Nerdy About Nature – Details, episodes & analysis

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

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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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