Nerdy About Nature (Nerdy About Nature)

Undercurrents is a podcast series from Nerdy About Nature where we discuss recent studies, reports and news from the world of environment, ecology and climate which all impact our understanding of the world and the way we relate to it.  In other words, it’s all the unseen things that happen without much notice that impact the direction or flow of our society and the world we all share.

This episodes topics:

Olivine Disintegration - https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/20/4669/2023/bg-20-4669-2023.pdf

Reforestation Not So Cool - https://www.newscientist.com/article/2418595-climate-benefits-of-planting-forests-might-be-overestimated/

Eastern US Forest Cooling - https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023EF003663

Plastic Bag Reduction - https://grist.org/solutions/plastic-bag-bans-have-already-prevented-billions-of-bags-from-being-used-report-finds/

https://publicinterestnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Plastic-Bag-Bans-Work-January-2024.pdf

Kananaskis Logging Pause - https://thenarwhal.ca/kananaskis-clearcut-logging-pause/

Produced by Ross Reid

Hosted by Ross Reid & Julia Huggins

Nerdy About Nature is a passion project whose primary goal is to provide free access for all to education about this world so that people can enjoy it more, build connection and fall in love with it, and ultimately work in ways to steward it for future generations to enjoy.  We do this through short and long form videos all over social media @NerdyAboutNature, as well as this podcast you’re listening to now, and it’s all made possible thanks to support from folks like yourself.  If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating, you can help keep it going by supporting us at ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠, or at ⁠⁠⁠nerdyaboutnature.com⁠⁠⁠. 

Natures pretty neat, ya know - let’s keep it that way!

Fire is such a hot topic these days - pun intended! Yet we used to have a lot more fire across the landscape than we do today…so whats going on?
Fires are a naturally occurring part of a forest ecosystem, and are generally classified as either low-intensity burns (LIBs) or high-intensity burns (HIBs), both of which have different causes and impacts based on different forest types and factors.
Since colonization of North America by western societies, a combination of fire suppression and large scale land alteration through logging has left our forests in a highly vulnerable state all across the continent that makes them more susceptible to large-scale HIBs, which has big picture issues relative to both volume and frequency.
Speaking to volume, its estimated that roughly 85% of native forests here in North America has been lost, logged or modified to the equivalent of a HIB, which is an insanely large number, and much of this has been done in a manner that reduces the ecological function of these forests and actually contributes to large scale HIB’s that we see more and more often each summer.
In the last 400 years of western colonization roughly 85% of native forests have been lost to the equivalent of being burnt to the ground in a HIB (in some places 4x over), which historically only ever happened in much smaller scale fires every 1000 - 2000 years if at all, yet we’re calling this all natural and sustainable…sounds more like the apocalypse to me 😬
So instead of trying to replicate these HIBs in our clearcut logging practices, we need to allow our forest ecosystems to mature in a healthier manner over a longer period of time, and we need to spend a lot of energy properly thinning and restoring the ecological function of the billions of hectares we’ve mismanaged thus far. Through prescribed burns and by replicating LIBs we can not only create a more humble, sustainable industry and jobs, but we can improve the ecological health and functions of the lands we live amongst for a better future in this uncertain era of climate change.

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family for 1$ a month or more!

Wanna ask a question?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Grasslands are incredibly biodiverse and carbon rich ecosystems that perform numerous ecological functions, yet many of them across Turtle Island have all declined for various reasons, whether that be decades of development, fire suppression, removal of grazing animals, introduction of invasive species and lack of Indigenous stewardship or a combination of them all.  Here in coastal Cascadia, our native Oak Meadow Grasslands play an important role within many First Nations cultures and are the most biodiverse ecosystem we have.  Sadly, they’re also the most threatened, down to less that 5% of their native range in BC alone.  

I sat down with Nancy Shackelford, assistant professor at Uvic & director of the Restoration of Natural Systems Program, to chat all about what makes these wonderful ecosystems so unique, what threatens them, and what we can do to ensure their health for a better tomorrow.

Restoration Futures Lab

Grasslands Conservation Council of BC

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Nancy decided to support Stewards Of Sc’ianew!

Learn more about their work here: https://stewardsofscianew.com/

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family for 1$ a month or more!

Wanna ask a question?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Learn more about this episodes sponsor, Hoka & their new Anacapa 2 

The Oceans are an incredible feature of this planet that we all share, connecting not only coastal communities and ecosystems to one another, but all of the various inland ones that are impacted by and impact our oceans, from deserts in Africa to the temperate rainforests of Turtle Island.  My first repeat guest, Julia Huggins is a biogeochemist, forest ecologist, PHD student and microbe expert who is currently working to collect data on microbes in our oceans, so we sat down on a rugged coastal beach to chat all about it!  Lot's of great info here on the intricacies of our oceans, their current state, and what we can all do to become better stewards of the waters that connect us.

Information about ocean deoxygenation and the UN "Global Ocean Oxygen Network": 

https://en.unesco.org/go2ne

https://www.ocean-oxygen.org/

If you'd like more information on certain topics, feel free to contact Julia for papers and sources at julia.huggins@ubc.ca

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  - https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

We face a variety of critical issues these days that all seem to be culminating at one big crossroads, and the interconnection of them all can make it very difficult to find a way to move forward in a progressive, ethical and decolonial way to create a better future. So how the heck do we do just that?

I was joined by Rande Cook and Mark Worthing, two members of Awi'nakola, at their annual Tree of Life Gathering to learn about the values they embody as an NGO and how that determines their methodology and actions in the world. As many larger organisations, businesses and goverments frantically search for quick-fix 'profitable' solutions to these issues, the wholistic grassroots approach taken by Awi'nakola sure is refreshing to see, and may actually be the key to the change we all really need.

To learn more about Awi'nakola, visit them at https://awinakola.com/ or @_treeoflife on Instagram.

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Rande chose to give his donation to the ⁠Ma'amtagila Nation & Mark gave to Orcalab.

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Whale, we've shore got a fun chat lined up for y'all today! Sea what I did there?

Silly puns aside, we're talking all about Orcas, or Killer Whales, with the infamous Orca Man! You may have seen The Orca Man, whose real name is Fred, online as he does a lot of social media education and news on things happening with Orcas all around the world, but especially those populations here in the PNW - the resident and transient Killer Whales. Fred and I sat down for a sunset chat where we discuss all things Orcas, why they’re so amazing, different populations of them around the world, their fascinating social structures, and threats they face both in our home waters of Cascadia and beyond. 

