4,000 hectares of McLeod Lake Indian Band pristine forest were destroyed by a spruce beetle infestation. Their treaty land is sacred to them and taking steps to rehabilitate the forest is a top priority. LPT is assisting the Band to identify potential tree planting sponsors to participate in the planting of 1,600 seedlings per hectare. Tree planting at scale is an expensive proposition and collaboration with governments, silviculture companies and individuals is necessary to implement a successful program. What LPT is able to do is provide potential sponsors with accurate and timely information on where their dollars are spent. Companies such as Home Depot Canada or Pacific Western Brewing Co. are subject to regulatory disclosure requirements. They need to know exactly where, when and how many trees were planted and be provided with independent verification that the trees were healthy, properly spaced and properly planted. LPT ensures all that information is provided as part of a complete package of project deliverables.

The LPT website at www.letsplanttrees.ca is a great place to get an idea of the size of the project and the impact it will have on the local environment, economy and in supporting the McLeod Lake people for generations to come. The spruce and pine trees we are planting will live for nearly 200 years. In addition to carbon sequestration they will restore wildlife habitat, provide leisure and tourist opportunities and supply the Band with traditional food and medicine.

While we are planting millions of trees the fact of the matter is that every tree counts. Individuals want to be able to participate in nature-based solutions to fight climate change and this project allows for someone to take immediate action. Whether it’s a classroom involved in an environmental project or an ex-tree planter wanting to help, this initiative allows for everyone to join in. The web page acts as a project description and funding portal. The project has been supported by the World Economic Forum, Canada’s 2 billion tree program, Tree Canada and Trees for Life as well as kids, teachers and grandparents. Climate change is a relentless force of nature with wildfires becoming ever more severe and pest infestations more frequent. LPT is just getting started and is continually looking for individual support, corporate partnerships and accessible tree planting locations.

LPT is in discussions with other First Nations to bring the LPT tree planting model to them. Mr. Tonken explains, “If we can get people to privately support tree planting then government and corporate dollars can go even further to get more trees in the ground. Our role is to see Canadian trees planted which not only supports our First Nations but supports Canadian tree nursery jobs, tree planters, camp cooks, hotels and environmental and silviculture consulting companies. It’s a win, win, win, for everyone involved.” LPT is hoping the upcoming Earth Day will see individuals plant trees on the McLeod Lake Indian Band treaty lands by sponsoring trees through the project website.

Photo Credit

Photo courtesy of the author

Guest Author Bio
David Tonken

David Tonken is a serial tree planter and eco-entrepreneur. He is leveraging his network of professionals in the Canadian public markets to plant as many trees as possible as soon as possible.

Website: Let’s Plant Trees

By Colin Beavan

Together with his family, Colin Beavan—aka No Impact Man—spent a year trying to live in the middle of New York City without having a negative impact on the environment. One of his first challenges: getting through everyday life without producing trash. Below are some of his favorite tips and tricks.

