People and Nature: Better Together

What would you call a place where people were inspired to live and work in harmony with nature?  A place where they worked to create sustainable jobs, clean energy and to support biodiversity ?  A place that used current science, traditional knowledge and global sharing to make life better for people and for nature?    You might like to visit such a place.  You might already live in such a place without knowing it.

I discovered that I live part of the time in one of these UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) Biosphere Reserves while watching a documentary series called Striking Balance on TVO.  Striking Balance tells the stories of eight such areas in Canada.  They are areas designated by UNESCO that find “creative and effective ways for people and nature to thrive together.”  says the narrator of an informative video describing this work. 

There is no legal authority making people do this and the reserves are not strictly about nature preservation.  This is about people deciding that they want to work together with each other and with nature, that they are better together than apart. According to the UNESCO website they are ”an area in the world which is deemed to demonstrate a balanced relationship between humans and the biosphere.”

Striking Balance  is a series of 8 fifty-minute documentaries which are available on DVD or they can be viewed on the TVO website  or on TVO for a limited time.  I have watched two episodes so far.  In Episode 5 on the Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve (where it turns out I live part time), the people in the reserve are trying to balance an increase in cottagers, the expansion of a major highway and the protection of endangered turtles and the Massassaga Rattlesnake which is a threatened species.  The Magnetawan First Nation within the Biosphere Reserve hired biologists to conduct a survey of Massassauga Rattlesnakes  on their land. Members of the First Nation report sightings of turtles and snakes as well.  

Biologists catch Massassaga Rattlesnakes on Magnetawan First Nation

The new widened Highway 69 will have animal corridors underneath it and will be fenced to protect wildlife from coming onto the road creating one of the safest roads for wildlife.  A biologist was brought in to study the winter hibernation area of about 100 rattlesnakes which would be disturbed by the new highway.  Those involved are looking for the best way to protect the snakes. The people on Magnetawan First Nation tell the story of how traditionally the rattlesnakes protected certain areas of blueberries.  People knew not to pick in those areas, to avoid the snakes.  This allowed the blueberries to drop their fruit containing seeds so that more plants could grow.  They feel that the rattlesnakes are once again protecting the land.  This traditional knowledge and respect partnered with biologist’s findings are both important in this model.

Oyster farming in Bras d'Or Lake

In the Bras d`Or Lake Biosphere in Nova Scotia, coal mining and steel production has come to an end and oyster farming was seen as a sustainable alternative for work.  However, a parasite destroyed much of the oyster population.  Both traditional Mi`kmaq knowledge and current science are being used to save the oysters.  In Quebec, Mont Saint-Hilaire`s old-growth forest and glacial lake are loved by the communities around it but they must balance growth to protect it.  In Clayoquot Sound, BC, communities deal with conflict over logging by looking to the past to learn how to help the environment, cultures and economies to thrive well into the future.  Redberry is a salt lake in Saskatchewan where the community is part of social and scientific experiments as it tries to thrive while being threatened by industrial agriculture.  In the Bay of Fundy, people are working to bring back the Atlantic Salmon which is on the edge of extinction. And in the Waterton Biosphere Reserve, in Alberta, ranchers find new ways to coexist with grizzly bears.  The series tells the stories of 8 of Canada`s 18 biosphere reserves.

 

Atlantic Salmon in the Bay of Fundy Biosphere Reserve

UNESCO first started the Man and Biosphere Programme in 1971.  There are now 669 sites in 120 countries.  The members can and do share ideas with each other.  The benefits of living in a biosphere reserve are many.  There is increased recognition of the community to attract people including tourists to the area, the promotion of sustainable economic development, support for groups already working in this way, improved relationships with First Nations and their knowledge of the land, and greater access to information and funding.  For those living in Canada’s Biosphere Reserves,” the environment is only healthy if human communities and the ecosystems that sustain them are both thriving - today, and for hundreds of years to come.”(TVO) 

 

Waterton Biosphere Reserve in Alberta

I was surprised to discover  that I lived on the edge of one of these biospheres for part of each week.  I had seen the signs posted and had probably visited a booth describing the reserve at some festivals  and possibly looked at the literature, but I didn't “get it”.  However, in watching the videos and hearing the stories of some of the people who were part of the UNESCO program, I started to get interested.  That is the importance of stories.  

