We face a variety of critical issues these days that all seem to be culminating at one big crossroads, and the interconnection of them all can make it very difficult to find a way to move forward in a progressive, ethical and decolonial way to create a better future. So how the heck do we do just that?

I was joined by Rande Cook and Mark Worthing, two members of Awi'nakola, at their annual Tree of Life Gathering to learn about the values they embody as an NGO and how that determines their methodology and actions in the world. As many larger organisations, businesses and goverments frantically search for quick-fix 'profitable' solutions to these issues, the wholistic grassroots approach taken by Awi'nakola sure is refreshing to see, and may actually be the key to the change we all really need.

To learn more about Awi'nakola, visit them at https://awinakola.com/ or @_treeoflife on Instagram.

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Rande chose to give his donation to the ⁠Ma'amtagila Nation & Mark gave to Orcalab.

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

This is a special edition of Undercurrents - instead of sharing and discussing recent news, articles or studies here, Julia & Ross delve into their thoughts and reflections given the results of the recent US Presidential election, and what that means moving forward.

Undercurrents is a podcast series from Nerdy About Nature where we discuss recent studies, reports and news from the world of environment, ecology and climate which all impact our understanding of the world and the way we relate to it.  In other words, it’s all the unseen things that happen without much notice that impact the direction or flow of our society and the world we all share.

Produced by Ross Reid

Hosted by Ross Reid & Julia Huggins

Nerdy About Nature is a passion project whose primary goal is to provide free access for all to education about this world so that people can enjoy it more, build connection and fall in love with it, and ultimately work in ways to steward it for future generations to enjoy.  We do this through short and long form videos all over social media @NerdyAboutNature, as well as this podcast you’re listening to now, and it’s all made possible thanks to support from folks like yourself.  If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating, you can help keep it going by supporting us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nerdyaboutnature.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. 

In case you missed it, I took a brief hiatus from your regular programming to run for MLA of the Mid Island - Pacific Rim riding as the Green Party of BC Candidate and whewwww, what a time!

After a long campaign period of lots of learnings, I unfortunately wasn't elected...but thats alright with me, I've got other things to focus on and I may revisit it again in the future.

After a week and a half of decompressing, I've decided to pop on here and share some thoughts and reflections on the whole experience with y'all in a long-winded rant, while also taking time to address some questions that many of you had here. Massive thanks to everyone who supported me and who voted in this election, y'all are the best, and together we can make the future a pretty rad place!

Links:

Green Party of BC 2024 Platform PDF

Green Party of BC Platform site

Enjoying Nerdy About Nature? Support this project on Patreon to make podcasts like this possible!

Follow elsewhere Nerdy About Nature for more engaging fun-facts to make your next jaunt into the outdoors more rad!

Over the past 40 years, Tla-O-Qui-Aht First Nation has been fighting relentlessly for their traditional unceded territory with the colonial government of BC / Canada so that they can implement a land vision and stewardship model that seeks to benefit society at large, while preserving options and opportunity for their grandchildren.

I sat down with Saya Masso, the Lands & Resources Manager for Tla-O-Qui-Aht First Nation, to chat about the origins of their Tribal Parks, trials and tribulations along the way, recent wins, and the vision for the future they hope to achieve. A truly fun and charismatic guy, Saya has a great deal of experience and unique perspective on some of the most pressing issues we as a society face today, with progressive solutions that work to create an equitable, inclusive and diverse future for all of us who reside amongst these lands. Listen in, and get inspired!

Learn more about the Tla-O-Qui-Aht Tribal Parks Allies at TribalParks.com

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Saya decided to give his donation to the Tla-O-Qui-Aht Language Keepers Program.

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

For the past couple hundred years, buildings and homes in North America have been constructied using virgin timber from the vast forest resources that once stretched across the continent, and when those structures fall out of use, they are typically demolished, sending all of those old high quality timbers to the dump.

Yet with that supply of quality oldgrowth timbers virtually non-existent these days, and second growth timbers not quite being of the same caliber, perhaps there's a way we can be less wasteful, more creative, and more resourceful in what we scrap, and what we build with what remains?

Thats where the concept of 'deconstruction' comes in, or the process of taking a building apart and saving all of the most high quality pieces to be used again in new structures. I sat down with Adam Corneil of Unbuilders & Heritage Lumber to chat all about this budding industry, the challenges and benefits, and how thinking in a more circular fashion is better for our society and our forests.

Learn more about Unbuilders and all the great work they do at Unbuilders.com, and all the great vintage wood products they create at HeritageLumber.ca

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Adam decided to give his donation to ⁠⁠ The Re-Use People Of Canada

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family - ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠⁠

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

What is economic reconciliation, why is it important, and what does it have to do with protecting lands and empowering communities?

I sat down with Michelle Laviolette, the director of Indigenous Banking Strategy at Vancity to break it all down and hear about all the ways that they are working to support and create opportunities for individuals and their communities.  They’ve been leading the charge in helping to support indigenous nations to provide banking and investment opportunities, to provide homeloans and retrofittings for climate sustainability, to opening up branches in remote communities to help support them, as well as tons of other incredible initiatives, so get ready to get inspired!

Todays episode is presented by Vancity, a community credit union based in the greater Vancouver region that operates on a local scale to support and build up the communities it operates in, investing in building a clean and fair world for all.  Put your money into doing good!

Learn more about Vancity and become a member by checking out VanCity.com.

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Michelle decided to give her donation to ⁠⁠Aborginal Mothers Centre.

