Sunday, March 16, 2008


WINDSOR ONTARIO:
AUTONOMOUS TREE PLANTING:
As the North American anarchist movement matures and draws back from the enforced and pointless "militancy" of set-piece theatre where they lose against the police in tiny riots and from childish vandalism, more and more people are coming up with a great variety of practical proposals that put the ideals of anarchism into practice much more effectively and attractively than pretending to be a match for the police can do. The following is one such effort from Windsor, Ontario.

Windsor: Autonomous Tree Planting Campaign - 2008
by ROAD Windsor - Windsor Guerrilla Gardening Collective Windsor at roadnetwork dot org

No one is going to improve our living space except for us. Businesses see our environment as a resource, not a place to live. It is up to us as a community to bring nature to our city. Urban decay can be seen everywhere in Windsor. The once beautiful land is now home to miles of parking lots, mountains of trash and clouds of smog. The modern city is designed to facilitate the free movement of capital, not the freedom of people. Autonomous tree planting is a chance for us to reclaim our living space for community and nature.

Click the link below to download a printable PDF pamphlet about our tree planting campaign.
Why Plant a Tree?
-Trees do a large part in fighting global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Planting 10 trees a year can offset your total carbon footprint
-During a 50-year life span, one tree will generate $30,000 in oxygen, recycle $35,000 worth of water, and clean up $60,000 worth of air pollution
-Prevents or reduces soil erosion and water pollution
-Depending on location, species, size, and condition, shade from trees can reduce utility bills for air conditioning in residential and commercial buildings by 15-50 percent.Windbreaks around homes can be shields against wind and snow and heating costs can be reduced by as much as 30 percent
.-Trees and shrubs properly placed and cared for on a residential or commercial lot can significantly increase property values.
-Trees also provide nuts (walnuts, pecans, hickory), fruit (plum, peaches, apples, pears), berries for jams and jellies (chokecherry and buffalo berry) and maple syrup.
-Trees add beauty and grace to any community setting. They make life more enjoyable, peaceful, relaxing, and offer a rich inheritance for future generations.
Why Plant Trees Autonomously?
No one is going to improve our living space except for us. Businesses see our environment as a resource, not a place to live. It is up to us as a community to bring nature to our city. Urban decay can be seen everywhere in Windsor. The once beautiful land is now home to miles of parking lots, mountains of trash and clouds of smog. The modern city is designed to facilitate the free movement of capital, not the freedom of people. Autonomous tree planting is a chance for us to reclaim our living space for community and nature.
How Can I Help?
Join WGGC in its campaign to re-green Windsor, autonomously. You can help in a number of ways, either by helping us plant trees, spreading the word, or donating supplies. Here is a wish list of supplies we are always in need of:
-Dry Leaves or other organic matter
-Tree Saplings
-Shelf stands
-Soil-Potting containers
-Used lawn hoses
-Gardening tools like shovels
-Flourescent Lights
-Photocopying paper
WGGC – History and Philosophy
For 2 years WGGC has been planting gardens and growing food in forgotten tracts of land around the city. Our core philosophy has always been that people and communities can find better ways to use urban land than business and economy. Other environmentalist groups see nature as something far and away, an abstraction that must remain distant from human culture. WGGC seeks to bring nature back into our living spaces, and seeks to reintegrate our life-ways with nature. Communities who grow their own food have an intimate relationship with their bioregion, and this relationship is what fosters a truly sustainable society. The alienation and complexity brought by global money-based economy has made people forget their biological right to grow their own food and live wholly with the local ecosystem. The separation of people from land is the process which brought us to our present situation, where we are so dependent on wages and economy that we have no choice but to pack up and move when we can't find work. We have largely forgotten that the land provides everything we need, for humans are beings of nature, not beings of economy. Of course, the land can provide nothing unless people have free access to it. Private property labels our right to live as “trespassing”, and appropriates our environment as a resource from which profit can be made. Economy then sells the world back to us as commodities, and limits our ability to provide for ourselves to a “job”. It even goes so far as portraying itself as the essence of community, but in truth economy exists not for the benefit of all of us, but for the few at the top. WGGC seeks to build true community and seeks to establish a closer relationship with nature by redefining how we use our living space. PAMPHLET:

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