The biophilia hypothesis suggests that humans possess an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized the hypothesis in his book, Biophilia (1984). He defines biophilia as “the urge to affiliate with other forms of life”. The term “biophilia” means “love of life or living systems.
– Wikipedia
Why is the world so beautiful? An Indigenous botanist on the spirit of life in everything
CBC Radio · Posted: Nov 27, 2020 “‘Western science is a powerful way of knowing, but it isn’t the only one says Robin Wall Kimmerer.”
Rewilding A Forest | Maria “Vildhjärta” Westerberg
Youtube Video, Campfire Stories, Feb 24, 2024 “This film is part of a series called “Something Beautiful for the World”, which is a collaboration between Reflections of Life, Campfire Stories and Happen Films…Maria was a romantic, animal-loving, dreamy child who, growing up, had a hard time conforming to the demands associated with the trajectory towards “a normal life”. As a young adult she became depressed, and was encouraged by her therapist to go for walks in the forest. The myriad of funny-looking twigs and sticks she found along the way immediately put her on a path to recovery. Now, 25 years later, she’s a celebrated “twig poet” whose art is shown in galleries throughout Sweden. When a climate related crisis strikes the forest where she lives and works, she’s forced into a new type of creativity in order to save the place that once upon a time saved her.” Filmed in: Värmland, Sweden
“In The Quiet and The Dark” is a Sea to Sea Production commissioned by CBC, 44 min. Featured on CBC Television Oct 7, 2023 and available on CBC Gem. The film as a whole explores the tensions within individuals and in the ecological/environmental community surrounding the injection of hemlock trees with strong pesticides to prevent HWA infestation. It does so by following forest ecologist Donna Crossland in her quest to save a few vestiges of intact hemlock forest in NS by injecting every tree in selected stands with pesticides. More about it on this website
Portland filmmaker’s documentary, ‘Trees and Other Entanglements,’ coming to HBO and Tomorrow Theater
By Kristi Turnquist | The Oregonian/OregonLive, Dec 4, 2023
We story the land
Documentary Video by Martha Stiegman and Sherry Pictou/Rippling Current media (viewed originally on Nova Scotia Advocate 2018/10/27) “The documentary follows seven paddlers from L’sɨtkuk (Bear River First Nation) as they travel inland following almost forgotten traditional Mi’kmaq canoe routes.” 26 min. Rippling Current Media 2016. “The Bear River reserve boundary cuts the people of L’sitkuk off from their ancestors’ hunting and fishing grounds. But there are old canoe routes that leave from the reserve, and cross the territory; and people here are working to reclaim them. WE STORY THE LAND follows seven paddlers as they travel through the land, to reconnect with a part of their history and a part of themselves.”
The origin of the term “Tree hugger” Facebook post by Ali H Kadhem on Feb 18, 2022
Diana Beresford-Kroeger bridges gap between science and spirituality
By Josiah Neufeld in BroadView . Nov 13, 2019 “The tree expert is working to protect the world’s vanishing forests…Orphaned at 12, Beresford-Kroeger grew up in rural Ireland, raised by her mother’s family to know the spirituality, language and law practised by the Celts since before English occupation. She learned to manage her emotions using a form of meditation, and to recognize the sacred and medicinal properties of plants and trees. But her scientific mind wasn’t content with esoteric explanations. She wanted to know how things worked.”
When Trees Have Standing
Linda Pannozzo on her blog, The Quaking Swamp Journal Feb 25. 2022. “More than forty years ago, law professor Christopher Stone advanced the view that natural objects and areas should have legal rights. “Should Trees Have Standing” Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects,” became arguably one of the most provocative pieces of environmental law ever written…”
The Acadian Forest Love Affair
“The physical intimacy of yellow birch and hemlock often observed in old Acadian forest is more than a coincidence” Photo-essay by DGP posted on sandylakebedford.ca, Jan 25, 2018 Also available as a PDF on archive.org
Abrahams Lake Thoughts By A Stream (Video)
by Mark Brennan Jan 31, 2012. “A poem about self realisation, written in the Nova Scotia Wilderness with the sounds and sights of the surrounding area”
Nature recording-The Acadian Forest, Wild Earth Voices (Video)
by Mark Brennan Jan 8, 2013 “A short film on the soundscape release, Peskowesk, by Wild Earth Voices which takes you on a journey, in the Early Spring, through the sounds of the Acadian Forest of Nova Scotia.” Also see (listen to) Mark’s Wild Earth Voices soundscapes which include four albums in forest wilderness settings in Nova Scotia.