Learn more about Fred's work here and on Instagram here.

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Fred chose to give his to ⁠The Orca Conservancy

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by becoming a paid subscriber on ⁠⁠Patreon ⁠or⁠ Substack.⁠

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Do you ever stop to think about the dirt under your feet, or in this case the rock, and wonder how it got there? Well the answer is...complicated, but basically billions of years of intense geological and mechanical processes from erosion to volcanism and everything in between.

In this episode, I sit down with Pierre Freile, an award-winning geoscientist based in Squamish BC to chat all about how the landscape of North America and the Cascadian Bioregion in particular were formed, from the macro-scale actions of continents moving and colliding with one another, to the localized impacts of landslides that took place thousands of years ago, and rockfalls in our neighbourhoods just a few years ago.

This one may be a doozy of an information blast, but I promise you it's worth it, and it will give you a profound appreciation for the lands on which we live, and the forces that shaped them into what they are. Buckle up tight and hang on for the ride, cuz it ain't over yet!

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Pierre decided to send his donation to ⁠The Dogwood Society!

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family for 1$ a month or more! - ⁠https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Have you ever seen those slick little certification logos on a product that claims it comes from sustainable forestry practices?  Unfortunately, those certifications aren’t those most ethical, accurate, and in some cases are just downright bogus, and may not truly reflect the logging practices used to obtain that wood.

Peter Wood is a campaigner for Canopy Planet, as well as an adjunct professor at the UBC Faculty of Forestry and a consultant for organizations such as Ecojustice.  With greenwashing being so prevalent these days, our forest products are no different, so I sat down with Peter to chat all about the nuances of these false certifications, how they came to be, current legal challenges, and what you can do to help create a better marketplace for ethically sourced wood products.

Links & Resources from this episode:

EcoJustice legal challenges:

Against the Canadian Standards Association (e.g. certified Teal Jones and Fairy Creek tenure) (July 2021):

Against the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (e.g. certified a large proportion of Canadian forestry, including all BC Timber Sales) (November 2022)

This letter was sent by Canada’s consulate to New York State Senators in response to their proposed Deforestation-Free Procurement Act. The letter argues that "widespread use of third-party forest management certification...provides added assurance that a forest company is operating legally, sustainably and in compliance with world-recognized standards for sustainable forest management”. 

In the end, these lobbying efforts were successful in making sure that this law did not apply to Canada, as detailed in this CBC piece.

Canopy Planet forest mapper tool

KPMG Article

TJ Watts before & after photos from certified ‘sustainable’ old growth clearcuts

Regime changes & logging affecting Salmonid survival study

OSO Landslide in 2014* logging influence

Unbuilders

Competition Bureau - 1-800-348-5358 - @CompBureau

EU Anit-Greenwashing

Protect Old Growth in BC 

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters - this episode’s donation goes to The Awi’Nakola Foundation!

Learn more at https://www.awinakola.com/

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family for 1$ a month or more! - https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

What is economic reconciliation, why is it important, and what does it have to do with protecting lands and empowering communities?

I sat down with Michelle Laviolette, the director of Indigenous Banking Strategy at Vancity to break it all down and hear about all the ways that they are working to support and create opportunities for individuals and their communities.  They’ve been leading the charge in helping to support indigenous nations to provide banking and investment opportunities, to provide homeloans and retrofittings for climate sustainability, to opening up branches in remote communities to help support them, as well as tons of other incredible initiatives, so get ready to get inspired!

Todays episode is presented by Vancity, a community credit union based in the greater Vancouver region that operates on a local scale to support and build up the communities it operates in, investing in building a clean and fair world for all.  Put your money into doing good!

Learn more about Vancity and become a member by checking out VanCity.com.

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Michelle decided to give her donation to ⁠⁠Aborginal Mothers Centre.

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family - ⁠https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠⁠⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Siginaak Court Larabee is an incredible human who also happens to be the director of the Indigenous Life Sport Academy, a non-profit which works to provide Indigenous youth access to outdoor sports as a means of healing, and to build culture and community.  In this Podchat, I sat down with Court to chat all about the work he is doing as a leader within these communities, the recent growth they've had, his recent appearance on TV & in the Amazing Race Canada, and some intricacies surrounding the current state of affairs across Turtle Island with different Indigenous communities, Land Back, and Decolonization.  It’s truly inspiring stuff, and I’m so stoked to share this episode with you!

Trigger Warning: We discuss sensitive subjects here including Residential Schools, the 60's Scoop, drug & alcohol abuse, and racism against Indigenous people.  There are also parts of this conversation which may be a bit uncomfortable for some of you to hear for other reasons, addressing things like the type of privilege that comes from the colonization of stolen lands or ways that that privilege is upheld in certain communities or industries that furthers division, so I’d just like to take a moment here and remind everyone that it’s ok to be uncomfortable sometimes. We’re all here in this big old mess of life together and in order to figure this all out, we’ve get used to sitting through some mild discomfort from time to time, because that’s where we learn and that’s where we grow. So let’s get into this, hear some different perspectives, think about it all differently so that we can all work together to create a better world for us all.

Learn more & support the Indigenous Life Sport Academy: https://www.lifesportcanada.org/

@ILSAcrew: https://www.instagram.com/ilsacrew/

Watch our short film, 'Riding Red': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNMtDDvPvdc

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  - https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Leslie Anthony is a good friend of mine from the ski industry with a wide variety of skillsets.  Not only is he an outdoor travel and sports author, but a biologist who wrote a book called 'Aliens Among Us' a few years ago that's all about different invasive species, so I sat down with him alongside some train tracks to chat about it all!  Here we talk about different types of invasive species, what makes them invasive in the first place, how great they are at adapting, how they get around the world *cough*train tracks*cough*, and the different phases of preventing, detecting, eradicating and managing them.

Check out Leslies book 'Aliens Among Us' here: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0300208901/ref=x_gr_bb_amazon?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_bb_amazon_ca-20&linkCode=as2&camp=15121&creative=330641

Whistler Naturalists: https://www.whistlernaturalists.ca/

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  -> https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Undercurrents is a podcast series from Nerdy About Nature where we discuss recent studies, reports and news from the world of environment, ecology and climate which all impact our understanding of the world and the way we relate to it.  In other words, it’s all the unseen things that happen without much notice that impact the direction or flow of our society and the world we all share.