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family - ⁠https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠⁠⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Forestry is a large part of the culture and economy of the PNW in both the US and Canada, but over a century of poor forest management has led to some of the largest issues we face today from a lack of biodiversity and carbon stores, to ecosystems that are less resilient to drought and forest fires.

How can we create healthy communities living amongst healthy forest lands through a thriving forestry industry? Well, simply put - it's by changing the way we do things and learning to value a forest for more than just its value as a source of timber.

I sit down with Barry Gates of Wildwood Ecoforest to talk all about ecoforestry as the best solution to our industrial logging complex problem, and I hope you find it as incredible and inspiring as I did. There's a lot of work to be done, but thankfully Barry and the crew at Wildwood have already done the ground work in laying out a clear path for a better future, so let's get to walkin' it already!

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Barry decided to send his donation to ⁠Stand.Earth

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family - https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Undercurrents is a podcast series from Nerdy About Nature where we discuss recent studies, reports and news from the world of environment, ecology and climate which all impact our understanding of the world and the way we relate to it.  In other words, it’s all the unseen things that happen without much notice that impact the direction or flow of our society and the world we all share.

This episodes topics:

Shifting Heatwaves:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adl1598

The Cost of Bad Winters:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13683500.2024.2314700

Droughts and Fire:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168192324001059

Nitrogen Impeding Nocturnal Pollinators:

https://www.science.org/content/article/night-pollution-keeps-pollinating-insects-smelling-flowers

Better Variable Retention Management:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112723000816

Produced by Ross Reid

Hosted by Ross Reid & Julia Huggins

Nerdy About Nature is a passion project whose primary goal is to provide free access for all to education about this world so that people can enjoy it more, build connection and fall in love with it, and ultimately work in ways to steward it for future generations to enjoy.  We do this through short and long form videos all over social media @NerdyAboutNature, as well as this podcast you’re listening to now, and it’s all made possible thanks to support from folks like yourself.  If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating, you can help keep it going by supporting us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nerdyaboutnature.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. 

Natures pretty neat, ya know - let’s keep it that way!

Undercurrents is a podcast series from Nerdy About Nature where we discuss recent studies, reports and news from the world of environment, ecology and climate which all impact our understanding of the world and the way we relate to it.  In other words, it’s all the unseen things that happen without much notice that impact the direction or flow of our society and the world we all share.

This episodes topics:

Boiling Microplastics:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00081

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2419556-boiling-tap-water-can-remove-80-per-cent-of-the-microplastics-in-it/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2366304-ingesting-microplastics-may-increase-fat-absorption-by-145-per-cent/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2420674-microplastics-linked-to-a-greater-risk-of-heart-attack-and-stroke/

Oil & Gas Gaslighting:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/04/exxon-chief-public-climate-failures
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/22/us-oil-company-exxonmobil-investors-climate-follow-this

Glyphosate:

https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-018-0184-7

https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/local-news/unbc-research-team-gets-15-million-to-study-glyphosate-8296613

https://www.evergreenalliance.ca/analysis/32/

Climate Bandaid Solutions:

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2023GL106132

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00119-3

Produced by Ross Reid

Hosted by Ross Reid & Julia Huggins

Nerdy About Nature is a passion project whose primary goal is to provide free access for all to education about this world so that people can enjoy it more, build connection and fall in love with it, and ultimately work in ways to steward it for future generations to enjoy.  We do this through short and long form videos all over social media @NerdyAboutNature, as well as this podcast you’re listening to now, and it’s all made possible thanks to support from folks like yourself.  If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating, you can help keep it going by supporting us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠⁠, or at ⁠⁠⁠⁠nerdyaboutnature.com⁠⁠⁠⁠. 

Natures pretty neat, ya know - let’s keep it that way!

Oo hot goss’ alert!

A new leaked map shows that while the top scientists on the Oldgrowth Technical Advisory Committee panel were picking out the best remaining old growth forest to protect in BC, the Ministry of Forests was actively undoing all that work, changing the borders on the deferral areas to include more low productivity forest while making the best forest left in the bioregion available to be logged by industry.  You heard that right - government and industry blatantly working in hand in hand behind the peoples backs.

Despite all the protests, the phone calls, the letters and the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, the BC NDP smiled to your face and lied, while working behind closed doors with the logging industry to make sure that they could continue to log old-growth, just as they always had.

It’s clear that those currently running our government are beyond ethically and morally corrupt, as they willfully ignore the demands of the people they were elected to serve, in order to line their pockets and continue to pander to a wealthy, established, power-hungry colonial capitalist resource extraction industry.

So how do we create change in a system so determined to keep things as they are?

Why do we spend so much time trying to fix those stagnant, broken systems that refuse to change, when we could be creating new systems altogether?

What if we abolished the Ministry of Forests, created a Ministry of Ecology, and fundamentally changed the way we operate on these lands and in our communities?

Let’s think differently to create a different outcome than this repetitive disappointment and corruption.

Drop your ideas in the comments, engage in some constructive conversation, and let’s find a way to move forward together.

Nerdy About Nature is a passion project whose primary goal is to provide free access for all to education about this world so that people can enjoy it more, build connection and fall in love with it, and ultimately work in ways to steward it for future generations to enjoy.  We do this through short and long form videos all over social media @NerdyAboutNature, as well as this podcast you’re listening to now, and it’s all made possible thanks to support from folks like yourself.  If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating, you can help keep it going by supporting us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠⁠, or at ⁠⁠⁠⁠nerdyaboutnature.com⁠⁠⁠⁠.