Nerdy About Nature

Charlotte Dawe is a campaigner with the Wilderness Committee who works on various issues regarding policy around biodiversity, at-risk & endangered species, old growth logging, glyphosate spraying, and many more.  Her and I caught up to debrief on COP15, the United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity in Montreal, to hear all about the good, the bad and all the goss of this global shindig, and what it all means for BC, Canada and the world.  We talk all about hurdles to protecting biodiversity, shotty old outdated legislation that stands in the way, crazy loopholes, big corporate interests lobbying for their own needs, policy failures and successes, glyphosate spraying and much much more.

Learn more about the Wilderness Committee at WildernessCommittee.org or @Wildernews

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters - this episode’s donation goes to Indigenous Climate Action!

Learn more at IndigenousClimateAction.com

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 for 1$ a month or more! - 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 get NAN merch, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

A founding member of Indigenous Women Outdoors and coach with ILSA, Sandy Ward is an avid snowboarder, mountain biker and climber from the Lil'wat nation working to carve out a path for more Indigenous folks to get into the outdoors in a safe, welcoming space, and to see their ancestral lands from new a perspective through sport.  Her and I sat down to talk about her journey in the outdoor sports world as a coach, athlete and mentor, how mindsets have shifted towards these recreational activities both within and outside of Indigenous communities, and other issues regarding working with Indigenous nations when it comes to building bike trails, skateparks and more.

Sandy is a really inspiring, awesome human, and you're gonna love to hear what she has to say!  

For more on the work she's doing, you can check out: 

Indigenous Women Outdoors: https://www.indigenouswomenoutdoors.ca/ 

Indigenous Life Sport Academy: https://www.lifesportcanada.org/

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!

If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for 1$ a month or more!

- https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Chelsea Greer is the Wolf Conservation Program Director at Raincoast Conservation, and we sat down one Autumn morning in the woods to chat all about wolves!  In this conversation, we delve into the concept of conservation ethics, different monitoring approaches, population dynamics, and their relationship with endangered mountain Caribou, as well as the history of wolves in Western Culture and how outdated misconceptions has lead to controversial Wolf culls throughout BC and beyond.

The takeaway - the big bad wolf you were taught to fear growing up was a flat-out lie.  They're actually a lot nicer, kinder and cooler than how they're commonly portrayed, and their future may depend on us learning how to see them differently.

More on Raincoast Conservation's Wolf Program: https://www.raincoast.org/wolf-science/

Learn More about the Trophy Hunt: https://www.raincoast.org/trophy-hunt/

Instagram: @raincoastconservation

Twitter: @raincoast @chelgreer

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  - https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Siginaak Court Larabee is an incredible human who also happens to be the director of the Indigenous Life Sport Academy, a non-profit which works to provide Indigenous youth access to outdoor sports as a means of healing, and to build culture and community.  In this Podchat, I sat down with Court to chat all about the work he is doing as a leader within these communities, the recent growth they've had, his recent appearance on TV & in the Amazing Race Canada, and some intricacies surrounding the current state of affairs across Turtle Island with different Indigenous communities, Land Back, and Decolonization.  It’s truly inspiring stuff, and I’m so stoked to share this episode with you!

Trigger Warning: We discuss sensitive subjects here including Residential Schools, the 60's Scoop, drug & alcohol abuse, and racism against Indigenous people.  There are also parts of this conversation which may be a bit uncomfortable for some of you to hear for other reasons, addressing things like the type of privilege that comes from the colonization of stolen lands or ways that that privilege is upheld in certain communities or industries that furthers division, so I’d just like to take a moment here and remind everyone that it’s ok to be uncomfortable sometimes. We’re all here in this big old mess of life together and in order to figure this all out, we’ve get used to sitting through some mild discomfort from time to time, because that’s where we learn and that’s where we grow. So let’s get into this, hear some different perspectives, think about it all differently so that we can all work together to create a better world for us all.

Learn more & support the Indigenous Life Sport Academy: https://www.lifesportcanada.org/

@ILSAcrew: https://www.instagram.com/ilsacrew/

Watch our short film, 'Riding Red': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNMtDDvPvdc

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  - https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

The Oceans are an incredible feature of this planet that we all share, connecting not only coastal communities and ecosystems to one another, but all of the various inland ones that are impacted by and impact our oceans, from deserts in Africa to the temperate rainforests of Turtle Island.  My first repeat guest, Julia Huggins is a biogeochemist, forest ecologist, PHD student and microbe expert who is currently working to collect data on microbes in our oceans, so we sat down on a rugged coastal beach to chat all about it!  Lot's of great info here on the intricacies of our oceans, their current state, and what we can all do to become better stewards of the waters that connect us.

