GUELPH – In 2020, the Ignatius Jesuit Centre (IJC) received a $75,000 seed grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) to support the Centre’s Old-Growth Forest Project over 12 months.
This grant allowed the centre to develop and pilot a wholistic ecological restoration program and film a series of documentaries with the goal of promoting participation in ecosystem conservation and restoration efforts, detailed a Jan. 5 press release.
The program offered four workshops, each of which included perspectives from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous practitioners of ecology, land-based education and research.
“As the member of Provincial Parliament for Guelph, I want to congratulate the Ignatius Jesuit Centre on being recognized by the Ontario Trillium Foundation,” said MPP Mike Schreiner.
“Working alongside great community partners, I have faith that the centre will continue to work towards ecosystem conservation and restoration efforts for the years to come.”
‘Wholistic Restoration’ is about having an openness to the different ways of seeing and how we come to know and value nature through a more culturally engaged and informed framework for effective ecosystem restoration and climate change mitigation projects, IJC officials say.
“I am so grateful for the opportunity this grant has given us to present and facilitate these important discussions and for the relationships that have been made,” said Martin Tamlyn, manager of the Ignatius Old-Growth Forest Project.
“It is my hope that this engages more community members in taking action toward a better future both on a personal and collective scale.”
Ecological education and engagement have been central to the goals of the Ignatius Old-Growth Forest project, according to Tamlyn.
“With the cancellation of most of the centre’s in-person learning we were able to pivot with the support of this grant to continue to develop our educational programming material and provide opportunities for online learning and conversation,” he explained in an email to the Advertiser.
Participants were grateful to explore new ways of thinking about land care and for the resources this series provided that contribute to the process of restoration and reconciliation, he noted.
Recordings of these webinars and the series of Wholistic Restoration documentaries can be found on the IJC’s YouTube channel.
The IJC cultivates spiritual growth and ecological engagement. The Old-Growth Forest Project was established by IJC in 2006 and is a 93-acre conservation easement protected in perpetuity through Ontario Farmland Trust.
They run school programs, community workshops and events, and maintain trails through the property, offering opportunities to get involved while encouraging positive environmental change.
Visit ignatiusguelph.ca to find out about the project.
