Dustin Bajer

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Development and the Future of Urban Forests

December 3, 2019 by Dustin Bajer

Tree Life Expectancy and the Cycle of Urban Development

Since trees can live longer than the buildings, they cohabit the landscape with, development has an enormous impact on the life expectancy of a tree. Developers prefer blank-slates, so levelling the site is common and preferred. Bigger buildings fetch bigger profits, and while mature trees also increase property value, they’re susceptible to damage from nearby excavation, soil compaction, and regrading.

Development Frequency and Tree Survival Rate

The life expectancy of a privately owned tree is tied to (1) how often development happens and (2) the care taken to protect on-site trees during construction. Robust building codes, routine maintenance, flexible zoning, and the housing market influence the former. Setback requirements, market demand, and a cultural appreciation for the value of trees impact the latter. Both can be influenced by strong planning and bylaws that provoke pause or shed light on the benefit of mature trees.

A Thought Experiment

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Articles, Heritage Plants of Edmonton Tagged With: Edmonton, Heritage Plants of Edmonton, Long Trees, Pine Trees (Pinus spp.), Prunus spp., Urban Forestry, Urbanism

How Gardeners Will Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

October 26, 2019 by Dustin Bajer

Morticulture. Gardening With Zombies

The zombie apocalypse has happened, and all of the gardeners have been saved – something to do with exposure to healthy soil microbes. Using ecological principals permaculture gardeners have been using needs and yields analysis to use the zombies to their advantage and create a sustainable future.

This presentation is an audio recording from a talk given at an Edmonton Horticulture Society event (October 24, 2019) titled “Gardening in the Zombie Apocalypse.”

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Articles Tagged With: Edmonton, Food, Gardening, Public Talk

Don’t Wait. Plant Your Garden Early.

March 6, 2018 by Dustin Bajer

Plant Your Garden Early

Is May Long Weekend The Best Time To Plant A Garden in Edmonton?

Originally written for and publised by Boyle McCauley News

When I was growing up, my parents kept a large vegetable garden in the backyard. Each spring, my Mom would bring out an ice-cream pail of seeds, a bundle of wooden stakes, a garden hoe, and a roll of twine she got from my Uncle – a nearby cattle farmer.

I watched as she paced the distance between rows – carefully placing one foot in front of the other – before pressing a stake into the ground. She repeated the ritual on the other side of the garden and pulled some twine tight between the stakes to mark the row. Tilting the hoe at an angle, she added a shallow trench along either side of the string. We were ready to plant. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Articles Tagged With: BoyleMcCauleyNews, Edmonton, Gardening, Urban Agriculture

Northlands Youth Beekeeping Club

December 12, 2017 by Dustin Bajer

Now Taking Registrations for 2018

The Prince’s Charities’ Northlands Youth Bee Club

From Spring until Fall, students from across the City gather at the Southernmost edge of Northlands to learn about and keep honeybees. Sponsored by the Prince’s Charities, the club has eight beehives on site and enough protective gear to keep stings to a minimum. Each week – weather permitted – we cover important beekeeping topics and perform our routine hive inspections.

The following is an account written by Jacob Tombs – one of our Youth Beekeepers.

Hi, my name is Jacob Tombs, I’m 14 years old and this year was my first year beekeeping. When I started bee club in May, I had no idea how to keep bees and now I feel confident that I could maintain some hives all by myself.  What I must thank for this is the Northlands Bee Club. The Northlands Bee Club is a group of young beekeepers that meets every Thursday from early May to early November (roughly one beekeeping season). Some people are completely new to the club (like me) and for others it was their second year, as Bee Club was only founded in 2016. Under the guidance of Dustin Bajer, we learned the basics of how to keep bees and some other interesting information on bees.

Northlands beekeeping club members removing the frames and inspection two hives.

Northlands beekeeping club members removing the frames and inspection two hives.