There are two images that stay with me from the Georgian Bay episode.  One is of two young biologists catching rattlesnakes with a snake stick and carefully measuring them in a clear tube, to take an inventory on Magnetawan First Nation.  The other is of an Indigenous elder patrolling the side of the highway on his scooter, dog at his side, looking for wounded or dead turtles and snakes day after day.  

Redberry Lake, Saskatchewan

These biospheres are “proof that a sustainable way of living is not only possible but is already happening.”  In the trailer for the series, one man says, “I hope that living in a biosphere reserve will give people a sense of being a part of something that the future of the planet is going to depend on.”  I am going to see if there is a way for me to take part in the Georgian Bay one.  And I am looking forward to watching the other episodes.  Check them out.  You might end up feeling hopeful!

Being Beech Leaves

Forestry specialists once thought that the only tree that could flourish in an area with sandy, nutrient-deficient soil near Bamberg, Germany were pines.  So that is what they planted.   They also planted beech trees to help the pines by neutralizing their acidic needles in the soil with their fallen beech leaves.  They did not expect to harvest any of the beeches and saw them only as a helper species.

What the foresters discovered over time was surprising.  As they expected, the beech leaves added an alkaline humus to the soil that was able to store water, unlike the sandy soil.  In addition, the leaves of the beeches slowed down the wind that blew through the forest which reduced the amount of water that evaporated from the forest.  This added water allowed the beeches to grow more and they actually grew taller than the pines.  

Forestry students found that a beech forest was up to fifty degrees Fahrenheit cooler than a nearby thinned pine forest on a hot summer day.  The thinned pine forest allowed sunshine to heat up the forest floor and the wind could dry it out as well.  So the supposed “helper” trees, the beeches, actually changed the microclimate of the forest to their benefit and they grew better than the pines because of this.

I heard this story in The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben, a German forester who is challenging some of the commonly held ideas that the forestry industry holds about trees.  Wohlleben has been observing trees for decades and is investigating his ideas in a forest which he now manages.

Since I have a passion for trees and I think we can learn a lot about life from them, I wondered how this particular story could instruct human life.  I liked the idea of changing a microclimate.  Well, I didn’t have to wait long before a news story caught my interest.

The story  was that Charlie Angus, MP for Timmins-James Bay and NDP Indigenous Affairs Critic was putting forth a motion to get the government to make an emergency injection of $115 million for Indigenous Child Welfare Services to comply with legal orders from the United Nations Human Rights Tribunal.  In January, this tribunal found that the Canadian federal government has “consistently failed to provide” services to First Nations children compared to what the provinces provide for other children in Canada.  The tribunal has issued two compliance orders to get the federal government to take immediate action to end funding shortfalls.  The government has committed $635 million dollars in its budget but the bulk of that won’t be spent for another five or six years.  Meanwhile children and families are suffering.

Charlie Angus

Angus who represents Northern Ontario communities such as Attawapiskat knows first hand what this suffering looks like. To read more about this check out an earlier blog post .

Senator Murray Sinclair of the TRC said, "Canada's discriminatory policies have led to greater failed, and failing, interventions into the lives of Indigenous families than residential schools, and serious changes must be undertaken," he said Monday. "I cannot overstate how important it is that the federal government immediately comply with the orders of the independent Human Rights Tribunal."

A member of Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s economic  advisory council, entrepreneur Carol Anne Hilton wrote, "I support this motion to call on the federal government to take immediate measures to implement the human rights tribunal's direction for compliance with the immediate measures to end racial discrimination of First Nations kids."

Well, this reminded me of the story of the pine and beech trees.  The pines which were the trees of interest, supposedly the more hardy, powerful and financially important species seemed to me like the status quo of government inaction on this issue.  Picture, if you will, evenly spaced out pine trees, not touching each other with pine needles high in the sky, far from the forest floor. 

