm among municipalities.

One conversation led to the question - what is missing from municipal parks? They have playgrounds, sports fields, paved pathways, green spaces - clearly something for everyone. But not something for every thing. When I look at the parks in my area, some were designed with play or activities in mind (sports fields, playgrounds, sliding hills, etc.) while others were designed with nature in mind - stormwater management ponds, plants that attract waterfowl, native plants alongside, and paved pathways for ease of access. What if we combined them? What if we installed a native plant garden off to the side of the sports field with a bench to sit on when the park is quiet; or placed a playground next to the stormwater pond. What other benefits could we garner from these greenspaces?

Ontario municipalities are on their way to better parks. Long gone are the days of just a playground or a soccer field. There are many new ideas showing up in recent years and incorporating all these ideas into one single space is a challenge. Additionally, updating parks takes time and resources. I only hope that the long term vision is expansive and inclusive - how many living things can benefit from this greenspace?

More than yield in the garden

Julia Dupuis — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 18:50:36 GMT

For a gardener, yields are a common measure of garden success. Plant 6 cucumber plants, 5 plants grow and produce expected yields - success! But there are so many things in a garden that are out of our control and impact yields - the weather, squirrels and other wildlife that eat seeds before they germinate, the same wildlife stealing a fresh snack. One success that I’ve seen in my garden this year is the number of insects. Butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, flies, wasps, bees, fireflies to name a few. I’ve also seen a few Japanese Beetles, but there are definitely more beneficial insects than harmful ones. Even if some plants aren't producing like I would have hoped, I still see a successful garden because of the greater insect biodiversity.

I have been feeding the soil and monitoring the microbial life for 5 years. Different things like adding compost, mulch, and cover crops; plant rotations and trying different types of plants; disturbing the soil as little as possible have all resulted in an improved backyard ecosystem. Even if the I didn't get as many beans as I would have liked, I am enjoying the habitat I've created for other species...especially the flash of fireflies just after dark.

Read more about why biodiversity is so important: https://www.conservation.org/blog/why-is-biodiversity-important.

Written by Julia Dupuis, Gaia College Staff

A variation of this post was originally posted to soilsalivecomposting.ca in August 2025. This post was edited and re-posted here by the author.

Finding Joy and Service in the serviceberry

Julia Dupuis — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 14:29:18 GMT

Book Review

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer

After reading the author’s flagship title, Braiding Sweetgrass, this slim volume was a natural segue. This small hardcover book has only 112 pages and is a narrative guide to how gift economies successfully operate, in contrast to modern day economics which extol fierce capitalism, hoarding, the creation of scarcity and unlimited economic growth.

The eponymous shrub, the serviceberry, aka shadbush or saskatoon, provides gifts of soil stabilization, shelter for birds and small animals, food for caterpillars, browsers and other plant herbivores; flowers with nectar for birds and insects, and tasty, nutritious reddish-purple berries to fill the bellies of birds, bears, badgers, rodents, deer and humans. The seeds of the berries are excreted by those who eat them, and the species can thus spread its range and flourish anew. Everybody participates and everybody benefits.

Indigenous cultures have long used the Honourable Harvest as a way for accepting and using gifts from the land – be it water, grain, wood, fish, berries, seeds or edible plants. As a result of taking only what one needs and sharing with others, and ensuring the bounty remains for future generations, the people protect the wellbeing of themselves and the land that sustains them. In a world obsessed with consumption, acquisition and where many are heedless to the consequences, Kimmerer offers hope and practical suggestions for those ecologically-sensitive individuals who could otherwise be left despairing for the future of our Earth.

I recommend this easy read: it will leave you with a sense of joy and purpose, and a new appreciation for the hardworking and humble serviceberry.

Written by Laurie Smith, Gaia College Instructor

Kimmerer, R.W., (2024). The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World,

Scribner, New York, NY

For those who love Nature...

Julia Dupuis — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 12:54:08 GMT

By Laurie Smith

If your home library does not yet contain Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (2013) by Robin Wall Kimmerer, then make it your next addition. Anyone who is interested in engaging respectfully with the flora and fauna of our planet should read this book! Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist, professor, author and respected member of Citizen Potawatomi Nation in the United States.