1. No soda in cans (which means we’re probably less likely to get cancer from aspartame).
2. No water in plastic bottles (which means we get to keep our endocrines undisrupted).
3. No coffee in disposable cups (which means we don’t suffer from the morning sluggishness that comes from overnight caffeine withdrawal).
4. No throwaway plastic razors and blade cartridges (I’m staging the straightedge razor comeback).
5. Using non-disposable feminine-hygiene products that aren’t bad for women and are good for the planet.
6. No Indian food in throwaway takeout tubs.
7. No Italian food in plastic throwaway tubs.
8. No Chinese food in plastic throwaway tubs.
9. Taking our own reusable containers to takeout joints (except that now we’re eating local so this tip is out for us).
10. Admitting that we sometimes miss Indian, Italian and Chinese takeout.
11. Hopping on the scale and celebrating the loss of my 20-pound spare tire since I stopped eating bucketsful of Indian, Italian and Chinese takeout.
12. Buying milk in returnable, reusable glass bottles.
13. Shopping for honey and pickled veggies and other goods in jars only from merchants who will take back the jars and reuse them.
14. Returning egg and berry cartons to the vendors at the farmers’ market for reuse.
15. Using neither paper nor plastic bags and bringing our own reusable bags when grocery shopping.
16. Canceling our magazine and newspaper subscriptions and reading online (you can still make a donation to support the media organizations you value).
17. Putting an end to the junk mail tree killing.
18. Carrying my ultra-cool reusable cup and water bottle (which is a glass jar I diverted from the landfill and got for free).
19. Carrying reusable cloths for everything from blowing my nose to drying my hands to wrapping up a purchased bagel.
20. Wiping my hands on my pants instead of using a paper towel when I forget my cloth.
21. Politely asking restaurant servers to take away paper and plastic napkins, placemats, straws, cups and single-serving containers.
22. Explaining to servers with a big smile that I am on a make-no-garbage kick.
23. Leaving servers a big tip for dealing with my obsessive-compulsive, make-no-garbage nonsense, since they can’t take the big smile to the bank.
24. Pretending McDonalds and Burger King and all their paper and plastic wrappers just don’t exist.
25. Buying no candy bars, gum, lollypops or ice cream (not even Ben and Jerry’s peanut butter cup) that is individually packaged.
26. Making my own household cleaners to avoid all the throwaway plastic bottles.
27. Using baking soda from a recyclable container to brush my teeth.
28. Using baking soda for a deodorant to avoid the plastic containers that deodorant typically comes in (cheap and works well).
29. Using baking soda for shampoo to avoid plastic shampoo bottles.
30. Using the plastic bags that other people’s newspapers are delivered in to pick up Frankie the dog’s poop.
31. Keeping a worm bin to compost our food scraps into nourishment that can be returned to the earth instead of toxins that seep from the landfills.
32. Switching to real—meaning cloth—diapers which Isabella, before she was potty-trained, liked much better.
33. Not buying anything disposable.
34. Not buying anything in packaging (and count the money we save because that means pretty much buy nothing unless it’s second hand).
35. Shopping for food only from the bulk bins and from the local farmer’s market where food is unpackaged and fresh.
36. Forgetting about prepackaged, processed food of any description.
37. Being happy that the result is that we get to eat food instead of chemicals.
38. Giving our second-hand clothes away to Housing Works or other charities.
39. Offering products we no longer need on Freecycle instead of throwing them away.
40. Collecting used paper from other people’s trash and using the other side.
41. Using old clothes for rags around the apartment instead of paper towels.
42. Talking with humor about what we’re doing because making a little less trash is a concrete first step everyone can take that leads to more and more environmental consciousness.

Colin Beavan adapted this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions for a just and sustainable world. Colin is founder of the No Impact Project. The paperback edition of his book No Impact Man was published in 2010 by Picador.

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YES! Magazine encourages you to make free use of this article by taking these easy steps.

Beavan, C. (2011, March 30). 42 Ways to Not Make Trash. Retrieved April 22, 2011, from YES! Magazine Web site: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/42-ways-to-not-make-trash. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License

I have always believed that good things come to those who wait. Through all the obstacles and challenges in my life, I can genuinely say that at this moment in time I am reaping the rewards.

I have worked at Earth Day Canada for six years now. The office size and pace of work suits me well for the kind of person that I am. I am proud and passionate of my job, and family and friends see me as a role model. I am also a new father of a baby girl who I love dearly. I did all of this with life-long physical challenges — hearing loss and mild cerebral palsy which affects my speech.

My physical challenges resulted from my birth, as I was late arriving and my mother was placed on Pitocin to assist in my delivery. During a staff change, the information regarding how much of Pitocin my mother received was relayed incorrectly. As a result, it caused strong contractions and began to literally squeeze the life out of me. Fortunately, the nurses realized what happened and rushed my mother away for an emergency cesarean. Within four minutes of noticing what had happened, the surgeons were able to bring me back to life.

This incident caused a lack of oxygen to my brain and this is the reason for the mild cerebral palsy and hearing loss. The event was a defining moment in my life that made me the person I have become. Since that day, I would not be here if it were not for the quick actions from the hospital staff. I learned later not to take anything for granted.

I began to see the challenges I faced when starting elementary school. I feared to speak in class because I would have trouble getting my words out even though I knew what I wanted to say. A couple times a week, I would leave the classroom and spend an hour with a speech therapist and an English tutor to assist me with the challenges I faced even though I did not thoroughly understand them at the time. The tutoring must have paid off as I had a poem published in the Toronto Board of Education Writing edition.

I was not a fan of reading aloud; I always picked a part that had the fewest lines. However, I refused to let my speech prevent me from participating in several school plays.