However, the climate in Canada  for this issue has been changing.  There are more news articles and TV coverage of Indigenous issues than ever before and we hear about kids committing suicide and the sad state of affairs on reserves.  The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has publicized the stories told by Indigenous people of their experiences in residential schools.  Artists and musicians are telling these stories and personalizing them.  Canadians are learning about these issues and are often shocked and horrified at the fourth world conditions that people are living in, while feeling hopeless about their ability to make any difference.  

It seemed to me that all these artistic expressions, personal stories, news stories and the people who are hearing them are like so many leaves on the beech trees.  They are filling in the spaces amid the pine trunks.  They are shading the forest floor and slowing down the wind so people can listen, really listen and learn.  They are slowing down the evaporation of stories that are here one day and gone the next in the mainstream media.  The stories are staying with us, we are digesting them, we are feeling all kinds of emotions and we are wanting change.  The climate is changing in the midst of government bureaucracies and policies.

And so on Nov. 1, 2016, the motion was brought before the House of Commons and it passed unanimously.  The beech trees are flourishing.  Certainly, the NDP will play a big role in making sure this money gets spent in the right places to affect change.  And for the rest of us, it is easy to email politicians and encourage them to do the right thing or to congratulate them on making a decision you think is good.  The important thing to remember is that all the beech leaves together changed the climate in the forest.  Fallen beech leaves, new beech leaves, mature beech leaves and papery brown dead leaves that stay put on branches even in the winter -- they all played their part.   

This is a different way of understanding how things work.  It bears thinking about because it is our story. This is a story that the trees have been telling and now so are we.

Wohlleben, P. (2015). The Hidden Life of Trees: What they Feel, How They Communicate. Vancouver: David Suzuki Institute.

The Path of Chanie Wenjack

The only picture of Chanie Wenjack

Stories can take an overwhelming issue and make it personal.  Stories can open our hearts, so we can empathize and connect to people we have never met.  Here is a story that is being told in Canada. This is Chanie Wenjack's story and it is the story of thousands of children.  When Chanie was twelve years old he escaped from the residential school in Kenora, ON where he had been sent and where he had been lonely, frightened and abused.  He tried to walk the 600 km back to his family but he died of exposure beside the railway tracks that he believed would lead him home.

You may have seen the Heritage Minute on TV about Chanie, narrated by his sister Pearl and written by author Joseph Boyden.  It was the inquest into his death that got the country to start questioning the residential school system which finally ended 30 years later although the legacy of this system still lives on in a myriad of ways.

This month, musician Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip and author Joseph Boyden are telling his story again.  Three years ago,Gord’s brother, Mike Downie heard Chanie’s story and showed a Macleans article from 1967 about him to Gord and Joseph.  They were immediately compelled to tell this young boy’s story which touched them deeply.

Gord Downie wrote poems which turned into songs for Chanie.  Gord and Mike met with artist Jeff Lemire to see if he would create a graphic novel to accompany the songs.  He was very busy, but the images for the book began to come to him right away and he knew that he too was part of the project.  Then the images from the book became a 60 minute movie with the CD as a soundtrack and footage of Gord meeting with Chanie’s family was included.  The film is very powerful and the music is deeply emotional.  Alvin Fiddler, Grand Chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation said that his friend Gord, “wants us to move from awareness to caring.”  (Toronto Star Oct. 24, 2016)  

The film was broadcast on CBC on October 23^rd  to mark the 50^th anniversary of Chanie’s death.  It can be viewed in its entirety on the CBC website or you can see the first chapter, The Stranger on youtube   The proceeds from Secret Path will go to the The Gord Downie Secret Path Fund for Truth and Reconciliation via The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at The University of Manitoba. 

Joseph Boyden

At the same time, Joseph Boyden worked on a novella called Wenjack in which he tells Chanie’s story.  As he was writing, the voices of animals came to him, animals that accompanied Chanie on his lonely journey home.  The chapters in the book are accompanied by lovely pen and ink drawings of fish, a crow, hummingbird, owl, mouse, spider, wood tick, beaver, snow goose, rabbit and lynx drawn by artist Kent Monkman . These animals appear on the cover of the book and they bring to life the Indigenous storytelling of a boy who is surrounded by all his relations even on this solitary journey.

