The James River Association has partnered with the City of Richmond Department of Parks and Recreation to install a stormwater management and beautification project along the east side of Shields Lake at Byrd Park. This project is made possible through support from Altria Group, Hazen and Sawyer, Luck Companies, and Yardworks.

The project site is a heavily used section of Byrd Park and suffers from erosion. The restoration project is designed to reduce current erosion issues by installing a stone swale to capture stormwater runoff from the parking area and installing a rain garden with native plants to allow stormwater to slow down and infiltrate the soil. The grass area will be improved by aerating and seeding with shade tolerant grass. Large stone steps will also lead visitors from the parking area, down the hill and through the rain garden, which will also help erosion issues by defining a walking path. These improvements will not only beautify the space, but will also provide wildlife habitat and improve water quality.

I’ve known Andy Thompson since his RTD days, and when he launched Richmond Outside I eagerly offered myself to him as a “contributing arborist.” In the several subsequent years, I have, in fact, contributed various articles with trees as the focus, but often I have found myself equally inspired by our beautiful river, its influence on my family, and the special people and places that make our city the 21st century natural wonderland that it is. But recently the wind blew fiercely again, and I suppose more than ever it’s time for me to share the perspective of a Richmond arborist.

Living at peace with our trees is not always easy. Credit: Ginnie Busick

It happens every so often that our lush and mature urban forest is asked to stand up against 60-100 mph winds. It’s an unfair ask, really, and when the wind blows with that ferocity, many of our trees break and fall. If you live in Northside Richmond, on June 16th mother nature plowed through your neighborhoods preaching a terrible gospel in torrents of rain and bellowing wind. You hunkered down in your houses, most of you without power, through a long nervous night of unfamiliar, harrowing sounds. Howling winds, creaking trees, and worst of all, the cracking and crashing of slates and timbers. Nature brought you a rare message of primordial power that night, and you awoke Friday morning to find many of your trees in critical genuflection; either prostrate, bowing down on houses, or leaning into the stronger arms of adjacent trees.

With the sawdust settled from the severe storm that gouged its way down I-64 and through northside Richmond on June 16th, and as the victims begin to get their lives back to normal, many Richmonders begin looking at the trees around their houses with an altered perspective. They have suddenly forgotten how much they enjoyed the shade of green canopies, the abundant wildlife habitat, the serene colors of fall, the intricate wooden skeletons silhouetted against a winter sky, and the special relationship between their children and their trees. Many of my Richmond friends and neighbors remember only that just recently their lives and properties were threatened. They feel vulnerable, and want to do something about it.

It is true, a simple fact really, that if we decide to live in a forest, or with trees, then every time the wind blows above 50 miles per hour our properties are at risk. As I once again begin to counsel those who think their only recourse is to remove their trees, I don’t deny this truth. But what I do find myself doing is reminding them how rare these extreme wind events are, and I encourage them to weigh carefully what they would be sacrificing if they remove their trees for a stronger sense of security. I make sure they understand the full implications of the trade-off.

“But is there any way to live safely amongst trees?” my clients ask.

This was a common sight in Richmond last month. Credit: Richmond.com

Unfortunately, when Nature shows us her full blast as she did in the middle of June, any tree can become a victim. And when we are beneath them when they fall we can be victims as well. So much for the bad news, and the fixed variable in the equation of safety and living amongst trees.

Here’s the good news: Thousands of windless or mildly breezy days usually pass between devastating wind events. For me and my children, that’s thousands of days during which we have shaded ourselves beneath the silver maple tree, flied high on our tree swing, played hide-and-seek behind our stout loblolly pine trees, climbed the wild cherry tree, played in our tree house, and relaxed in our hammock. Thousands of days during which our lives have been enhanced by these tall friends.

What then, you might ask, does the Turner family do when the wind blows hard enough to dangerously topple these tall friends?

It’s simple, really. We leave home. We go to an aunt’s house where there is no physical threat from falling trees. And when Mother Nature’s tantrum is over, we drive home to see if any or our friends have fallen, or if we have any property to repair or replace.

And so if you, like us, really enjoy your trees but want to feel more in control of your destiny when Nature is delivering one of her violent messages, here are the things you can do:

No. 1  Have your trees inspected at least annually, and remove hazardous trees. In many cases the trees that have fallen in wind events had defects or weaknesses that could have been detected by an observant arborist.

