Little Forests Kingston

Saturday’s Agenda

• When: 10:00 am Saturday February 13

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

• Topics: 1) Sourcing trees: ideas & volunteers 2) Community synergies: who should we be connecting with 3) Ideas on how we build community around each Little Forest.

Sunday’s Forest Walk

If you’re interested in joining our first forest walk, we’ll be meeting Sunday February 14th at 2:00 pm at the Belle Island parking lot (across from the Legion).

Updates

• Joanne, Maureen, Nick, Sandra and I met with Nature Canada. Nature Canada is working to influence the 2 billion tree program to support initiatives such as ours. Lots of interest in Little Forests from across Ontario (and Canada). Erin is setting up a sharing/networking session.

• Maureen has been super busy grant writing. Davies Foundation. Community Foundation. Rotary Club. Invasive Species Council.

• Joanne, Kim, Maureen, Joanne met to plan the workshop series. On the land workshops once a month. Forest walks once a month. Topics to be announced. Series will only be open to people actively involved in the Little Forest communities we will be planting in the fall.

Notes from 30 January

Oliver Reichl, a professional consulting arborist, joined us on January 30th. Full notes from the meeting (he had a lot to share so take the time to read all the notes)

We’re in Ecozone 6E. Carolinian Forest is 7E. Some species we’ll be planting at Lakeside in the Edible/Carolinian Forest are 7E species (assisted migration).

Oliver mentioned the Johnson Su method of creating a fungally dominant compost (we should do this summer!) We’ll need to build this into a grant proposal. Anyone interested in building one of these composters?

Gather: Indigenous Food Sovereignty

On February 24 you can join a screening of the film Gather. Afterwards, during the discussion on Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Maureen will talk about Little Forests. Information on how to join.

Resources (from Oliver)

During our last gathering Oliver shared a wealth of his knowledge with us. Thank you so much!!! He also sent us these resources.

Resources on Oliver’s website (that he developed):

• Natural Heritage Review of the 1000 Islands:

• Species Lists for the 1000 Islands Region (will be great for when we do our bioblitz)

Resources Oliver shared are all stored in our Google Drive. In particular, look at:

• Ecological Land Classification for Southern Ontario 1998

• Ecosystems of Ontario Part 1 & 2

Follow Oliver on iNaturalist:

• Profile: https://inaturalist.ca/people/arborsphere

• Tree Issues: https://inaturalist.ca/lists/414162-Tree-Issues

• Kingston Project: https://inaturalist.ca/projects/natural-history-of-the-kingston-study-area

• 1000 Islands Project: https://inaturalist.ca/projects/biodiversity-of-the-thousand-islands

Resources to read:

• Ecological Land Classification (ELC) 101

• Ecosystems of Ontario Part 1: Ecozones and Ecoregions (deeper dive)

• The Ecosystems of Ontario, Part 2: Ecodistricts

• Presettlement Forest in Southern Ontario

• Differences between immature and mature ecosystems

• Wildlife Food Habits(I have a copy of this)

One of the many Miyawaki inspired forests being planted around the world, Tu’paxin is an inspirational and educational forest for the Yakama Community in the shape of a medicine wheel.