Little Forests Kingston

“Chi Miigwech aapji go! To all the people who put their loving intentions in the asemma and planted the baby oldest elders - a huge, big thanks. It is quite an accomplishment!” ~Maureen

Here is Maureen, on the land almost every day over the past few weeks, helping two students from Mother Teresa grade 7/8 plant the very last seedling at HWY 15… the last of our 1800 Little Forest seedlings to be planted!

Let’s gather over zoom on Sunday

We’ll talk about how the planting went. What was beautiful (so much!)? What could we improve on for next year? What’s next? Does anyone have any leads on additional Little Forest sites for 2022?

When: Sunday November 7 10:00 am

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81195507009?pwd=cHdyaVpFUVNrRmVBYmdnR1lWcVZrQT09

Planting the Wolfe Island Little Forest with the students from Marysville Public School.

At lunchtime at Lakeside we counted 47 people who’d come out to help plant, including this group of Girl Guides!

Clarke led a singalong at Lakeside. Laura played her Cello for the seedlings at HWY 15.

The Wolfe Island community hard at work.

Little Forests by Jim

The kids came they listened they saw they planted. 1800 seedlings and hundreds of students and a dozen toddlers alongside their elders made a great start to Kingston’s growing Little Forests movement.

Nary a cell phone in sight; lots of muddy hands and big smiles carried the day.

They learned about the invisible underground threads of the mycelium network vital to the health of trees. They understand that its this hidden network that supports and sustains the trees to become a community we call, forest. they began to know; it is only our invisible connections with each other that can nourish us and our community as well.

Can this knowing be the sprouting of their own wisdom. Wisdom of being and becoming.

Little peopledirty handsbig smiles.There is something incredible working with the soil.Hand, togetherkneading the soil,needing that connection.The heart, mind connectionsoul deepBeyondEmily’s tradeencroaching upon a sacrament.BeyondRumi’s ideas,language.We land, We are home, land, home, landMother,Earth.

Jim Brown is a tree lover who, along with Joan, were on the land almost every day to plant or coach the children who came to plant. Here are the poems by Emily Dickinson & Rumi he refers to.

Little Tree Day by Jason

I declare todayand each day afterto be little tree dayfrom this moment onI promise to onlywrite poemsabout little treesI promise to dowhatever a bird tells me toand when someone asks mea question I will answer themby rustling a handful of leavesbecause like the wind my voiceis a guest who has travelleda great distance, and is onlypassing through, unableto stay.

Jason Heroux is Kingston’s Poet Laureate. He wrote this poem the morning of the Lakeside planting and then quietly read the poem to a tree (no people heard).

Conservation Partner award

Nature Canada gives Little Forests Kingston a conservation partner award. From Nature Canada’s press release:

“Little Forests Kingston can only be described as a powerhouse! Since 2020, they have been on a mission to restore nature by planting Little Forests. This year, this group came up with the radical plan to plant 3 Little Forests within an incredibly short timeline. In the last few months and with an incredibly diverse community of support behind them, they have raised around $19,000. They’ve realized their 2021 goals and have big plans for 2022! We love that nothing stops this group. They are not only working to restore the land itself, they are doing it in the community while working to decolonize the land, restore our relationship with the land, and bring Indigenous language back to it.”

MiniBigForests in Bordeaux

So far have planted 11 at schools, 9 in communities, and a few more. Here is a video about MiniBigKeepers at one of the forests (MiniBigKeepers are the people who steward the forests for the first three years). In French.