No. 2  Maintain your trees. Healthy trees have a more firm, healthy grip on the earth.

No. 3  Thin trees that you or your arborist are especially worried about. We don’t top trees as arborists (with enough reasons it would require another post to present them), but a good 25 percent thinning can reduce the weight loading and windsail effect dramatically.

No. 4  Find out from your arborist which of the trees around your house could cause the most damage if they fall, and determine where in your house you would be safe from the impact.

No. 5 If, like the Turners, you have no place in your house that would guarantee you personal protection from certain falling trees, leave! Usually the high wind part of a storm is relatively brief. You could even go to a mall or restaurant if you have no friends with safer houses, or a hotel if the storm is expected to have a long or overnight duration.

Will these steps make you safe around trees during a hurricane, or any wind event with sustained winds over 50 mph?

Well, No. 5 will always make you physically secure, and any combination of the other 4 will increase the chance that your trees and property will make it through the storm as well. It’s the best we can do if we want to continue living in the forest, other than move or take them all down.

Oh yeah, there is that one more option,

No. 6  – Move to a neighborhood of Bradford Pear and Leyland Cypresses Trees. A truly viable option for someone who will not be made comfortable or feel secure amongst our mature native trees, and a better option than altering the character of a wooded neighborhood by introducing a clearcut lot.

The storm is over for now, Richmond, and it’s time to enjoy our time with our trees again. I can’t guarantee there will be thousands of peaceful days before the next big blow, but history records that we should not expect to be terrorized this way too frequently. Be smart about your physical security when the wind blows, and be proactive about tree care on your property. Most importantly, enjoy the positive role trees play in your daily life.

Today’s Times-Dispatch’s featured a really interesting article by Elliott Robinson on a stream restoration project along a stretch of Henrico Co.’s Hungary Creek. As Robinson wrote:

A section of Hungary Creek was restored between the two lakes shown above.

“The stream was way too deep,” said John Newton, capital projects manager for the county’s Department of Public Works. “There was just too much volume, too much velocity in this channel.”

A previous Josh Wiener public art installation. Credit: Josh Wiener

There’s been plenty of press over the past couple of years about the T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge connecting Brown’s Island on the north bank of the James to Manchester (and the base of the Manchester Climbing Wall) on the south side. Less of it has centered on the public art installation that will accompany the bridge.

I got a chance to go for a mountain bike ride with Matt Perry, owner of Riverside Outfitters, and the artist commissioned to bring the sculpture to life, Josh Wiener, a couple of weeks ago. Wiener was in town from his home in Boulder, Co. for a public meeting — a discussion about what ideas and themes the community would like to see in the art.

We rode down to the base of the bridge on the southside, where now concrete columns have been erected and some of the steel base has been set on top of those columns. Winer talked about the very early-stage thoughts he has for the sculpture and where it might be located. He said the city officials haven’t tried to guide what he sculpts in any way, but they have set aggressive timeline — be done by this October.

Wiener said he’d have to work quickly, but he was confident he could finish on time. But what about the bridge itself? This is a structure, remember, that was supposed to be done in time for the UCI World Cycling Championship races this past September. One of the reasons it was delayed was to account for fish, like shad, striped bass and especially the endangered Atlantic sturgeon, that swim up the James to spawn every spring.

The south side of the Tyler Potter Memorial Bridge Project about two months ago.

In his recent Why, Richmond? Why? column our good friend Phil Riggan took up the topic of whether spawning fish will again delay the bridge’s completion.

What would the impact be if all of us, together, said, “No thanks.” Credit: Diana DiGangi, Capital News Service

My daughter made the suggestion. I was tired and eager to be home, but I heard myself say, “Great idea. Where on the river? The Pipeline?”

She was right, of course. We HAD to end the day at the river. I mean, she’d spent her morning seated on the floor with poster board printing out “We love our river” on one side, and on the other: “My playground,” above of a self-portrait, splashing on river rocks.

In the hours between the sketched river play and our actual visit to the James, we drove downtown, to carry those signs in the March for Our Rivers. The rally – rescheduled from a freezing-rain Monday to the most beautiful Saturday in months – was organized to protest Dominion’s plans to release hundreds of millions of gallons of coal ash wastewater upriver from Richmond, into the James.