When I entered middle school, I met other students with hearing loss and noticed that the classes I took in the mainstream were more advanced than the ones geared to students with hearing loss. At this point, I could see how far I had come despite my disabilities. I realize now that learning at the same rate as most children prepared me for high school.

I attended a high school with a hard of hearing department. During my first year in high school my classes were split between the hard of hearing department and the mainstream. As I moved on to higher grades, I was taking on more advanced classes (thanks to hard work and my mom and dad pushing me to take on the more challenging courses!).

One of my biggest academic accomplishments was going from grade nine general English to passing grade 13 advanced English. To support me with my advanced classes, I had a note taker so I could give my full attention to my teachers. I was also given a third extra time on my exams in a separate room.

To ensure I did not overwhelm myself, I took a lighter workload: eight classes compared to the usual 10. As a result, I finished high school in six years. At first, I was not pleased with this and after being frustrated with my parents, I realized taking the extra year allowed me to obtain all the necessary requirements to enter university. I was one of the few students from the hard of hearing department to do so.

One of the requirements that mattered most to me when looking for a university to attend was the class size. I felt I would be far better off at a university that offered smaller classes. It lifted my spirits to know that professors would know my name rather than consider me a number. As in high school, I sat in front of my classes, had a note taker, and extra time on my midterms and finals exams.

I enrolled into the bachelors of business administration program not really setting my mind on a particular field of study. I probably chose this field because both of my parents have post-secondary degrees in business. Half way through my first year, l learned the specialized areas the program offered were human resources, accounting and economics. None of these fields appealed to me. Luckily, there was a new program that the university was offering at the start of my second year called a Bachelors of Business Administration Technology Management stream. I remembered this excited me and decided I would go out of my way to do whatever it took to change my degree. I drove four hours to meet with a guidance counselor to change my field of study, as I am more comfortable discussing things in person than over the phone.

The degree is part business and part information technology (IT). I enjoyed progressing through the program, as it was preparing me to enter one of the hottest sectors at the time. One of the curriculum requirements to graduate was gaining 1 000 hours of work experience related to my field of study. It was my co-op placement in designing internal corporate database-driven web sites where I discovered that this is what I enjoy doing and wanted to make a career of it.

I graduated with an Honors degree and my persistence and determination was well worth it. That said, my most difficult challenge was yet to come — landing my first job and the structure that comes with it (I thrive on structure!).

I knew that once I got my foot in the door, I would be able to prove what I am capable of doing. To assist me in my job search, I found an agency that helps people with disabilities look for work specifically in the IT field. Golden! They would call companies to land an interview on my behalf. While the administration staff was focusing on that, I was working with other jobseekers on keeping my computer skills up-to-date.

Three years after graduation, I landed my first full-time job with Earth Day Canada. Soon after that, I was starting my own life as I moved out on my own, met someone to share my life with and now have a beautiful child. There is nothing more that I want in my life at this time. After the long and slow process to get where I am today, I enjoy every moment.

Regardless of what happens next, I know that my perseverance and determination will help me reach my future goals. It may take awhile, but I believe, and am living proof, that good things happen to those who work hard for what they want and are patient enough to reap the rewards, however long it may take for them to arrive.

Photo Credits

“Ronan Corr” Courtesy of Earth Day Canada

“Tortoise and Hare” by Arlene Graston, Aesop Series

Sadly, however, it seems even too much to ask to get people pumped up about it just once a year, let alone every day. What will it take to get people passionate about Mother Earth? Seriously, what will it take to make Earth Day sexy?

This year, I really wanted to encourage and gather as many people as possible to proudly participate in Victoria, BC’s Earth Walk.

My usual accomplice for these types of events and I went through our respective phone/facebook lists and messaged everyone we knew to come join us in making this our biggest Earth Walk ever! The two of us even spent a couple of hours the evening before making colourful signs with beautiful quotes scribed on them.

I was really hoping a large crowd would be cheering and chanting merrily along with us in celebration of this beautiful planet we call home. Alas, only one friend decided to join us, making this year’s Earth Walk one of the worst attended I’ve ever been in.

Shamefully, there were only about 250 to 300 other people who walked along Government Street that day — a small musical procession in celebration of life on Earth with signs and costumes, waving at onlookers who wielded cameras as we made our way to the grassroots sustainability kiosks and small-time local entertainment in Centennial Square.