This episodes topics:

Boiling Microplastics:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00081

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2419556-boiling-tap-water-can-remove-80-per-cent-of-the-microplastics-in-it/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2366304-ingesting-microplastics-may-increase-fat-absorption-by-145-per-cent/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2420674-microplastics-linked-to-a-greater-risk-of-heart-attack-and-stroke/

Oil & Gas Gaslighting:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/04/exxon-chief-public-climate-failures
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/22/us-oil-company-exxonmobil-investors-climate-follow-this

Glyphosate:

https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-018-0184-7

https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/local-news/unbc-research-team-gets-15-million-to-study-glyphosate-8296613

https://www.evergreenalliance.ca/analysis/32/

Climate Bandaid Solutions:

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2023GL106132

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00119-3

Produced by Ross Reid

Hosted by Ross Reid & Julia Huggins

Nerdy About Nature is a passion project whose primary goal is to provide free access for all to education about this world so that people can enjoy it more, build connection and fall in love with it, and ultimately work in ways to steward it for future generations to enjoy.  We do this through short and long form videos all over social media @NerdyAboutNature, as well as this podcast you’re listening to now, and it’s all made possible thanks to support from folks like yourself.  If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating, you can help keep it going by supporting us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠⁠, or at ⁠⁠⁠⁠nerdyaboutnature.com⁠⁠⁠⁠. 

Natures pretty neat, ya know - let’s keep it that way!

Chelsea Greer is the Wolf Conservation Program Director at Raincoast Conservation, and we sat down one Autumn morning in the woods to chat all about wolves!  In this conversation, we delve into the concept of conservation ethics, different monitoring approaches, population dynamics, and their relationship with endangered mountain Caribou, as well as the history of wolves in Western Culture and how outdated misconceptions has lead to controversial Wolf culls throughout BC and beyond.

The takeaway - the big bad wolf you were taught to fear growing up was a flat-out lie.  They're actually a lot nicer, kinder and cooler than how they're commonly portrayed, and their future may depend on us learning how to see them differently.

More on Raincoast Conservation's Wolf Program: https://www.raincoast.org/wolf-science/

Learn More about the Trophy Hunt: https://www.raincoast.org/trophy-hunt/

Instagram: @raincoastconservation

Twitter: @raincoast @chelgreer

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  - https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Dr Rachel Holt is a forest ecologist based out of Nelson BC, and one of the authors of the infamous 'BC's Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity' Report that was published in 2020, which created a huge wake throughout Canada regarding forestry practices and our diminishing old growth forests.  The report and work she did also contributed to the BC Government's Strategic Review of Old Growth Forests which helped outline our current state of affairs and the direction the province needs to move in the future...so in short, Rachel is kind of a big deal in the world of forests.  Her and I sat down after working on another project together to chat through some of the details of biodiversity, habitat fragmentation, and what (if anything) is actually happening when it comes to changing the landscape of the forest industry in BC for the better.

Read BC's Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity - https://sierraclub.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/bcs-old-growth-forest-a-last-stand-for-biodiversity-report-2020.pdf

Science Alliance for Forestry Transformation - https://www.saftforestry.com/

Veridian Ecological - https://veridianecological.ca/

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  - https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature​You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Extinction is a common threat to thousands of species these days as a result of human development, logging, pollution, habitat loss and fragmentation, and the plethora of impacts relative to anthropogenic climate change. In all these cases, the two biggest contributing factors to a species going extinct is habitat loss and limited genetic variation in the population - but what if we applied that same logic to ecosystems? Just some deep thoughts on the hypocrisy of trying to ‘protect’ certain species while simultaneously simplifying and destroying the complexity of the ecosystems they rely on to survive at a time when they may never develop to be the same ever again. Let's not let these forests go the way of the dodo and instead let's work to find solutions to keep these ecosystems intact to help mitigate the impacts of climate change, stabilize our soils, protect us from wildfires, host all of this amazing biodiversity and continue being the backbone of the culture we live in for generations to come. Like this vid? Support Nerdy About Nature on Patreon to make more engaging videos like this possible! || SUPPORT THESE VIDEO PODCASTS ||

Follow elsewhere Nerdy About Nature for more engaging fun-facts to make your next jaunt into the outdoors more rad! || YouTube || Instagram || TikTok

You may have heard that being amongst a forest can help calm your nervous system, but did you know that getting your hands dirty can help clear your mind too?  

This week, I sat down with self-made gardening entrepreneurial creator Jordan Mara to chat all about the mental health benefits and aspects of gardening, and what he aims to do through his project Mind & Soil.  Come join us in his glorious backyard garden as it pops off in peak summer to learn all about mental health connections to the outdoors, attention restoration theory, creating play in your work, the joy of experimentation, how to make the best of your backyard, and growing your own garden whenever you may reside!

Mind & Soil: Website | YouTube | Instagram

Study from the Royal Horticulture Society

Attention Restoration Theory

National Geographic take on Attention Restoration Theory

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Jordan opted to support Food Banks Canada!

Learn more about their work

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family for 1$ a month or more!

Wanna ask a question?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Learn more about this episodes sponsor, Hoka & their Anacapa 2's

One of the biggest hurdles we face today is reducing our dependence on fossil fuels for energy, which are rampant in just about everything we do and consume on a daily basis.  Fortunately, it is possible and we have a roadmap for doing just that, which is the subject of today’s episode where we talk about decarbonizing the energy grid - that’s taking all of our electricity we’re currently using and finding ways to get the same amount from clean, renewable sources instead of from fossil fuels. What does that involve, what does it look like, and how do we get there as a society?

In this episode I sit down with Stephen Thomas, who is the Clean Energy Manager at the David Suzuki Foundation, to break it all down in terms of what it’s going to take for a country like Canada, which currently has plans to fully decarbonize the grid by the year 2035, to actually meet those goals.  

While we’re talking specifically about Canada in most of these examples here, many of these topics, methods, hurdles and solutions are very much applicable to communities and nations all over the world, especially those here on Turtle Island like the United States as we share lots of similarities in land use, long distances between cities across the continent, and how to ethically manage this change across existing nations in a decolonial way.

