Restoring Balance: How Nature-Based Solutions Can Heal Our Land and Water
Four hundred years ago, the U.S. contained 1,023 million acres of forests — the tree coverage spanning nearly half of the total land area. More than 250,000 rivers flowed freely through the land. Since then, more than 250 million acres of forests have been cut down, the vast majority in the second half of the 19th century, when an average of 13 square miles of forest were cleared every day for 50 years. There are more than 90,000 registered dams, meaning that, on average, the U.S. has built one large dam every day since the Declaration of Independence. These concrete and steel barriers disrupt the flow of about 20% of the country’s rivers. Similar practices have caused ecological disruption and damage across the world, contributing to increasingly severe and frequent floods, droughts and wildfires. Forests that have been clear-cut once helped channel and retain water, wetlands that have been eliminated once helped control flooding, and ecologically balanced forests that have been destabilized once helped deter massive wildfires. To restore the natural systems we’ve disrupted, we must turn away from more “gray infrastructure” — dams, levees, concrete channels — and toward nature-based solutions. We must accept that we cannot build our way out of this mess. Hear from journalist Erica Gies, forest ecologist Suzanne Simard, water policy expert Felicia Marcus and environmental advocate Laura Tam about the groundbreaking initiatives working to restore land and water and move beyond the arrogant attempts to subdue and dominate nature that have brought the massive challenges we now face.
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Bridging the Gap Between Nature and Infrastructure: Insights from Leading Experts on Nature-Based Solutions
While increasing environmental crises reveal the limitations of traditional infrastructure, the conversation around nature-based solutions (NbS) is gaining critical momentum. These solutions, which harness natural processes to address ecological and societal challenges, are emerging in many cases as promising alternatives to conventional approaches. This shift is not just a response to the inadequacies of gray infrastructure, but a recognition of the profound interconnections between human systems and natural ecosystems. In this discussion, four leading experts shed light on how nature-based solutions can restore balance and resilience to our environments. Erica Gies,?journalist and National Geographic Explorer, has dedicated her career to covering the intricate relationships between water, climate change, and the natural world. Suzanne Simard, a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and author of Finding the Mother Tree, is renowned for her pioneering research on plant communication and forest resilience. Felicia Marcus, a prominent figure in California water policy and currently a fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program, brings a wealth of experience in integrating nature-based solutions into water management and policy. Laura Tam, a Senior Program Officer at Resources Legacy Fund, leverages her extensive background in environmental policy to advocate for climate resilience and community adaptation. ?
Before and after images of Copco, Beaver Creek, dating from February 2024 and May 2024. Images courtesy of RES, which is helping lead the Klamath River restoration project.
The Slow Water Movement: How to Thrive in an Age of Drought and Deluge
Journalist and National Geographic Explorer Erica Gies says we must reevaluate our relationship to water in the face of increasingly severe and frequent droughts and floods. She says in Euro-North American culture, water is considered either a threat or a commodity, leading to an urge to try to control it. Centering human needs, communities build levees and dams. But this is not the only way. While researching her book, “Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge,” Gies traveled around the world and met many people who have a different culture around water. These communities demonstrate that water can simply be seen, first and foremost, as a source of life. In this presentation, Gies shares both ancient and cutting-edge approaches to water management being implemented around the world.?
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Suzanne Simard: Dealing with Backlash Against Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change
For decades, scientists have warned about the consequences of deforestation and fossil fuel burning that have led to today’s climate and biodiversity crises. They have also conducted careful research that has helped inform development of nature-based solutions. Despite the urgency of the interdependent crises and the agency we have in helping address them, efforts abound to discredit much of that peer-reviewed climate change science. Suzanne Simard, Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and author of the bestselling book “Finding the Mother Tree,” delves into the recent backlash she’s experienced regarding her scientific work informing climate solutions for the forests of western North America.
Call for Artists for 2025 Bioneers Conference?
Bioneers is excited for art to play a vital, celebratory and transformational role at its 36th annual conference. The conference will take place March 27-29, 2025, in Berkeley, California, across several different locations. Bioneers is accepting applications for outdoor performances, indoor installations and sculptures as part of its mission to program the conference with captivating and compelling art. Applications are due November 1, 2024, by 11:59 p.m. PST. View the above artwork?“Or The Whale” by Jos Sances.?
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Upcoming Bioneers Learning Courses
We’re excited to announce that our new season of Bioneers Learning is online, and registration is open! You can register for our first-ever self-paced courses, along with courses covering topics such as the Rights of Nature movement, regenerative herbalism, and sacred activism.