The following day there was a festival called Earth Fest tucked away in the heart of Fernwood. It was definitely more successful in drawing in a slightly larger crowd, and for the entire afternoon, no less. It was fun and had great energy, with awesome entertainment. However, it was mostly attended by the usual suspects for these types of “Earthly” events … which is absolutely great, but it’s much like preaching to the converted, if you know what I mean. Very few of your average consumer joes who don’t already make sustainable choices were anywhere to be found. Those are the people we really need to get on board.

It baffles me how, with everything we now know about our effects on climate change, people seem even more complacent than ever about taking part in these types of events.

I mean, if the government suddenly decided to abolish hockey there would be a national uprising! Petitions, rallies, even rioting in the streets…hell, a revolution would most definitely ensue!

Yet when our government continually decides to clear cut and sell off our natural resources, to do nothing of any real significance about reducing emissions and pollutant industries, to deliberately refuse to make corporations accountable for the waste and devastation they produce (which are all inevitably killing wildlife and eco-systems), decreasing our ability to breathe fresh air and drink clean water with every passing moment (all this despite extensive scientific warnings of the potentially catastrophic effects if do not act now) — what do most of us do? Nothing. Oh wait! We watch hockey.

Well then, let me put it this way — No Earth! No Hockey! Maybe that will motivate the masses into action!

Okay, so I’m ranting. But seriously, all it takes is couple hours of our time to make our presence known. We need to gather in great numbers and actively participate in these events, to take a stand, make our voices heard and let our governments and corporations know that our HOME means, quite literally, the ‘world’ to us.

Having attended both of this year’s events, I’ve come to realize that organizers really need to band together and plan an event that will make the masses want to excitedly participate. A real celebration!

I would love to see an Earth Day event that would attract crowd as big as Canada Day’s (but with a theme of sustainability, of course). I think it’s important to remember that without Earth, there would be no Canada to celebrate. Why can’t we be as proud to be citizens of Earth as we are to be Canadians?

So what will it take to make Earth Day sexy?

Well, for starters, at the very least let’s make it a Statutory Holiday! THAT in itself would make a significant difference! Close down everything, except for emergency services. Make it accessible to everyone! Create something absolutely amazing! Off the chart! A huge celebration of historic proportions. An event with the warmth and feel of the “good will towards others” spirit of the Christmas holidays, coupled with a global community feel of “we love and honour our planet”… something to truly be proud of.

So what do you think it will take to get people passionate about Mother Earth? What would be your vision of a fabulous Earth Day celebration? Share your comments.

Photo Credits

“Miracles” Original Bliss @ flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.

“Question Earth” courtesy of UCLA

Funny, it seems that often at this time of year I’m called away…again this time with a hospitalized relative in Vancouver, so I can only dream of the lazy spring evenings at my hut. But our current house sitter assures me the flowers are as magnificent as always and the wind up there is blowing just as peacefully.

My humble writer’s hut, measuring eight feet by eight feet, perches above my home near Victoria, BC in a clearing I’ve dubbed “Plateau of the Muses”….where of course I hope to meet my muse. And quite often, she does show up.

In April and May, the hillside that surrounds my hut is transformed by the wildflowers and other greenery that emerge in their annual Easter parade: first the purple satin flowers, next the gorgeous white erythronium (Easter lilies) with their dappled leaves, followed by the hot pink shooting stars — narrow as an arrow — the delicate calypso orchids, and the tiny spring gold. Later, for the final drum roll, the purple-blue camas appears.

The first spring after we moved to our home here, I was enchanted with the discovery of the annual wildflowers, so fragile, so persistent, so unexpected. We’ve worked on eliminating the dreaded broom from our property every year — and every year, as a result, the carpet of wildflowers has grown larger.

The Metchosin hillside where my hut sits has become my refuge, my place of solace…my sacred place, and I’ve gone there when cancer and other illnesses have almost paralyzed us with fear, have nearly broken my heart. Here, in the natural setting of my hut, I’ve always found peace.

I wrote a whole chapter about my hut (A Hut of my Own) in my book Havens in a Hectic World: Finding Sacred Places (TouchWood Editions, 2008) and realized that as I went through the process of writing that book, my understanding of how I respond to the genius loci (spirit of place) in our part of the world became clearer.