Information about ocean deoxygenation and the UN "Global Ocean Oxygen Network": 

https://en.unesco.org/go2ne

https://www.ocean-oxygen.org/

If you'd like more information on certain topics, feel free to contact Julia for papers and sources at [email protected]

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  - https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Dr Rachel Holt is a forest ecologist based out of Nelson BC, and one of the authors of the infamous 'BC's Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity' Report that was published in 2020, which created a huge wake throughout Canada regarding forestry practices and our diminishing old growth forests.  The report and work she did also contributed to the BC Government's Strategic Review of Old Growth Forests which helped outline our current state of affairs and the direction the province needs to move in the future...so in short, Rachel is kind of a big deal in the world of forests.  Her and I sat down after working on another project together to chat through some of the details of biodiversity, habitat fragmentation, and what (if anything) is actually happening when it comes to changing the landscape of the forest industry in BC for the better.

Read BC's Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity - https://sierraclub.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/bcs-old-growth-forest-a-last-stand-for-biodiversity-report-2020.pdf

Science Alliance for Forestry Transformation - https://www.saftforestry.com/

Veridian Ecological - https://veridianecological.ca/

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  - https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature​You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Leslie Anthony is a good friend of mine from the ski industry with a wide variety of skillsets.  Not only is he an outdoor travel and sports author, but a biologist who wrote a book called 'Aliens Among Us' a few years ago that's all about different invasive species, so I sat down with him alongside some train tracks to chat about it all!  Here we talk about different types of invasive species, what makes them invasive in the first place, how great they are at adapting, how they get around the world *cough*train tracks*cough*, and the different phases of preventing, detecting, eradicating and managing them.

Check out Leslies book 'Aliens Among Us' here: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0300208901/ref=x_gr_bb_amazon?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_bb_amazon_ca-20&linkCode=as2&camp=15121&creative=330641

Whistler Naturalists: https://www.whistlernaturalists.ca/

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  -> https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Mark Worthing is the Coastal Projects Lead for Sierra Club BC and is an incredibly well-spoken, intelligent, and inspirational guy doing some really important work for our forests, indigenous nations, and the world at large.  He & I sat down to chat about the connections between forests and politics, and in this chat we cover quite a bit - Government / Industry ties that create forestry policy and the hype behind deferrals, the shortcomings of conservation groups in the past, what indigenous sovereignty looks like and how we can break down the barriers of colonization that still exist today, and even some more philosophical conversation around the concept of 'optimism' and what keeps him moving forward through what can often be very heavy, heartbreaking work.  

This chat may contain some sensitive talking points or perspectives, but I feel that it is really important for us all to embrace the discomfort that comes with these conversations.  These are incredible important issues that will only ever be solved through active, engaged participation and working through these uncomfortable scenarios together, so that we can all work to create a world that benefits us all.  Let's embrace that goal by learning and growing together.

Learn more about the Ma’amtagila www.maamtagila.ca

Find out about Sierra Club BC’s Campaigns at www.SierraClub.bc.ca

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  -> https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature​

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Julia Huggins is a forest ecologist, microbiologist, National Geographic Naturalist, PHD student and huuuuge nerd who specializes in the tiny world that makes up the big world we all share - microbes!  Her & I sat down amongst some Alders to chat about the role microbes play in our forests and the biogeochemical processes across the globe, and even got our hands dirty digging for microbial root nodules.  From bacteria to lichen, you're gonna love this chat!

Here's that TED talk from Paul Stamets we referenced - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5frPV58tY

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  -> https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature​

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Diane Rudge is a natural textile artist & one of the co-founders of The Den, a small refillery on the coast of Vancouver Island that focuses increasing access to organic, natural and locally made products.  Her and I sat down and chatted about the way that us humans use and consume products (often mindlessly) and all that she's doing to re-envision and re-educate folks on the way that we use household, cleaning, self-care, travel products & more in our day-to-day lives for a more sustainable and locally focused future.  

Learn more at www.TheDenUcluelet.com

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  -> https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature​

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com