Lots to cover in this one from the types of energy we need to be focusing on, to the benefits of this energy, how much cheaper and more reliable it would be, to market opportunities and incentive programs in place to help support everyone throughout this transition so that no one gets left behind.  

Petition for Clean Energy in Canada

David Suzuki Foundation - Clean Energy

Shifting Power, Zero-Emissions Electricity Across Canada by 2035, DSF, 2022

Decarbonizing Electricity, and Decolonizing Power, DSF & Neegan-Burnside, 2022

Keeping the Lights On, DSF & Das-Martiskainan, 2022

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Stephen decided to send his donation to Mi’kmaw Grassroots Grandmothers!

Learn more and support them at https://stopaltongas.wordpress.com/donate/

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family for 1$ a month or more!

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Undercurrents is a podcast series from Nerdy About Nature where we discuss recent studies, reports and news from the world of environment, ecology and climate which all impact our understanding of the world and the way we relate to it.  In other words, it’s all the unseen things that happen without much notice that impact the direction or flow of our society and the world we all share.

This episodes topics:

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Collapse

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/09/atlantic-ocean-circulation-nearing-devastating-tipping-point-study-finds

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2416631-atlantic-current-shutdown-is-a-real-danger-suggests-simulation/

Global Ocean Temps

https://www.wired.com/story/ocean-temperatures-keep-shattering-records-and-stunning-scientists/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2416231-hottest-january-on-record-sees-the-world-reach-1-7c-warming-mark/

Closure of Duke University herbarium

https://www.science.org/content/article/tragic-mistake-decision-close-duke-university-s-herbarium-triggers-furor

Forest composition affects drought resistance

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01374-9

OGMA’s not actually Old Growth

https://www.todayinbc.com/news/less-than-13-of-bcs-old-growth-management-areas-are-old-growth-watchdog-7312857

"Old growth" antarctic moss beds as biological archives

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9826052/

Produced by Ross Reid

Hosted by Ross Reid & Julia Huggins

Nerdy About Nature is a passion project whose primary goal is to provide free access for all to education about this world so that people can enjoy it more, build connection and fall in love with it, and ultimately work in ways to steward it for future generations to enjoy.  We do this through short and long form videos all over social media @NerdyAboutNature, as well as this podcast you’re listening to now, and it’s all made possible thanks to support from folks like yourself.  If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating, you can help keep it going by supporting us at ⁠⁠patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠, or at ⁠⁠nerdyaboutnature.com⁠⁠. 

Natures pretty neat, ya know - let’s keep it that way!

Hello there, fellow nature nerds!  Welcome to the Nerdy About Nature Podcast!  

After tons of feedback from all of you, I've decided to step into this unknown realm of audio for a whole new medium that's sure to have it's fair share of ups and downs, but all in good fun, right?!

Here's just a little introduction to my mindset for creating this series, as well some detail on the first few shows I have planned in a new series of 'podchats' where I sit down with various folks and talk about issues pertaining to nature, the world around us, or even human nature!  Because us humans, after all, are a part of nature, not apart from it.

Bear with me as I learn and grow from this awkward new venture, and stay tuned for more fun episodes to come!

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you're enjoying this podcast series or all the fun, goofy and educational videos on social media, you can help support their production by becoming a patron and my Patreon page via NerdyAboutNature.com!  You can join for as little as 1$ a month and get all sorts of sweet perks, and your support goes into giving me the stability to continue to put more energy into this whole project.

A few months ago in the news, you may have heard or seen articles about open net fish farms being removed from BC waters, and thought, “Wow!  That’s great!”...and then not done or heard much since then.  As you may or may not be aware, fish farms are one of the biggest threats to our at risk and endangered populations of wild Pacific Salmon that travel all over the ocean from down south in Oregon up through BC and into Alaska, and the fight to get these farms fully removed from BC waters is still ongoing, despite what you may have heard (or not heard) in the news.  

I sat down with Kilian Stehfast who is a marine conservation specialist at David Suzuki Foundation to chat all about these fish farms, their history, how they came to be, the threats they pose to wild salmon and why that matters, and what the future of aquaculture looks like here in BC.  It’s a great episode and you’re gonna learn a lot not only about this industry, but what you can do to get involved to help ensure the survival of those awesome anadromous fish that tie us and these ecosystems we all reside in together.  

David Suzuki Foundation - Fish Farms

More on Indigenous Clam Gardens

Background on Fish Farming & Aquaculture

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Kilian decided to send his donation to Clayoquot Action!

Learn more about the advocacy they do at www.ClayoquotAction.org

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family for 1$ a month or more!

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

I'm going to start releasing some of my slightly longer video here in a new series I'm tentatively calling 'Thought Snacks', because that's what they are...not quite a full meal, but just enough to get those wheels turning and reflecting about the world we live in.

When it comes to impacts of climate change, wildfire is one of the hottest topics there is days - pun intended!  A majority of our forests across Turtle Island have become prone to very violent, catastrophic fires, whether as a result of fire suppression that has allowed stands to become thick and overgrown, or excessive commercial logging that has replaced stand diversity with an even-aged secondgrowth forest.
As a means of addressing these issues, forest thinning has become popular, where trees are felled to increase spacing so that fire, when it does occur, doesn’t have the fuel connectivity to spread and escalate.
In many commercial thinning operations, companies are granted access to previously off-limits oldgrowth forests in order to thin them for ‘fire-proofing’, which in theory would consist of removing the smaller, immature trees to create the necessary spacing and reduce fuel load while leaving the older, more mature and naturally fire resistant trees that would have existed on those landscapes prior to colonization…but unfortunately that’s not often what happens.
This is expensive, skilled work and those little trees fetch very little market value, so instead this thinning is often done by ‘high grading’ these forests, which is a term that means they only take the biggest, most monetarily valuable old growth trees, and instead leave the smaller trees spaced out. This unfortunately does very little to increase the fire resilience and overall ecological function of these ecosystems, meaning that it’s no effective thinning for fire management.
Commercial operations hopping through loopholes and taking advantage of the situation by using either thinning or salvage as a justification to continue logging old growth forest for their own monetary gain, and doing so in a way that actually jeopardizes the health of these lands and our collective future amongst them is just unethical, irresponsible, and shouldn’t be allowed.  We need proper thinning efforts done to restore the health, vitality and resilience of these ecosystems first and foremost to create a better, safer future for our communities.

