Rewilding Victoria through food: The Inland ProjectSadie Gibbs
Summery:
The Inland Project aims to undo degradation by combining food forest design with rewilding: a designed ecosystem rewilding strategy for human/earth relationships in urban spaces. This complicated interplay of terminology and ideologies is created by the location of the initiative, the history of that location, the current political and ecological conditions of the site, and the nature of food forests. The first garden party was on March 23rd at the Begbie and Belmont intersection in the Fernwood neighbourhood. In one day, we planted a food forest with native, edible, medicinal, and climate-adaptive plants. |
Geneology
The Inland Project’s goal is to plant food forests in Victoria’s urban spaces. The initiative’s aim is to create habitat, sequester carbon, increase food security, manage rainwater runoff, improve soil health, improve community relationships, and reconnect people to the earth. The first garden party was on March 23rd at the Begbie and Belmont intersection in the Fernwood neighbourhood. In one day, we planted a food forest with native, edible, medicinal, and climate-adaptive plants.
Food forests are designed ecosystems which eventually function with limited human management. Rewilding strategies require minimal human intervention, so The Inland Project (TIP) includes elements of rewilding. However, as people have managed the land around Victoria as cammas garden savanas for centuries, wildness, defined as untouched natural spaces, is not an applicable concept in this location. TIP is not seeking to create wildness necessarily, but to re-connect people to earth processes. Few people in Victoria have a land relationship, which effects soil and personal wellbeing. This paper explores the area’s ecological genealogy and transition to an urban space; describes the location’s conditions before the food forest was planted; and concludes with an analysis of possible future trajectories of the Belmont boulevard.
Food forests are designed ecosystems which eventually function with limited human management. Rewilding strategies require minimal human intervention, so The Inland Project (TIP) includes elements of rewilding. However, as people have managed the land around Victoria as cammas garden savanas for centuries, wildness, defined as untouched natural spaces, is not an applicable concept in this location. TIP is not seeking to create wildness necessarily, but to re-connect people to earth processes. Few people in Victoria have a land relationship, which effects soil and personal wellbeing. This paper explores the area’s ecological genealogy and transition to an urban space; describes the location’s conditions before the food forest was planted; and concludes with an analysis of possible future trajectories of the Belmont boulevard.
The Belmont boulevard is in the unceded territory of the Lekwungen speaking peoples (see map 1), namely the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations (City of Victoria, 2019), who practiced horticulture since time immemorial (Pellatt & Gedalof, 2014). These nations used prescribed burning to increase food production and to manage forest encroachment on camas gardens. European arrival marked significant ecological degradation on Vancouver Island. Some Europeans recognized meadow clearing as land management by Lekwungen peoples. Others didn’t, and sought to claim the “wild” ecosystems. This contributed to degradation of camas meadows, as cows and pigs were put to pasture and ate the nutritious plant. Europeans did not appreciate camas despite it being a stable food, so it wasn’t traded on the Columbian Exchange (Belshaw, 2015) |
The landscape changed dramatically after Europeans introduced new diseases. A smallpox epidemic erupted in the 1860’s and decimated whole Lekwungen communities. The loss of their knowledgeable land management methods further degraded the ecosystem. After the epidemic, the number of Gary oak trees dramatically increased, followed by Douglas fir, grand fir, and shore pine (Pellatt & Gedalof, 2014) due to lack of prescribed burning. The massively reduced populations also created space for colonizers, who cleared trees, mined coal, exploited fisheries, and enclosed the remaining Lekwungen peoples in land reserves (Belshaw, 2015).
The original belief held by the HBC traders that indigenous people didn’t farm or recognize land ownership was common throughout global colonialism. Settlers from Europe sought places with potential to grow recognized commodities (wheat, wool, and beef) to continue a familiar lifestyle (Crosby, 1986). Adopting local practices was not acceptable. Victoria now has 326 000 settlers, with a dramatically changed landscape from when Europeans first arrived (City of Victoria, 2019).
