A photo of the Wondrous Tree Fellowship at a rally
Wondrous Tree Fellowship is a rabble rousing group! Credit: Wondrous Tree Fellowship Credit: Wondrous Tree Fellowship

Each year, we here at rabble ask our readers: “What are the organizations that inspire you? Who are the people leading progressive change? Who are the rabble rousers to watch?” Every year, your responses introduce us to a new group of inspiring activists. This is our ‘rabble rousers to watch’ series. Follow our rabble rousers to watch here. 

Up next on our rabble rousers to watch list of 2023 is the Wondrous Tree Fellowship, a community-based environmental group based in British Columbia.

We spoke with Nancy Furness, an organizer with the fellowship, about the work they are doing to educate and inspire the community around them on forest protection and the healing powers of nature.

Nancy Furness of the Wondrous Tree Fellowship.

A conversation with Wondrous Tree Fellowship organizer, Nancy Furness

Editors’ note: This interview has been edited for length.

rabble.ca: Can you tell us about the work that you’re doing with your organization?

Nancy Furness: Wondrous Tree Fellowship is a community-based group that works to raise awareness and appreciation around all the wonderful things that trees do. Trees help mitigate the effects of a rapidly-changing climate by storing carbon, provide valuable ecological services and are integral to human physical and mental well-being. 

We strive to protect trees in our own and neighbouring communities using the three-pillared approach of education, advocacy and celebration. 

We provide free, public education on the roles that trees play by hosting guided tree walks, salmon-cycle walks, workshops on the health benefits of trees, kid’s nature art days, movie nights, and knowledgeable speakers. We’ve created a local museum exhibit and display boards for community events. Both elementary and high schools invite us to lead nature walks, pollinator workshops, and foraging workshops. 

Advocacy takes the form of attending environmental rallies, and organizing our own protests including Lost Species Day at local MLA’s offices and Farewell to a Tree rallies. We meet with elected representatives at all levels and are frequent contributors to our community papers. 

We also work collaboratively with other environmental groups and municipalities to host the ‘TriCites Urban Forest Forum’ series where we bring experts, elected representatives, city staff, arborists, environmental consultants, students, and members of the public together to discuss how to best address challenges of increased development, population pressures, and effects of a rapidly changing climate on the health of our regional urban forest. Reconciliation is always on our minds too. We recently collaborated with a Tsartlip First Nation artist, other local artists, and BC Culture Days to produce a short, nature-based film ‘Weaving our Story Towards Reconciliation.’

May Day Parade | Photo courtesy of the Wondrous Tree Fellowship.

Despite busy schedules, we never forget to take time to celebrate. We get creative and participate as a ‘Walking Forest’ complete with the Green Man, Forest Fairies, walking trees, colourful mushrooms and forest creatures in the annual May Day Parade. We also celebrate the Winter Solstice with Celtic costumes and a winter hike in the forest. Several years ago we hosted a Jack-o-Lantern Festival which drew an enthusiastic crowd of over 4,000 people. 

We never turn down the opportunity to take someone on a walk in the forest – what better way to celebrate nature! 

rabble.ca: How did you first get involved in activism?

NF: I have personally been a life-long activist participating in many environmental groups. My first involvement was a high school walkout protesting the Amchitka nuclear bomb testing in 1971 just prior to the formation of Greenpeace. I witnessed then the power of standing up and speaking out.

Many years later, I was fortunate to connect with folks in my neighbourhood who share my connection to and love of nature. We watched together as healthy, mature trees in our municipality were being replaced by concrete and parking lots. We stood up and spoke out. 

Despite meeting with the elected representatives and decision-makers and organizing a protest, we were unable to save a single tree from downtown clear-cut developments. In the end, we lost over 200 trees from our once leafy, small downtown core.

We realized then that we had a lot of hard work ahead in raising awareness and sharing our knowledge and love of the urban forest not only with elected representatives, but also with children and their families. It was time to get the whole community involved.

Wondrous Tree Fellowship (with an appropriate acronym) was born out of the need to take meaningful action to stop the erosion of our urban forest. We have now grown beyond the borders of our own small community and are successfully engaging with neighbouring municipalities.

rabble.ca: What does being nominated as a ‘rabble rouser to watch’ mean to you?

NF: Wondrous Tree Fellowship is deeply honoured to be nominated as a ‘rabble rouser to watch’. It means that our work is being noticed and our voice will be heard by a larger community of engaged citizens. 

Activists rarely get the opportunity to share their stories through major media channels, so it is with gratitude and humility that I share ours with you.

I hope that by sharing our story and experiences we can inspire others despite challenges and barriers faced, to get creative and take action to make their communities better and healthier places to live. 

rabble.ca: How do you take care of yourself and find the drive to keep going? 

NF: I’m a firm believer that the best way to take care of yourself and to keep going is to stay well connected to family and/or friends and to nature. 

Our group has formed an especially close and supportive ‘circle of friends’. We share a deep respect for each other and for the trees and natural spaces that surround us. 

When things get tough, we take care of ourselves by heading to the local trails where conversations and ideas flow easily. If we’re not in the forest, we might be out on the water in kayaks. 

The drive to keep going comes with the loss of liveability we witness in our cities each time a healthy, mature tree needlessly falls. 

rabble.ca: What is one goal you have in the next year? 

NF: Our main goal over the next year is to continue to do the hard and rewarding work of fostering a deep connection between two vastly different organisms sharing one small planet. 

We will hold traditional events such as our Earth Day Tree Walk, Kids Nature Art Day, the Lost Species Day rally and the Winter Solstice Celebration. We will also continue to work collaboratively with other environmental groups on events such as the TriCities Urban Forest Forum (TUFF) series. Speakers for the next forum have already been confirmed – and will be announced shortly.   

Within the overarching goal of connection, we are in communication with several other groups doing good work to protect trees in their own communities. We hope to build on those relationships to form a broader network of support and collaboration. Building a coalition of tree protectors will give us all a stronger voice when we speak out for the trees.

rabble.ca: What do you wish people knew about the organizing you do? 

NF: The success of Wondrous Tree Fellowship depends on the knowledge, creativity, and passion of our members. Each of our members brings their own level of commitment to the table. 

We receive no funding from any level of government or corporation. Instead, support comes from the generosity of our members, the community, and honoraria received for educational workshops and speaking engagements. This creates challenges, but also really pushes us to organize in a non-biased, creative and collaborative way.  

We share resources and collaborate with our local libraries, artists, musicians, small businesses, educational facilities, community television, and other environmental groups to deliver successful programs and events. 

We also try to organize events that reach a wider audience. For example, we engage the writing community by holding story-writing contests – an anthology was even published of The Greatest Tree Stories Ever Told by authors from ages six to 95 from stories collected through our contests – “Knit-bombing” trees draws in avid knitters and ‘Yoga Under the Trees’ reaches out to the yoga community.

Our programs and events are organized in a way that is inclusive and without barriers. Events are offered at no cost to participants. I would like people to know that everything we organize is done in a spirit of love for nature and hope for the future.