In all of these storytelling projects, Chanie Wenjack’s story becomes the story of the 150,000 Indigenous children who were taken from their homes to Indian Residential Schools from the 1870’s to 1996 when the last school closed.  So far records for 6000 of these children who died in the schools from abuse, starvation and disease and those who died trying to escape have been recovered.  The numbers are too big to comprehend.  But the story of Chanie can be told and imagined and felt.

In the interviews with the creators of these expressions, the men who were fathers spoke about their own sons who are the same age.  It was no leap at all to imagine having their sons taken away and never coming back.  Anyone who has been a child, had a child, or has grandchildren, in short all of us can choose to open our hearts and feel this story. That is what will connect us – empathy and a desire for healing.  Healing for those for whom this story is an inter-generational one that has been told for a long time, and for those for whom this story is brand new.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) did a survey which revealed some startling facts.  Only 66% of Canadians even know about the existence of these residential schools and only 40% know of the existence of the TRC which was set up to collect the stories of the survivors and to document the history and legacy of these schools.  However, over 90% of Canadians want to learn more about this.

Pearl, Gord and Chanie

And that is what makes these collaborative projects so important.  In the film Secret Path Downie travels to Northern Ontario to visit Pearl Achneepineskum, Chanie’s sister.  She says that she always wanted Chanie’s life to mean something and so she is happy to have his story told so that Canadians can learn about what happened to so many children.  She also wants to see high schools on reserves so that today, young people don’t have to leave home at a young age just to get an education.  This so often ends badly.  Currently, children on reserves receive only 60% of the funding of children in the rest of Canada for education because of federal funding which is responsible for education on reserves as opposed to provincial funding for the other children.  Federal politicians need to hear from all of us so that that gets rectified.

After the streaming of Secret Path, the CBC hosted a discussion with an Indigenous panel including moderator Melanie Nepinak Hadley, film maker Tasha Hubbard, Ryan Moran of the TRC and Jesse Wente of TIFF and the CBC. The panelists emphasized that all Canadians have to learn about this part of our history.  Secret Path and Wendack are easily accessible ways to begin this process.  The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report is available in a Summary form as a pdf and in book form as well.  The summary has 94 Calls to Action.  The panel suggested reading these, picking one that resonates with you and taking action.  And they highlighted the need for non-Indigenous Canadians to listen, really listen to what Indigenous people are saying.  That listening will take courage as people discover that as Gord says, “we are not the country we thought we were.”

Panelist Jesse Wente asked what a new Canada would look like.  This question is being asked in more and more places.  What will our country look like when Indigenous and non-Indigenous people are all allowed to be healthy, educated, able to practice their cultures and make their unique and important contributions to Canada?  

Secret Path was screened in Ottawa on Oct. 18^th.  Gord Downie performed the songs from the CD in front of the screen.  Dozens of Chanie’s family members were there.  His family has joined with Gord Downie’s family to create the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund  to “foster new relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, while strengthening the voices and work of groups already making a difference. Money raised for the DWF will be used to create new relationships for reconciliation.” 

These relationships are already beginning.  At the end of the concert and screening, Gord and Pearl held hands while Pearl sang a traditional Anishinaabe healing song.  She spoke about her family and then sobbed.  After a moment Gord took the mic and said, “It’s just time to get started. It’s time to get going, OK?”

This is a time of listening, healing and taking action. We are writing a new story together.  Let's get going.  OK!

Global Citizens Embrace Amazing Possibilities

Hugh Evans in his TED Talk

Hugh Evans was born in 1983 in Melbourne Australia.  He started raising money for poverty at age 12 and spent time in the Philippines with a family that lived in a garbage dump.  This profoundly changed Hugh who began looking at core problems, community solutions and systemic change.  As he grew up, he knew that he wanted to create a sustainable movement that was global.