Socio-elological characterization
TIP aims to undo this degradation by combining the food security of food forest design with the naturalness of rewilding strategies: a designed ecosystem rewilding strategy for humans in urban spaces. This complicated interplay of terminology and ideologies is created by the location of the initiative, the history of that location, the current political and ecological conditions of the site, and the nature of food forests. Food forests are designed ecosystems and usually undergo heavy, regular maintenance (Higgs, 2017). Rewilding is the process of enabling natural process to repair damaged ecosystems by reintroducing missing species (Rewilding Europe, 2019). Rewilding reestablishes trophic relationships that existed before degradation with the hope that biodiverse, resilient ecosystems will thrive. For ecological relationships in urban spaces, the key interaction is between people and the ecosystem. Land-people interactions directly impact human health (see fig. 2).
The Microbiome Rewilding Hypothesis suggests that “restoring biodiverse habitats in urban green spaces can rewild the environmental microbiome to a state that enhances primary prevention of human disease” (Mills, Weinstine, Gellie, Weyrich, Lowe, & Breed, 2017). Rewilding urban spaces must include reconnecting humans with earth processes. In this way, the trophic cascade initiated by food forests places humans as a keystone species, by both designing the urban ecosystem and continual management, and as recipients of the benefits.
A sustainable food forest has diverse native perennial and annual plants in a multi layer system (see fig. 3.); overstory, understory, shrub, herbaceous, ground cover, root, microryzomal, and vine layer (Wartman et al. 2018). Prioritizing people, water, and land over profits can allow for food systems and communities to thrive within larger ecological systems. This is possible through the ability of food forests to achieve self-fertilization, self-maintenance, self-renewal, diverse yields, and by healing degradation (Wartman et al. 2018). For environmental regeneration to work in urban spaces, people must actively partake in their own rewilding. Food forests encourage this by having massive potential for local economies and by reducing reliance on global food systems (Wartman et al. 2018). Food forests are also part of a larger trend away from monoculture agricultural practices towards land-based, Indigenous systems resurgence (Wartman et al. 2018).
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Food forests are a tool for restoring urban landscapes where conventional restoration is unrealistic (Park, 2009). Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that is degraded, damaged, or destroyed (SER, 2019). Restoring urban landscapes is complicated, as returning to baseline conditions is often infeasible because of dense, layered development. Food forests create habitat, improve soil health, and provide ecosystem functions such as carbon sequestration (see fig. 4) (Park, 2009). For these reasons, food forests have gained popularity in North America, although they have been used by Indigenous people in forested environments for ages (Wartman et al. 2018).
Food forests mimic woodland ecosystems and integrate people as an integral part of their function. This reflects the idea that people interact with ecosystems, change those ecosystems, and are in turn changed by those ecosystems (Toth, 2003). As ecological restoration grapples with the double challenge of ecological and social changes with an increasingly human-dominated earth, food forests provide a partial answer by integrating people back into ecological repair (Park, 2009).
Management of urban landscapes is controlled by many levels of society, from neighbourhood to national (Parks Department, 2019). Individual lawn-owner decisions, neighbourhood norms, and municipal policies affect lawn management and use (Sisser et al., 2016). To ensure the project’s success, engaging the neighbourhood is vital. The general attitude in the Fernwood community is in support of food forestry. Our members visited the neighbourhood to hand out flyers and invite the neighbours to the party. Only one person had any concerns about the project; she didn’t want to see another project “die” in that space. |
Future trajectories
We can predict a few pressures and trajectories for the boulevard. There could be social pressures against modifying the grass, as many find grass aesthetically appealing. This is the result of Victoria’s proud British heritage (City of Victoria, 2019) and the European hangover of applying grass to landscapes to show wealth. Pastoralism was used on Vancouver Island as a intermediate stage in agricultural settlement, which became the dominant assertion of colonial occupation (Knobloch, 1996). This lead to ‘improving’ pastures by seeding tame grasses which now dominate urban green spaces. In this way, “colonization is an agricultural act” (Knobloch, 1996). Individual households are influenced by this, and are encouraged to outwardly express Victorian membership by maintaining grass as a status symbol (Grove, Troy, O’Neil-Dunne, et al, 2006). In opposition to grass, maintaining a lawn disconnects people from food production just as it highlights the benefactors of colonization (Knobloch, 1996).
TIP combatted the societal love of grass with the application of intentional community design. We included neighbourhood flowers, evergreen shrubs, and multi-harvest succession. We included species that can withstand changing climatic conditions. As TIP is run and operated by volunteers, there are limitations on maintenance. This is circumvented by planned rewilding -- letting the food forests become an ecosystem relieves pressure on volunteers, while allowing best adaptation to climate change. Community involvement in ongoing management also alleviates pressure on volunteers while strengthening community and continuing the human rewilding process.
