Oak Wilt - Manoominike-giizis (Ricing Moon) - 30 August 2023

Happy Manoominike-giizis (Ricing Moon). Winona Laduke, a writer, speaker, activist focusing on Indigenous rights, shares the story of manoomin in yes magazine:

“One evening Nanaboozhoo returned from hunting, but he had no game. … As he came towards his fire, there was a duck sitting on the edge of his kettle of boiling water. After the duck flew away, Nanaboozhoo looked into the kettle and found wild rice floating upon the water, but he did not know what it was. He ate his supper from the kettle, and it was the best soup he had ever tasted. Later, he followed in the direction the duck had taken and came to a lake full of manoomin. He saw all kinds of duck and geese and mudhens, and all the other water birds eating the grain. After that, when Nanaboozhoo did not kill a deer, he knew where to find food to eat.”

In her article, Laduke explores the contrast between manoomin and  ‘domesticated’ wild rice and issues of biodiversity, culture and globalization.

“Far away in California, a combine is harvesting paddy-grown wild rice, and consumers are eating a very different food. The Anishinaabeg would not trade for the rice or the combine. In the end, our rice tastes like a lake. And that taste cannot be replicated.”

Read more at yesmagazine.org.

We need safety foresters

Are you trained in first aid (or interested in being trained in first aid)? Are you interested in helping out at Little Forest plantings by keeping an eye out for injuries, reminding people to take breaks and hydrate and watching for unsafe behaviours?

Read Chloe’s draft health & safety plan. If you’re interested in being a safety forester or have questions, email [email protected]

Happenings

Little Forests: A movement to support ecosystems and enchant communities across Canada: An upcoming Bee City Canada webinar will shine a spotlight on the national movement to create Little Forests! Little Forests - also known as mini forests - are native tree and shrub communities planted tightly together based on the Miyawaki method. These forests provide critical green space in urban and suburban environments, reduce air pollution and urban heat island effects, and increase biodiversity.

12:30 EST on Thursday, September 28th, 2023

More information and registration.

Tree related webinars from vineland: 

• Tree species selection for future climates 

• Identifying the effective soil volume for urban sites

 Portsmouth Little Forests 

Nathan has been working with a wonderful band of little foresters who, over the past month, have been preparing the forest floor for the Portsmouth (formerly Senior’s Centre) Little Forests. Here Rudi is finishing clearing the area for the Bird Forest of invasive species.

Two truckloads of compost made from leaf & yard waste were layered over all three forest locations.

Finally, woodchips are being layered on top of the compost.

We hit one roadblock during the forest floor prep. George diCenzo, Professor of Systems Biology at Queen’s University, took soil cores from the three little forest locations. Notice the difference between the two cores in the above photo? The area nearest the Senior’s Centre where the Great Lakes Mixed Little Forest is being planted has a thick gravel layer. George found evidence of a perched water table, with dryness below, which means these layers will impede water movement (good video demonstrating this at the 16 min mark).  

Astrid recommended, based on MTO research on highway plantings, that we prep the top metre of this area with a large vertical ripper blade. We’ve found a contractor and now waiting on city approval.

Interested in helping with the Portsmouth Little Forests? Contact Nathan: [email protected] or (343) 363-0492.

Pocket forest & food forest guild planted at KFHC

The KFHC residences at 1130 Montreal Street are now home to a brand new Pocket Forest and a Food Forest guild, planted during the 1000 Islands Master Gardeners Biodiverse Garden weekend.

Above are Astrid & Joanne helping two young workshop participants plant one of the trees in the Keystone Pocket Forest. Keystone Pocket Forests provide critical food and shelter for birds and lepidoptera. The Pocket Forest includes 12 trees and shrubs: 1 White Oak (Quercus alba), 1 Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa), 1 Wild Black Cherry (Prunus serotina), 1 Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum), 1 Wild Plum (Prunus americana), 2 Wild Crapapple (Malus coronaria), 2 Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius), 1 Smooth Rose (Rosa blanda) and 1 Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus).

In the foreground is the Food Forest guild, centred around an Antonovka Apple. We’ll share more details on how to design and plant Food Forest guilds in our next newsletter.

Birds are nesting in the forests

Anyone know who’s nest this might be? It’s in the Lakeside Little Forest. We also found song sparrow nests at both Lakeside and HWY 15 Little Forests. It’s so wonderful to see the wildlife already making a home in the little forests!  

Oak wilt has arrived in Ontario

“Oaks are no ordinary trees. They're our most important keystone trees, supporting more species - 436 - of Lepidoptera (caterpillars, moths, and butterflies) than any other genera. By supporting all of these insects, the mighty oak thereby supports the biodiversity of the entire food web.

Unfortunately Oak Wilt, a deadly disease affecting all species of oak, has arrived in Ontario. But while the threat of oak wilt is serious, there are still many things we can do to protect our oaks.”

To learn more about Oak Wilt, read Robert’s full article on our website.

Unfamiliar with oaks? This graphic from Trees for Toronto will help you identify different species of oaks based on their leaf shape.

Learn to identify tree species

“A tree is a sum of its parts... each species can be distinguished by a unique combination of features. These include: leaf shape and arrangement, flower and fruit type, and characteristics of the bark, twigs, and buds. As the seasons change, different features of a tree become prominent.”

ROM just published A Field Guide to Trees of Ontario. “From the cherry blossoms ushering in spring to the maple leaves changing colours for fall, our local trees are beloved markers for the changing seasons. This spring celebrates the launch of A Field Guide to Trees of Ontario, a new book that is a portal to the hundreds of trees species found in Ontario, published by the Royal Ontario Museum.”

Also useful are Tree Species Pages, a series of interactive web pages about Toronto trees with a deep dive on each species. The project grew out of the Trees for Toronto project, a collaboration between the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and City of Toronto Urban Forestry.