There are several reasons why bee club was very fun, useful and interesting. First, it is completely unique. As far as I know, there is no other group in the city of Edmonton that teaches young people how to keep bees. One of the things I really enjoyed, was how over the summer the bees built up. The hives started out small, only one or two boxes, and then by the fall some hives were up to six boxes high. I found it very satisfying to see the bees grow in number and in strength. Another thing that was awesome was the taste of the honey. Most of the honey you buy in the grocery store has a bland plain taste but, our honey had a lighter more interesting taste that comes from all the different species of flower in people’s gardens and in the river valley.

Northlands Youth Beekeeping Club members learn about making nucs from the Alberta Nuc Expert.

Northlands Youth Beekeeping Club members learn about making nucs.

Another one of my favorite things about bee club was the field trips, we went on three throughout the time that bee club met. The first one was a trip to Beary Berry honey to see what a commercial beekeeping operation was like and to Alberta Nukes which makes nukes (mini hives that you get in the spring to create new hives) to learn about nuc hives.

Our second field trip was a walking tour of some of the hives in the downtown Edmonton area, we visited a hives at the Edmonton Event Centre and the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald and a protected tree because, Dustin happens to also be studying protected trees in Edmonton.

Beekeeper Patty Milligan leads a walking tour of some downtown Edmonton beehives at the Shaw Conference Centre and the Hotel Macdonald.

Beekeeper Patty Milligan leads a walking tour of some downtown Edmonton beehives at the Shaw Conference Centre and the Hotel Macdonald.

 

The last field trip, which was my favorite, was a trip to one of the NAIT labs where we studied bees under a microscope and dissected them.

Two Bee Club members dissect a honeybees under a microscope at the NAIT Biological Science Technology Lab.

Two Bee Club members dissect a honeybees under a microscope at the NAIT Biological Science Technology Lab.

 

Finally, I met a lot of new people that had the same interests as me and I learned a lot of things that had absolutely nothing to do with beekeeping but, that were interesting all the same. For example, did you know that carrots flower on the second year after they are planted?

In conclusion, bee club is interesting, fun and useful if you ever want to keep bees and the club is (amazingly!) completely free!

For more information about the Northlands Youth, Beekeeping Club, visit Northlands.com.

Click Here To Register For The 2018 Beekeeping Season

Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Articles Tagged With: Beekeeping, Edmonton, Education, Urban Agriculture

Urban Agriculture as a Response to Climate Change

December 7, 2017 by Dustin Bajer

Urban Agricultural Systems Inspired By Nature Can Mitigate Climate Change

Ear of wheat grown in a monoculture.

As climate changes and extremes become more common (floods, drought, storms, etc.) growing food – especially in monoculture – will become more challenging. Monocultures rely heavily on external inputs.

 

Layers of a food forest.

Forests aren’t immune to climate change, but they’re less susceptible because of the connections they contain – forests are diverse, and the end of every process is the beginning of another. Forests cycle water, nutrients, and create microclimates conducive to life.

 

Cities are like forests. Layers of a city.

Cities are like forests. Cities are places for maximizing connections, and they’re filled with opportunity. Whereas a forest might cycle water, nutrients, and energy, cities cycle ideas, information, culture, and resources.

 

Biophilic cities bring nature into cities.

Ecologists describe the border between two ecosystems as an ecotone – a special place where the diversity of both systems some meet. If we could bring nature into the city, we could create a system with all the variety and potential of each separate systems – while creating unique opportunities for these systems to interact in beneficial ways that solve problems.

 

Burdock plant protecting bare soil.

Here’s a secret – nature loves cities. Nature will colonize even the most inhospitable urban environments. And as it does, it will hold onto water, cycle nutrients, and create microclimates. We often fight the parts of nature best adapted at doing this.

 

Drink your problems away. Root-beer from invasive plants.

The key to blending nature and cities is to link them in creative ways – in ways that turn problems into solutions. (Drink your problems away. Root-beer from invasive plants).

 

The drain monster is eating your potential.