In times of personal crisis, I need to go to the places that renew and calm me. We all need havens that feel safe, where nothing is expected of us, and where, despite our solitude, we feel connected to others and to the natural world. Where is your place?

(A postscript here: Star Weiss (www.starweiss.ca) will be reading from Havens in a Hectic World: Finding Sacred Places as part of the Earth Day celebrations at Chapters bookstore on Douglas Street in Victoria, BC, at 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 24, 2010. She will be joined by Nuu-chah-nulth storyteller Michael McCarthy. All are welcome.)

Photo Credits

All photos © Holly Broadland

I think that children are attracted to nature by instinct.  No one has to teach them to love animals, or admire plant life. It just kind of happens. On Earth Day, one of the most helpful things an adult can do to look at the ecological issues of the day is to get one’s mind back there, back to the time when nature was held in awe.

When we were kids, it was second nature to think of ourselves as being surrounded, even protected, by the beauty of nature.  We couldn’t own it then. It was too big to own.

It fired our imaginations the way all important forces in the world do.  That we couldn’t really understand where that power was coming from wasn’t something we thought about all that much.  We were too busy getting lost in the stories that the beauty of nature suggested to us, when we were able to listen more intently.

When I was young, there were trails, wooded, primeval. The area we moved to was developing as a prime bedroom community  for Toronto. This was Oakville, Ontario, well named for the white oaks native to the area, and once the grist to the shipbuilding industry at the mouth of the Sixteen Mile Creek when the town was established. I still consider it my hometown, even if I’d never move back. Part of why this is is the memory of the trails, or Trails with a capital T.

The Trails were bound between General Wolfe High School on the west, Sheridan College on the East, Upper Middle Road to the North, and McCraney Street to the South.  But, they were immense, bigger than the physical limits placed upon them by simple geography.

They’ve taken on a mythical quality in my mind. They were Sherwood Forest. They were Tarzan’s jungle. They were Tolkien’s Old Forest. They were Narnia. They were anything we wanted them to be. My friends and I would spend hours playing there, exploring, building forts, riding bikes, and reveling in the imagination which is the raw material for childhood artistry. There were more than trees, grass, and bushes that grew in those woods.

We’d spend whole summer days in the woods, along the Trails, by the creek which ran through it, until our shoes were soaked, and until our cheeks were smudged with red clay and chocolaty brown dirt, our hair plastered to our foreheads. The shadows grew longer between the boughs, and our innate sense of time brought us back to the reality of our suburban homes around dinnertime. We went back to the lawns, the streets, the pale glow of street lights.

Sleeping in our beds as night fell, the trees far away, growing around, over, and beneath the twisting Trails continued to thrive, to spread outward, and upward. And the creek ran through it all, chuckling over the flat stones, under the moon and the protective skirts of the forest.

We slept until morning flooded through our windows. We’d burst out into the new day, and do it all again, off to the Trails again and scampering between the boughs, lost in the stories we made.

One day, I rode my red Raleigh bicycle into the trees, on my own. My bike pulled around the green corners on the dusty track of the Trails, and through the long yellowing grass warmed by the sun and abuzz with grasshoppers. And around another corner, suddenly I hit a clearing, and the makings of a new front lawn.  There were no trees where there should have been. They were building new houses on the rim of the ravine that made up the upper domain of the Trails. There was the word ‘Woods’ in the name of the development. I was too young to understand the irony.

And suddenly, I was hit by a strange feeling: that the venerable tree kingdom was threatened by the wheels of progress, that the Trails could be invaded and possibly eclipsed. It was a helpless feeling, a powerless feeling. My Trails! Our Trails! They were being encroached upon.

Houses and lawns had their place, I knew. But they were in a different world from the Trails, which stood apart from that more mundane world. The thought of it being swallowed up by more streets, more lawns, more people other than us kids and our imaginations seemed downright immoral.

Many years later, I read a poem called Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which told the tale of the embodiment of nature in the form of a giant green knight on a green horse, sent to test the mettle of civilization as represented by King Arthur’s Camelot, a kingdom that had been proclaimed by its founders as having unquestionable dominion over the world.