And so, In 2012,  he launched Global Citizen. Evans learned that research showed that of those who cared about global issues, only 18% took action because people don’t always know what to do about these issues.  

Using the universal language of music, Global Citizen hosted concerts with famous musicians to recruit and activate people.  But you couldn’t buy tickets to these concerts.  You had to take actions to earn points on the Global Citizen website to get a ticket.  This is how Evans galvanized people who self- identify as members of the human race before they identify with any particular country or culture, to take action in ending extreme poverty, climate change, gender inequality and more.  Global Citizen partnered with The Global Fund in September of this year, putting on a concert in Montreal to coincide with the 5th Replenishment Conference for the Global Fund (see the blog just before this one).

The Global Citizen website tells the stories of many global problems and projects.  They are listed under the headings of Girls and Women, Health, Education, Finance and Innovation, Food and Hunger, Water and Sanitation, Environment, and Citizenship.  Beside each story are possible actions.  Many actions are tweets, facebook shares and petitions which are easy and normal for young people to take. 

The Global Citizen website says, “The effects of small actions are not always obvious, but by working together specific and tangible outcomes are achieved. Global citizens' voices influence world leaders and decision makers, and contribute to shaping our world.”

So far 7,793,483 actions have been taken.  "Actions" are tweets, on-line petitions, emails and phone calls to government leaders.  Twenty-seven billion dollars in funding commitments as well as 158 commitments and policy announcements have been made by these leaders and 737 million lives are set to be affected. (Global Citizen website) 

There are now millions of Global Citizens signed up in 150 countries.  Here are some of the changes that they have contributed to:

• ·         142,000 Global Citizens led the US government to double its investments into global partnerships for education.
• ·         96,805 Global Citizens helped to persuade the World Bank to invest in water and sanitation.
• ·         352,954 Global Citizens with Rotarians got the governments of Australia, Canada and the UK to boost investment for polio eradication and $665 million was pledged

Hugh Evans says in his personal and inspiring TED Talk  “We live in a time that favours the Global Citizen.  We live in a time when every voice can be heard.”  This is because social media now exists and is being used by millions of people worldwide. So Global Citizen partners with the world’s leading NGO’s to increase the frequency, quality and impact of their actions.

Evans goes on to say, “This is the opportunity that I see:  the concept of Global Citizen , self-evident in its logic that until now in practical and many ways has coincided with this particular moment in which we are privileged to live.  We as Global Citizens now have a unique opportunity to accelerate large scale change around the world. “

 “These are ultimately global issues,” Evan says.  “And they can ultimately only be solved by global citizens demanding global solutions from their leaders.”  He invites everyone to “embrace the amazing possibilities of the world we share.”  Here is a young man who is galvanizing other young people to tackle problems that have older people paralyzed.  And there is space in this new story for older people to join in and be a part of the solution.  Check out Global Citizen and be a part of it.

More Than Anyone Dreamed Possible

Imagine countries from around the world working together to eradicate diseases that kill millions of people every year.  Diseases like AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria which kill more than 4 million people each year.  It sounds impossible.  It sounds like a dream.  Well, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had such a dream at the turn of the millennium and by 2002, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria was established as a private foundation hosted by the World Health Organization.

This Fund works with a different paradigm than most paternalistic aid organizations.  It relies on the four principles of partnership, country ownership, performance-based funding and transparency.  The Fund raises money from governments, the private sector and citizens.  Roughly $4 billion (USD) is raised each year. 

The Global Fund uses these funds to empower local organizations in the countries most in need to do the work of prevention, treatment, care and strengthening health systems.  The projects are “informed by the specific needs and characteristics of each country, as well as the divergent needs of communities most affected by diseases.” (The Global Fund website )

The local organizations and governments work in partnership with the funding partners.  In the past, funding organizations working in a hierarchical paradigm decided what people needed and how it would be delivered.  This led to inappropriate and unhelpful “aid” in many cases as those making the decisions didn’t fully understand the local situation.  Working in this new paradigm of partnership, the help is more productive and stable and the money is put to better use.  The Fund has had to adjust how it works to maintain it’s principles of transparency and performance-based funding. “Partnership means continual growth, driven by mutual respect, shared responsibility and a strong commitment by all,” states the global fund website.

