For those rare moments when your day’s adventures are done, you’ve finished the last page of your book and all you want is to sit back and relax, our Wildsight crew has uncovered some treasured nature-based videos for you to enjoy.
Pop a bowl of popcorn, find your comfiest spot on the couch, and enjoy some engaging and entertaining online content.
How trees talk to each other
TED Talk / 18 minutes
Ecologist Suzanne Simard’s 30 years of research in Canadian forests have led to an astounding discovery – trees talk, often and over vast distances. Learn more about the harmonious yet complicated social lives of trees in this TED talk.
You’ll look at trees in a whole new way after watching this video, and find appreciation for what’s hidden under the surface.
The secret language of trees
Youtube / 4 minutes
Learn how trees are able to communicate with each other through a vast root system and symbiotic fungi, called mycorrhizae. This is a more student-focused presentation of Suzanne Simard’s ideas shared in her TED talk (above).
“The forest health relies on these intricate communications and exchanges. With everything so deeply interconnected, what impacts one species is bound to impact others,” she explains.
Coal Valley: The story of B.C.’s quiet water contamination crisis
The Narwhal / 14 minutes
This mini-documentary tells the tale of a slowly unfolding pollution crisis in the Elk Valley.
While the documentary was filmed in 2018, the content is as relevant today as ever. Coal Valley provides a solid overview of the issues at the heart of Teck’s continuing water pollution. Then send the link to your friends who wonder why we’re all so concerned about Teck’s expansion plans.
Big Gums
Youtube / 15 minutes
Beau Miles is an adventurer, writer, and storyteller. He’s paddled across the Horn of Africa, ran the Australian Alps, and done a lot really crazy stuff. Lately he has found meaning in adventures close to home. This film is focused on spending time with an endangered and iconic tree “big gums” (a species of eucalyptus) in his Australian backyard.
The film is incredibly relevant to BC and our endangered and ancient trees. Whether it’s the big cedar and hemlock forests of the inland temperate rainforest, the gnarly old whitebark pine of our subalpine or alpine ecosystems, or the thick barked ponderosa pines of the rocky mountain trench, this film reminds us to care and connect with the joys and threats in our backyard, and to continually find wonder, adventure, and connection at home.
“I’d rather live in a world with big trees around than not. I feel safer around big trees,” Beau says. “There’s this bloody crazy mentality: let’s chop down the oldest, most culturally significant thing in the area so we can put three more houses up. Drives me bonkers.”
What a nun can teach a scientist about ecology
TED Talk / 13 minutes
Science and environment correspondent Victoria Gill uses the case of a species in the blink of extinction in Mexico to explain the significance of Indigenous people in ecological restoration. She uses evidence she gathered in the field to show people that traditional knowledge is as crucial as scientific research in environmental preservation.
“When scientists team up with, look to and defer to people who have a really valuable perspective on what they’re trying to do but a totally different outlook, something really special can happen.”
Primeval: Enter the Incomappleux
Youtube / 19 minutes
See the remarkable old growth forest in BC’s interior up close. Learn how the humble lichen saved an ancient giant, and walk the rich mossy floor of this cathedral worth saving. Filmed on location deep in the heart of BC’s Selkirk Mountains, the documentary tells the story of the majesty, magic and endurance of one of the world’s last truly intact temperate rainforests.
“If we reduce big, old trees, not to mention lichens, fungi and insects, to mere numbers on a balance sheet, then they don’t stand a chance,” says the film’s creator, Damien Gillis. “But if it means something to save the mountain caribou, to preserve biodiversity in an era of climate change, and to leave a legacy for our children, for future generations, to explore the wonders of an ancient world, untouched since the last ice age, then the Incomappleux is worth far more protected and left as it is.”
How to start a movement
Ted Talk / 3 minutes
For a light-hearted look at how to be a leader, and a follower, check out entrepreneur Derek Siver’s TED talk on how to start a movement. He uses an entertaining video clip to break a movement down by its key players, and walks us through the lessons that video imparts.