A show about relationships with the land
There are many ways to listen to the show: Listen live on CFRU 93.3 fm broadcasting from the University of Guelph Mondays at 6pm EST or listen to the podcast via Spotify, Apple, or just follow the rss feed.
Ep 187 : Listening to the Spring Frogs and Birds
The other-than-human world is alive and breathing. They sing and mate and eat and die, just like us. We honour all the varied stages of our human lives through words and song, of which we record, archive, teach and celebrate, so why not them? Sure we use our languages to speak to their lives, but wouldn’t it be nice to allow them to sing their own songs and for us to pay attention as we would our own? I certainly think so.
Ep. 186 : Squirrel Life Project with Elizabeth Porter
Birdwatching is obviously a thing as birds are everywhere, loud, demonstrate interesting behaviours, and they are often brightly coloured. Squirrels too are everywhere, loud, and demonstrate interesting behaviours. They aren’t brightly coloured, but their brindled, black, red, brown, grey, or even white in the case of some albino individuals at Trinity Bellwoods downtown Toronto, are still a joy to observe. So why not take up Squirrelwatching?
Elizabeth Porter is the project coordinator for the Squirrel Life project which is developing an app to collect community sourced observations of Squirrels and their varied, interesting and often comical behaviour and then enables future researchers to access the shared collected data for their research. It’s a project with many aims including getting folks outside to observe wild life close to home while encouraging a closer look at varied Squirrel behviours which are happening all around, all the time. Along the way, Elizabeth is looking at how to communicate scientific research and findings with broad diverse communities. A great goal.
Ep. 185 : In conversation with Lorraine Roy, and Greg Kennedy SJ.
By calling, Greg is a Jesuit priest. Lorraine, a textile artist. Both have a keen eye for observation, and translation. Learning to see the wonder and awe embedded in the guardians of the air we collectively breathe, the trees, they render the arboreal grace and might into earthly transmissions which allow us to know the land a little better.
On Earth Day weekend, April 22-24, Greg Kennedy, Lorraine Roy and I will be facilitating a retreat at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre with the theme of Trees. In this conversation we share some of why we are involved in this project, and to reflect on what brought us to this work, who has inspired us, and what we hope to bring to this emergent weekend.
Ep. 184 : Nature Guelph
Nature Guelph was established in 1966 and since then has been promoting connection with the lands in and around the city I now call home. I have been attending their events for years, always drawn in by their knowledgeable speakers and presenters and great community. It has been a hub for naturalists in Guelph and I have been so lucky to get to know the broader community of humans and non-humans through their efforts.
Ep. 183 : Follow The Food
Knowing the plants who are in relationship with the animals we track can help us find the animals we want to learn about. They can point in the direction of where the animals are going or where they will be going. They can show us if we are in the right environment or if we need to keep looking.
This episode is pretty much a story of a recent afternoon spent tracking in the Lake of Bays region, just South West of Algonquin Park, where we spent a few hours following the food and then finding the animal.
Ep. 182 : Deer Mouse and Song Sparrow
I have been tracking Deer Mice a lot lately, and trying to learn a little bit more about them through their tracks and all the questions that come up. What are they eating right now? How can I tell them apart from Voles and Shrews? How many live together in the Winter? Who ate this one’s brains? You know, the usual. I have also been looking at bird tracks a bunch, especially in this past week, when I noticed a Song Sparrow feeding on the withered stalk of an uncertain forb on the side of a new gravel road near where I work. It was fun to go and see the work the Song Sparrow had done, and wonder at all the debris that remained. Who knew there’d be so much to look at and wonder about?
Ep. 181 : Buckthorn Phenology and Possible Management Strategies with Mike J. Schuster
I have seen and been part of a lot of Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) removal efforts, and while initially hopeful, often there is a inevitable return of the non-native to once again take over the forest understory in short time. What if there were strategies, without herbicides or biocontrols to reduce or prevent the likeliness of Buckthorn’s recolonization?
Mike J. Schuster from the Department of Forest Resources at the University of Minnesota recently co-authored a paper looking into native phenological competitors to Buckthorn which can be planted after Buckthorn removal to help keep R. cathartica out. Luckily for me, one of the suggestions was a (fairly simple) practice I have been learning about and working on for the past 5 years! Plant more Elderberry! Sambucus canadensis and perhaps even more so S. racemosa can help block out the light essential to early Buckthorn growth. By planting these two shrubs , who have similar phenological timelines to the Buckthorn, we can help restore native biodiversity in forests experiencing Buckthorn invasions.
Ep. 180 : Winter of the Fisher
It has been the Winter of the Fisher indeed with long tracking missions following three different Fishers at three locations in Southern Ontario between November 27, 2021 - January 16, 2022. I had only written of one of the experiences and hadn’t really told the story of the second and third, I thought I could detail some of what happened, and some of what I had been learning about for this episode.
Ep. 179 : Northern River Otter
A friend told me that someone in their small village had spotted a Northern River Otter (Lontra canadensis) in the same river the passes through the city where I live. This is the closest sighting of a River Otter to my neck of the woods I have ever heard of. I was so excited that I ran to my desk where I had all of my mammal books out anyways, and flipped to the River Otter entries and started learning.
