Growing forests, growing our team

 Little Forests Kingston began with three people, three patches of land and three Little Forests. Today we're planting across twelve neighbourhoods, partnering with schools, housing providers, the City and more. Those first forests we planted are now independent. But there are so many more to plant.

Each forest we plant calls for us to be in relationship. For people who return through the seasons, who come to know her and her ecological kin well enough to notice who is flourishing and who needs care. Are Common Buckthorn or Garlic Mustard putting pressure on her? Has she grown enough for Chickadee, Cardinal or Song Sparrow to call her home? Is it time to plant the forest floor or a thicket around the edge?

We're looking for people who want to take on a role. People who want to build relationships and tend them over time. You don't need to arrive knowing everything. We're all learning, together. Do any of these call to you?

Forest Steward

Planting day is a celebration. But the real work of a forest comes after: the long, quiet, season-by-season practice of presence. Forest Stewards are the heartbeat of our work. The ones who come to know a forest deeply. Who build a small community of people who show up for the forest.

For someone happiest with their hands in the soil, friends and neighbours by their side.

Checking in after dry spells. Keeping Common Buckthorn, Garlic Mustard and Canada Goldenrod from crowding out the young trees. Wrapping young trees before winter, unwrapping and greeting them in spring. Calling the neighbours: organizing work bees, welcoming whoever shows up for the first time.

Neighbourhood Weaver

Little Forests are planted by neighbourhoods. The Neighbourhood Weaver works with Kingston's neighbourhoods, listening for the places ready for a forest, and the communities ready to grow one.

For someone who loves Kingston, her neighbourhoods and her more-than-human neighbours.

Getting to know Kingston's communities. Listening for what people care about, for the land they want to steward. Finding communities who want a forest, with people committed to caring for one. Connecting them to the Little Forests network: the Scouts, the Forest Stewards and the planting team who will help bring the neighbourhood vision to life.

Doorstep Ecologist

Every lawn is a future forest, hedgerow, meadow or wetland. The Doorstep Ecologist helps Kingston homeowners listen to the land, then respond with a planting.

For someone who looks at a lawn, listens for who the land wants to become and feels the many more-than-human neighbours waiting to return.

Visiting homeowners who want to transform the land they steward. Listening to what they want. Listening for who the land wants to become. Listening to what the more-than-human neighbours ask. Recommending Pocket Forests, hedgerows, meadows or wetlands. Helping with the planting. Following up as the planting takes root.

Transporter

Young trees need to travel to planting sites. Tools need to travel to prepare the forest floor. Someone needs to hitch up our enclosed trailer (a mini toolshed!), drop off everything needed, then return it home. Without the Transporter, planting day doesn't happen.

For someone with a vehicle and trailer hitch who finds satisfaction in being a person others can count on.

Trees, soil, woodchips, tools, protective spirals, mulch. Whatever the forest needs, the Transporter gets it there. Working closely with the Scout to know what's coming and when, and with the planting team to make sure it arrives on time. You don't need to stay for the whole event, but without you, the day doesn't start.

Scout

Every planting depends on a web of relationships: nurseries, growers, arborists, donors. The Scout builds and tends that web, making sure every forest has what they need to flourish.

For someone who loves knowing where things come from and has a gift for sourcing them.

Sourcing soil, woodchips and trees. Tracking what each planting site needs and finding it. Working closely with Neighbourhood Weavers and Forest Stewards to understand what's coming and when, and with Transporters to make sure it arrives on time.

Gatherer of People

A forest is a community. The Gatherer of People weaves the human relationships across all of our forests with gatherings that feel like ceremony. That bring in artists, musicians and storytellers. That make sure every volunteer knows the forest community they belong to.

For someone who knows that community, like a forest, needs tending.

Organizing gatherings across the seasons: celebrations, work bees, ceremonies, learning events. Making sure every volunteer feels the whole forest they are part of. Working across all of our roles to hold the community together.

Seed Keeper

The climate is shifting faster than forests can walk. Seed Keepers are a network of seed collectors, growers and nurseries — from students growing Red Oak to collectors ranging the watershed — carrying forest communities home to the city and northward into a warming world.

For someone who recognises seeds as kin, each one carrying the memory of a forest yet to come.

Collecting seeds in the watershed, with care and permission. Growing them out at home, with students or in a community garden. Building a web of seed keepers across the watershed. Passing the seeds forward.

Community Scientist

Every forest is already telling her story. Chickadee knows when the caterpillars peak. Oak knows who shelters in her fallen leaves. Firefly arrives when the forest floor is ready. The Community Scientist learns to read the stories the forest is telling, returning through the seasons as witness.

For someone who already stops on trails and wonders who they're looking at.

Returning to the forest across the seasons. Noticing who is arriving, who is thriving, what is changing. Building the record that helps us understand and advocate for our forests over time.

And more

We're also listening for a Web Tender to keep our digital presence healthy and alive. A Knowledge Keeper to shape what we're learning into resources others can carry forward. A Visual Witness to document how our forests are changing, season by season and year by year. A Relations Keeper to tend our partnerships and find the funding that makes every planting possible. And more still. A forest is never finished.

If any of this calls to you, or if you sense a gift the forest needs that isn't named here, we'd love to hear from you.

acorn@littleforests.org