Stories

Catalyzing community networks through our Mother Tree Local Leaders Program

December 11, 2024

As MTLLP continues to expand, we hope to inspire more people to step into healthier relationships with the lands and waters. Read more about the past year’s successes with our activating program for local leaders.

Mahalia Reiner, Mother Tree program facilitator, lead the cohort through their forest walk (Photo by Nila Sivatheesan/Sierra Club BC).

2024 saw some big accomplishments

Sierra Club BC’s Mother Tree Local Leaders Program (MTLLP) continues to expand. This year we ran a Jewish faith cohort for 17 local leaders and provided on-going support to community leaders from our previous two cohorts. These diverse and networked individuals represent over 6,400 people across the lower mainland and beyond.

At its heart, MTLLP aims to empower local leaders to catalyze their community networks in creating tangible, positive change and stepping into healthier relationships with the lands and waters. Drawing on learnings from mother trees, highly connected hub trees in forest communities that provide information, nourishment and support to other trees in their network, MTLLP is an experiential learning program designed for people who, like these nurturing trees, serve as hubs, connectors and supporters within their communities. 

By creating a rich learning environment for participants to connect with one another, and to draw from their own traditions and wisdom, we equip community leaders to catalyze their memberships to step into powerful climate action and together ask how we might better support all life.

Grounding in nature and connecting to our more-than-human neighbours is an important part of this work (Photo by Nila Sivatheesan/Sierra Club BC).

Participants connected with the forest at Pacific Spirit Regional Park (Photo by Nila Sivatheesan/Sierra Club BC.)

Our impact

Through this program, we have been able to support these leaders in deepening their relationship with the more-than-human world and help them plan community-based solutions that are grounded in their own traditions and wisdom. These projects focus on mobilizing their networks to step more deeply into environmental stewardship and include diverse projects that range from running a series on Jewish teachings about our animal kin to hosting dialogues on how death rituals can integrate with the local ecosystem to organizing gardening workshops.

Sunny Nestler, a Professor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and a MTLLP graduate, said, “MTLLP has inspired me to deepen my connection to the land.” Sunny will lead workshops on ethical harvest and ink-making for their community and plans to use these inks in their classroom and to illustrate a story about their connection to these lands.

Zaida Schneider, the founder and director of the Friends of False Creek Society and another recent MTLLP graduate, said, “If you are ever asked to participate in the Sierra Club-BC’s Mother Tree Local Leaders program, DO NOT HESITATE. This was a deeply textured, experiential adventure that opened me to a profound awareness – a fresh environmental intimacy based on ancient wisdom teachings and evidence-based science.”

“In a number of rich encounters, participants are encouraged to go beyond mere intellectual understanding of our planetary urgencies, and connect with one’s heart, one’s deepest values, through touch and smell, exploring intuition and daring to connect with the delicate longing for individual and planetary healing. It changed me,” added Schneider.

SCBC’S Director of Campaigns and Programs, Shelley Luce, joined the MTLLP cohort on their forest walk (Photo by Nila Sivatheesan/Sierra Club BC).

Participant Zaida Schneider takes a moment for contemplation among the trees in Pacific Spirit Regional Park (Photo by Nila Sivatheesan/Sierra Club BC).

What’s next

We look forward to running two more cohorts in 2025 with faith communities in the Lower Mainland. And as the MTLLP grows, we are bringing these cohorts together to expand our ever-growing network of community leaders!