School's do-it-yourself carbon offset project enriches learning

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday.

This week:

• School's do-it-yourself carbon offset project enriches learning
• Skyscraper doubles as massive battery
• Fishing for 'ghost gear' in Atlantic Canada

Mohawk school plants forests to offset emissions and boost learning

In June, the fruit on the apple, pear, plum and rare pawpaw trees are still small and green in the orchard in front of the Quinte Mohawk School on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in eastern Ontario. But there should be a nice harvest in the fall.

On one side of the school is a pond and wetland, and nearby there's a growing stand of cedars, called the Enchanted Forest, that shelters an outdoor classroom made up of a table and stools fashioned from an old tree stump.

The school was once completely surrounded by fields of grass, like so many others across the country. But for years it's been restoring natural ecosystems on its property, most recently by planting trees. And by getting the entire school community involved, including parents and teachers, it hopes to make a big positive impact on biodiversity and the climate.

Outdoor education teacher Mike Booy said cedars like those in the Enchanted Forest have a healing quality, and he can see the impact it has on the kids, who are between junior kindergarten and Grade 8.

"You could see them calm down sometimes when they just get into the woods and sit down and we start listening to the birds," he said.

Laura Schwager, a teacher who has been involved in the school's habitat restoration projects from the beginning, said it's a long-term project. "Our plan is … every year to plant a certain number of trees to offset our carbon use," she said.

Over a decade ago, Schwager worked with Ducks Unlimited to build a pond on her own property and wondered if that could also be done at the school. The kids loved the idea, she recalled. The students presented it to the chief and council, who supported it, and it was built.

The Enchanted Forest was planted in 2012, alongside a project to fence the wetland for safety.

A couple of years ago, Reg Wilson, a local Green Party of Canada candidate, approached the school. He pitched the idea of planting trees to offset the school's carbon footprint and get both children and parents involved in an environmental project.

"That would show the communities that, you know, if you work together, you can do something proactive about the climate crisis," Wilson said. "And then we went around and started talking to schools to see if anybody would be interested."

When Schwager heard about it, she said, "I just thought it was a great idea and our school could definitely do this."

Wilson calculated the school's carbon footprint could be offset by planting 400 trees a year for seven years — about two per year for each family with students at the school. Wilson and another Green Party member, Mike Holbrook, purchased many of the trees from a local nursery, and also got some from the local conservation authority. 

Schawger said so far about 800 seedlings have been planted at the school and around the community, and their survival rate has been good. The orchard was the school's first big planting, but there have been a few more since. Just last month, the students added a bunch of tamarack and cedar seedlings to the Enchanted Forest.

Schwager encourages other schools to give it a try, even if they don't have much space and can only plant shrubbery and small fruit trees. "I would say just do it ... any greenery is going to help with carbon offset, right?"

But Booy said the trees are doing far more than offsetting carbon — they're enhancing learning. The orchard provides opportunities to learn about traditional foods and their cultural importance, cooking and nutrition. With sticks from the forest, the students build little bridges to learn about structures. And just the other day, they witnessed snakes mating in the wildlife habitat they've created.

"There's a ball of snakes," Booy said. "And it's just really neat to get kids out there and have their first impressions being good impressions. So, instead of being afraid of snakes, you're curious about snakes."

On the edge of the pond in the fall, the students collected cattails; learned the Mohawk word for cattail, aotahsa (pronounced Ow-dah-sa); and learned to prepare the reeds to make baskets and mats. 

"That kind of goes into social studies on how people used to live," Booy said. "And the values that we should still maintain today."

— Emily Chung

Old issues of What on Earth? are here. The CBC News climate page is here. 

Check out our podcast and radio show. In our newest episode: A listener got in touch wondering what she can do to help the birds in her garden when wildfire smoke is choking her neighbourhood. We share advice from Birds Canada and check in with American researchers who are searching for answers about how fire and smoke affect our feathered friends.

What On Earth8:51HOW TO: Help birds when it’s smoky outside

What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app, or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m. ET, 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Check the CBC News Climate Dashboard for live updates on wildfire smoke and active fires across the country. Set your location for information on air quality and to find out how today's temperatures compare to historical trends.

Reader feedback

Last week, Bianca Braga de Carvalho requested a biologist's perspective on whether clearing conifers and replacing them with aspen to create a firebreak outside Whitehorse would "take a toll on the species of animals that have lived there forever."

We have since managed to reach Jill Johnstone, fire ecology researcher at Yukon University Research Centre and University of Alaska Fairbanks, who wrote, "Although the wildlife species that use aspen forest are different than those that use conifer forest, both types are natural parts of the boreal landscape…. Because conifers remain abundant in many parts of the surrounding landscape, the risk of creating conservation problems for wildlife is low. This type of stand conversion happens naturally after many wildfires but is prevented by long-term suppression of fires around communities.

"The impacts of a changing climate and increased potential for fires puts us in a challenging situation where we need to be proactive in mitigating fire risk around communities. Ultimately, our ability to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases will have the greatest benefit for mitigating fire risk. "

Write us at whatonearth@cbc.ca. 

Have a compelling personal story about climate change you want to share with CBC News? Pitch a First Person column here.