Now I love a good rally; especially on such a day. And the families with children lent a festival air — dozens of river lovers rolling down the grass hill in front of the Capitol (This is what Democracy looks like.).

But after the impressive and inspiring speakers took their turn at the megaphone, and after the drum-charged march looped through downtown and back to the capital, I felt unsettled.

For starters, I’d lost all patience for the day’s most popular chant: “No Coal Ash. The James is Not for Trash.” That’s really not the point. We HAVE the coal ash. And no one is suggesting we dump it in the James. On the contrary, the reason Dominion is draining the wastewater is so it can obey new rules and move the coal ash to a safe place away from the river. But it’s awkward to chant, “Don’t release wastewater into the James until/unless it reaches truly safe levels and don’t try to tell me it’s safe when it’s not.”

Awkward.

I even fantasized, briefly, about taking a turn at the megaphone to say:

Richmond gets its drinking water from the James River. In the summer we go there to soak. When I asked a friend at the Department of Environmental Quality if the wastewater from Bremo Power Station posed any threat to my daughter’s safety, he couldn’t say no; only that the allowable limit for heavy metals in this wastewater is really, really low.

Maybe so. But here’s my concern: That little allowed bit from Bremo? What happens when it adds to the little allowable bit released at Dominion’s plant in Chesterfield? And the little allowable bits both already release into the air? And then there’s the little allowable bit from the Reynolds factory. And the DuPont factory. The planned Shandong Tralin paper mill. These also have permission to release “just a little bit” of poison in the James.

And how about the fact that heavy metals – mercury and lead and cadmium and arsenic; these bioaccumulate. They concentrate as they move up the food chain; in oysters and muscles and fish. And once in your body, they stay in your body. So what does that mean for a ten year old? One’s who’s been splashing in the river since day one?

That’s what I imagined saying. Instead, I left the crowd to their chanting and told my daughter, Sure. I’d take her to the James.

Again, I love a good protest. Citizens walking through streets to support a shared belief is a universal gesture of freedom. It draws attention to an issue. It can inspire, and pump us up to act. But these secondary actions are what really make change. So, what to do next? What step to make clean drinking water the number one priority of our leaders and laws?

Boycotts can work, but not on monopolies. We want lights on and phones charged, so we plug in, and Dominion gets paid.

Petitions get attention. Letters to the editor educate. Calls to elected officials are counted. Actual meetings count for more. But this is Dominion Power. How can a citizen – especially one with a job and a family and all the time those require – compete with teams of lobbyists, lawyers, and political donations to the General Assembly alone?

So what’s a water drinker to do? Or not do.

If we can’t stop giving Dominion our money, what if we stop taking theirs? While Dominion lobbies to loosen pollution regulations with one hand, its other is offering Richmond gifts. Look around. They sponsor everything. What would the impact be if all of us, together, said, “No, thanks.”

The James River Association already did so. As of this month they’re not asking Dominion for program funding anymore. The conflict was just too obvious; the hypocrisy too great.

Speaking of which…consider Dominion Riverrock.

I’m proud to call some of the scheduled musicians friends, and I know that for some, this is a pretty big gig. Dropping out would be a sacrifice. But imagine the public pressure an empty festival could bring. Or don’t imagine…remember. When bands from around the world rejected offers to play the whites-only resort Sun City, the embarrassment to the South African government helped speed the end of Apartheid. And they didn’t call it a sacrifice; it was an investment in a higher cause.

Last Saturday afternoon, the Pipeline parking lot was too crowded, so Chapel Island was my daughter’s second pick. I watched her do her 10-year-old monkey-thing on a sycamore growing horizontally over the river, and started to protest. Then I stopped myself. She was wearing play clothes. The day was warm. If she fell in, she’d get wet. What’s the harm in that?

With all the build up to and recovery from the recent snow, you may have missed this: Richmond’s own Environmental Film Festival starts tonight and runs through February 7 at venues all over the city. We wrote about the event here a few days back, when the entire schedule of movies and events was not yet finalized. For the full list, check out the EFF website.

The Times-Dispatch previewed one of those movies over the weekend, with Colleen Curran’s piece about Overburden, “the story of a fiery, pro-coal right-winger and a tenacious, environmentalist grandmother as they take on the most dangerous coal company in America,” then-Richmond-based Massey Energy. Overburden will be shown on Feb. 6.