In cities, we tend to collect and move water away from our landscapes. Forests, in contract, capture excess water when it’s wet and put it to use when it’s dry. Forests cycle their resources – using water twice is the same as having twice as much water.

 

Swales on counter collect water for a downhill food forest.

In the face of climate change, we can take inspiration from nature and integrate passive water harvesting and storage into cities – especially when combined with the potential to grow food. Small changes in topography can direct water to the soil where it can be accessed.

 

Parkallen Community Garden water harvesting swale.

Here’s a water harvesting feature (swale) going into the Parkallen Community Garden. It’s built on contour and is designed to spread and soak water along the length of the garden.

 

Vegetables growing on a water harvesting swale. Parkallen community garden.

Once planted, fruits and vegetables can access free water stored in the soil. This simple technique stores excess water during wet periods and makes it available when it’s dry – mitigating floods and drought.

 

They're called leaves for a reason. Don't bag your leaves.

Ecosystems don’t create waste  – they cycle it. Though, we tend to bag ours and send it to the landfill. When we throw out our organics, we’re robbing our landscapes of essential nutrients. They’re called leaves for a reason.

 

Carbon powered herbivore.

Watering non-food producing monoculture designed to shed water then bagging and throwing away the result is insanity. This landscape could capture and process the water that lands on it. It should cycle and accumulate its nutrients. It could be producing food.

 

Water harvesting and food producing bed between two houses.

This patch of lawn has been converted into a raspberry garden. Beneath the ground, water harvesting features collect water from the roofs and spread it across the length of the yard. Covered with mulch the beds soak up excess water like living sponges and make it available to the plants. These simple techniques reduce flooding, reduce drought, cycle waste, and grow food.

 

Plant your water before you plant your garden.

This vegetable garden is growing on top of a series of water harvesting features that take water from the roof of the house. A bed of organic much is added on top and planted with vegetables and perennial food plants.

 

Storing water in healthy soil has the potential to mitigate climate.

When I first started working in this yard it was unbearably hot – south facing and void of vegetation – the soil baked. After adding ten cubic yards of mulch, dozens of bags of leaves, and 24 straw bales the earth is coming back to life and the microclimate of the yard has transformed – it’s humid now and doesn’t get as hot or cold. This yard now captures all the water that lands on it and converts it to food.

 

Apple tree and pear tree espaliered against a south facing wall.

Urban environments are exceptional places for creating and taking advantage of microclimates – especially for food production. These fruit trees are planted against a south facing fence to increase the length of the growing season. Water harvesting features below the ground bring water from the roof to the base of the trees.

 

Whitemud retaining wall orchard. Quisnell retaining wall orchard.

Vast microclimates create large potential. The south-west facing retaining wall by the Quinelle bridge would have made an amazing fruit orchard – absorbing the sun’s energy throughout the day and radiating it back at night.

 

Just outside of Edmonton's growing conditions - the 'resilient' peach.

Just outside of Edmonton’s growing conditions (zone 4a) – the ‘resilient’ peach (zone 5).

 

Just outside of Edmonton's growing conditions (zone 4a) - the American persimmon (zone 5).

Just outside of Edmonton’s growing conditions (zone 4a) – the American persimmon (zone 5).

 

Just outside of Edmonton's growing conditions (zone 4a) - the largest fruit native to North America - the Pawpaw (zone 5).

Just outside of Edmonton’s growing conditions (zone 4a) – the largest fruit native to North America – the Pawpaw (zone 5).

 

Volunteers planting a food forest in Edmonton's river valley.

We can choose to come together and create innovative food-producing systems that benefit the city and the natural world. Since 2014, I have been partnering with the City’s Roots for Trees program to plant thousands of native edibles in the river valley.

 

A community is a forest.

A forest is a community, and a community is a forest. It’s a dense web of connections, ideas, and potential. Working together is probably the single biggest strategy that we can adopt from nature to grow food and mitigate climate change.

 

Map of Edmonton utility lots for gardening and urban agriculture.