The Green Knight rode, to the very hall of the King with his challenge. The Green Knight’s very presence proved that the King and his knights were not the untouchable authority  they thought they were. They were subject to the sway of nature just as everything else is. And the Green Knight taught them that the kingdom they took such pride in was only as good as how responsible it was to “the call” to do the right thing.

Perhaps something to think about on Earth Day is how these two worlds of civilization and nature should co-exist. Perhaps Earth Day is a time to remember our own love of the woods, or lakes, or other natural landscapes that exist in our pasts and in our imaginations, as well as the ones that exist in the here and now.

Maybe Earth Day is the time to remember how much bigger the natural world actually is, not only as it was in our eyes as children, but as it stands, as a home we depend upon.

Happy Earth Day!

Photo Credit

“Children in the Woods” EllenMac 11 @ flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.

I’m bored by the time I hit number 40 but giving up is not my style. Around 800 the counts are coming along: dum dum dum—849—dum dum dum—852—dum dum dum 855 and my eyelids are drooping. The voice seeps in again.

So? What do you see?

See? Well, I see a lot of droplets.

But what do they look like?

I want to shout: Spare me! A drop of water is a drop of water! Instead, I decide to humor her and move closer to the tree.

Then it happens. I see drops of water all right, but they are all different shapes. Some are like miniature eggs. Others are like giant children’s play balls. And the colors! Some have a gray glue-like density while others sport hues of the rainbow. A few hover hauntingly like the mists on the lake while others shiver and shake, readying for the plunge. One in particular catches my eye. It is pale blue and has patterns of lace embedded in its womb. The variety is endless. I am spellbound.

A couple of hours slip by.

Gradually I realize that I have been gifted a profound lesson. It’s like a chimera yet as real as the angel’s kiss that brushed my cheek as I reached over to put more wood on the fire.

Photo Credits

“Rainy day treasures” ©  Sandra Phinney

“More rainy day treasures” © Sandra Phinney

That makes worrying about the Earth a macro-pastime, which really translates into worrying about our species – the human family of celestial voyagers – with an occasional after-thought to what we consider the lesser species sharing the vessel.

Because it’s merely a pastime rather than a serious concern (we apparently have wealth, power and the unproven divine to consider ahead of the health of the planet) we manage to indulge in our favourite game – politicizing anything we don’t want to deal with seriously. The health of the environment has become the property of the Left: the health of the wealth – the Right.

We’re very Darwinian about this. I don’t know this for a fact, but all the indicators are there. The rich and powerful are either too busy to imagine — or evidently feel their money will them make them strong enough to survive — any environmental catastrophe that comes down the pike, including the big wham from outer space.

But the real and insidious problem is that our own species has become an infestation on the planet. Too damned many of us for the ecology (and the economy) to support. If there were a celestial gardener then maybe, like aphids, we’d receive a goodly dose of spray and problem solved.

Think about it in elemental terms. Every morning you crawl out of bed, head for the bathroom and excrete what you haven’t digested overnight. That’s about a pound of poop. A pound times 5 billion and counting.

Fortunately Mother Earth is dealing with this crap, but for how long?

Humans are intelligent – misguided at times, but intelligent. I believe we’re starting to awaken and we’re beginning to revisit what farmers and herdsmen knew instinctively for eons – “look after the earth because it’s all we’ve got”. If we’re gone from it, it won’t matter to the Earth. The planet will eventually repair itself and continue on its course without us. All in all, we, the  human species, are pretty inconsequential – the Earth can get along without us but we can’t get along without it.

However, there are still a few fellow voyagers who don’t get it. They confuse the depersonalizing of greed – a la “it’s just business” – with the concept of absolution, and unfettered overpopulation with divine right.

But, on the whole, individuals, families, organizations and some nations are starting to knuckle down to seek solutions. That means with a little luck, we’ll continue to see a fair number of future sunrises as we sail on through space.

Photo Credit

“Trashed Earth” Gideon Wright @ flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.

I envisioned this tree while I was in the hospital in labour with my daughter. It was a Technicolor trip aided by a good ol’ snort of nitrous oxide (Woo Hoo!), which left me convinced that I had, without a doubt, graduated from Tree Hugger to Tree Whisperer.

Its beautiful craggy bark spoke to me in my vision, assured me that the future would be good, that all of us, including the baby and the future baby (Holy crap! There was going to be another one??) would be just fine. “Trust. Trust and breathe,” it told me. “Breathe. My leaves bring you air.”