This is yet another special edition of Undercurrents - instead of sharing and discussing recent science news, articles or studies here, Julia & Ross discuss important recent events regarding funding and the state of science in the US after the first week of the new presidency.

Undercurrents is a podcast series from Nerdy About Nature where we discuss recent studies, reports and news from the world of environment, ecology and climate which all impact our understanding of the world and the way we relate to it.  In other words, it’s all the unseen things that happen without much notice that impact the direction or flow of our society and the world we all share.

Produced by Ross Reid

Hosted by Ross Reid & Julia Huggins

Nerdy About Nature is a passion project whose primary goal is to provide free access for all to education about this world so that people can enjoy it more, build connection and fall in love with it, and ultimately work in ways to steward it for future generations to enjoy.  We do this through short and long form videos all over social media @NerdyAboutNature, as well as this podcast you’re listening to now, and it’s all made possible thanks to support from folks like yourself.  If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating, you can help keep it going by supporting us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nerdyaboutnature.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. 

Charlotte Dawe is a campaigner with the Wilderness Committee who works on various issues regarding policy around biodiversity, at-risk & endangered species, old growth logging, glyphosate spraying, and many more.  Her and I caught up to debrief on COP15, the United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity in Montreal, to hear all about the good, the bad and all the goss of this global shindig, and what it all means for BC, Canada and the world.  We talk all about hurdles to protecting biodiversity, shotty old outdated legislation that stands in the way, crazy loopholes, big corporate interests lobbying for their own needs, policy failures and successes, glyphosate spraying and much much more.

Learn more about the Wilderness Committee at WildernessCommittee.org or @Wildernews

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters - this episode’s donation goes to Indigenous Climate Action!

Learn more at IndigenousClimateAction.com

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family for 1$ a month or more! - https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature 

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also get NAN merch, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

What the heck is a bioregion, what does that mean and why does it matter? Well, I’ll tell ya, because thinking bioregionally is a key component of recognizing the ground underneath your feet and the role it plays in the broader systems of earth to create a better future for us all. A bioregion is an area of land that is defined by physical properties or boundaries like coastline and mountain ranges that contain a similar mix of biota, or plant and animal species throughout, and interdependent hydrological patterns of flow that unites the region. No matter where on this planet you live, you are part of a bioregion, and what happens in one part of the world has literal trickle down impacts to another, and beyond into the oceans that unite all these different bioregions. Everything is interconnected beyond our myopic, linear way of human-thinking, and once you’re able to see this, it affects your values and thus the choices you make. From big to small, every choice we make and actions we take impacts those around us, and thinking bioregionally allows one to realize that many of the issues we talk about in silos are not limited to one little region or community, that they have bigger cross-border implications that impact the quality of lives we all live. Thinking at a bioregional scale helps contain and quantify the impact one has as a stepping stone to thinking about our global impact. It put our actions into perspective so that we can make changes that when compounded, really can make a difference. Support people and businesses in your bioregion that operate with the health of both their and your communities in mind, take action against developments that threaten the interconnections you rely on, and let’s work to break down those arbitrary lines of division to realize that at the end of the day, we’re all in this together.

Like this vid? Support Nerdy About Nature on Patreon to make more engaging videos like this possible! ⁠|| SUPPORT THESE VIDEO PODCASTS ||⁠

Follow elsewhere Nerdy About Nature for more engaging fun-facts to make your next jaunt into the outdoors more rad! || ⁠YouTube ⁠|| ⁠Instagram⁠ || ⁠TikTok

Forestry is a large part of the culture and economy of the PNW in both the US and Canada, but over a century of poor forest management has led to some of the largest issues we face today from a lack of biodiversity and carbon stores, to ecosystems that are less resilient to drought and forest fires.

How can we create healthy communities living amongst healthy forest lands through a thriving forestry industry? Well, simply put - it's by changing the way we do things and learning to value a forest for more than just its value as a source of timber.

I sit down with Barry Gates of Wildwood Ecoforest to talk all about ecoforestry as the best solution to our industrial logging complex problem, and I hope you find it as incredible and inspiring as I did. There's a lot of work to be done, but thankfully Barry and the crew at Wildwood have already done the ground work in laying out a clear path for a better future, so let's get to walkin' it already!

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Barry decided to send his donation to ⁠Stand.Earth

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family - https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

In case you missed it, I took a brief hiatus from your regular programming to run for MLA of the Mid Island - Pacific Rim riding as the Green Party of BC Candidate and whewwww, what a time!

After a long campaign period of lots of learnings, I unfortunately wasn't elected...but thats alright with me, I've got other things to focus on and I may revisit it again in the future.

After a week and a half of decompressing, I've decided to pop on here and share some thoughts and reflections on the whole experience with y'all in a long-winded rant, while also taking time to address some questions that many of you had here. Massive thanks to everyone who supported me and who voted in this election, y'all are the best, and together we can make the future a pretty rad place!

Links:

Green Party of BC 2024 Platform PDF

Green Party of BC Platform site

Enjoying Nerdy About Nature? Support this project on Patreon to make podcasts like this possible! ⁠⁠|| SUPPORT THESE PODCASTS ||⁠⁠

Follow elsewhere Nerdy About Nature for more engaging fun-facts to make your next jaunt into the outdoors more rad! || ⁠⁠YouTube ⁠⁠|| ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ || ⁠⁠TikTok

Mark Worthing is the Coastal Projects Lead for Sierra Club BC and is an incredibly well-spoken, intelligent, and inspirational guy doing some really important work for our forests, indigenous nations, and the world at large.  He & I sat down to chat about the connections between forests and politics, and in this chat we cover quite a bit - Government / Industry ties that create forestry policy and the hype behind deferrals, the shortcomings of conservation groups in the past, what indigenous sovereignty looks like and how we can break down the barriers of colonization that still exist today, and even some more philosophical conversation around the concept of 'optimism' and what keeps him moving forward through what can often be very heavy, heartbreaking work.  

This chat may contain some sensitive talking points or perspectives, but I feel that it is really important for us all to embrace the discomfort that comes with these conversations.  These are incredible important issues that will only ever be solved through active, engaged participation and working through these uncomfortable scenarios together, so that we can all work to create a world that benefits us all.  Let's embrace that goal by learning and growing together.