Over it’s fourteen year history, the death rates in countries in which The Global Fund invests have decreased by 40% for AIDS, 31% for Tuberculosis and 50% for Malaria.  Hundreds of millions of mosquito nets have been distributed.  By the end of 2016, the Global Fund will be responsible for helping to save the lives of 22 million people.  This work can only have been done to this extent because of the model of partnership that is being used.  That is the only way to tackle such huge issues and achieve such a bold goal.

“We have the knowledge and tools to end AIDS, TB, and malaria as epidemics by 2030, but we need to invest smartly and with focus to make it happen. When we work together, we can achieve more than anyone dreamed possible,” writes Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund.

CBC photo

And it all came to land in Canada last month.  The Fifth Replenishment Conference for the Global Fund was held in Montreal.  $12.9 billion (USD) was pledged at the conference by governments, philanthropists and corporations.  And then Global Citizen hosted its first ever concert to raise awareness about the work of The Global Fund and to celebrate the work that has been done so far. It is hard to imagine the 22 million people who are still alive because of this work, not to speak of all those who love them; their parents, siblings, partners and friends. But all together the people whose lives have been changed for the better would exceed the population of Canada.  That is amazing when you think about it.  This is a good story that may well have a unbelievable ending.

Bill Gates and U2's Bono at the conference

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke at the concert and announced Canada’s commitment to the Global Fund of $804 million dollars over the next 3 years. So far Canada has contributed $2 billion(USD) since 2002.   Nelson Mandela’s grandson Kweku Mandela and Bill Gates spoke as well.  Many world class musicians created the concert. Usher repeatedly shouted out to the audience of thousands, “Who’s a Global Citizen here?”  Cheers erupted over and over again.  

Now that’s something to think about – being a global citizen.  If you're Canadian or a member of another contributing country, then you are already a global citizen contributing to the health and well being of millions.  You are a part of this new story. Listen to this young Canadian poet reflect on what that means here.  

Walking With Our Sisters

Christi Belcourt in front of one of her large scale beadwork paintings

It all started with a dream.  Metis artist, Christi Belcourt dreamed that she was in a lodge and she was surrounded by women standing in rows.  She wanted to honour these women.  These were the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Canada.  It is estimated that there are approximately 1200  such women since 1960.

Belcourt wanted to pay respect to the lives and existence of these women.  She came up with the idea of asking people to bead moccasin tops (vamps).  They would not be sewn into moccasins since these lives were all cut short.  “They are not forgotten.  They are sisters, mothers, daughters, cousins, aunties, grandmothers, friends and wives.  They have been cared for, they have been loved, and they are missing.” (WWOS Website)

In 2012, Belcourt put a call out on Facebook to create these vamps.  Women, men and children of all ages and races answered the call and by July of 2013, 1600 pairs of vamps had been received which nearly tripled the original goal of 600 pairs.

These lovingly created works of art represent thousands of hours of work and thousands of beads sewn by people who wanted to acknowledge the grief and torment of the families of these women, to raise awareness of the issue and to create the opportunity for a “broad community-based dialogue”.

This large collaborative art installation is called Walking With Our Sisters.  The vamps are displayed on fabric on the floor.  There are now 1810 pairs of vamps and 118 pairs of children’s vamps to honour the children of residential schools who never returned home.  The installation is a memorial ceremony.  Elders are involved in setting up each location to include the sacred plants of cedar and tobacco.  Visitors are invited to remove their shoes and take a small red pouch of tobacco to carry as they walk through the installation.  The tobacco which is a sacred plant absorbs the prayers of those that walk through the memorial.  It is common for people to cry and there are tissues along the way as well.  Elders are present to guide people in this healing process which is meant for all people.  At the end, the tobacco and tissues are collected and are burned at the end of each day in a sacred fire to release the emotions of the healing process.