Spring forest
Treasures Of The Old Forest (Video)
Produced in 2005 Avalon & Meguma Natural History Films. “Precious as jewels, fleeting as snow-flakes, yet ancient as the forest itself, these are the wildflowers of the Acadian forest. The trillium, the spring beauty, the bloodroot and lady slipper, once as abundant as the songbirds – now driven to the far recesses of their range. A priceless inheritance many Maritimers may never see, truly, the Treasures of the Old Forest”.
Wild At Heart, Landscape Painter Greg Dickie (Video)
by Mark Brennan Sep 30, 2012 “Mark Brennan travels with Artist Greg Dickie of Windsor, Nova Scotia into the Tobeatic Wilderness Area of Nova Scotia in the fall of 2012.”
Embracing diverse worldviews to share planet Earth
F. Kohler et al., 2019. Essay in Conservation Biology 28 February 2019
“The thought of not being able to hear the ethereal flute-like song of a solitary hermit thrush at day’s end is most upsetting to me.” – VR in Yarmouth in the Chronicle Herald July 25, 2017
YouTube Video by Cliff Seruntine posted May 5, 2019. “Bob Bancroft is a retired biologist who is widely known for his tireless work as an environmental advocate. What few people know about Bob, though, is that for the last forty-four years, he has been quietly working to restore the land around his home into a vibrant, self-sustaining forest. Facing challenges ranging from restoration of ruined soil to preparing the forest to adapt to impending climate changes, Bob’s lifetime labor of love is now a transitional forest that closely approximates a local, natural ecosystem, and as the forest matures, it is becoming a refuge for wildlife.
Ethiopia’s Church Forests
Saving Ethiopia’s “Church Forests
by T. DeLene Beeland on Berfois
Ethiopia’s ‘church forests’ are incredible oases of green
National Geographic Jan 18, 2019 BY ALEJANDRA BORUNDA PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIERAN DODD “When Alemayehu Wassie Eshete was a boy, he went to church each Sunday. He would make his way along the dry, dusty roads between the wheat fields in his home province in northern Ethiopia. At the end of the trip was the prize: a literal step into another world.”
Should Trees Have Standing?: Law, Morality, and the Environment
Book by Christopher D. Stone 1972 & 2010. From Amazon: Originally published in 1972, Should Trees Have Standing? was a rallying point for the then burgeoning environmental movement, launching a worldwide debate on the basic nature of legal rights that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, in the 35th anniversary edition of this remarkably influential book, Christopher D. Stone updates his original thesis and explores the impact his ideas have had on the courts, the academy, and society as a whole. At the heart of the book is an eminently sensible, legally sound, and compelling argument that the environment should be granted legal rights. For the new edition, Stone explores a variety of recent cases and current events–and related topics such as climate change and protecting the oceans – providing a thoughtful survey of the past and an insightful glimpse at the future of the environmental movement. This enduring work continues to serve as the definitive statement as to why trees, oceans, animals, and the environment as a whole should be bestowed with legal rights, so that the voiceless elements in nature are protected for future generations.
“Finding the Mother Tree” – can it change the way we manage our forests in Nova Scotia? 9May2021?
Post on NSFN May 9, 2011 “A remarkable story was published this past week:
Finding The Mother Tree: Discovering The Wisdom Of The Forest by Suzanne Simard, 368 pages, Published:May 4, 2021, by Penguin Random House. Listed at $Can $34.95
It’s remarkable in many respects: as a scientific story that is effecting a “paradigm change” in how we think about forest ecosystems; as a very personal story that intersects with the author’s own health challenges; as a story that revealed/confirmed indigenous perspectives on forest communities; and very much more…
A day in the #Vanlife in Nova Scotia – Forest Cooking and Forest Bathing
DELORIS MACNEILL on YouTube Apr 21, 2020. “It’s been a heavy couple of days in NS. Sharing these magical moments in the forest with you as a small bit of offering during these hard times. I hope it inspires you to take in some nature and peace. Felt called to share, while at the same time enjoying the expansion these practices give me in being more connected, in expressive ways.
The Serviceberry An Economy of Abundance
by Robin Wall Kimmerer in Emergence Magazine “As Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and ecological systems to reimagine currencies of exchange?”
How being still in nature can remind us of what it means to be human
Shalan Joudry · for CBC News Audio Essay
Earth Adventures
A Favourite: Woodens River Adventure
…You have reached the top of the river. You must release the potion at the bridge if it is to work. But Dreeg has a troll guard living under the bridge. Put it to sleep:
Sneak across the bridge to the far side.
Find the enormous tree nearby on the other side. Touch the tree with the potion bottle to add some of its wisdom to the potion. It is one of the oldest Tamarack trees in the Province.
Now turn to the bridge and sprinkle some potion on the bridge.
Wave your wand as you repeat.
…The tree you touched is a very old tamarack tree (also called a larch or hackmatack), and is likely several hundred years old.