TIP combatted the societal love of grass with the application of intentional community design. We included neighbourhood flowers, evergreen shrubs, and multi-harvest succession. We included species that can withstand changing climatic conditions. As TIP is run and operated by volunteers, there are limitations on maintenance. This is circumvented by planned rewilding -- letting the food forests become an ecosystem relieves pressure on volunteers, while allowing best adaptation to climate change. Community involvement in ongoing management also alleviates pressure on volunteers while strengthening community and continuing the human rewilding process.
There are a few potential trajectories for the replanted boulevard. The most likely trajectory is the food forest will be managed by volunteers and the Abbey Church for a few years then transition into a community-managed food forest. From there the ecosystem could develop a sustaining closed-loop nutrient cycle and morph into a novel ecosystem (see fig. 5).
If the food forest requires continual management, it will not be authentically rewilded, but would still encourage human rewilding and ecological restoration, as soil and human health would be repaired. Less favourably, the city could remove it due to land-use modifications or if neighbourhood support turns sour, or the space could be overused by people or eaten by deer. In these cases, the food forest would be degraded with little ecological function.
The Inland Project hopes this food forest/rewilding idea spreads from boulevard to boulevard to inspire a trophic cascade where humans will encourage biodiversity and urban ecosystem resilience. |
References
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City of Victoria (2019). History. City of Victoria. Retrieved from: https://www.victoria.ca/EN/main/residents/about/history.html
Crosby, A.W., (1986) Ecological Imperialism : The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900, Cambridge University Press, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central. Retrieved from: https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/legacydocview/EBC/1543515?accountid=14846.
Grove, J.M., Troy, A.R., O’Neil-Dunne, J.P.M. et al. (2006) Characterization of Households and its Implications for the Vegetation of Urban Ecosystems. Ecosystems. Volume 9, Issue 4, pp 578-597. Retrieved from: https://doiorg.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.1007/s10021-006-0116-z
Higgs, E. (2017). Novel and designed ecosystems. Restoration Ecology. Volume 25, Issue 1, https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.12410.
Knobloch, F. (1996). The Culture of Wilderness: Agriculture as colonization in the American West. The University of North Carolina Press.
Mills, J.G., Weinstein, P., Gellie, N.J.C., Weyrich, L.S., Lowe, A.L., Breed, M.F. (2017) Urban habitat restoration provides a human health benefit through microbiome rewilding: the Microbiome Rewilding Hypothesis. Restoration Ecology Volume 25, Issue 6. Retrieved from: https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.1111/rec.12610
Parks Department. (2019). Boulevard Gardening Guidelines. City of Victoria. Retrieved from: https://www.victoria.ca/assets/Departments/Parks~Rec~Culture/Parks/Documents/Boulevard%20Gardening%20Guidelines_e.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2W5QHYFWR7QVBU8rkOdyF7YkMlG8PT30SD7KFIXeS2HOWczwugOoxvPbM
Park, H. (2009). A Model of Food Forestry and its Monitoring Framework in the Context of Ecological Restoration. University of Victoria.
Pellatt, M.G., Gedalof, Z. (2014). Environmental change in Garry oak (Quercus garryana) ecosystems: the evolution of an eco-cultural landscape. Biodiversity and Conservation. 23: 2053. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.1007/s10531-014-0703-9
Province of British Columbia (2018). Impacts of Climate Change. Government of BC. Retrieved from: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/climate-change/adaptation/impacts
Rewilding Europe. (2019). What is Rewilding? Rewilding Europe. Retrieved from: https://rewildingeurope.com/what-is-rewilding/
Schuttler, L. (2016). Edible Agroforestry: Designing Your Own Food Forest. The Mind Unleashed. Retrieved from: http://themindunleashed.com/2016/01/edible-agroforestry -designing-your-own-food-forest.html
SER, (2019). Home page. Society for Ecological Restoration. Retrieved from: https://www.ser.org/
Shchepeleva, A.S., Vasenev, V.I., Mazirov, I.M. et al. (2017). Urban Ecosyst 20: 309. Retrieved from: https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.1007/s11252-016-0594-5
Sisser, J.M., Nelsson, K.C., Larson, K.L., Ogden, L.A., Polsky, C., Chowdhury, R.R., (2016). Lawn enforcement: How municipal policies and neighborhood norms influence homeowner residential landscape management. Landscape and Urban Planning. Volume 150, June 2016, Pages 16-25. Retrieved from: https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/science/article/pii/S0169204616000268
Toth, F.L., (2003). Ecosystems and Human Well-being: A Framework for Assessment. Washington: Island Press. ISBN 9781559634038
Wartman, P., Van Acker, R., Martin, R.C., (2018). Temperate Agroforestry: How Forest Garden Systems Combined with People-Based Ethics Can Transform Culture. Sustainability. 2018, 10, 2246.