Learn more about the Ma’amtagila www.maamtagila.ca

Find out about Sierra Club BC’s Campaigns at www.SierraClub.bc.ca

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  -> https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature​

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

There is a lot of talk these days about the melding of Indigenous knowledge with Western Science, and I couldn't think of anyone better to get into the weeds (pun intended) on the subject with than Leigh Joseph.

Leigh is a member of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) and a working ethnobotanist who does a lot of incredible work bridging the gaps in understanding between western and indigenous knowledge, while also working to re-establish Indigenous food gardens and cultivate crops as they would have been prior to colonization on her traditional homelands.  She’s the owner of Skwalwen Botanicals, a skincare brand that creates everything from plants cultivated from the land, the author of a new book called ‘Held By the Land’, and she’s just an overall lovely and inspiring human with who has a lot of great ideas and perspectives on the world I think we all could benefit from learning.

I had the incredible honour of sitting down by the Squamish Estuary on a hot, sunny, summer day to chat about all this and more with Leigh, and I hope y'all enjoy it!

Learn more about Leigh & her work.

Take care of your skin with Skwalwen Botanicals.

Get your copy of "Held by The Land"

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Leigh chose to give hers to The PEPAKEṈ HÁUTW̱  Foundation

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by becoming a paid subscriber on ⁠Patreon or Substack.

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Diane Rudge is a natural textile artist & one of the co-founders of The Den, a small refillery on the coast of Vancouver Island that focuses increasing access to organic, natural and locally made products.  Her and I sat down and chatted about the way that us humans use and consume products (often mindlessly) and all that she's doing to re-envision and re-educate folks on the way that we use household, cleaning, self-care, travel products & more in our day-to-day lives for a more sustainable and locally focused future.  

Learn more at www.TheDenUcluelet.com

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  -> https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature​

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

This is a special edition of Undercurrents - instead of sharing and discussing recent news, articles or studies here, Julia & Ross delve into their thoughts and reflections given the results of the recent US Presidential election, and what that means moving forward.

Undercurrents is a podcast series from Nerdy About Nature where we discuss recent studies, reports and news from the world of environment, ecology and climate which all impact our understanding of the world and the way we relate to it.  In other words, it’s all the unseen things that happen without much notice that impact the direction or flow of our society and the world we all share.

Produced by Ross Reid

Hosted by Ross Reid & Julia Huggins

Nerdy About Nature is a passion project whose primary goal is to provide free access for all to education about this world so that people can enjoy it more, build connection and fall in love with it, and ultimately work in ways to steward it for future generations to enjoy.  We do this through short and long form videos all over social media @NerdyAboutNature, as well as this podcast you’re listening to now, and it’s all made possible thanks to support from folks like yourself.  If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating, you can help keep it going by supporting us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nerdyaboutnature.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. 

Undercurrents is a podcast series from Nerdy About Nature where we discuss recent studies, reports and news from the world of environment, ecology and climate which all impact our understanding of the world and the way we relate to it.  In other words, it’s all the unseen things that happen without much notice that impact the direction or flow of our society and the world we all share.

This episodes topics:

Shifting Heatwaves:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adl1598

The Cost of Bad Winters:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13683500.2024.2314700

Droughts and Fire:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168192324001059

Nitrogen Impeding Nocturnal Pollinators:

https://www.science.org/content/article/night-pollution-keeps-pollinating-insects-smelling-flowers

Better Variable Retention Management:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112723000816

Produced by Ross Reid

Hosted by Ross Reid & Julia Huggins

Nerdy About Nature is a passion project whose primary goal is to provide free access for all to education about this world so that people can enjoy it more, build connection and fall in love with it, and ultimately work in ways to steward it for future generations to enjoy.  We do this through short and long form videos all over social media @NerdyAboutNature, as well as this podcast you’re listening to now, and it’s all made possible thanks to support from folks like yourself.  If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating, you can help keep it going by supporting us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nerdyaboutnature.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. 

Natures pretty neat, ya know - let’s keep it that way!

On every surface of every single thing, there are tiny microbial forces at work creating the world we live in.  From oily sheens on pond water to streaks of red mud, the evidence of these little microbes is more obvious than you may think - you’ve just gotta know where to look, and what to look for!

Back for her third appearance, Julia Huggins takes us deep into the world of everyday microbes to share fun facts all about the life on life on life that surrounds us!  We learn about the power these little living beings have on the bigger planet we all share, which brings us to some pretty interesting conversation regarding what life is, and what it may look like on other planets.  Enjoy!

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Julia decided to support The Last Stand Legal Defence Fund.

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family for 1$ a month or more!

Wanna ask a question?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Undercurrents is a podcast series from Nerdy About Nature where we discuss recent studies, reports and news from the world of environment, ecology and climate which all impact our understanding of the world and the way we relate to it.  In other words, it’s all the unseen things that happen without much notice that impact the direction or flow of our society and the world we all share.

This episodes topics:

Saving Bats -

https://thenarwhal.ca/endangered-bats-fake-old-growth-trees/

Plants Evolving to have Less Sex -

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19422

How Moss Piglets survive -

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295062
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2412569-we-finally-know-how-tardigrades-can-survive-extreme-conditions/

https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-2023-hottest-year-record

Produced by Ross Reid

Hosted by Ross Reid & Julia Huggins

Nerdy About Nature is a passion project whose primary goal is to provide free access for all to education about this world so that people can enjoy it more, build connection and fall in love with it, and ultimately work in ways to steward it for future generations to enjoy.  We do this through short and long form videos all over social media @NerdyAboutNature, as well as this podcast you’re listening to now, and it’s all made possible thanks to support from folks like yourself.  If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating, you can help keep it going by supporting us at ⁠patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠, or at ⁠nerdyaboutnature.com⁠. 

Natures pretty neat, ya know - let’s keep it that way!

After a serious of events that left me in need of a new car and long, arduous process of deliberation, I ended up getting a used PHEV, and decided to talk about my thought process here. Instead of going over the details, features, performance of the Rav4 Prime I ended up getting, I wanted to address the larger, more ethical issues associated with getting a car that still uses fossil fuels as gas, in addition to lithium in a battery, in this world we live in plagued by climate change driven impacts like extreme wildfire and drought.