There’s no shortage of places to do this – backyards, front yards, boulevards, vacant lots. The City of Edmonton recently released a list of public utility lots available for gardening.

 

Highlevel bridge park and food forest.

One of my favorite things to do is reimagine the cityscape as food-producing ecological systems. I used to call this “postapocalyptic Edmonton”, but I’d rather see them in a preapocalyptic reality.

 

Anthony Henday roundabout food forest

I will admit that some of my drawings are a bit tongue in cheek – but we have so much unused space, and we should be putting it to productive use.

 

West Edmonton Mall Community Garden

This is a favorite of mine. West Edmonton Mall Community Garden.

 

The long tail of urban agriculture.

How much food could we produce in the city? Probably not all of it – but let’s not underestimate the food producing capacity of many small players. What we need are people who are willing to try and the regulatory and political conditions conducive to doing so.

 

Wild goji berries growing in Edmonton's river valley.

What I can tell you is that in addition to capturing water, reducing waste, and temperating the local climate these systems will be uniquely Edmontinain – like these, naturalized Goji berries left behind by Chinese market garden community.

 

Capilano apricots guerrilla planted in an Edmonton scrub bed sometime in the 60s.

Or these – Capilano apricots guerrilla planted in a city scrub bed sometime in the 60s. This is a uniquely Edmonton variety – it exists nowhere else int he world.

 

Biophilic city street that stores water, nutrients, co2 and produces food.

So let’s take inspiration from nature and create a city that cycles nutrients, tempers climate, and captures water and our imaginations.

 

Let's create a forest city. City as forest.

Let’s create a forest city.

Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Articles Tagged With: Avantgarden, Biophilic Design, Edmonton, Urban Agriculture, Urban Ecology

Death Grip. How Decorative Lighting Kills Trees

June 20, 2017 by Dustin Bajer

Girdling

Decorative tree lights biting into an elm tree on Whyte Avenue, Edmonton.

The Dark Side of Decorative Tree Lighting

Edmonton has embraced year-round decorative tree lighting, and it’s hard not to love it! An Edmonton Journal article from 2015 (Tiny white lights to adorn city tree year-round) states that the City’s forestry department “installed lights on 1000 city-owned trees in six business revitalization zones: Alberta Avenue, Beverly, Downtown, North Edge (107th Avenue), Old Strathcona, and 124th Street).” Walking Whyte, Churchill, or Giovanni Caboto amongst twinkling giant elms is magical, but it also has a potential dark side. If left unchecked, decorative tree lighting can cut into and even kill growing trees.

Death By Girdling

Beneath the bark of a tree lies a network of tissues that channel sugars, minerals, and water throughout the plant. When this flow of nutrients is interrupted by a cut or object wrapped tightly around the truck – a process called girdling – the tree can weaken or die. The danger of decorative lighting is that it can’t expand as the tree grows.

The same Edmonton Journal article goes on to state the “the lights are secured to the trees with zip-ties, and as the tree grows the zip ties will be loosened.” Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Though I’ve seen zip ties used to secure extension cords running vertically up the trees, the decorative lights are secured by continuously wrapping the tree’s trunk and branches. As such, the only way to loosen the lights would be to remove and reinstall them.

It’s a Matter of Time

But don’t trees grow super slow? Won’t it take years for decorative tree lighting to causes any damage? Let’s take a closer look – since most of Edmonton’s light wrapped trees are American elms, I thought I’d look into their rate of growth. Fair warning, the following segment contains math.


According to the City’s OpenTree data, (and some help from pi), the elms between 104th and 105th Street on Whyte have an average circumference of 51 inches. Though OpenTree doesn’t say their age, an Edmonton Journal article about the removal of diseased elms (between 99th street to 96th street) claims that they were planted sometime in the 40s. Let’s assume that the 104/105 elms are of a similar age.