City of Victoria (2019). History. City of Victoria. Retrieved from: https://www.victoria.ca/EN/main/residents/about/history.html
Crosby, A.W., (1986) Ecological Imperialism : The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900, Cambridge University Press, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central. Retrieved from: https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/legacydocview/EBC/1543515?accountid=14846.
Grove, J.M., Troy, A.R., O’Neil-Dunne, J.P.M. et al. (2006) Characterization of Households and its Implications for the Vegetation of Urban Ecosystems. Ecosystems. Volume 9, Issue 4, pp 578-597. Retrieved from: https://doiorg.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.1007/s10021-006-0116-z
Higgs, E. (2017). Novel and designed ecosystems. Restoration Ecology. Volume 25, Issue 1, https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.12410.
Knobloch, F. (1996). The Culture of Wilderness: Agriculture as colonization in the American West. The University of North Carolina Press.
Mills, J.G., Weinstein, P., Gellie, N.J.C., Weyrich, L.S., Lowe, A.L., Breed, M.F. (2017) Urban habitat restoration provides a human health benefit through microbiome rewilding: the Microbiome Rewilding Hypothesis. Restoration Ecology Volume 25, Issue 6. Retrieved from: https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.1111/rec.12610
Parks Department. (2019). Boulevard Gardening Guidelines. City of Victoria. Retrieved from: https://www.victoria.ca/assets/Departments/Parks~Rec~Culture/Parks/Documents/Boulevard%20Gardening%20Guidelines_e.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2W5QHYFWR7QVBU8rkOdyF7YkMlG8PT30SD7KFIXeS2HOWczwugOoxvPbM
Park, H. (2009). A Model of Food Forestry and its Monitoring Framework in the Context of Ecological Restoration. University of Victoria.
Pellatt, M.G., Gedalof, Z. (2014). Environmental change in Garry oak (Quercus garryana) ecosystems: the evolution of an eco-cultural landscape. Biodiversity and Conservation. 23: 2053. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.1007/s10531-014-0703-9
Province of British Columbia (2018). Impacts of Climate Change. Government of BC. Retrieved from: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/climate-change/adaptation/impacts
Rewilding Europe. (2019). What is Rewilding? Rewilding Europe. Retrieved from: https://rewildingeurope.com/what-is-rewilding/
Schuttler, L. (2016). Edible Agroforestry: Designing Your Own Food Forest. The Mind Unleashed. Retrieved from: http://themindunleashed.com/2016/01/edible-agroforestry -designing-your-own-food-forest.html
SER, (2019). Home page. Society for Ecological Restoration. Retrieved from: https://www.ser.org/
Shchepeleva, A.S., Vasenev, V.I., Mazirov, I.M. et al. (2017). Urban Ecosyst 20: 309. Retrieved from: https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.1007/s11252-016-0594-5
Sisser, J.M., Nelsson, K.C., Larson, K.L., Ogden, L.A., Polsky, C., Chowdhury, R.R., (2016). Lawn enforcement: How municipal policies and neighborhood norms influence homeowner residential landscape management. Landscape and Urban Planning. Volume 150, June 2016, Pages 16-25. Retrieved from: https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/science/article/pii/S0169204616000268
Toth, F.L., (2003). Ecosystems and Human Well-being: A Framework for Assessment. Washington: Island Press. ISBN 9781559634038
Wartman, P., Van Acker, R., Martin, R.C., (2018). Temperate Agroforestry: How Forest Garden Systems Combined with People-Based Ethics Can Transform Culture. Sustainability. 2018, 10, 2246.