Little Forests is going mycelial - Mkwa-giizis (Bear Moon) - 05 February 2023

We’ll publish the newsletter every full moon. In Ojibwe, February’s full moon is Mkwa Giizis (Bear Moon). In Mohawk, she is Enníska (late).

”The second moon of Creation is Bear Moon, when we honour the vision quest that began in the fall. During this time, we discover how to see beyond reality and to communicate through energy rather than sound. This moon also gives us a special teaching about the birth of bear cubs.”

The thirteen moons handout by the Ontario Native Literary Coalition is a helpful guide for learning the names (and pronunciation) for each of the moons.

News, events, announcements

Mashkigwaatig by Maureen Buchanan. The Mitigwaakiins at 1467 HWY 15 includes a lowland forest that is wet spring and fall. In the spring giziibwewed can be heard, and lots of bineshiinyag are seen in the hedgerow that runs in that area. It's tricky though, because this lowland area also dries through the summer, so mitigook who will likely do well there also don’t mind drier soil some of the time. Read more.

Senior’s Centre Little Forest: We’ll be planting three Little Forests (Bird Forest, Walking Forest, and Great Lakes Forest) and a Food Forest at the Senior’s Centre on Francis Street. The working group is full steam ahead! We kicked off the design process in October with a three-part workshop series. In January, the working group started working on detailed design for the site and species selections for the forests. Check out the photo album (including videos). If you’re interested in joining the working group, email [email protected].

Why forests matter: We have a video blog on our website! If you’d like to record a short video (one minute or less) we’d love to add it to our Youtube channel and feature it in Why forests matter.

Youth Climate Action Summit by Joanne Whitfield. I've never heard anyone talk about Nature like this before" said one of the high school delegates to Joyce and I after we finished our keynote at the third annual Youth Climate Action Summit organized by the Frontenac Arch Biosphere. On November 22, 2022 we joined students from all over Southern Ontario at the Brockville Aquatarium, some in person, some online, to give our talk titled, It's All About Relationships: Little Forests and Local Action. Read more.

Little Forests is going mycelial

As of February 1st, Little Forests Kingston is one year old! We’ve been working on our organizational structure in preparation for our first AGM in March. We’ve been exploring what it might mean to have a nodal structure. Here are the emerging nodes.

Forest Wrangler Node: The Forest Wranglers are responsible for the ins and outs of planting little forests: from site analysis and design all the way to stewarding forests after planting so that they thrive into the future, and everything in between:

• Understand site conditions

• Develop species lists suited to site conditions

• Plan for healthy soil

• Develop best practices around planting and maintenance

• Procure trees and supplies

• Work with other Little Forest nodes to organize planting day logistics

Many of us are new to this work and have much to learn, so a key focus of our group this coming year is building up our knowledge around planting little forests as well as developing procedures that will allow us to stay organized and effective.Key to Forest Wrangling is collaboration with site communities. Our aim is to involve communities in a way that they feel supported and engaged so that the process for all involved is fun, educational, rewarding, and leads to healthy forests in communities inspired to love and care for them!If you’re interested in joining our group or learning about how you can get involved, please contact [email protected].

Outreach Node: To grow Kingston into a City in a Forest, we need to find land on which to plant, volunteers keen on helping plant and steward the forests, and funding. Broadly, our scope includes:

• Finding land (sites) for planting

• Finding volunteers (and helping them find a place within LFK)

• Finding funding (we hope to split this into its own node)

• Advocacy (breathing the spirit of change into people)

• Growing partnerships

If you’re interested in helping with outreach, email [email protected].

K-12 Education Node: At the Little Forest plantings at the Indigenous Food Sovereignty site on Hwy 15, Maureen Buchanan observed that “the trees are medicine for the children and the children are medicine for the trees.” Indeed, the forming of healthy relationships between children and trees holds out hope for a better future for all of us and is central to our mission. Our scope includes:

• Connecting LFK’s efforts to the Ontario curriculum, meeting biweekly to create lessons and resources

• Working towards every school having a Little Forest—a place where land-based education becomes the norm—at their school or only a short walk away .

• Offering local teachers ways of connecting with the Little Forests that help children and youth understand their role as crucial members of the ecosystems in which they live.

We know that this kind of education and time spent amongst trees will strengthen the mental health of all but especially the young people who are inheriting a world that needs their love and care more than ever. If this kind of work interests you, please reach out to Joanne at [email protected].

The Forming Tree by Craig Holdrege. What if, instead of looking at trees through the lens of competition and cooperation, we thought about them in terms of relationships?

"Directing our gaze toward the form of trees leads us beyond the tree itself. It leads us to a web of relations of which the tree is part. Once you begin to see in such an organic form the tracks of its history and its relations to its surroundings, every meeting with a new tree is a source of excitement, a riddle waiting to be appreciated and deciphered….

…Charles Darwin writes, ‘A plant which annually produces a thousand seeds, of which on average only one comes to maturity, may be more truly said to struggle with the plants of the same and other kinds which already clothe the ground.’

If Darwin hadn’t been guided only by the metaphor of competition, he might just as well have emphasized that many seeds and seedlings provide nourishment for birds, soil nematodes, slugs, woodchucks and other creatures. The species does not exist merely ‘in and of itself;’ it is part of a larger whole.” Read more.

Influence Kingston’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan

When asked to imagine the future, youth in Kingston and around the world dream of dense, green, beautiful, biodiverse, sustainable cities. To move towards this vision, we’re asking the new City Councillors to advocate for a Green Strategy in the 2023-2026 Strategic Plan.

Advocate for the trees! The Outreach node drafted an email you can use in whole or in part to influence Kingston’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan.

• Email your Councillor

• Get creative in your email with a story opener 

• Ask your Councillor for a meeting

If you’re interested in helping advocate for the trees, email [email protected].

Mitigoog Gichi-onigamiing Mazina’igan

Trees of the western Lake Superior shore and their names in Ojibwe with audio (note that these names use a regional dialect that differs from the dialect in our area). Produced by the Miskawaa anang, Erik Martin Redix, the Ojibwe Language and Environmental Education Coordinator for Gichi-onigamiing, the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to help community members and neighbours learn and use the Ojibwe names.