This incredible masterpiece of non-fiction follows the story of the author’s life, with references to historical events interwoven with stories rooted in generations of experience-based knowledge. The easily flowing, eminently readable style shines a light on traditions, customs, social philosophy, ecology and interactions with Nature. In doing so, the narrative highlights the difference between the capitalistic economy (based on commodity exchange and dollar values) and the gift economy, where the currency is sharing, gratitude, reciprocity and abundance for all.

This is the best book I have read in years, and throughout the perusal of the interconnected chapters, organized chronologically into the lifecycle and ritualistic significance of sweetgrass, I had frequent “Yes!” and “Aha!” moments. Through the author’s beautiful perspective, I learned so much more about the relationships between plants and people, seasonal cycles and wisdom passed through generations. Even descriptions of the destruction of natural areas and wildlife habitat, and the grim stories of residential schools, were depicted with an attitude of patience, and faith in humanity’s ability to learn new ways – really, to relearn old ways - and do the right thing.

I have the author’s most recent book The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World (2024) on hold at my local library. My place in the hold queue is fifth, which means that at three weeks apiece for loans, I could be waiting another three months before it is available. As the saying goes, “good things are worth waiting for”. In the meantime, my next reading adventure beckons, to be shared in a subsequent blog posting.

Five books by Indigenous authors to add to your reading list

Julia Dupuis — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 14:10:54 GMT

It's Indigenous history month and we're using it as an opportunity to celebrate Indigenous authors while embracing traditional teachings. Here are five books we've enjoyed or are looking forward to.

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

Published in 2017, this book may be one you've already read, but it's worth mentioning. A winner of the Governor General's Literary Award in 2017, Cherie Dimaline creates a dystopia that leaves Indigenous People running from "recruiters" who are trying to steal their precious marrow.

The Knowing: An Indigenous Lens on Canadian History by Tanya Talaga

Anishinaabe author Tanya Talaga digs deep into her family tree, going back decades to find her great-great grandmother, Annie Carpenter. Navigating the historical records of the residential schools and the poor records maintained by the province, the author unravels centuries of oppression of Indigenous People.

Tawâw by Shane Chartrand

Part cookbook, part exploration of ingredients and techniques, part personal journey, this book has it all. Author Shane Chartrand was born to Cree parents and raised by a Métis father and Mi’kmaq/British mother. Following his journey from a childhood in Central Alberta to executive chef at SC Restaurant in the River Cree Resort & Casino, this book details the author’s journey visiting different First Nations to listen, share and gather knowledge & stories.

A Cree Healer and His Medicine Bundle by David Young, Robert Rogers & Russell Willier

With help from an anthropologist and a botanist, Cree Medicine Man Russell Willier’s life, belief and healing practices are documented. Both a study and a guide, this book shows how indigenous healing practices can complement mainstream medicine. The authors also look at how mining, agriculture, and forestry threaten the existence of these valuable medicinal plants and the role of traditional healers in today’s health care system.

Halfbreed by Maria Campbell

A Canadian Classic originally published in 1973, Maria Campbell details her life as a Métis woman and the realities she faced growing up in Northern Saskatchewan. Having endured poverty, oppression, alcoholism, addiction and tragedy, Maria’s life was underscored by living in the margins of a country full of hatred, discrimination and mistrust. If you find yourself with the newer edition (2019 edition) you’ll find an introduction written by Metis scholar Dr. Kim Anderson as well an afterword by the author detailing what has and has not changed for Indigenous people in Canada over the previous 46 years.

References:

Goodreads. (n.d.). The Marrow Thieves. Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34649348-the-marrow-thieves
Harper Collins Canada. (n.d.) The Knowing. Harper Collins Canada. https://www.harpercollins.ca/the-knowing/
Ottawa Public Library. (n.d.). Tawâw. https://ottawa.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S26C1177837
Penguin Random House. (n.d.) A Cree Healer and His Medicine Bundle. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/243737/a-cree-healer-and-his-medicine-bundle-by-david-young-robert-rogers-and-russell-willier/9781583949030
Penguin Random House. (n.d.) Halfbreed. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/610927/halfbreed-by-maria-campbell/9780771024092

World Water Day

Julia Dupuis — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 17:17:52 GMT

What is World Water Day?

World Water Day is a UN initiative to celebrate water and this year it's on Saturday, March 22. This year’s theme is Glacier preservation. Glaciers are melting faster than ever due to our warming climate, making the water cycle unpredictable and having a significant impact on global water resources.

