to know the land

2,100,000 acres protected within not only the most populous area in Canada, but one of the most important economic areas, the struggle between development and sprawl vs protection and conservation of farms, forests and fragile wetlands is a very real undertaking, and one very much beyond me. Getting to talk to Shelley Petrie of The Greenbelt Foundation about how a successful mobilization 16 years ago to protect some smaller tracts has expanded to include so much more was helpful in understanding some of the broad and focused details of what exactly the Greenbelt is and who the Greenbelt Foundation are. By supporting local farms, restoration efforts, education and work “future-proofing” in the context of climate upheaval, the Greenbelt is supporting so many people within the protected lands, but also those of us outside them on the periphery.

With a local council North of Toronto recently voting in favour of a developer’s request to redesignate 1,400 acres of Greenbelt farmland into developable lands I got to wondering if the Greenbelt can hold up against this and possible future impingements? Where do folks allow development and where do folks protect lands? What do we need to make sure that the Greater Golden Horseshoe can not only live through current and future climactic changes, but also thrive as a great place to live for everyone here and every who will be here in the future.

I see the Greenbelt in Ontario as a both visionary and pragmatic example of protecting land around these urban spaces, providing and maintaining habitat for the more-than-human world, for city dwellers like me to be able to more easily access a bit of greenspace, and for the preservation of local farmlands for growing food for the people who live near by. These protected spaces need to not only be protected and cherished, but also grown and expanded.

To learn more :

The Greenbelt Foundation website

Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership

Alderville Black Oak Savanna

Episode photo courtesy of Greenbelt Foundation

I first noted the book because of the “tracking rats” part of the title, but when I began reading it I realized Dr. Cylita Guy’s new book Chasing Bats and Tracking Rats : Urban Ecology, Community Science, and How We Share Our Cities is more than what it seems. Cylita has written about how eight different researchers go about conducting their research along with how they themselves, as individuals, some as BIPOC scientists, interact with and encounter their work.

There are stories of late night encounters with the police, and of a scientist observing birds in park being asked to leave because other park goers were “uncomfortable” likely because the scientist was a Black woman. There are stories of urban ecology researchers that reflect the urban human population dynamics which, in some ways, are comparable to the wilds they work to understand. Microplastic pollution effects on urban animals, studying bees in cities to better understand climate change, looking at how bats interact with parklands in built up environments. Human created landscapes are wild and full of wonder. Life blooms everywhere and within these pages I read the stories of the broad ecologies which I am not only witness to, but also apart of.

Oh.. we also talk about Bats… which is pretty cool.

More information :

Dr. Cylita Guy’s website.

Chasing Bats and Tracking Rats : Urban Ecology, Community Science, and How We Share Our Cities : information on the book

RCMP has invaded Wet’suwet’en territory from the second time in as many years. Land protectors have been resisting a pipeline going through their territory for many years, and most recently from a site where the pipeline would be buried below a river where folks fish and drink from.

This weeks episode is all about giving context for the situation, looking at what is happening now, why the invasion wouldn’t even be legal according to Wet’suwet’en or Canadian or international law, and some recordings from a local solidarity rally in support of Wet’suwet’en land protectors.

Learn more here :

https://www.yintahaccess.com/

https://twitter.com/Gidimten

https://twitter.com/unistotencamp

The massive Beehive Collective posters were a big part of my culturation and activist upbringing. Every punk house, infoshop, or radical space I encountered had one of their many gorgeously illustrated prints in a living room, bedroom or even in the washroom. They were so detailed, so thorough and nuanced that I would discover new facets every time I made the effort to study one. But despite seeing them so often, these black and white billboards were still a little mysterious and the narrative  a bit illusive. I never quite understood the entire story behind most of the work. I know they came with a pamphlet detailing everything, but I didn’t often find one of those in the punk houses where I was encountering the posters.

When Saku and D came through this past week on their whirlwind Southern Ontario tour, visiting neighbourhood parks, schools, they brought with them a simplified key, a song, a Seussian poem detailing the narrative of the work, which made it much more approachable to a broader, and younger audience. Inspired by their own child and the desire to teach them about what has been going on in the world, they put together a new book detailing the true cost of coal.

This is my jams. Taking complex things and rendering them accessible and teachable and then doing the work to get that out into the world. I really appreciate this stuff. Thanks again to Saku and D for putting in the work on this one.

To learn more check out:

Beehive Collective website

The True Cost of Coal book

I really appreciate when I can meet someone who can take something despised and vilified and transform it into a beautiful focal point, braiding together natural history, human history, and urban ecology. Using a playful approach to science, research and with her signature illustrations, Rosemary Mosco brings the Pigeon back into our awareness as a wonderful urban companion through the Anthropocene, instead of being viewed as a pest or vector to be avoided.

I got to talk with Rosemary about her own connections with nature, her award winning bird and moon comics, really diving deep into Pigeons (Columba livia) and her new book A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching.

To learn more check these out:

A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching

Bird and Moon comics

Rosemary Mosco’s personal website

Dr. Micheal Shapiro’s fun online game “Pigeonetics”

Most of this episode is a talk given at the Decolonizing Thanksgiving Dinner (formally Anti-colonial Thanksgiving Dinner) on October 14th, 2018. I wanted to highlight this conversation on reconciliation when right now, RCMP forces are again actively invading indigenous territories across so-called Canada.

