Namebine Giizis (Sucker Moon) by Frank Polson/Mishkiki

“The fourth moon of Creation is Sucker Moon, when sucker goes to the Spirit World in order to receive cleansing techniques for this world.  When it returns to this realm, it purifies a path for the Spirits and cleanses all our water beings. During this time we can learn to become healed healers.”

An ode to Planet Earth

On Saturday, April 20 Cantabile Kingston's Children's Choirs lifted their voices in an ode to Planet Earth: the beauty of our home, its many inhabitants and its precious gifts. After the concert, Little Forest Kingston volunteers Claire Seybold, Joanna Cooke, and Nathan Nesdoly were joined by over 500 concert-goers who participated in a learning and information fair. Other community partners who attended included Sustainable Kingston, Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre, Turtles Kingston, Marine Museum of the Great Lakes, Elbow Lake Environmental Education Centre, and the Thousand Islands Watershed Land Trust. We engaged young and old in crafts, learning activities, and discussions of our various initiatives. 

The most popular activity was twisting together pipe cleaners to represent the vascular and branching structure of trees. Notice how these structures are mirrored in the drawing of a Bur Oak done by one of the participants.

People also celebrated Earth Day on a blustery and slightly threatening afternoon at Skeleton Park. King’s Town Climate Champions & little foresters Bob Macinnes and Josh Cowan were on hand encouraging people to plant pocket forests. Josh reports that “It’s wonderful to meet so many people interested in creating patches of biodiversity and habitat where now there might only be lawns or stones. With so many people signing up for a pocket forest consultation I knew that it was a good day!”

Gifting pocket forests to the Earth

“The premise of Earth asking something of me—of me!—makes my heart swell. I celebrate the implicit recognition of the Earth’s animacy, that the living planet has the capacity to ask something of us and that we have the capacity to respond. We are not passive recipients of her gifts, but active participants in her well-being. We are honored by the request. It lets us know that we belong.”Robin Wall Kimmerer

In our gratitude for the gifts of the Earth, we are reciprocating by gifting Pocket Forests to the Earth.  

Pocket forests are songs, poems, love letters to the land. They’re gifts to our non-human kin (the Birds, the Insects, the four-legged, and more). Gifts to future generations. And gifts to you.

Our vision? Grow a biodiverse, equitable (for all species) City in Forest! The City of Kingston is partnering with us to help us reach our goal of planting of 50 pocket forests on privately owned lands in 2024. Pocket forests can vary in size from 6 to 45 trees and shrubs, depending on your site.

Together, like this group of amazing people from the Balsam Grove neighbourhood organizing to plant pocket forests and rewild their lawns, we can weave the web of reciprocity needed to help Kingston grow into a flourishing, beautiful, equitable, City in a Forest. Check out our website to learn more:

• Pocket forests are gifts to the Earth

• Pocket forest kits

• Designing a pocket forest

• Preparing for and planting a pocket forest 

• Caring for your pocket forest

Interested in planting a pocket forest (or helping us plant pocket forests across the city)? Email [email protected]

Rodden Park community garden & little forest

A community is forming around Rodden Park. We’ll be working with the neighbourhood to envision possibilities (initial ideas include a little forest, food forest, Pawpaw patch, and vegetable plots). Green areas in the map above are set aside for recreational uses (children's play area adjacent to Byron Crescent and winter sledding on the hill in front of the heritage residences and greenhouse). Striped blue areas are potential planting sites. The Rodden Park community garden offers an opportunity to:

• Respond to local food security challenges with access to fresh food for the gardeners and for donation, including vegetables and fruit desired for international cuisine not readily available from local suppliers

• Foster community building, inclusivity and welcoming newcomers to Kingston and Canada

• Foster physical, mental, social and spiritual health and wellbeing

• Respond to climate change concerns with attention to pollinators, native species, tree canopy and biodiversity

• Provide meaningful activity and engagement to inspire hope, adaptability and resilience. 

Interested in getting involved with Rodden Park? Email Josh: [email protected]

Bagot Street Little Forest

We’ve been working with a wonderful group of people at 205 Bagot Street (a project we’re doing in collaboration with Kingston Frontenac Housing Corporation). Take a peek through the window in the picture above and you can see the courtyard that backs onto the downtown branch of the public library. When they built the retaining wall of the library a few years ago, the existing trees at the site were cut down. Now it’s a bare patch of turfgrass that bakes in the heat.

While the space is small, it’s still more than enough for a 100m2 Little Forest! Here’s the initial design for the little forest, based on a sketch done by one of the residents. In the next couple of weeks we’ll be preparing the forest floor by covering the area with compost and woodchips. If you’re interested in helping with this little forest, email Nathan at [email protected]

In the news

Green Communities Canada, who generously funded our 2023 Little Forests plantings at the Senior’s Centre, published this article highlighting the planting. Nathan Nesdoly, Site Champion for the Portsmouth Little Forests (picture above with Don Amos, Wendy Stephen and Roberta).

Joyce talked about little forests and pocket forests on Limestone Lens.

Creating relational webs for bringing healing

Jennifer Grenz, in her fabulous new book Medicine Wheel for the Planet, talks about webwork:

“Webwork is a verb (or what I like to call an Indigenized noun) which describes relations being guided by the process of creating relational webs and weaving them together for the purpose of bringing healing. Each webwork process guides those coming together in circle who are linked by their shared values and intentions to create a path forward toward a desired balance.” 

Some ways for practicing webwork are shared in Our Gift - Our Indigenous Pedagogy by the Indigenous STEAM Collaborative. They suggest asking ourselves:

“How might climate change bring about new sets of relations for our food, plant, bird and water relatives? Because plants have always been our first teachers, it makes sense to look to them when thinking about our futures. Consider how plant relatives support other plant and animal communities. What do plants teach us about how to be in relation with other communities?”

STEAM Collaborative gifts a series of plant activities, water activities, and bird activities to help us:

• Strengthen our relations with plant, water, and bird relatives and gain a deeper understanding of the web of relations around us

• Think deeply about the roles we have in this place and how they are interdependent with the roles of other living beings

• Reflect on what responsibilities we have to plant, water, and bird relatives and the place we’re in

“Cycles of gift giving and receiving are present throughout the natural world. What gifts do you have to offer plants? What gifts do they have to offer you and other animals?”