I start by breaking down the choice between a car & public transportation in todays world, the differences between gas and electric cars ethically, affordability of the change, and the cultural shift of having to think of things differently in order to support technology that aims to create a better future. Lot's to cover here, so buckle up, and let's go for a ride!

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family for 1$ a month or more!

Wanna ask a question?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Undercurrents is a podcast series from Nerdy About Nature where we discuss recent studies, reports and news from the world of environment, ecology and climate which all impact our understanding of the world and the way we relate to it.  In other words, it’s all the unseen things that happen without much notice that impact the direction or flow of our society and the world we all share.

This episodes topics:

Norway Seabed Exploration:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00088-7

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605320000277

Forest Restoration in WA:

⁠https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/csp2.13004

Orca Matriarch Death:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-biggs-killer-whale-wake-presumed-dead-1.7074033

- Citzen Science for Whale ID: https://happywhale.com/

Lack of Oldgrowth in ON & QC affecting Caribou: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/1/6

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/world/canada/canada-boreal-forest-logging.html

Lack of Oldgrowth left in QC:

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/01/10/news/push-protect-rare-old-growth-forests

Antarctic Heatwave and Atmospheric River:

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/clim/37/3/JCLI-D-23-0175.1.xml

Forest Fire Resilience in CA:

https://forests.berkeley.edu/sites/forests.berkeley.edu/files/The%20Fire%20and%20Fire%20Surrogate%20Study%20Summary_2.pdf

Produced by Ross Reid

Hosted by Ross Reid & Julia Huggins

Nerdy About Nature is a passion project whose primary goal is to provide free access for all to education about this world so that people can enjoy it more, build connection and fall in love with it, and ultimately work in ways to steward it for future generations to enjoy.  We do this through short and long form videos all over social media @NerdyAboutNature, as well as this podcast you’re listening to now, and it’s all made possible thanks to support from folks like yourself.  If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating, you can help keep it going by supporting us at patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature, or at nerdyaboutnature.com. 

Natures pretty neat, ya know - let’s keep it that way!

A founding member of Indigenous Women Outdoors and coach with ILSA, Sandy Ward is an avid snowboarder, mountain biker and climber from the Lil'wat nation working to carve out a path for more Indigenous folks to get into the outdoors in a safe, welcoming space, and to see their ancestral lands from new a perspective through sport.  Her and I sat down to talk about her journey in the outdoor sports world as a coach, athlete and mentor, how mindsets have shifted towards these recreational activities both within and outside of Indigenous communities, and other issues regarding working with Indigenous nations when it comes to building bike trails, skateparks and more.

Sandy is a really inspiring, awesome human, and you're gonna love to hear what she has to say!  

For more on the work she's doing, you can check out: 

Indigenous Women Outdoors: https://www.indigenouswomenoutdoors.ca/ 

Indigenous Life Sport Academy: https://www.lifesportcanada.org/

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!

If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for 1$ a month or more!

- https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Over the past 40 years, Tla-O-Qui-Aht First Nation has been fighting relentlessly for their traditional unceded territory with the colonial government of BC / Canada so that they can implement a land vision and stewardship model that seeks to benefit society at large, while preserving options and opportunity for their grandchildren.

I sat down with Saya Masso, the Lands & Resources Manager for Tla-O-Qui-Aht First Nation, to chat about the origins of their Tribal Parks, trials and tribulations along the way, recent wins, and the vision for the future they hope to achieve. A truly fun and charismatic guy, Saya has a great deal of experience and unique perspective on some of the most pressing issues we as a society face today, with progressive solutions that work to create an equitable, inclusive and diverse future for all of us who reside amongst these lands. Listen in, and get inspired!

Learn more about the Tla-O-Qui-Aht Tribal Parks Allies at TribalParks.com

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Saya decided to give his donation to the Tla-O-Qui-Aht Language Keepers Program.

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

The first introduction episode to a new podcast series I'm starting here called 'Undercurrents'

Every couple of weeks, I'll be connecting with Julia Huggins (PHD, huge nerd) where we'll share interesting articles, studies, and news from the world of environmental science, ecology, climate, and everything in between!

The goal here is to be able to provide you all with more consistent, steady educational content to keep you up to date with the science and happenings of today, because as our understanding of the world around us changes, our relationship to it changes. This series is all about the subtle, unseen but often felt shifts in the undercurrent of our society that influences the direction we all flow.

Looking forward to releasing the first episode in just a couple of days, so stay tuned!

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family for 1$ a month or more! - ⁠https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠

Produced by Ross Reid

Hosted by Ross Reid & Julia Huggins

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Indra Hayre & I took a drizzly day to sit down and chat about diversity, equity & inclusion in the outdoor world, and all that she's learned through her experiences growing up as a brown girl in a world often dominated by white men.

Learn more about Indra's project, Inclu-SKI-vity, at https://www.instagram.com/incluskivity

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  -> https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature​

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

For the past couple hundred years, buildings and homes in North America have been constructied using virgin timber from the vast forest resources that once stretched across the continent, and when those structures fall out of use, they are typically demolished, sending all of those old high quality timbers to the dump.

Yet with that supply of quality oldgrowth timbers virtually non-existent these days, and second growth timbers not quite being of the same caliber, perhaps there's a way we can be less wasteful, more creative, and more resourceful in what we scrap, and what we build with what remains?

Thats where the concept of 'deconstruction' comes in, or the process of taking a building apart and saving all of the most high quality pieces to be used again in new structures. I sat down with Adam Corneil of Unbuilders & Heritage Lumber to chat all about this budding industry, the challenges and benefits, and how thinking in a more circular fashion is better for our society and our forests.

Learn more about Unbuilders and all the great work they do at Unbuilders.com, and all the great vintage wood products they create at HeritageLumber.ca

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Adam decided to give his donation to ⁠⁠ The Re-Use People Of Canada

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family - ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠⁠

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Have you ever stopped for a moment to think about where all our food comes from, and how it came to be? Well, if you know anything about ecology and life on this planet, you’d know that a vast majority of all that food either directly or indirectly comes from the work of pollinators. Without them, there would be no fruit, no squash or pumpkins, no berries and jam, no cattle or turkey feed so no meat…they literally are the reason we’re able to eat so much of this deliciousness. So today I’m sitting down with Emilie Usher, an urban bee-keeper and flower fanatic to chat all about our most beloved pollinators, bees. We tend to immediately think of honey bees here, but it turns out our native wild bees all around North America play massive roles not only in the health of our agriculture industries, but the functional ecology of the lands we all live amongst, and are incredibly important to biodiversity and our future on this planet.