Whyte Avenue Elms
Average Circumference = 4 feet 3 inches (51″)
Estimate of Age = 72 years
Growth rate of Circumference = 0.71″ per year

Since my Edmonton data is spotty, let’s turn to some old elms from our Southern neighbours. These trees may or may not be representative of an elm growing in Edmonton.

The Treaty Elm – Philadelphia, PE
Circumference = 24 feet (288″)
Age = 280 years
Growth rate of Circumference = 1.03″ per year

The Johnstown Elm – Johnstown, NY
Circumference = 16 feet (196″)
Age = 200 years
Growth rate of Circumference = 0.96″ per year

The math shows us that an elm can increase its circumference somewhere between 0.71 and 1.03-inches per year – which at first glance doesn’t seem like a lot. But consider that each strand of light wraps around the circumference of the tree 30 to 40 times! To prevent strangulation, a string of lights would have to increase its length by 30 to 40 times the annual growth of the tree’s circumference. That’s between 1.5 and 3.5 feet per year! 


Though most trees can handle a few years covered in decorative lighting, lights can’t accommodate 1 to 4 feet of annual growth it’s a matter of time before they tighten, bite into the bark, and interfere with the flow of sap. The only way to prevent this is to remove and rewrap the tree at regular intervals or to run the lights vertically – a technique called tracing.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Edmonton’s decorative tree lighting – it seriously adds something to the city – especially during long, dark winters. But I also love trees, and the math doesn’t lie – a string of lights can go from loose to snug, to deadly in a few short years.

Protecting Edmonton’s Trees

In the grand scheme of things, Edmonton’s elms are juveniles and could live for another two centuries. Considering that elms are already under threat from Dutch Elm disease and Elm Scale, it seems cruel to add strangulation into the mix. That being said, Edmonton’s not the fist municipality to use decorative lighting on trees. So in the interest of preserving our lights AND our urban forest, let’s see what other cities are doing.

The following decorative tree lighting guidelines are hand-picked  from the City of Portland’s Department of Parks and Recreations and Cincinnati’s Department of Urban Forestry:

  • Non-seasonal lighting can not exceed three years.

  • Lighting can not interfere with the routine pruning of trees.
  • “The preferred method of installation is ‘draping’ or ‘tracing’. These methods have been found to be the least harmful to trees.”
    • “The draping method may be used throughout the canopy” on branches one inch in diameter or larger.
    • The “tracing” method involves running lights vertically and attaching them with an expanding tape such as nursery tape or poly-chain-lock.
  • Cincinnati requires that lights are attached using the tracing method and fixed to the trees with eyelet screws rather than tape. “While it may be more time consuming to install the screw eyes and lights the first year, it is much faster to remove them and reinstall them the following years.”
  • “All work on the lighting shall be performed while the trees are dormant.”

Reporting A Tree (Update)

If it sounds like I’m being tough on the City of Edmonton I must apologise – the work they do it beyond exceptional as demonstrated by the fact that they’re caring for and maintaining an inventory of over 267000+ urban trees,  7400 hectares of River Valley, city-wide naturalization, and running Roots for Trees and numerous other community beautification projects! When it comes to nature and urban forestry, you’d be hard-pressed to find a city as ambitious as Edmonton. They wrapped 1000 trees in stunning decorative lighting! 100 trees! How cool is that?! Seriously! But there are many more of us then there are of them and we can help! So if you see a tree that has outgrown its lights, contact the City by calling 311 and they’ll send someone to check it out.

Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Articles Tagged With: Botany, Edmonton, Urban Ecology

John Walter Museum’s Edmonton Tree Walking Tours

June 14, 2017 by Dustin Bajer

John Walter Museum Edmonton Tree Walk - Dustin Bajer

Interesting and Historic Trees of Edmonton

On July 25th and August 8th, the John Walter Museum will be hosting a walking tour of interesting and historic trees of Edmonton.

Both tours will begin at the museum at 6 pm with stops in the river valley and Legislature grounds before heading towards Jasper Avenue. This walking tour will cover approximately 5km (2.5 hours) with a break at the halfway point.