Glacial water is a key source of fresh water which is crucial for the health of people and our planet. Yet globally, people don’t have access to fresh drinking water and agricultural lands are turning into deserts. We need water - for drinking, agricultural use, clean energy production, and healthy ecosystems to name a few.

Across Canada, we rely on rainwater and groundwater to supply us with fresh water. Unfortunately, we’ve been observing declining precipitation for years now. Even this winter (February 2025) when we see the precipitation at our feet, 38% of the country was classified as Abnormally Dry or in Moderate to Severe Drought (Agriculture Canada). There isn’t enough water to replenish our lakes and rivers and support aquatic life, not to mention to draw from to support ecosystem health.

What you can do

Be water aware. Look around and see where water might be getting wasted - a leaky tap? Sprinkler left on too long?
Retain water in your landscape. Increasing the organic matter in your soil by 1% will result in an additional 20,000 gallons of water available per acre. (NRDC).
Use a rain barrel to collect the runoff from your roof and save it for your gardens.
Keep your soil covered, either with mulch or low level plants. Bare soil can lead to runoff where covered soil can absorb more water.
Avoid using chemical fertilizers and pesticides so these salts and chemicals aren't running into lakes and rivers.
Talk to your kids about the importance of water in the environment. When my friend's son was small she used to tell him not to waste water because the fish need to live in it. Encourage your kids to see how they reduce their water usage around the house to help the fish.
Consider planting trees around your property. Trees are an important part of the water cycle, and can help to avoid desertification, among other benefits.
Consider furthering your learning with one of our courses - Living Green Infrastructure, Organic Master Gardener and Rainwater Harvesting and Management all cover how to hold water in the landscapes.

As organic land care practitioners and advocates, we can’t stop glacial melt on our own. But we can direct the fresh water we have access to into our ecosystems.

Learn more about water scarcity and what you can do at WWF.

Learn more about World Water Day and the importance of glaciers from the UN.

By Julia Dupuis

Browsing Fodder for Thought

Julia Dupuis — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 15:21:52 GMT

The Hidden Life of Trees – Illustrated Edition – by Peter Wohlleben, Greystone Books, 2016

Lessons from Plants – by Beronda Montgomery, Harvard University Press, 2021

This is my first contribution to our newsletter/blog. I have been a facilitator for Gaia College for the past several years, undertaking Business Skills for Land Care Professionals, Ecological Plant Knowledge 1 – Natives, and Ecological Plant Knowledge 2 – Ornamentals. Reading is my favourite sedentary hobby, a habit started in my elementary school days, when the library became my go-to sanctuary on indoor recess days.

A recent trip to my local library to meet with a friend turned into the three-week acquisition of a couple of interesting-looking plant books. Reading about plants, trees and ecosystems tops my list for literary enjoyment.

The first tome, a large hardcover plentifully populated with stunning photographs, was Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees. The author describes his journey from relative indifference towards these giant static creatures to a place of awe, kinship and ultimately championing their preservation and well-being. He goes into detail about the factors that influence a tree throughout its lifecyle, how and why trees interact with each other and different species of flora and fauna, and how complex and sophisticated these creatures actually are compared to popular assumption. The next time you are in the presence of a massive organism that is hundreds of (perhaps a thousand) years old, stop to bask in its presence, and offer it a blessing.

Beronda Montgomery, author of Lessons From Plants and a Foundation Professor at Michigan State University, draws eloquent parallels between the behaviours of plants and how adopting these would serve humans well. She discusses collaboration for sharing of space and resources, the contribution of different species to benefit a community as a whole (biodiversity), resilience and strategy in the face of adversity such as limited nutrients or disturbances like fire and floods, and how pioneers pave the way for later populations to establish (succession). The societal role of leaders is ideally likened to stewardship and “groundskeeping”, rather than “gatekeeping”, and if humans treated each other with the attitude of improving the environment so that all could thrive – the way a gardener tends their plants – our species would be healthier in every way.

For future literary explorations, I have added my name to the (long) list of library members waiting for their turn to borrow a copy of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. I have also just received my Amazon order of Nature’s Best Hope, authored by Dr. Douglas Tallamy, which will be a great follow-up to his text, Bringing Nature Home, currently part of the reading list for our course, Ecological Plant Knowledge 1 – Natives.

