{"id":17522,"date":"2019-04-03T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T16:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=17522"},"modified":"2019-04-16T11:02:21","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T18:02:21","slug":"speaker-to-discuss-the-importance-of-urban-forestry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2019\/04\/03\/speaker-to-discuss-the-importance-of-urban-forestry\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaker to discuss the importance of urban forestry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cecil Konijnendijk has travelled the world giving talks about the importance of urban forestry. Now Konijnendijk, who is also an Urban Forestry instructor at the University of British Columbia, is coming to Victoria to speak. His goal with these talks is to show people the benefits of having trees in urban areas\u2014trees can cool our cities and host biodiversity within urban areas\u2014and to give us the tools to make sure that we keep the trees we have healthy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI build my talks basically on the research that\u2019s out there\u2014some of my own, but also of my colleagues\u2014that shows how important trees are in different ways,\u201d says Konijnendijk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Konijnendijk has given urban forestry lectures all over the world, using a combination of broader examples as well as examples tailored to the city he\u2019s speaking in in his talks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, of course, in Victoria, there\u2019s been a lot of talk now about the new urban forestry strategy, and the new funding that went in, but also about the cherry tree discussion, so I\u2019ll definitely make some hooks to that,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019ll keep a broader perspective, really talking about, \u2018What do we know about tree benefits?\u2019 \u2018What do we know about taking care of them?\u2019 and then make some links as to how we can apply them to the specific city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
University of British Columbia instructor Cecil Konijnendijk (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Konijnendijk says he tries to keep these talks pretty general and easy for people to relate to, even if they have limited knowledge on the topic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI use stories, I use examples of how trees and people connect, and I think everybody can relate to that part,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Konijnendijk has had the opportunity to give talks to various groups\u2014his colleagues, rotary clubs, conferences, politicians\u2014however, he says talks like his upcoming one in Victoria where he gets the chance to speak with the general public, are some of his favourites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI also like to maybe instil a bit of\u2014or try to transfer some of\u2014the passion I have for trees and nature and cities, and hope that people are seeing that they\u2019re actually a part of that,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause I know in Victoria a lot of people think similarly, but they sometimes may feel like, \u2018Where do we fit into the wider discussion?\u2019 So, I hope to give them a little bit of background, a little bit of faith that actually this is part of a bigger picture.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Konijnendijk says the deep love he has for nature can be traced back to his childhood roots, growing up in Holland, where his parents would often take him and his brothers out in nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve developed, really, a passion for nature, but also for how we connect people in nature; how we keep them connected in times, of course, where we\u2019ve become more and more urban, and many people maybe actually don\u2019t have a direct connection,\u201d he says. \u201cWe still have it in Victoria and Vancouver, but other places in the world, often it\u2019s much more challenging. And I can see it with our kids, and other kids, that it\u2019s crucial for them to have that connection, to understand what nature does for them, and also why we are part of nature as human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trees Can Do That? An Urban Forestry Approach to Better and Healthier Cities<\/em>
7:15 pm Wednesday, April 17
By donation, Cook Street Activity Centre (380 Cook Street)
creativelyunited.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cecil Konijnendijk has travelled the world giving talks about the importance of urban forestry. Now Konijnendijk, who is also an Urban Forestry instructor at the University of British Columbia, is coming to Victoria to speak. His goal with these talks is to show people the benefits of having trees in urban areas\u2014trees can cool our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17525,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17522\/revisions\/17525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}