treehugger podcast

The United Nations has named the years 2021-2030 as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which seeks to scale up efforts to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. For more information, mosey on over to decadeonrestoration.org.

The coordinator of this Decade is Tim Christophersen from the United Nations Environment Program. His focus is on cultivating grassroots support, political will and economic investment to support this grand effort. This is just the beginning of this story about the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. It hasn't even gotten started yet.

Explore coral restoration in our shallow seas with my guest Sabine Bailey. Her organization, the Coral Restoration Foundation, is the largest group in the world focused on coral restoration, building reef resilience while cultivating healthy oceans for the future.

We all may understand the importance of coral as an ecosystem, providing nearshore protection and sustaining livelihoods. However, so many of us aren't familiar with anything related to their restoration. This episode introduces restoration technology as an important component of reef conservation.

Find out more about coral reef restoration and the Coral Restoration Foundation by heading to coralrestoration.org. Also keep up with the restoration action on Facebook and Instagram.

"The medicine you need is the medicine you have to offer" is what she asserts. Eco-spiritual guide, author, and nature-based designer is who she is. On this Winter Solstice episode, Julia Plevin joins me to discuss the intricacies of forest bathing. It can be a solitary practice or one to share in community. She even started a Forest Bathing Club. Julia breaks it way down about how the forest guides us (if we listen), and in return, how we can give back to the planet.

You can find her website at juliaplevin.com and join the Forest Bathing Club by visiting www.forestbathing.club and on Instagram.

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are a global phenomenon and have been called the "living skin of the earth" and one can find them on every single continent. Ecology PhD student Brianne Palmer joins treehugger podcast to discuss how this complex and beautiful suite of diverse organisms live in direct contact with the soil surface – yet are distinct from the soil below the crust. Brianne's research is focused on understanding how biocrusts recover after fire, how they interact with other plants, and their potential uses for dryland restoration.

You can follow Brianne on her website at briannepalmer.weebly.com/ and Twitter at @briecology

Dr. Kathy Wolf is a social scientist and professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. She investigates people's perceptions of and behaviors in nearby nature. Together, we explore the social dimensions of urban greenspaces and restoration.

On this inaugural episode, Jacob Mills discusses Microbiome Rewilding - the use of urban biodiversity to restore the human exposure of microbes to a more native, healthier state.

In this first installment of the treehugger podcast, creator and host Michael Yadrick introduces the show to the world.