I find that when travel and work remove me from actually being in Nature, having the opportunity to broaden my knowledge by immersing myself in a good book, is deeply satisfying and inspires me to learn more. If any of you have read an excellent book on plants or ecosystems recently and would care to share, please post this in our Community Forum. We’re always happy to receive reading recommendations. And now, on to my next dream project: starting a monthly book club on this topic!

By Laurie Smith

Growing Your Own Food - Is It Worth It?

Julia Dupuis — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 15:54:43 GMT

This is a great topic to add to your list of New Year's resolutions: discover once and for all if it is worth it to cultivate your own food. If it is, start planning for the growing season of 2025!

If you are involved in the grocery shopping for your family, you are aware of the rising costs of fresh food, particularly since the pandemic. It seems every week there are increases in the basic foods we take for granted. Why do they cost so much? Are we imagining this cost increase or is it real? Have a look at the table and graph below to observe how some prices have changed in recent times.

Average Price of Basic Produce in Canada

These specific foods have been chosen for several reasons. They can be grown almost everywhere in Canada, there was adequate information for every column, and they are easy to grow, harvest and store. For comparison purposes, note the inflation rate for Canada during the pandemic years was 3.4% in 2021, 6.8% in 2022, and 3.88% in 2023. To say that we are living in unpredictable times is an understatement. As you can see from this table and corresponding chart, some items such as apples, carrots and canned tomatoes have increased at a more reasonable rate than onions and potatoes. Now that you have the data on the average cost of purchasing produce across Canada, how much would it cost to cultivate these crops yourself? Because we promote organic growing at Gaia College, we can also pursue organic seeds and tubers.

Average Cost of Cultivating Basic Produce in Canada

There are many variables to consider here. Soil, compost and amendments have not been accounted for where I live in Medicine Hat, for example. I would have to use the maximum amount of water; however, I can make my own compost. Perhaps you live in an area with enough moisture but may have to augment your soil. Clearly, it is not always less expensive to grow your own produce unless you have optimum growing conditions where you live and moisture for the season is plentiful, or you can collect and use rainwater. It is less expensive to buy apples until fruit trees start producing - usually that is not for at least three years. Perennial plants are an investment.

So, I ask again, is it worth it?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term 'worth' is defined as:

"worth something having a value in money, etc.
used to recommend the action mentioned because you think it may be useful, pleasant, etc.
important, good or pleasant enough to make somebody feel satisfied, especially when difficulty or effort is involved.
worth something (of a person) having money and possessions of a particular value"

If it is not solely money that motivates us, what are some other actions or values of 'worth' that could justify the growing of our own food? How about these fifteen?

Pros	Cons
Improved diet
Increased exercise	It is hard work
Time spent in nature	Time
Reduced stress levels
Social connection (family and neighbors)
Reduce your carbon footprint
Control how your food is grown
Learning opportunities for you and your kids	You may make mistakes
Superior flavor
Share the bounty	You may grow too much
Convenience
Improved diet
Self sufficiency
Try new things
Support pollinators
Learn about insects	Insects

While you digest some of those fifteen reasons, I will share some of the reasons I grow my own food. I was raised on a mixed farm in central Alberta with five siblings. It took a giant garden to feed us and every Spring our mother would plan the garden and purchase all the seeds we would need. Then we would all help plant, maintain, harvest and eventually store the bounty.

We had a huge root cellar with a large window in the adjacent room that was completely removable. This window was removed twice a year in the Spring and the Fall. In the Fall we would haul in truckfuls of carrots, potatoes, turnips, cabbage, rutabagas, garlic and onions from the garden. And while the window was open, we would shovel in a load or two of coal for the stove. This was our heating source for the house before we had a gas furnace installed.

Once everything was stored properly, the window was buttoned back up, the garden debris was buried in a trench, and planning for the next year would commence. If we had a surplus of a certain crop, we would trade a truckful of carrots for a truckful of potatoes (for example) with a Hutterite or Mennonite colony down the road. Sometimes they would show us around their compound, and we would be amazed.

When Spring arrived the window popped back out and everything that did not get eaten was taken back out again in the opposite process and fed to the pigs! This task left us exhausted. My father believed in the ‘more is more’ philosophy.