So why are bees so important? Do they like certain flowers more than others? How long do they live? Do they all live in hives? Do they all sting? Whats going on with those flashy green bees I see from time to time? Let’s dive into this tiny, fascinating world with Emily here and learn all about these awesome little critters.

Learn more about Alveole

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from ⁠Patreon⁠ supporters, and in this episode Emilie opted to support The Xerces Society!

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the ⁠Patreon⁠ family for 1$ a month or more!

Wanna ask a question?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at ⁠www.NerdyAboutNature.com⁠

Learn more about this episodes sponsor, ⁠Hoka & their Anacapa 2's

Tom Balfour is a fish ecologist and fish program manager at Redd Fish Restoration Society, working to restore habitat for Wild Salmon out on the coast of Vancouver Island.  He & I sat down in a creek and weathered a few little rain showers to chat all about these amazing fish, from their history in these Cascadian waters to all the factors that impact their populations today, and finding positive action in such dire times.  

Learn more about Redd Fish Restoration Society at https://www.reddfish.org 

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  -> https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

I sat down with Myia Antone on the banks of the Squamish River to chat about Language, Land, and our ever-changing relationship to it as we, as a society of both settlers and Indigenous peoples, move forward together.  

Learn more about Myia's project, Indigenous Women Outdoors at https://www.indigenouswomenoutdoors.ca/

Learn more about the Snichim Foundation & support Squamish Language speakers at https://snichimfoundation.ca/

TBD

At a top level, the lives we live are governed by political systems which control regulations, policy and set enforcements for how we treat each other not only within our human societies, but they can heavily impact the way our societies interact with the grander, more interconnected natural world that we all share.  In order to create lasting change for the better in the world today, it ultimately has to happen on a political level to officially set the direction of society…a daunting task, for sure.

I sat down with Sonia Furstenau, the leader of the BC Green party, to get her perspective on this whole system we have established in Canada, it’s strengths and shortcomings, and some of the most glaring issues we faced that still need to be addressed.  Honestly, the political landscape these days can often leave me feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, but chatting with Sonia gave me great hope for the future in that people like her are working hard every day to help create that better world.

Sit down with us outside the Parliament building in Victoria BC to learn all about the inner workings of policy and how they translate to on-the-ground protections for things like old growth forests and Northern Spotted Owls, the convoluted wedge politics of different parties that hinders collaboration, how we can humanize the politics and indigenize the institutions, and how every day folks like you and me can get involved for change.

Learn more about Sonia & the BC Green Party

Each episode of Nerdy About Nature makes a donation to a non-profit of the guests choosing using funds from Patreon supporters, and in this episode Sonia decided to send her donation to The Mother Tree Project!

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you.  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, help me keep making them by joining the Patreon family for 1$ a month or more! - https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature

Got Questions?  Want Stickers?  Want community?  Wanna engage?  Do it all as a Patreon member, it’s easy!

You can also make a one-time donation, get NAN merch, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Oo hot goss’ alert!

A new leaked map shows that while the top scientists on the Oldgrowth Technical Advisory Committee panel were picking out the best remaining old growth forest to protect in BC, the Ministry of Forests was actively undoing all that work, changing the borders on the deferral areas to include more low productivity forest while making the best forest left in the bioregion available to be logged by industry.  You heard that right - government and industry blatantly working in hand in hand behind the peoples backs.

Despite all the protests, the phone calls, the letters and the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, the BC NDP smiled to your face and lied, while working behind closed doors with the logging industry to make sure that they could continue to log old-growth, just as they always had.

It’s clear that those currently running our government are beyond ethically and morally corrupt, as they willfully ignore the demands of the people they were elected to serve, in order to line their pockets and continue to pander to a wealthy, established, power-hungry colonial capitalist resource extraction industry.

So how do we create change in a system so determined to keep things as they are?

Why do we spend so much time trying to fix those stagnant, broken systems that refuse to change, when we could be creating new systems altogether?

What if we abolished the Ministry of Forests, created a Ministry of Ecology, and fundamentally changed the way we operate on these lands and in our communities?

Let’s think differently to create a different outcome than this repetitive disappointment and corruption.

Drop your ideas in the comments, engage in some constructive conversation, and let’s find a way to move forward together.

Nerdy About Nature is a passion project whose primary goal is to provide free access for all to education about this world so that people can enjoy it more, build connection and fall in love with it, and ultimately work in ways to steward it for future generations to enjoy.  We do this through short and long form videos all over social media @NerdyAboutNature, as well as this podcast you’re listening to now, and it’s all made possible thanks to support from folks like yourself.  If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating, you can help keep it going by supporting us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature⁠⁠⁠⁠, or at ⁠⁠⁠⁠nerdyaboutnature.com⁠⁠⁠⁠. 

I sat down with Jessica Hutchinson amongst some ancient Redcedars and Salal to chat about forests and how they've been affected by modern logging practices, how that then impacts Salmon and the broader ecosystems in which we live, and all the good work she is doing at Redd Fish Restoration Society to help fix these problems created by our past.

Learn more about Redd Fish Restoration Society at https://www.reddfish.org

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  -> https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature​

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com

Julia Huggins is a forest ecologist, microbiologist, National Geographic Naturalist, PHD student and huuuuge nerd who specializes in the tiny world that makes up the big world we all share - microbes!  Her & I sat down amongst some Alders to chat about the role microbes play in our forests and the biogeochemical processes across the globe, and even got our hands dirty digging for microbial root nodules.  From bacteria to lichen, you're gonna love this chat!

Here's that TED talk from Paul Stamets we referenced - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5frPV58tY

Nerdy About Nature is an independent passion project that relies on support from folks like you!  If you’re enjoying this podcast and videos, please don’t hesitate to support their production at my Patreon page for as little as 1$ per month!  -> https://www.patreon.com/nerdyaboutnature​

You can also get NAN merch, stickers, resources and more information at www.NerdyAboutNature.com