The tree was a volunteer that sprang from a compost heap on the property over 50 years ago, before I was born. We believe it’s a relative of the Walnut. In summer, fuzzy yellow catkins hang languidly from its branches. The nuts are brown and heart shaped, and the lining of their outer casings is fleshy and white just like a Walnut’s.

Squirrels consider these nuts a delicacy and can be seen in September scurrying along telephone lines, carrying the nuts like conkers, two at a time, as though they’re performing a high wire act in the circus. They hide them from each other: bury them hurriedly in planters by the front stairs, under the crumbling bonsai shelter on the patio.

The Heartnut is now well over 40 feet tall. We have to hire an arborist to take care of the lofty branches. He looks like he belongs in the same circus as the squirrels: a trapeze artist swinging from the limbs without a care in the world. Whack, whirr, whack. I can’t watch — it makes me dizzy.

My children climb the tree now, dangle their legs from the same branches, encircle the same boughs with their arms, but the limbs are much thicker now.

I love how the sunlight turns its leaves into a golden canopy. How, as twilight approaches, the tree’s shadows lengthen protectively along the grass.

When I was little, I sifted sand, dug trenches, made moats and mud pies under that tree. I dressed the dogs in fancy hats fashioned from peonies and rhododendron petals that bloomed in great purple splashes beside it. And even then I knew somehow that I was safe. Safe in the constancy and knowledge of that tree, a random gift from Mother Earth.

Photo Credits

All photos © Margaret Blackwood

My husband looked at her for a moment as though she had grown a second head before telling her quite matter-of-factly that granola was a breakfast cereal. The kind of cereal, he teased, that he had been eating every morning for weeks.

“No,” persisted KT. “What does it mean if someone calls you granola?”

My husband’s face was blank, so I, in all of my wisdom, stepped in. I informed them that “granola” is another word for “hippie,” a “tree hugger”, a “greenie” or even my personal favorites: “crunchy” and “down to earth.”

I went on to tell them that someone who is considered granola is a very earth-friendly person who is concerned with the state of our environment and the animals that live in it.

“Is that bad?” KT asked.

I told her that I thought it depended on her outlook. Some would think it was a bad thing to be called, but I thought it was a good thing.

I had to wonder what it took to make a kid stand out as “granola” in Seattle. We are, after all, a city known for its tree-huggers and for being green before it was trendy. We raise our children to conserve our water and keep it clean for the sake of the salmon. Our scout troops routinely plant trees and participate in environmental cleanups. The mantra to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle is second nature to most of us in the Emerald City. What, then, was so different about my child?

I think it might all boil down to a love of animals.  We have the usual cats and dogs…but we also have had many exotic pets. Rats, snakes, cockroaches, frogs, turtles, tarantulas…well the list goes on and on. Learning about all of our creatures and their habitats has been fascinating. Learning about what people do to animals and their habitats was illuminating.

KT, at the tender age of 13, decided that she needed to do something to change the way the earth was headed. Her first step was to stop eating animals. She felt that it was morally wrong to eat the creatures that she loved so much. A couple years later she did a school research project about slaughter houses and decided that she would go completely vegan. KT no longer eats or uses anything that came from an animal. No eggs, no milk, no honey, no leather shoes or purses. She’s taken a lot of flak for her beliefs, but she sticks to them.

Our daughter realized that she needed to do still more to help save our world. The most logical place to start was at her school. She and some of her friends decided that they could make the most difference by starting an Earth Club at her high school. It now has around 75 members. Of course, that wasn’t quite enough for our girl. Her next step was to contact the group Planting Peace and became an environmental leader for our zip code. She currently coordinates with the city to organize cleanups in places they are needed, then recruits volunteers from the high school and the community to make a difference in our neighborhoods.

I could go on, but those Granola people don’t do what they do for the kudos. They simply see a need and do what they feel needs to be done. They aren’t paralyzed by the daunting size of the challenge, and don’t get discouraged by the apathy all around them.

When KT asked if it was bad to be “granola” I should’ve told her what I was really thinking. That I couldn’t be prouder that she was strong enough to follow what her heart told her to do. I think to be called granola is a very good thing.

Photo Credit

“Granola” StudoGabe @ Flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.