Why plant two acres of carrots when you can plant eight acres? While we are on the carrot-rant; he used to send us out singly into the carrot field for weeding duty with a hoe and an alarm clock. He told us that when the alarm went off, we could come home. I think it was only an hour or two, but I was too young to know. I found out only recently that my siblings went out there and napped in the carrot fields! I may have been the only one weeding those eight acres of carrots.

The same ‘more is more’ philosophy applied to most other vegetables and fruits. Potatoes and strawberries come to mind first. When we hauled the unused potatoes out of the root cellar in the Spring, we used them for seed potatoes, as they had shriveled up nicely. Even though we had more than enough, our father thought it would be best if we cut these up to make MORE tuber cuttings. “Because you don’t want to run out - that would be embarrassing”.

He had crop rotation down to an art: I think he may have invented crop rotation. Fields of carrots became fields of cabbage, then potatoes, then strawberries. One year he decided the goats should be where the strawberries were, and we had to transplant acres of them to another field (the strawberries, not the goats). Most farmers use crop rotation as a tool to control pests and to protect the soil; I think my father used crop rotation to keep his children occupied and his goats confused.

Obviously, things have changed a LOT since I was a young girl. However, feeding our families remains a top priority for everyone. All the fifteen items listed above in the ‘Pro’s’ column were addressed when I was growing up with fresh food from a garden; I just did not know to appreciate it at the time.

If growing food sounds interesting to you, consider signing up for some courses at Gaia College today, and get started on your own list of pros!

Annette Vierling

Sources:

Australia, G. o. (2019, 05 07). Irrigating carrots for profit and environmental management. Retrieved from Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development's Agriculture and Food: https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/water-management/irrigating-carrots-profit-and-environmental-management?nopaging=1

Barker, B. (2010, 02 10). Understand crop water use to guide management. Retrieved from Top Crop Manager: https://www.topcropmanager.com/understand-crop-water-use-to-guide-management-4937/

Canada, S. (2022, 03 16). Monthly average retail prices for food and other selected products. Retrieved from Statistics Canada: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1810000201

Canada, S. (2024, 11 20). Food Price Data Hub. Retrieved from Statistics Canada: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/topics-start/food-price

Canada, S. (2024, 12 04). Monthly average retail prices for selected products. Retrieved from Statistics Canada: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1810024501

Center, W. A. (2018, 04 02). Apple Orchard Irrigation. Retrieved from Montana State University: https://agresearch.montana.edu/warc/guides/apples/Apple_Irrigation.html

Dictionary, O. L. (2025, 01 01). Oxford Learners Dictionary. Retrieved from Oxford Learners Dictionary: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/worth_1?q=worth

Hat, C. o. (2024, 01 01). 2024 Utility Rates. Retrieved from City of Medicine Hat: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.medicinehat.ca/en/home-property-and-utilities/resources/Documents/Utility-Rate-Brochures/Utility-Rate-Brochures-2024/CMH-2024-Utility-Rates.pdf

Market, U. R. (2022, 05 25). The top 5 benefits of growing your own vegetables. Retrieved from Urban Roots Garden Market: https://urbanrootsgardenmarket.ca/the-top-5-benefits-of-growing-your-own-vegetables/

Nations, F. a. (2021). Land and Water - information on water relations and water management of onion. Retrieved from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: https://www.fao.org/land-water/databases-and-software/crop-information/onion/en/

O'Neill, A. (2024, October). Canada: Inflation rate from 1987 to 2029. Retrieved from Statistica: https://www.statista.com/statistics/271247/inflation-rate-in-canada/

Ontario, G. o. (2008, 04). Irrigation scheduling for tomatoes. Retrieved from Government of Ontario: https://www.ontario.ca/page/irrigation-scheduling-tomatoes#:~:text=An%20average%20cultivar%20requires%20about,total%20from%20May%20to%20September.