Ep. 178 : A discussion of On the Animal Trail by Baptiste Morizot with Julian Fisher
My friend Julian Fisher recommended a book to me he thought I would enjoy. It was Baptiste Morizot’s On the Animal Trail. I got it and I asked him if he would like to do a “book report, not a review” with me, where we could just have a good conversation about what we were thinking and learning about through reading the work. Julian is a philosopher, and I am a tracker. Why not share in the feast of ideas that is On the Animal Trail together?
Baptiste writes beautiful accounts of tracking non-human animals, and describes some lessons he/we have been offered by these cohabitants. He also asks us to look a little deeper into these lessons and into our relationships with these communities. Can tracking change how we see the world by changing the way we interact with the world? Can following animal trails help us find a deeper sense of belonging to place because we are more in tune to the relationships happening around us? Julian and I get into it.
Ep. 177 : Greenbelt Foundation with Shelley Petrie
2,100,000 acres protected within not only the most populous area in Canada, but one of the most important economic areas, the struggle between development and sprawl vs protection and conservation of farms, forests and fragile wetlands is a very real undertaking, and one very much beyond me. Getting to talk to Shelley Petrie of The Greenbelt Foundation was helpful in understanding some of the details of what exactly the Greenbelt is and who the Greenbelt Foundation are.
With a local council North of Toronto recently voting in favour of a developer’s request to redesignate 1,400 acres of Greenbelt farmland into developable lands I got to wondering if the Greenbelt can hold up against this and possible future impingements? Where do folks allow development and where do folks protect lands?
Ep. 176 : Chasing Bats and Tracking Rats with Dr. Cylita Guy
When I began reading it I realized Dr. Cylita Guy’s new book Chasing Bats and Tracking Rats I realized that it is more than what it seems. Cylita has written about how eight different researchers go about conducting their research along with how they themselves, as individuals, some as BIPOC scientists, interact with and encounter their work.
There are stories of late night encounters with the police, and of a scientist observing birds in park being asked to leave because other park goers were “uncomfortable” likely because the scientist was a Black woman. There are stories of urban ecology researchers that reflect the urban human population dynamics which, in some ways, are comparable to the wilds they work to understand. Life blooms everywhere, and within these pages I read the stories of the broad ecologies which I am not only witness to, but also apart of.
Ep. 175 : Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Land Protectors
RCMP has invaded Wet’suwet’en territory from the second time in as many years. Land protectors have been resisting a pipeline going through their territory for many years, and most recently from a site where the pipeline would be buried below a river where folks fish and drink from. When the police raided the blockades there were calls for support and solidarity actions. Locally and abroad there have been marches, rallies, vigils, and more.
This weeks episode is all about giving context for the situation, looking at what is happening now, why the invasion wouldn’t even be legal according to Wet’suwet’en or Canadian or international law, and some recordings from a local solidarity rally in support of Wet’suwet’en land protectors.
Ep. 174 : The True Cost of Coal with the Beehive Collective
The massive Beehive Collective posters were a big part of my culturation and activist upbringing. Every punk house, infoshop, or radical space I encountered had one. But despite seeing them so often, these black and white billboards were still a little mysterious and the narrative a bit illusive.
When Saku and D came through this past week they brought with them a simplified key, a song, a Seussian poem detailing the narrative of the work, which made it much more approachable to a broader, and younger audience. Inspired by their own child and the desire to teach them about what has been going on in the world, they put together a new book detailing the true cost of coal.
Ep. 173 : Cartoonist and Author Rosemary Mosco
I really appreciate when I can meet someone who can take something despised and vilified and transform it into a beautiful focal point, braiding together natural history, human history, and urban ecology. Rosemary Mosco is someone who does this on the regular.
I got to talk with Rosemary about her own connections with nature, her award winning comic birdandmoon, really diving deep into Pigeons (Columba livia) and her new book A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching.
Ep. 172 : Autonomously and with Conviction
Since September 25th, the Gidimt’en Access Point has been holding new blockades and using a variety of tactics to keep Coastal GasLink workers and the RCMP off their territory. Specifically, they have been blocking access to a drill pad, without which CGL will be unable to drill under the Wedzin Kwa, or Morice River.
Gidimt’en clan members and supporters have established themselves on the site, which they have named Coyote Camp, building a log cabin complete with a wood stove to support a sustained defense of the camp.
The RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group has been present at the camp, carrying out daily reconnaissance, searching tents, emptying campers’ drinking water supply, and generally harassing the site’s inhabitants.
In the words of Sleydo’, spokesperson for Gidimt’en Checkpoint, “Our way of life is at risk. Wedzin Kwa [is the] river that feeds all of Wet’suwet’en territory and gives life to our nation.”
Ep. 171 : Matt Soltys, The Urban Orchardist
I sat down with an old friend, Matt Soltys, otherwise known as The Urban Orchardist, for a conversation about his work as an orchardist, and his business helping folks start growing their own.
We spoke about food sustainability, local food culture, how fruit trees help sequester carbon, build community and of course, give food.
Ep. 170 : Early Autumn Update
The seasons are changing and it’s getting a little more obvious everyday. I have been watching life turn over the past couple of weeks and it’s been lovely. I went out on Saturday, sat under a Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum), and watched the wind move through the grass.
This weeks show I try my best to share what I have been learning about in regards to my local landbase, as well as trying to remember some of the highlights from my lost interview with Olivia Messinger Carril and Joseph S. Wilson about their book Common Bees of Eastern North America. It wasn’t the same, but it was ok. And the book is still just as good. I am grateful for that.
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