For years, I have been leading forest-bathing/creative writing walks in urban forests across the country, where my first invitation/prompt is: “Tell me about your favourite tree.”

My goal for this commission is to expand this practice so that it explicitly addresses climate change and eco-anxiety. I want to ask: “Tell me about a tree that you’ve lost.”

I want to talk about the value of dead trees, or snags, in our urban ecosystems. I want to talk about hearing or not hearing songbirds. I want to talk about drought and forest fires, invasive species and ecosystem services.

I will also write a 3,000-5,000 word hybrid essay — that combines poetry and CNF — about tree-loss due to climate change (drought/superstorms being the main drivers to tree loss) and over-development, with the phrase “Why are trees so good for cities; why are cities so bad for trees?”

This piece will be focused on the Lemay Forest, a privately-owned woodlot that the community residents have been walking for decades. Recently, the owner has said they are planning to develop the site, intending to put in a nursing home with 5,000 beds and 5,000 parking spaces, unless the City of Winnipeg acts quickly to buy the land or to swap for a different parcel of land.