Perfect, P. (2022, 07 11). 10 Reasons Why You Should Start Growing Your Own Food. Retrieved from Planet Perfect: https://plantperfect.com/why-you-should-start-growing-your-own-food/

Seeds, W. C. (2024, 12 30). Vegetable seeds. Retrieved from West Coast Seeds: https://www.westcoastseeds.com/collections/vegetable-seeds

Shahbandeh, M. (2024, 11 29). Statista. Retrieved from Food price inflation in Canada - statistics & facts: https://www.statista.com/topics/9659/food-price-inflation-in-canada/#topicOverview

Wimmer, L. (2022, 07 22). Dig into the benefits of gardening. Retrieved from Mayo Clinic Health System: https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/dig-into-the-benefits-of-gardening

A Consequence of Plant Inquiry

Julia Dupuis — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 14:58:33 GMT

If you are a plant professional, or interested in becoming one with Gaia College, there are consequences to be aware of. You may soon be looking far too closely at plants everywhere you go; lush, forested backgrounds in swaying exotic trees on inviting travel brochures. You will be trying to identify that awesome palmately compound leaf in the background that would look great in your foyer.

My love of dogs and plants have combined into a pursuit that has lasted over the twenty years that I have lived in this Southern prairie location. One of my consequences of plant inquiry has been cataloging native plants and lichen colony locations everywhere I hike through the growing months.

I have two enormously energetic dogs that must run off-leash everyday for as long as there is breath in my body. Usually, a daily hike means 20 kilometers for them and one or two for me. While they are out looking for whatever it is that dogs are seeking, I am taking photos, environmental notes and sometimes samples of plant material and soil that are indicative of a new or interesting area.

This practice of cataloging exact locations, plant and soil features, and habitat conditions for species detection is called a Plant Survey. There are often singular reasons for plant surveys, and they can include looking for rare, new, and invasive species, but the one purpose above all is to preserve and protect the habitats where they are found.

Based on the average of the 20 years I have been doing this in "my" Medicine Hat coulees, I could walk with you from my home to where and when:

An entire hillside of Delphinium bicolor (low larkspur) will bloom on a South slope the same time as chokecherry shrubs (Prunus virginiana).

And first blooms of Penstemon nitidus (smooth blue beardtongue) will appear on the East slope in sand texture among rockslides.

This photo has a few treasures: Cymopterus glomeratus (plains cymopterus) is the largest plant with white flowers, and underneath it in the upper right (and throughout the coulees) is a Lycophyte Selaginella densa (lessar spikemoss). In the upper left corner, you can also see the silvery leaves and pink flowers of Cmandra umbellata (bastard toadflax). Comandra is hemiparasitic; it photosynthesises, but on days when it is feeling tired, it can also obtain nutrients from other plants!

This is another of natures' palette that could not have been designed more beautifully. Here we have Erigeron pumilus (shaggy fleabane) with Eriogonus flavum (yellow umbrellaplant). And yes, under it all we have more Selaginella!

The entire plateau of the South coulee is covered in Allium textile (prairie onion - the round ball-shape flower) with the panicles of Penstemon albidus (white beardtongue). This Allium is edible - it is very small, but delicious!

On occasion I will preserve a plant sample by pressing, mounting and labeling it for use in workshops and classes. These are herbarium specimens and can last for decades.

How can you not love Lichen; how beautiful are these? A Lichen is not a plant. It is a sandwich species made with a fungus (dominant) and an alga.

My husband (former horticulturist) and I have also named 'our' coulees based on what plant material they boast. When I ask where we are walking today, an answer could be "The Rare Allium Plateau". This is a sarcastic dig on some taxonomy texts that refer to native plant material in our area as 'rare', when in fact we find the specimens completely overtaking some areas.

Cracking the spine of a new (or new to you) book is a beautiful way to learn new things. But there is no better learning experience than spotting a plant in its natural area that you do not recognize and solving the puzzle of its identity. Using environmental and habitat clues like soil texture, hours of light, wind tolerance, slope and topographic location on a hill, aspect (N, E, S, W) amount of litter (or bare ground), moisture needs, and my favourite - associated plant species (what is growing around it), gives you so much information about what that plant could be (if you do not know). It also gives you a lot of information about what that plant cannot be.

If this sounds interesting to you, consider signing up for a course and get started on your own consequence of plant inquiry!

Plant survey links to learn more about what's growing in your neighbourhood:

E-flora BC
Alberta Native Plant Council
ABMI

Submitted by Annette Vierling. Annette is a landscape designer and course facilitator of Organic Master Gardener and Ecological Landscape Design. Read Annette's full bio.

Fall Reading List

Julia Dupuis — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 14:45:23 GMT

Shorter days give us a chance to come in from the garden and enjoy a good book. And we've got some lined up.