Each pair of vamps represents one woman.  Spread over time and geography it may seem to some that this is not a big problem but when viewing the vamps, or women’s lives in one room, the problem is felt at its true weight.  Kristine McCorkell, a member of the Kanien’ kaha:ka (Mohawk) Six Nations is a group tour educator for WWOS.  She is quoted by Lauren Scott  in The Leveller:  “It’s this dark history that people, when they start to realize what’s happening, they kind of shut down and they don’t want to be part of it.  They know that they should be but there’s an emotional response that kind of builds a wall.”  She goes on to say, “Just stand behind us.  Let us know that it’s not just the Indigenous people fighting for our rights.  If the whole country was like, ‘this needs to stop,’ then something would happen.”

Walking With Our Sisters is entirely crowd funded and is fueled by thousands of people who have chosen to join their voices on this issue.  These are people who believe that there is power in art and power in working together to create change.  The stories of the missing and murdered Indigenous women are being told and in the telling, a new story is emerging.  

You can watch an interview of Christi Belcourt for MUSKRAT Magazine by Rebeka Tabobondung here.  

It includes footage of exhibition/memorial hosted by the G'zaagin Art Gallery at the Parry Sound Museum in January 2014.

The Hidden Life of Trees

The old story that trees will grow better if their nearby competitors are removed so that they can get lots of sunshine and water, comes from the forestry industry that wants trees to grow quickly so they can be harvested at a young age.  

However, forester and author, Peter Wohlleben in the The Hidden Life of Trees tells a new story based on decades of observation and science.  He says that although the story of competition may be true for trees of different species, it is not true for trees of the same species.  Beech trees for example share resources.  Researchers have found that they synchronize their photosynthesis or sugar production using the power of the sun, so that all the trees are equally successful.  They share the sugar through their roots.  The trees that have an abundance give sugar to the trees that are struggling.  Wohlleben likens this to a social security system.

Peter Wohlleben

It is therefore beneficial for these trees to grow close to each other so that they can share resources. Foresters in the north of Germany have found that beech forests are more productive when the trees are “packed together” (Hidden Life p.16).  If nearby trees are cleared out, then trees that are struggling send out a message for help that goes unheard.  Other trees create a lot of sugar and grow better but they aren’t long-lived.  “This is because a tree can only be as strong as the forest that surrounds it,” writes Wohlleben (p. 17).  The weaker trees with no help are eventually killed by disease or insects.

Wohlleben has spent decades observing forests

As well, when holes are created in the forest canopy by cutting down trees, the sun and wind dries out the forest floor and changes the moist, cool microclimate that trees depend on for health.  Beech trees’ “well-being depends on their community, and when the supposedly feeble trees disappear, the others lose as well.” (p. 17)  This story challenges the accepted idea of survival of the fittest, the story of competition for resources that is a part of the old paradigm of hierarchy and scarcity.  Wohlleben describes why diversity, not monoculture is what creates security for ancient forests. 

Peter Wohlleben was born in 1964 in Bonn, Germany.  He studied forestry and worked as a forester with the German government for over 20 years.  After observing trees for all this time, he developed his own ideas about how forests work. “To work with trees is my life, “ he writes.  Wohlleben gave up his government job to pursue these ideas and now runs an environmentally friendly municipal piece of woodland in the village of Heummel. He writes and speaks about what he has learned from the trees he loves. You can hear Peter Wohlleben share this information in a short interview.

The Hidden Life of Trees describes how trees feel and communicate. It is full of surprising facts that have been revealed by recent research.  For example, when a tree has it's leaves eaten, it can release a chemical that makes the leaves taste bad.  In addition it can release a wind born scent to warn nearby trees of the threat so they can prepare.  

This is a new story being told about how trees work together and function as communities.  The story is being told by a man who has spent decades observing and learning from these forests.  We have a lot that we can learn from these ancients about how to cooperate and create healthy, sustainable communities and find our place within nature.

Peter Wohlleben  (2015)The Hidden Life of Trees.  Vancouver: David Suzuki Institute.