What If Climate Stability Depends on
How We Treat Our Land and Water? |
|
|
Dear Climate Changemaker, What if many of today’s climate crises aren’t failures of nature—but failures of how we design, manage, and relate to land and water?
From forests and meadows to roads and infrastructure, human decisions quietly determine how water moves through landscapes—whether it soaks in or runs off, cools ecosystems or fuels disaster. As droughts, wildfires, floods, and heat intensify, a growing body of science points to a shared root cause: disrupted living systems that once regulated water, energy, and resilience.
Across watersheds, forests, and even road networks, the same pattern appears again and again. When we speed water up, strip landscapes of complexity, and simplify ecosystems, we destabilize climate. When we slow water down, restore living relationships, and work with natural processes, landscapes recover—and so does climate stability.
This month, we’re offering several connected learning experiences that explore this deeper story from different angles: - How restoring natural water flows can break the drought–fire–flood cycle
-
How roads quietly shape (and often damage) watersheds—and how roads can be redesigned to heal landscapes and watersheds
- How intact forests regulate climate through water cycling, cooling, and biodiversity
Together, these programs invite a shift in perspective—from treating climate as a carbon-only problem to understanding it as a land-and-water systems challenge—and from reacting to symptoms to restoring the living systems that make resilience possible. |
|
|
Thinking Like Water
Film and Live Conversation Series
January 20 - February 17 |
|
|
Tuesday, February 3
6:00 pm ET - Film Screening
7:30 pm ET - Live Conversation
Featured Guest Speakers |
|
|
Lia Griesser
Wildlife Conservationist, Albuquerque Wildlife Federation,
Restoration Coordinator, Landscape Designer |
| Cameron Weber
Habitat Conservation Director, Rio Grande Return, Riverscape Restoration Practitioner |
|
|
Episode 3: “Fire & Flood"
This episode zooms in on restoration in the age of increasing catastrophic wildfires and their post-fire impacts as well as how hybridizing treatments comes with the terrain. Snow is falling less in many areas and melting sooner resulting in a more parched landscape as the warmer and windier seasons of spring and summer roll in.
Episode 3 explores how we use restoration as a tool to keep snowmelt on the land longer, mitigate peak flooding as well as tend to degrade areas that are acerbated by the drought-fire-flood cycle. |
|
|
Tuesday, February 10
6:00 pm ET - Film Screening
7:00 pm ET - Live Conversation
Featured Guest Speakers |
|
|
Brad Lancaster
Water-Harvesting Expert, Author, Rain-water Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond |
| Zuzka Mulkerin Director, Voices of Water for Climate - Biodiversity for a Livable Climate |
| John Lambert
Project Coordinator, Voices of Water for Climate - Biodiversity for a Livable Climate |
|
|
Episode 4: “Country Roads, City Roads”
This episode reveals how roads—often overlooked—may be one of the biggest drivers of watershed damage. Featuring roads expert Steve Carson, urban water harvesting pioneer Brad Lancaster, and restoration mentor Bill Zeedyk, the episode shows how roads function as manmade waterways that speed up runoff, increase erosion, and worsen flooding—and how rethinking road design can turn them into tools for rehydration, cooling, and watershed health.
|
|
|
What You'll Learn in Episodes 3 & 4 - Why keeping water on the land longer reduces wildfire and flood risk and cools landscapes
- How restoring natural water flows can break the drought–fire–flood cycle
How roads function as manmade waterways—and how redesigning roads can heal watersheds Practical, low-tech restoration techniques that slow, spread, and sink water How small design changes can create big gains in ecosystem and community resilience
|
|
|
How Trees & Forests
Shape Our Climate
8-week mini-course February 5 - March 26
12:00 pm ET |
|
|
Our nine expert speakers will take you inside the living systems of forests in our upcoming course How Trees & Forests Shape Our Climate — revealing how intact, biodiverse ecosystems regulate the climate through water cycling, cooling mechanisms, soil moisture control and the biotic pump, while sustaining life for a vast array of living organisms.
These leading scientists, authors, filmmakers, advocates, and practitioners will unpack the science, identify industry narratives, and separate fact from fiction on common forest management practices. We'll tackle urgent questions around logging, forest thinning, biomass energy, wildfire misinformation, and emerging proposals such as woody biomass burial and tree sinking.
This is a rigorous, hopeful, and practical invitation to rethink forests—not as fuel or commodities, but as essential partners in climate stability. You’ll discover how microbes, fungi, insects, wildlife, diverse plants and trees, and dead wood work together to sustain healthy forests, and leave with practical strategies to protect and restore forests, wildlife, and climate stability in your own community. |
|
|
Anastassia Makarieva, PhD
Atmospheric Physicist, Co-Author of the Biotic Pump Theory
February 5
|
| Judith Schwartz
Author, Reindeer Chronicles, Water in Plain Sight, Cows Save the Planet
February 12
|
|
John Feldman
Filmmaker, Symbiotic Earth, Regenerating Life
February 19
|
|
|
Rob De Laet
Author, Cooling the Climate, Climate Strategist February 26 |
| Scot Quaranda Communications Director, Dogwood Alliance
March 5 |
| Michael Pilarski
Founder, Friends of theTrees, Global Earth Repair Convergence
March 12 |
|
|
Sonia Demiray
Founder, Executive Director, Climate Communications Coalition March 19 |
| Basil Camu Co-Founder, Leaf & Limb and Project Pando, Author, From Wasteland to Wonder
March 26 |
| Hart Hagan
Bio4Climate Course Instructor, Climate Reporter & Journalist, Native Plant Educator
February 5 - March 26 |
|
|
What You'll Learn in This Course - How forests regulate climate through water cycling, cooling mechanisms, biodiversity, and soil moisture retention
- Why microbes, fungi, insects, wildlife, and dead wood are essential to a healthy forest ecosystem
- How wildfires naturally function in forest ecosystems—and how to distinguish myth from science regarding fire risk and prevention
- How to identify timber-industry narratives that promote destructive practices like thinning, clearcutting, and biomass energy
-
Practical steps you and your community can take to protect and restore forests, wildlife, and climate stability while resisting harmful land-use decisions
Don't miss How Trees & Forests Shape Our Climate. Join us and be part of the movement to restore living systems for a stable, livable future.
|
|
|
Free Introductory Webinar
Rainwater Harvesting: The Big Picture
Friday, February 6 3:00 - 4:30 pm ET
Join us for this introductory webinar by instructor Hart Hagan who will take you beyond the typical rain barrel approach to identify the many ways you can capture rainwater in your backyard and in your community. |
|
|
We invite everyone to join us, regardless of whether you have participated in previous programs. We are all on a journey of expanding our knowledge on nature's climate solutions, and we each bring something valuable to the conversation. We look forward to seeing you there! |
|
|
Louise Mitchell Outreach Programs Manager |
|
|
|