Since September 25th, the Gidimt’en Access Point has been holding new blockades and using a variety of tactics to keep Coastal GasLink workers and the RCMP off their territory. Specifically, they have been blocking access to a drill pad, without which CGL will be unable to drill under the Wedzin Kwa, or Morice River.

Gidimt’en clan members and supporters have established themselves on the site, which they have named Coyote Camp, building a log cabin complete with a wood stove to support a sustained defense of the camp.

The RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group has been present at the camp, carrying out daily reconnaissance, searching tents, emptying campers’ drinking water supply, and generally harassing the site’s inhabitants.

In the words of Sleydo’, spokesperson for Gidimt’en Checkpoint, “Our way of life is at risk. Wedzin Kwa [is the] river that feeds all of Wet’suwet’en territory and gives life to our nation.”

While this talk may not represent the values and ideas of the Gidimt’en Checkpoint, or the clan members, I think it highlights the fallacy of the Canadian states narrative of reconciliation while actively trying to remove indigenous land protectors from their ancestral territories.

To learn more check these out:

Yintah Access - website for the Gidimt’en Checkpoint

Gidimt’en Strong - Gofundme

What do we know about the RCMP’s resource extraction protection unit?

Before I pressed record I was pressing Matt with questions about fungal infections which affect Apples throughout the orchard. We wove between trees, ducking low branches looking for the perfect spot to record in. My hands were full with my audio recorder, my newly broken headphones, and apples I had gleaned from below a couple of nice old trees with well pruned branches, low canopies and open form, perfect for climbing in and grabbing the few remainders left on the trees. It took me a second to realize that this accessible form isn’t inherent in the trees but instead the invisible work of knowing hands and keen tools. My old friend beside me beneath the apple trees had been pruning these trees back into production over the past couple years but still he looked at them, not as someone proud of their accomplished work, but instead like a sculptor who stares into the stone scrying to see the shape that begs to emerge…

I sat down with an old friend, Matt Soltys, otherwise known as The Urban Orchardist, for a conversation about his work as an orchardist, and his business helping folks start growing their own.

We spoke about food sustainability, local food culture, how fruit trees help sequester carbon, build community and of course, give food.

The book we spoke about near the end of the conversation was Apples of North America - Exceptional Varieties for Gardeners, Growers, and Cooks by Tom Burford.

The seasons are changing and it’s getting a little more obvious everyday. I have been watching life turn over the past couple of weeks and it’s been lovely. I went out on Saturday, sat under a Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum), and watched the wind move through the grass.

I’d been feeling a sense of loss since the moment I realized I had forgotten to press record on my wonderful but now lost-forever interview with Olivia Messinger Carril and Joseph S. Wilson authors of the new book Common Bees of Eastern North America. It was a great one, but I messed up and now it’s gone.

This weeks show I try my best to share what I have been learning about in regards to my local landbase, as well as trying to remember some of the highlights from talking with Olivia and Joseph. It wasn’t the same, but it was ok. And the book is still just as good. I am grateful for that.

More info :

 Common Bees of Eastern North America

Bumble Bees (genus Bombus) are a diverse genus of Bees with 25 species in Ontario according to range maps, but more like 14-16 species you are more likely to encounter. It can be a confusing process not only trying to decipher the genus of a Bee, but especially down to the species. Now how about trying to i.d. a increasingly hard to find species? Its hard. Its harder still to try and help these bees get back into the mating game, supporting their regeneration and helping them help reinhabit the places where their populations were once more common.

Tiffani Harrison is the conservation outreach and field biologist with Wildlife Preservation Canada. She and her teams have been surveying various sites across Canada in search of Bumble Bees, to gather Queens for the breeding Bumble Bee Breeding lab in efforts to learn more about how to support declining species.

I myself am on a big kick to learn more about Bumble Bees and this interview with Tiffani Harrison was incredibly helpful in that regard. If you are interested in learning more about Bumble Bee ecologies, especially in the context of increasingly rare species, take a listen to the show.

For more information:

Wildlife Preservation Canada

In 1975, Hal H. Harrison wrote the Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds’ Nests. In 1979 he wrote the Western guide. I have my copy of Eastern Birds’ Nests on the primary bird shelf (there are two shelves) beside Bird Feathers by S. David Scott and Casey McFarland. Now, Casey McFarland, Matthew Monjello & David Moskowitz have come together to revamp the Peterson Field Guide to Bird Nests. In one (kinda thick) package they managed to fit descriptions of over 650 bird species along with beautiful high quality photos of many examples of the varied avian architectures discussed. This one has a small name change too:

Casey McFarland joined me for a great conversation on what it took to make the book happen. We discuss the legacy Hal H. Harrisons work and how his book inspired a lot of what Casey, Matt, and David wrote, but also they were determined to find new practices that weren’t as invasive in their search for beautiful shots of nests and eggs.  We spoke about varied bird ecologies and place-based, habitat considerations birds participate within to best protect and rear their young.

From bird nests, to the Cyber tracker evaluation process’, to an encounter with a Bobcat while searching out nests on the Rio Grande, Casey shares his passion for tracking the wild, and deepening his understanding of the world around him. all the while sharing that enthusiasm and curiosity with others through his work along the way.

Shout outs to Matt Monjello and David Moskowitz who could not be apart of the interview. I hope, someday in the near future, our paths will cross and I can ask them all about their projects, their joys and experiences in writing this great new book.

Additional information:

Peterson Field Guide to North American Bird Nests

Casey McFarland.net

David Moskowitz.net

An experimental demonstration that house finches add cigarette butts in response to ectoparasites