And in Friday’s T-D, outdoors columnist Tee Clarkson gave us a rundown on a number of the EFF movies. Tonight’s kick-off film may interest local backyard food growers. Plant this Movie will be shown at the Main Branch of the Richmond Public Library and starts at 6:30 p.m. The documentary explores urban farming throughout the U.S. and worldwide. The 83-minute film will be followed by a 15-minute presentation on urban gardening in Richmond.

Click here for full the schedule of movies. Suffice it to say, if you’re interested in the natural world at all, there’s a good chance you’ll find a film that interests you.

Organizers are pleased to announce the sixth annual RVA Environmental Film Festival to be held on the first week of February 1-7. The Enrichmond Foundation, Capital Region Land Conservancy, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and Falls of the James Group – Sierra Club have been working together to make sure this year’s festival is the best yet, with many films designed to raise awareness of environmental issues relative to all residents of our planet — and to Richmond citizens in particular. As with last year, all of the festival’s events are free and open to the public.

Although the full week’s schedule will not officially be released until a time closer to the festival, organizers have announced the first part of the children’s portion of the festival.

Back by popular demand, the 2016 RVA EFF will include a children’s portion at the historic Byrd Theater in Carytown, starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, February 6, beginning with The Lorax, hopefully inspiring some new environmentalists and re-igniting the hope of older ones. Continuing at 10:30 am, there will be a screening of Disney’s Monkey Kingdom, a documentary that follows a newborn monkey and its mother as they struggle to survive within the competitive social hierarchy of the Temple Troop, a dynamic group of monkeys who live in ancient ruins found deep in the storied jungles of South Asia. With starring voice-over from Tina Fey, this received a huge audience response when it was released earlier this year.

Festival organizers have extended the festival to a full week and will include venues all over the region, including evenings at the University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University, Visual Arts Center of Richmond, as well as Richmond’s Main Library, Chesterfield County’s North Courthouse Road Library, and Henrico County’s Tuckahoe Library. Many of the films are not only new but area premieres.

Festival sponsors include the James River Association, Slow Food RVA, Relay Foods, Sunflower Solar/Old Dominion Energy, Watershed Architects, Sierra Club Foundation, Enrichmond Foundation, Capital Region Land Conservancy, Whole Foods Market, VA Sun, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, University of Richmond, Rice Center-Virginia Commonwealth University, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Visual Arts Center of Richmond, RichmondOutside.com, WCVE,and the Byrd Theatre.

For more information on the Festival, including sponsorship and volunteer opportunities, visit www.rvaenvironmentalfilmfestival.com.

Information about the films, guests, speakers, and specific schedules for each day will be made available as the event nears. However, the following films have been confirmed:

Plant this Movie — A comprehensive look at the international urban agriculture movement which vividly illustrates, the ingredients for scaling up urban farming and reconnecting people to the food we eat are now all around us. The movement provides hope that people across the nation and the world that they will once again have access to healthier, locally grown food, using the land near where they live as a primary source.

Living Green — profiles Jen Jensen the unsung pioneering landscape architect who became one of America’s most influential urban designers and early conservationists, shaping the Midwest’s physical and cultural landscape in an enduring way. Footage includes photos, interviews of Jensen himself. Jens Jensen is hailed as a pioneer of sustainable design and a champion of native species.

Thule Tuvalu — Two places at the edge of our planet are making headlines due to climate change: Thule, Greenland, because of record ice melts there, and Tuvalu, a remote Pacific island nation which is on the verge of sinking as sea levels rise. Inhabitants of both Thule and Tuvalu are looking into an uncertain future.

Easy Like Water — In rural Bangladesh, 20 million people may be washed away by mid-century, Floating schools turn the front lines of climate change into a community of learning. Boat schools using modern technology are bringing education to kids, especially girls, who might otherwise never get a chance to go to school.

Shark Loves the Amazon — Can twenty-one million people and the rainforest share the same space? With levels of deforestation approaching the point of no return at an alarming rate, Mark London, also known as “Shark”, poses a provocative alternative to the age-old mantra, “leave the forest untouched.”

End of the Line — Where have all the fish gone? We’ve eaten them! Fishing is occurring at an unsustainable rate. Technological advances, political indecisiveness, and commercial interests in the fishing industry have produced a culture where fish stocks are being exploited beyond their capacity to regenerate. Commercial fish may become extinct within our lifetimes.

