Rights of Nature - Miini-giizis (Berry Moon) - 3 July 2023

Happy Miini-giizis (Berry Moon). Artwork: Baashkaabigonii-giizis (Blooming Moon) Dancer by Leana Asher.

Happenings

KFHC Little Forest on Van Order Drive: We are meeting this month with the Board of Directors of the condo who expressed concern about planting a Little Forest at 111 Van Order Drive. Hopefully we can alleviate their concerns and get the go ahead for planting the Little Forest in 2024. Residents are super excited by the idea of a Little Forest. In the meantime Nathan, Josh and Joanne met with residents and discussed the idea of a butterfly garden.  

Senior’s Centre Little Forests waiting on City contract: Current contract states that the City can terminate their agreement with us at any time “without giving cause or reason” (5.2) and, in such an instance, we would be required to “restore the Lands as close as reasonably possible and appropriate to the condition of the Lands immediately prior to the execution of this agreement.” (4.4) If we failed to do this they would charge us to have the work done. (4.4.1). We are challenging this requirement as we don’t want to have a contract that requires us to cut down a Little Forest. If you haven’t yet filled out the Community Gardens Survey, please do so. JRK Community Garden working group put together these suggestions for how to improve the policy that you can use in your survey response. Something I’d particularly love to see is a contract written plain language and not legalese.

Skeleton Park Arts Fest: On May 26 a crew of Little Foresters set up a display at the Skeleton Park Arts Fest, highlighting Pocket Forests. “While arranging trees and shrubs to represent both Keystone and Wet space Pocket Forests as part of our display, Nathan and I wondered how many people would stop by and when the rain would stop. Like Ilia Underwing caterpillars to a White Oak, the people came, intrigued by our baby trees and our message of hope and action. In fact, so many people dropped by that it often took three or more of us to share the great work that LFK is doing. Under clearing skies, we spoke with many, perhaps 75 or more people.” Read Josh’s full article.

Grenville Park Little Forest: The collaboration between Grenville Park and Madeleine-de-Roybon Elementary School is a wonderful example of how students, teachers, a principal, parents and residents in a community can work together to integrate sustainability not only in the domain of teaching and learning, but in community partnerships as well. Read more about this amazing partnership in Susie’s blog post. Support their ambitious goal of planting 3000 trees and shrubs by donating on GoFundMe.  

Legal Rights of Nature

by Robert Macleod

The rights of Land is a topic that is close to our hearts, and one that is inseparable from the fight against climate change and the biodiversity crisis. But it’s also a topic that’s difficult to understand, and certainly not one that will fit into a single newsletter article. So let’s start our journey to deepening our understanding by talking about the legal rights of Nature.

Giving legal rights to Nature is an interesting intersection between the emotional and spiritual reality of ecological justice and the rigid structure of modern day society. How does it work? There are many different ways in which governments across the world have encoded these rights, but for now let’s talk about the legal personhood of ecosystems: a forest, river, or other natural being is granted legal rights.

A legal person has a set of rights established by law. Infringement on these rights are a violation of the law, and that means that judges have the ability to rule based on them. A river, for example, might have the right to flow freely, so if someone were to build a dam on the river, while it can’t go to court itself, a group of human stewards can do this on its behalf.

This may sound like a crazy idea, but, in fact, it’s a reality, and there are several precedents to boot: The Atrato river in Colombia, Whanganui and Te Urewera in New Zealand, and in Canada, Mutehekau-shipu, a river in Quebec also known as the Magpie river, had its rights recognised in February 2021. It’s an example that will hopefully change the conversation on Land rights across Canada in the coming years. There are 9 specific rights recognised for Mutehekau-shipu:

• To live, to exist, and to flow

• To respect for its natural cycles

• To evolve naturally, to be preserved and protected

• To maintain its natural biodiversity

• To maintain its integrity

• To perform essential functions within its ecosystems

• To be free from pollution

• To regeneration and restoration

• To take legal action

I highly recommend this article from Canadian Geographic if you are interested in learning more about Mutehekau-shipu and a few other examples of Nature rights.

How to read a tree

“Do two trees ever appear identical? No, but why? Every small difference is a clue…

Trees are keen to tell us so much. They’ll tell us about the land, the water, the people, the animals, the weather, and time. And they will tell us about their lives, the good bits and bad. Trees tell a story, but only to those who know how to read it… Like snowflakes, no two trees are exactly the same. Every difference reveals the epic story this tree has lived—if we stop to look closely.”

Here’s one example from the book. Did you know there are three ways trees can be a compass?