On Oct 30, 2025, we welcomed 6 staff from B.C. Housing for a Healing Forest Walk. This was part of their effort to support their staff’s mental health and healing.
For this walk, we were honoured to partner with Leona Brown. Leona is a Gitxsan mother of three and the Indigenous Advisor for the Vancouver Urban Food Forest Foundation. Leona helped guide our walk, sharing her knowledge and stories.
We began by sitting in the sacred circle of the Douglas Fir Teaching Forest. The trees were alive above us with birds. We then walked through the garden, noticing the flowers, berries and ferns. Then we walked along the adjacent Champlain Heights trails to the Free the Fern Community Food Forest.
As we walked, we noted how invasive ivy climbs and kills our local trees. Leona likened ivy’s relentless spread to colonization. So removing it is an act of reconciliation.
We also observed many Indigneous plants, including:
🌿Thimbleberry with fuzzy leaves
🌿Oregon grape with clusters of berries that look like grapes
🌿Sword fern with evergreen fronds
🌿Snowberry with white berries that are full of saponins
🌿Indigenous plum, whose stem, when scratched, smells like cucumber
🌿redwood sorrel with leaves that taste of lemons
The weather was so lovely and everyone went away with big smiles and much gratitude for the knowledge shared.