Monkey Kingdom — A Disneynature film, a spectacular tale set among ancient ruins in the storied jungles of South Asia. Maya, a clever and resourceful monkey, strives to keep her son, Kip, safe through unexpected and perilous adventures. Amazing footage captures all the magic and surprises of their magnificent world.

Bat City Bat City USA — A fascinating, close-up glimpse of the world’s largest urban bat colony amid colorful downtown Austin, Texas. The film reveals how the bats moved into the downtown Congress Avenue Bridge and survived eradication plans by hostile residents. Merlin Tuttle, founder of Bat Conservation International, convinces residents of the benefits of the bats.

This Changes Everything — This film, inspired by Naomi Klein’s international non-fiction bestseller, presents seven powerful portraits of communities on the front lines, from Montana’s Powder River Basin to the Alberta Tar Sands, from the coast of South India to Beijing, and beyond.  Klein builds to her most controversial and exciting idea: that we can seize the existential crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better.

Overburden — The story of a fiery, pro-coal right-winger and a tenacious, environmentalist grandmother as they take on the most dangerous coal company in America. These two lives intertwine as they unite to rebuild their fractured community. Decades after Harlan County, W.VA filming the coal industry is facing extinction, and with an increase in alternative energy and the work of these two courageous women, the epicenter of change may just come from the most unexpected place, the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains.

Yes Men are Revolting — For 20 years the notorious Yes Men dressed in thrift-store suits and with a lack of shame have lied their way into business events and government functions determined to expose the dangers of letting greed run our world. These iconoclastic activists stage outrageous and hilarious hoaxes to draw international attention to corporate crimes against humanity and the environment while sending a hopeful message about fighting for change.

How to Change the World — In 1971 a small group of activists set sail from Vancouver, Canada in an old fishing boat. Their mission was to stop Nixon’s atomic test bomb in Amchitka, Alaska. Chronicling this untold story at the birth of the modern environmental movement and with access to dramatic archive footage unseen for over 40 years, the film centers on eco-hero Robert Hunter and his part in the creation of the global organization we now know as Greenpeace.

The Friends of the James River Park‘s monthly newsletter alerted me to a city initiative I should have been aware of but somehow slipped my attention. The Department of Public Utilities has a new program – RVAH20.org – which includes a watershed management program integrating drinking water, stormwater and wastewater. There are plans for stream restoration projects on Goode’s Creek, Pocosham Creek, and Reedy Creek. The goal of these efforts is to reduce stream bank erosion and reduce nitrogen and phosphorus runoff into the James River.

The site has some cool features, like a citywide watershed map that enables residents to see what micro-watershed they reside in (Reedy Creek, Pocosham, Goode’s, etc.). And there’s information on all the stream restoration projects — what they hope to accomplish, what they’ll cost, how citizens can get involved, and more. Check it out when you have a minute. Chances are, there’s some sort of project planned for your neighborhood.

Writing in the Times-Dispatch the day after Christmas, Outdoors columnist Tee Clarkson covered an ambitious project in the James River Park System that I think deserves a wider audience. I first heard about the project to inventory, map and manage the invasive species in the entire 500-some-acre park from the James River Association‘s Amber Ellis a few weeks back.

Hikers on the Northbank Trail traverse a field of kudzu.

It sounded like a daunting undertaking, but by that point in early December, Ellis said, the inventorying had been done. The next step was a to actually create an an invasive species management plan. That is being done by the firm of Vanasse, Hangen and Brustlin. Then the hard work of actually removing and limiting the spread of invasive species like English ivy, Tree of Heaven, and many others would begin.

One of the neat aspects of the project is how many local groups came together to participate. As Clarkson writes: There are more than 15 supporting organizations that have helped implement the plan with six taking the lead: The Richmond Tree Stewards, VCU, James River Outdoor Coalition, Friends of the James River Park, Riverine Master Naturalists and the James River Association.

According to Chris Senfield, and environmental scientist for VHB who lives near the park…“no one is doing a project like this. No one has been brave enough to try it.”

Goats were employed this past summer to battle English ivy near the JRPS headquarters.

Stage 3 will involve the implementation and treatment of invasive species throughout the park. This will be done in a variety of manners, from using goats for landscaping, as well as potentially using fire, and of course good, old-fashion boots on the ground and clippers in the hands.

