Editor:
Regular readers of the Outlook will be well aware of growing concerns in our mountain communities regarding the accelerating impacts of climate heating. One of the most frequently asked questions is this one: “I am just one person, what can one person do?” artsPlace and the environment committee of the Canmore Rotary Club took advantage of Earth Day to answer just that question.
In a series of excellent presentations, invited experts demonstrated how you – as just one person – can naturalize and transform your lawn or garden into a miracle of biodiversity restoration. In an act of meaningful and practical outreach to the community, presenters showed that even if all you have is a space on your balcony, that is all you need to plant flowers that will not only give you joy to look at and serve as a connection to place, but that will attract pollinators that you can watch as they transform where you live into a rich pocket of badly needed natural biodiversity.
By selecting native flowering plants that have co-evolved with pollinators, you can even pick which – hummingbirds, bees or butterflies – you most want to attract.
Soil and seeds were given free to those who attended and all left with a new sense of the power we all have – every single one of us – to use nature-based solutions to make where we live an ever-better place. By normalizing new behaviours, we can not only make where we live more beautiful, but do something satisfying that in a small but meaningful way makes where we live more resilient to a changing climate.
Thank you, artsPlace! Bravo, Canmore Rotary!
Bob Sandford,
Canmore