Gardening in A Changing World: Plants, People and the Climate Crisis
by Darryl Moore

From the book: “An examination of the relationship between gardens and current environmental issues, and how ideas can be explored that create positive and holistic ways of engaging with the natural world.”

Greenwood
by Michael Christie

From the book: "It's 2034 and Jake Greenwood is a storyteller and a liar, an overqualified tour guide babysitting ultra-rich vacationers in one of the world's last remaining forests.

It's 2008 and Liam Greenwood is a carpenter, fallen from a ladder and sprawled on his broken back, calling out from the concrete floor of an empty mansion.

It's 1974 and Willow Greenwood is out of jail, free after being locked up for one of her endless series of environmental protests: attempts at atonement for the sins of her father's once vast and violent timber empire.

It's 1934 and Everett Greenwood is alone, as usual, in his maple syrup camp squat when he hears the cries of an abandoned infant and gets tangled up in the web of a crime that will cling to his family for decades.

And throughout, there are trees: thrumming a steady, silent pulse beneath Christie's effortless sentences and working as a guiding metaphor for withering, weathering, and survival.

A shining, intricate clockwork of a novel, Greenwood is a rain-soaked and sun-dappled story of the bonds and breaking points of money and love, wood and blood—and the hopeful, impossible task of growing toward the light."

Personal opinion: If you didn’t want to hug a Douglas Fir before reading this, you will want to afterwards. Readers will be able to relate to the changing climate and an epidemic that alter our ecosystem and humanity.

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
by Robin Wall Kimmerer (available November 19)

From the book: “As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution insures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.””

Rainwater Update - A Resource and Alternate Source

Julia Dupuis — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 14:07:59 GMT

When Ken Nentwig was growing up, he remembers his grandparents had a cistern in their house to store rainwater. An age-old practice has become a modern necessity as we learn how to adapt to changes in climate.

Harvesting rainwater allows for the water to be kept on site and used as a resource, rather than letting it runoff into the storm system. “Rainwater harvesting is almost like a new industry and yet it’s an age-old method of capturing the rain and using it from cisterns,” Nentwig said. It reduces the demand on municipal or well water - aquifers- when it is available, instead of using treated water which is brought in from far away, we are able to capture the water and put it back on site. As an example, he said “We don't have to use treated water for flushing toilets, we can use rainwater for that.”

A concept schematic for a private residence in Hornby Island, B.C. Ken Nentwig photo

As a retired landscape architect, with four decades of landscape related experience, and sixteen years as a college professor at Ridgetown College in Ontario, Nentwig has shifted his work into independent consulting and education.

Based in Victoria, B.C., Nentwig specializes in conceptual design and feasibility to help people determine how a rainwater system will work on their property and what parts will be needed.

With longer and heavier bouts of rainfall, we continue to see excess stormwater runoff from roads and buildings, especially in urban areas where the dated infrastructure is unable to keep up with climate changes. That’s why we have flooding, Nentwig said. “As storms become heavier and less predictable and as droughts become longer and deeper, we’re finding that rain water harvesting is one of the tools we can use to help mitigate the extremes that we’re witnessing and solve some of the problems of old infrastructure that does not handle the new way things are happening around us.”

A downspout-to-pipe connection in a community garden at the University of Victoria. Ken Nentwig photo

Most municipalities have a treatment plant that brings in water from wells, lakes or the ocean. After treatment, the water is sent off to buildings, Nentwig explained. “If we don’t have to do that, we don’t have to spend all the energy and we don’t need to have that infrastructure if we can keep the water that lands there, on site and use it.”

The City of Victoria has a rebate program for those who practice sustainable rainwater management on their property through the use of rain gardens, green roofs, bioswales and other systems. When harvested in a sustainable way, rainwater becomes a resource and helps the man-made watersheds in urban landscapes mimic the function of natural systems, which allows water to be diffused back into the water table naturally.

This is an in-basement tank array at a private residence in Victoria, B.C. Ken Nentwig photo

“People are starting to realize that rain water is an alternate source that is now being dumped into the sewers,” Nentwig said. “So interrupt that and make use of it.”

Nentwig has developed and facilitated online courses in Rainwater Management and Landscape Design Basics with Sketchup Pro through Gaia College since 2011. He is also the Lead Trainer for CANARM (Canadian Association for Rainwater Management), where he developed a Canadian-based certification course, and is involved in the training programs of the U.S. based group, ARCSA (American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association).

