Designing With Nature. These are my projects.
If you visit Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) travel the city’s ring-road in search of giant mountains of snow. Often lasting well into Summer, some citizens have taken to betting when on when it’ll melt. What if Northern cities [Read more…]
In the Summer of 2014, Edmonton rolled out the details of a new Edmonton Beekeeping pilot. Great news for would-be urban beekeepers! Though, before going into detail, let me preface this list with a quote from the Edmonton Journal and Mayor Don Iveson:
Since many cities already permit urban beekeeping, Mayor Don Iveson characterized the program as a “pilot” for functional reasons only, not just “dipping a toe in the water.” Projects will get the green light this summer, with administrators coming back to council next year with bylaw changes.
Mark: Ah yes, loves goes in hand in hand with those birds and bees does it? When it comes to backyards, though, not everyone loves the idea of birds or bees. yesterday we talked about the possibility of the city approving urban chickens. Today the city comes out with a report that [Read more…]
Cycling is great for the environment, your health, and the pocket book, though, a year on my bike has brought some unexpected economic and social benefits.
1. Biking Alleviates Poverty and Benefits the Local Economy
According to stats Canada, the average Alberta household spends over $900/month ($10 800/year) on their vehicles. For some, that means choosing between owning a car or buying food. Providing alternative forms of transportation can lesson the burden on lower income households while putting extra money back into the pockets of everyone else. What do I do with all of that extra cash? Well, I spend it on other things.
2. Hate Potholes, Traffic, or Finding Parking Spaces? Ride a Bike
Bikes are far less destructive to road surfaces than their motorized counterparts. In the end, each ride on a bike saves the city money. When you consider the fact that cycling takes up less road and parking spaces, shouldn’t [Read more…]
Every schoolyard should have a garden. School gardens produce food, connect kids to nature, and support an active lifestyle. Unfortunately, we tend to overlook many pedagogical reasons for school gardens – could it be that they’re good for education?
Since 2010, I have been working with students on various urban agriculture initiatives and have seen first hand how school gardens support learning.
[Read more…]
In 2010 99% invisible put out a podcast episode about city flag design – mostly about how bad city flags tend to be. That got me thinking about Edmonton’s city-flag. For starters, – do we have one? As it turns out, we do, and it’s pretty terrible. [Read more…]
Installing a package of honeybees for the first time is an exhilarating and somewhat nerve-racking experience. Even if you’ve seen it done it’s hard not to hesitate – is this a good idea? Installing a package of bees (and my thought process) go something like this:
Step 1. Hold tube of bees upright and swiftly hit bottom against the ground so that they all fall to one end. What, what? That doesn’t sound right. [Read more…]
Natural Beekeeping Means Allows Bees To Express Their Natural Behaviour
When I was young, my Dad kept a beehive on our acreage in rural Alberta. I loved sitting cross-legged in front of the hive. I enjoyed more than just the honey; I liked having them around (though, the honey is great too). At the time, my Dad was using a traditional langstroth hive that required lots of management. After all, shouldn’t bees know a thing or two about managing bees? Despite some domestication, one might expect that [Read more…]
Ecological education is a lot more than teaching students about the environment (though that’s part of it). Rather, ecological education at its core is about is creating systems that reflect the patterns and principals of ecology. [Read more…]
