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This week’s climate champ, and a tip for planting native on your balcony.
Dear Reader,
Today’s Climate Champ is Dot’s kinda guy — one who prefers messy to manicured, who champions nature, and who, when challenged, refuses to back down. Instead, Wolf Ruck, today’s Climate Champ, lawyered up to fight back when first his neighbors, then his city, insisted he mow the plants that populated his yard. Those opposed to his yard sought tidiness and homogeneity. Ruck called it “a biodiversity and habitat garden,” rooted in his conviction that “nature knows best,” he told a reporter. Ruck believes that, because of climate change and its impact on biodiversity, creating habitat for pollinators and wildlife is the responsible thing to do. Unfortunately, his city of Mississauga, Ontario, didn’t agree, sending out a crew to mow his rewilded lawn.
At that point, Ruck decided to take legal action. After years of winding his way through various courts and appeals, Ruck finally triumphed when the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that his city’s bylaws around weeds and grass violate Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, noting that maintaining a naturalized, rewilded garden can constitute a form of free expression.
Thinking of rewilding your yard? Bluedot contributor Sarika Chawla did exactly that and shares her story about the benefits, writing that “The more I learned about each plant, the more their personalities seemed to stand out. Milkweed pods burst into fluffy, feathery floss that fell like snowflakes onto the ground cover of wild strawberries. Graceful nodding onions showed up with pale blooms, while pure white snowberries looked like something out of a fairy tale. Not everything survived the hot season, but still, my garden thrived.” Reporter Alexandra Radu brings a story of successful rewilding in Romania to Bluedot readers, transforming an abandoned lot into a nature paradise.
And check out this amazing story about how rewilding efforts are helping to heal Ukrainian soldiers. Ukraine’s nature, says Rewilding Ukraine Executive Director Mykhailo Nesterenko, is as resilient as its people, noting that “Ukraine is dealing with a very difficult humanitarian situation, but nature is fundamental to people: you cannot separate us from nature.”
Wildly,
Dot
For more Bluedot Climate Quick Tips, click here.