The Big Picture: Skyscrapers double as massive batteries

Sunny skies and windy days generate more renewable energy today than ever before, but what can we do when the sun isn't shining and the winds die down? Two words: energy storage — and skyscrapers might be one solution on the horizon. Here's how it works: use surplus energy to heave a large weight to a significant height and then, when energy is in short supply, release the weight to power a generator. While it might seem far-fetched, most of the world's high volume energy storage comes from pumped hydro, which forces water uphill and releases it later to generate electricity. Now, Switzerland-based Energy Vault has teamed up with Chicago-based architecture firm Skidmore, Owens & Merrill, the designer of the world's tallest building, to dream up a one-kilometre-tall skyscraper that would store energy within its walls by raising weights to the top during periods of excess energy and release them to produce electricity when it's needed. Gravity energy storage has its hurdles: steel and concrete are major sources of carbon emissions today, the system's cost could keep it from being competitive compared to other storage options, and only a small number of "supertall" buildings in the world exceed 300 metres. But Energy Vault has successfully tested a 150-metre tall tower outside Shanghai, capable of supplying up to 25 megawatts of wind-generated electricity over four hours to the grid. 

— Hannah Hoag

Hot and bothered: Provocative ideas from around the web

• Mexico has elected climate scientist Claudia Sheinbaum as its new president. What does that mean for the country's climate and energy policy? The Energy Mix takes a closer look.

• Conscious that consumerism is taking its toll on the planet, more people are committing to a No Buy Year, where they take a 12-month break from buying anything except what they truly need.
   
• The British band Coldplay says it has cut its emissions 59 per cent during its current world tour compared to the previous. Here's how.

• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has 'indefinitely postponed' congestion pricing that was scheduled to begin at the end of June to save commuters time and help fund transit improvements.

Fishermen cleaning up 'ghost gear' in Atlantic Canada lose federal support

In the cabin of his fishing boat near Saint Andrews, N.B., Greg Beckerton points to a radar screen to show the spots where he has lost traps and other fishing gear.

After more than three decades on the water, he knows how easy it is to lose gear, and how important it is to remove what is known as "ghost gear" from the Bay of Fundy.

Beckerton is a member of the Fundy North Fishermen's Association and has volunteered to help on many of the 137 ghost gear retrieval operations in the past year.

"I'm quite amazed at how much is there," he said of the thousands of traps, buoys and nets he has helped to pull up. 

"When somebody tries to fish there, those traps are competing with the actual fishing traps," he said. "And of course that marine life, once it gets in it, it can't get out, then it's just there. And then it'll just keep fishing forever and ever."

The ghost gear also creates a risk to larger species in the ocean, including the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Darlene Norman-Brown, assistant director of the Fundy North Fishermen's Association, said the group has been able to clean up a lot of ghost gear since 2008, thanks to federal funding.

But she says Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has ended its support — something she says she believes is a mistake.

"We've just scratched the surface," Norman-Brown said of the amount of gear still on the bottom.

Some of the snarls are so large that fishermen have named them. She said the Cod Hole snarl is reported to be "the size of a small house." A fisher once lifted it to the surface, but the ropes couldn't hold its massive weight, Norman-Brown said.

The latest funding, from 2022-2024, was targeted toward combing the waters off Atlantic Canada and Quebec after a lot of gear was lost as a result of Hurricane Fiona.

Norman-Brown said since 2020, DFO funding has helped them retrieve more than 2,500 lobster traps, about 12 kilometres of nets and about six kilometres of cable.

These retrieval operations also helped them rid the ocean of 146 kilometres of rope — almost the distance between Moncton and Miramichi.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not answer questions from CBC about whether the funding for ghost gear retrieval will be restored. 

In an emailed statement, spokesperson Axel Rioux said "more details on the next steps will be shared in the coming weeks."

Rioux said $58 million was spent by the department on ghost gear retrieval projects in Canada and internationally between 2020 and 2024.

The Fundy North Fishermen's Association has focused its cleanup operations in New Brunswick on Passamaquoddy Bay, the Head Harbour Passage around Campobello Island and the Deer Island area, which have some of the highest concentrations of ghost gear.

With tides and currents, Norman-Brown said the gear often gets "drug off and hauled down," which creates a tumbleweed effect.

Those snarls gather everything in their path. Volunteers have pulled up everything from a 3,600-kilogram (8,000-pound) anchor to the front end of a 1940s truck.

For their work, the Fundy North Fishermen's Association will receive the Gulf of Maine Council industry award June 11.

Norman-Brown said they want to spread awareness and secure funding to buy the equipment needed to detect and recover the piles of gear more efficiently.   

Beckerton said the work is dangerous because the grapples they use are heavy and "it doesn't take a whole lot of wave action" for them to sway close to your head.

Khalin Brown also volunteers to retrieve ghost gear, and said besides the environmental harm it does, it is also expensive for fishermen to lose gear.

"Every trap we lose, you're talking $250 to $350 a piece, plus rope and buoys."

After every operation, the usable traps are returned to their tagged owners and all the unusable trash is recycled.

Norman-Brown is hopeful Ottawa will come through with continued funding to clean up the Bay of Fundy.

"The longer time passes without this work being done, then the more ghost gear is being created," she said. "And as long as that gear is on the bottom, it's a hazard to the marine life, it's a hazard to the fisherman's way of life and it's a hazard to humans in general because of the microplastics."

— Rhythm Rathi

Stay in touch!

Thanks for reading. Are there issues you'd like us to cover? Questions you want answered? Do you just want to share a kind word? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at whatonearth@cbc.ca.

Sign up here to get What on Earth? in your inbox every Thursday.

Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Logo design: Sködt McNalty