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24 The Forest and the Trees

Charlotte Gill
British Columbia
Charlotte Gill,  British Columbia

Charlotte Gill is the author of the story collection Ladykiller, a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, winner of the Danuta Gleed Award and the BC Book Prize for Fiction. Her narrative non-fiction has been nominated for Western and National Magazine Awards. Gill spent nearly two decades working in the forests of Canada and has planted more than a million trees, an experience that informs her new memoir, Eating Dirt: Field Notes on Deep Forests, Big Timber and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe. Read more

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Andrew Nikiforuk,  Alberta

Andrew Nikiforuk is a well-known Canadian journalist whose work has appeared in Saturday Night, Maclean’s, Canadian Business, Report on Business, Chatelaine, Equinox, and Canadian Family and in the Globe and Mail and the National Post. His books include Pandemonium; Saboteurs, which won a Governor General’s Award; Fourth Horseman and Tar Sands. Read more

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Host: Kathryn Gretsinger
Thursday, October 20, 2011 - 10:00am - 11:30am
Revue Stage
$17/ $8.50 for student groups

Charlotte Gill spent 20 years planting trees across Canada, shoving more than one million trees into the dirt by hand. Eating Dirt is her memoir about life with what she calls “the tree planting tribe” and the environmental implications of logging. In Empire of the Beetle, journalist Andrew Nikiforuk looks at a tiny insect the size of a rice kernel—the bark beetle—that has killed more than 30 billion pine and spruce trees from Alaska to northern Mexico and changed the economic outlook irrevocably. This is sure to be a thought-provoking discussion about planting and harvesting our forests—whether intentionally or not—led by two who really can see the forest and the trees.

Suitable for grades 8–12

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View the study guide for this event.

The Forest and the Trees

Charlotte Gill spent 20 years planting trees across Canada, shoving more than one million trees into the dirt by hand. Eating Dirt is her memoir about life with what she calls “the tree planting tribe” and the environmental implications of logging. Journalist Andrew Nikiforuk in Empire of the Beetle looks at a tiny insect the size of a rice kernel –the bark beetle – that has killed more than 30 billion pine and spruce trees from Alaska to northern Mexico and changed the economic outlook irrevocably. This is sure to be a thought-provoking discussion about planting and harvesting our forests –whether intentionally or not – led by two who really can see the forest and the trees.

Curriculum Connection:

  • Environment & Sustainability
  • Global responsibility
  • Science

Activities:

1. Have students do a carbon footprint calculation of their home or school to determine the contributions their choice of building material makes to their carbon footprint

a.       As a class, discuss the various results of the carbon footprint calculation. Have students work in groups to research what steps their local city hall, the provincial government and their school board are doing to help reduce their carbon footprints.

2. Effects of climate change locally

a.       Create a discussion about the effects of climate change on forest ecosystems. Have students contact their local BC Ministry of Forests, Ministry of Environment, or a local forest products company and ask what changes they are experiencing locally as a result of climate change, such as increased wildfires, storms, changes in weather patterns, insect infestations, or plant succession.

b.      Have students research the causes of the climate-related changes they discover, outline the extent of the changes and its impact on our forests, communities and the economy of British Columbia.  

c.       Have students create a visual presentation (video, photos, power point presentation, or poster) on the impacts of climate change on their community.

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