Great work by Clarkson bringing this project to light. It’ll be interesting to see how it is implemented in the coming months. Stay tuned.

Maybe you know this story. A child asks why there’s evil in the world. Her grandfather explains that within every person live two wolves, that always fight. One wolf wants that person to do good. The other wants evil. In a nervous voice the girl asks, “Which one of them will win?” Her grandfather answers, “That’s easy. Whichever one you feed.”

Hungry wolves have been on my mind this year. That and Dickens: “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” Every day, it seems, brings dark news. I hear would-be-leaders preach hate, and learn of children – not unlike my own – piled into flimsy rafts and launched into the night. What level of fear would it take to leave everything our family has built and just run? Bad wolves.

Which wolf will you feed this year?

But each day brings glad tidings too. Paris, still healing, witnessed the signing of our planet’s rescue plan. Spare rooms are being opened to grateful strangers. After decades of work, the James River is reported cleaner than since the 1970’s. Good wolves.

It is in this season of long nights — a time when we, like our ancestors, balance the darkness with songs, friends, food and reflection on the year past – I offer a menu of options for strengthening up RVA’s good-wolf pack.

This is not a to-list. It’s a sampling of opportunities — possible New Year’s resolutions – reminding us that tomorrow’s headlines depend on what we each do today.

BUY A SLEEPING BAG. Winter is here, and countless Syrian refugees – children and parents and grandparents — are sleeping outside tonight. Picture trying to keep a little one warm on the slopes of the Blue Ridge…tonight. Then consider a donation of $150 to the UN Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, to buy sleeping bags for three families.

WALK BY RIVERS. In the words of the author Henry Beston, “Touch the earth, love the earth, honor the earth: her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places.”

THEN GO BACK, WITH A CHILD.  We love what we know, and we protect what we love. Introduce your daughter, your son, your niece, nephew or neighbor to the magic of the wild world.

INSTALL A RAIN BARRELL. When it rains, the runoff from roofs, streets and driveways floods the James with dirty water (chemicals, litter, soil, etc.). If we each catch the flow off our home, it adds up.

KEEP THE SABBATH. Embrace a day of rest that suits you and your “roommates.” Maybe go off-line; no phones/internet for the day. Maybe make it car-free. Or a day when you don’t extend/except invitations. Just give yourself and your loved ones time to rest. Read. Make art. Sing. Bake. Breathe.

VISIT A MOSQUE. One of my students ended the semester with an essay about Islamophobia targeting Muslim women (easily identifiable by their scarves). Only with gestures of friendship can we counter such bigotry. So reach out. Visit the Islamic Center of Richmond. You’ll be welcomed with warmth and smiles. As the Dalai Lama said, “It is not enough to have compassion. You must act.”

QUIT (SOME) MEAT. Not necessarily every day, or even all day. Meat is delicious, after all. But we know the consequences of this luxury, on the climate, and on the animals we eat. So how about going meatless one day of the week? Veggy lasagna Monday? Or one meal every day? Potato tacos for lunch? And when we buy meat, let’s buy local. “Home will always be Virginia” is the motto of a happy hog.

QUIT ALL COAL. Solar’s getting cheaper, and there are tax credits. What better purpose for a home equity loan? If you’re not ready for that step (maybe renting?) there are other ways to ditch our dirtiest fuel. We can buy wind-generated electricity delivered by Dominion through our existing power lines. Contact Arcadia Power to make 2016 coal-free.

STEAL FIVE MINUTES A DAY. Close the door. Sit. Breathe. When your mind starts to relive recent conversations, or craft a list of tomorrow’s tasks, tug it back like a puppy on a leash. Just breathe. A tidal wave of research reveals mindfulness as key for success and healing, benefitting everyone from corporate leaders to veterans suffering from PTSD. You don’t need to take a class or read a book or by into any spiritual notions. Start with five minutes each day when you’re not supposed to be doing anything else. Just breathe.

PLANT A TREE. Over a hundred years ago Lucy Larcum, another poet, wisely announced that “We who plant a tree plant hope.” So let’s get planting. Find a bare spot – a corner of your yard, an empty tree well on your block, a playground that needs shade – and fill it with hope. Then watch it grow. On behalf of my child’s children’s children, Thank you.

Here’s wishing us all a forest of hope, a river of joy, a world of peace, and a badass good-wolf pack throughout this coming year.