Little Forests Kingston

Thanks for helping spread the word about our gofundme! We’ve already raised $2400 of our $15000 goal. Keep sharing it through any social channels you use (Facebook, Instagram, NextDoor, Twitter…).

Next Meeting: Saturday 27 February

When: 10:00 am Saturday February 27

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

Topics:

1. Banking & donations: just a quick check-in to make sure everyone is ok with opening an eBusiness Account & our Letter of Direction.

2. Slowing down for a conversation: we’ve been moving so fast to get ready to order this spring & to get some grants proposals in. Let’s step back & talk about how we’re feeling, why we believe this is important and how to build community.

3. Sourcing trees, propagation, free seedlings.

Updates

• Species Spreadsheet: Tracey (a Master Gardener who’s also a spreadsheet wizard) has made us the most beautiful spreadsheet. Each site has its own page, but a Order page pulls in the information from each tab into a single sheet to make it easy to work with suppliers. And once we have pricing, this will feed back into the individual pages so each site has its total. At the top, you can also see whether we’re within range of the recommended layers and red highlights when we’re too far out of range. Tracy is continuing to work on it, creating a single master species list categorized by the forest types. If you have any suggestions to improve, she’d love to hear them as we want to make this available to anyone wanting to plant their own Little Forest.

• Sourcing: Teresa submitted our spreadsheet to Verbinnen’s. Here’s their initial quote. Looks like there are quite a few species they’re unable to supply. Teresa’s asked them to include species they may have that aren’t plugs that may be more costly. We’ll have to continue to look to source other species or find substitutes.

• banking: Joyce & Maureen are in process of opening an account at BMO. The one we’ve chosen is the eBusiness Plan. No fees. No minimums. eTransfers. Unlimited transactions. Only cost is if we want to order cheques (would be around $75) or have an in-person transaction with a teller. Other account we considered was the Community Plan which comes with free cheque, but that plan has a fee after 5 transactions in a month. Review the Letter of Direction and let us know if you have any suggestions or concerns.

• Champlain Park KSS: Joanne, Karen, Namira and I met with Lacricia Turner, Director of Recreation and Leisure Services and some of her staff. Mostly positive news, but the process may take the summer to work through. The site the City proposed is at the north end of the park, which would require creating a berm. Joanne can give more of an update at our meeting.

• Maureen at Gather panel: Maureen talked about Little Forests at the panel following the screening of Gather. Her presentation was powerful and once the recording is posted, I’ll share. If you didn’t get a chance to watch the film, it’s available to watch until the end of March.

• can-plant.ca: Teresa just discovered this group (a spinoff from Evergreen). On February 8th they posted about Miyawaki inspired forests and are looking to connect with anyone in Canada planting them.

• Buying through Conservation Areas: Heard back from Rick at CCRA. They are willing to add us onto bulk orders in future years (bare root, minimum 500 seedlings). Lower Trent Conservation sale sells smaller quantities and is taking spring orders now. They’re going to offer Homeowner Little Forest Kits next year.

Action items from last week

• Done. Teresa & Joyce submit spread sheet wholesaler for estimate & Invoice with site amounts broken out separately;

• Done. Teresa open an account with wholesaler with a person accountable for it (Maureen, Joyce, Teresa R as the contacts);

• TBD. Joyce follow up with Master Gardener re Little Forest as a 'sponsored' project of 1000 Master Gardener

• Done. Joanne will follow up re KSS site question

• Done. Maureen and Joyce open account of BMO

Inspiration

Akira Miyawaki is still planting trees with children. He’s now planting forests along the Japanese coast to protect against future tsunamis.