Reserve Your Place

You can register a spot on either tour by visiting the City of Edmonton’s Online eReg or by calling 311 with the respective course codes below:


(Sold Out/Finished)

July 25, 2017, pm – 9 pm 
Register Online or Call 311 with Course Code 605478


August 8, 2017, 6pm – 9pm
Register Online or Call 311 with Course Code 
605479


Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Events Tagged With: Botany, Edmonton, Urban Ecology, What Grows Here?

Edmonton Needs a D&B Beer Scene

June 13, 2017 by Dustin Bajer

Dandelion Problem Or Local Drink Waiting To Happen?

In June of 2016, the City of Edmonton enacted an Herbicide Ban with the aim to “eliminate non-essential uses of herbicides on city-owned land”.  It’s been a year since and despite the fact that some people are losing their shit, I’m proud of my City for sticking with their decision – going so far as piloting a herd of goats in one city park.

I will admit that I’ve noticed and increased in dandelions in City parks, though, as an urban beekeeper I’m not in the least bit bothered. I like dandelions – they are beautiful to look at, good at breaking up poor and hardpan soils, and edible.

There’s an idea in permaculture design that the problem is the solution. Permaculture pioneer Geoff Lawton is famous for saying “you don’t have a grasshopper problem – you have a turkey deficiency”. The problem is the solution.

Young dandelion leaves make a lovely salad green while petals an exceptionally pleasing when steeped to make teas and wine. But for this post, I’d like to turn our attention to the root-cause. What if we don’t have a weed problem? What if we have a root beer deficiency?

Burdock (Arctium lappa, Arctium minus)

Dandelion roots can be used alongside another noxious weed that’s taken up residence in Edmonton – burdock.

If you’re not familiar with burdock it’s a large biennial plant with heart-shaped leaves and purple/pink flower clusters that turn into hooked bracts (burs) when mature (the inspiration for velcro). Like dandelion, burdock has an extensive list of culinary uses. Sidenote: If you go to an Asian grocery store (such as T&T or Lucky 97 here in Edmonton) burdock is referred to as “gobo root”.

Locally, burdock is abundant in the River Valley and some of the older neighborhoods including, Old Strathcona, Riverdale, Rossdale, Boyle, and McCauley.

From the City of Edmonton’s website:

Great burdock originates from the temperate regions in Europe. In the Middle Ages, it was favoured as a vegetable and the roots are still commonly used in Asian cooking. It can also be found in a variety of herbal supplements.

Dandelion and Burdock (D&B) Beer

D&B Beer is thought to have originated in Britain in the middle ages and is made by fermenting a tea made by boiling the roots of dandelions and burdock. The flavour is “mildly bitter and aromatic). You can buy a non-alcoholic version at some local grocery stores, but we’re going to make the real deal.

The clip and recipe below are from RiverCottage.net, though, I would anyone making D&B Beer to experiment. A quick Google search yields various approached to dandelion and burdock beer – here’s one that also uses nettle (another local noxious weed). I’ve made dandelion wine using petals and have an abundance of honey laying around the house so I’d probably incorporate both.

Contact me, if you make a batch! I’d love to hear how it went. There’s a lot of exploration to be had. How might dandelion and burdock integrate into a traditional brew? I’d love to see a local brew-pub make a batch – Situation Brewing’s daily cask comes to mind. How about a distilled version? Strathcona Spirits make a mean gin that already features “rogue-picked Seaberry (Seabuckthorn) from the streets of Edmonton” – is rogue picked dandelion and burdock out of the questions? D&B could be an Edmonton thing – an authentic Edmonton flavour.

Basic D&B Beer Recipe

 

Dandelion and Burdock Beer (D&B) Recipe from RiverCottage.net

Scrub and finely slice the burdock and dandelion roots.

Put them in a large pan, pour on 2.5 litres boiling water and add the carragheen.

Boil for half an hour; experience the aroma of an unpromising vegetable stew.