Ken Nentwig is an educator and concept design specialist for rainwater harvesting systems. Ken Nentwig photo

The Rainwater Harvesting and Management course at Gaia College can be an important asset to many tradespeople and areas of work including landscape architects and garden designers, engineers, educators and decision makers within government. The next semester begins January 10, 2022.

To learn even more about Ken, some of his illustrations and conceptual design projects can be found here: https://www.behance.net/KenNentwig

By Brenlee Brothers

Climate change and health

Julia Dupuis — Wed, 29 May 2024 17:54:30 GMT

It isn't just us feeling the ill-health effects of environmental degradation. Climate change and biodiversity loss are among the human-caused factors contributing to the rise of infectious diseases among people, animals and plants. From a meta-study reported in the New York Times.

Living Green Infrastructure: Hopeful Strategies for the Future of Urban Living

Julia Dupuis — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 14:17:11 GMT

In this article, author and Gaia College instructor David Tracey explores how Living Green Infrastructure can help mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events on urban environments. Thanks to integrative nature-based solutions, municipal leaders and citizens alike can feel hopeful about combating the climate crisis.

Living Green Infrastructure is now a study stream offered through our Diploma in Organic Land Care.

Even long term climate crisis watchers would have found the news this summer particularly troubling.

They had to close the Acropolis to prevent tourists from suffering heat stroke in Athens, a city which has also hired Europe's first Chief Heat Officer (CHO). Canada's worst fire season in history led officials from New York to Chicago to issue air quality warnings. In lower South America temperatures reached nearly 40 degrees Celsius during what was supposed to be their winter, a phenomenon climatologist Maximiliano Herrera called one of the "most extreme weather events the world has seen." Even our most reliable temperature regulator to date, the sea, is in peril with the BBC headlining, "Ocean heat record broken, with grim implications for the planet."

Grim yes, but hopeless, certainly not, if enough people commit to the solutions such as Living Green Infrastructure. This innovative approach to city-building takes a holistic, ecological approach to development using nature as a guide. While grey infrastructure channels excess storm water through a system of curbs and gutters and pipes to a treatment plant or large body of water, green infrastructure means adding areas of healthy plants and living soils to absorb stormwater in place. This can not only reduce construction and renewal costs of massive concrete networks, but also improve health and quality of life for human and non-human urban dwellers.

"Grim yes, but hopeless, certainly not, if enough people commit to the solutions such as Living Green Infrastructure."

Living Green Infrastructure (LGI) can go by various names, including Green Infrastructure (GI) and Low Impact Development (LID), but the principle of working with rather than against nature is the same. No matter what scale – from a rain barrel to water the garden around a single home to a conduit of wetlands linking a region, Living Green Infrastructure adds life while softening the harder edges of urban existence.

Doing it right, naturally, all comes down to the details. As a holistic approach, it requires people with the vision and skills to collaborate with like-minded colleagues across boundaries. Designing the living city our planet needs doesn't mean you must master each part. Someone trained to help living soil ecosystems thrive amid crowded urban conditions may not have the time or resources to become an expert in how city trees grow differently than their forest counterparts. But gaining a fundamental knowledge in the value of the components and how they all fit together is crucial for anyone hoping to join the growing list of those working for a better planet.

"This innovative approach to city-building takes a holistic, ecological approach to development using nature as a guide."

Urban designers, planners and engineers, as well as urban growers, educators and anyone else looking to improve our living conditions at home and planet-wide will find a rich source of study materials through Gaia College's course in Living Green Infrastructure. Besides providing a chance to develop the skills and language required to work with Living Green Infrastructure, it may also offer something rare for our challenging times: hope.

Remember Athens? It too is looking at Living Green Infrastructure to tackle the climate emergency, including a plan to revive an ancient Roman underground viaduct to water parks and create more green and blue spaces. Another example of a nature-based solution, a good idea whose time seems to have come again.

About the Author

David Tracey is a designer, writer and community ecologist. He is also an adjunct professor for UBC's School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and the author of six books including Vancouver Tree Book, a BC #1 Bestseller. He will facilitate the Living Green Infrastructure course for Gaia College from September, 2023.