Take off the heat, add 2 litres cold water, the sugar, treacle and lemon juice and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Strain the liquid into a clean fermenting bucket, cover and leave to cool.

When your brew reaches room temperature, pitch the yeast.

Cover and leave to ferment for up to a week, until the specific gravity is down to 1010.

If you want to be safe, carefully siphon into strong swing-top bottles at this point.

The flavour of dandelion and burdock seems to follow a bell curve of: too sweet, horrible, really rather nice, horrible, poisonous – with the ‘quite nice’ occurring at the 3–4 week point and extendable by keeping it in the fridge.

The flavour is mildly bitter and pleasantly aromatic.

 

Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Articles Tagged With: Craft, Edmonton, Food, Urban Agriculture

You Are ‘Where’ You Eat – The Watershed Diet

June 12, 2017 by Dustin Bajer

You Are Your Watershed

A watershed is the area of land that captures, soaks up, and channels water towards increasingly large bodies of water. We think about watersheds as wetlands, streams, creeks, lakes, and rivers but they’re also forests, trees, soils, animals, and you.

You are 60% watershed – you’re a small pond capturing water from the environment – a small pond with legs. From this perspective, a 150-pound person walking hill is 90-pounds of water flowing against gravity.

Eating Beyond Our Watersheds

Each day, a few litres of watershed passes through your body via foods and liquids you consume – even bread is 40% water.

Much of our food is imported from distant watersheds – the banana I ate for breakfast, as an example, was 74% Ecuadorian water. In fact, in 2013, Ecuador smuggled 4.11 millions tonnes of water disguised as 5.55 million tonnes of bananas out of its local watersheds.

Here are some numbers that I managed to dig up:

Wheat – 12% water
Meat & Eggs – 75% water
Milk – 87% water
Fruits and Vegetables – 80 to 96% water
Honey – 18% water

Exporting food between watersheds has an ecological impact. Globally, patterns of trade could be seen as wholesale changes to weather and rainfall patterns – causing rivers to dry up. California, a state prone to droughts, exported over 378 billions litres of water to China for cattle feed. If you consider all of the food it exports, especially fruits and vegetables, one could argue that California’s main export is water.

Watershed As Foodshed

A foodshed is a geographical area in which food is produced and consumed. So here’s my question – since the food you consume is mostly water, might a watershed diet be a useful way to think about local a desired local foodsheds? How closely should your watershed and foodshed align? As a geological feature, it’s less arbitrary than political borders or imaginary circles drawn concentrically around your kitchen (see 100 Mile Diet).

In truth, I’m not entirely sure what a watershed diet might look like. I’m not even sure that I could tell you what my watershed produces – probably not a lot of bananas. What would a watershed meal look like?Could it even be done? How would it change seasonally? If anything, it brings up more questions.

If 60% of me is North Saskatchewan Watershed, how does that change my relationship to the North Saskatchewan River? To the wetlands, ponds, lakes, forests, and animals I share it with?

If food was produced low in the watershed (downstream) and consumed high in the watershed (upstream) would the height of the river increase? – essentially giving us more water to grow more food?

 

Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Articles Tagged With: Biophilic Design, Edmonton, Food, Water

Report A Honeybee Swarm or Colony

April 4, 2017 by Dustin Bajer

Suspect That You Have a Swarm or Colony of Honeybees?

If you have a swarm of honeybees, text (780) two three five – zero two two three. If you are unsure that they’re honeybees, please take the quick quiz below.

Honeybee Swarming

Swarming is a natural honeybee behaviour and occurs when a colony splits itself in two. When a healthy hive gathers enough resources, the queen and two-thirds of her workers will leave in search of a new home. The remaining bees will raise a new queen and continue at the original site. Swarming is how one honeybee colony creates another.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Articles Tagged With: Beekeeping, Edmonton

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Dustin Bajer

Teacher, permaculture designer, master gardener, hobby beekeeper, consultant, and network nerd living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Read More

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