As we gathered at a climate change workshop this June, just a few steps away acorn woodpecker parents were energetically tending to the next generation.
Acorn woodpeckers, true to their name, love acorns and store them by the thousands.
Although they also feed on insects, their ability to store away so many acorns provides acorn woodpeckers with a rich store of energy in parts of western North America where oaks flourish.
We came from more than a dozen universities from across North America to Westmont College for a workshop that was designed to grow our passion for climate change action, to bring back to our home institutions and churches.
With our lived experiences, we shared stories of our concern for the planet with one another, scientists, and other experts. They came from a broad range of disciplines on nature, the current problems and their potential solutions.
It was exciting to see more than 30 college students eagerly seeking the “acorns of hope.” It included Trinity Western University students Sarah Demian, Rea Klar, and Lauren Mckenna who travelled to Santa Barbara with me.
In between workshop sessions, I regularly checked in on the acorn woodpecker family, even spying the hungry woodpecker kids venturing out on their own one morning.
Initially, the workshop was quite depressing, as experts reminded us of the dire situation we are in. But, gradually the event blossomed into an encouraging exchange of ideas as students and faculty made promising plans for our own campuses.
One of the most hopeful stories we heard about creating resilience in the face of the devastating extremes of climate change was about planting oak trees at Westmont College.
Westmont College is in an area of California prone to wildfires and part of this vulnerability is due to the presence of non-native and highly flammable eucalyptus trees.
Starting in 2023, some of the eucalyptus trees at Westmont were removed and 60 live oaks were planted in their place – talk about acorns of hope!
The native live oaks are much more resilient to fire and also support a rich native ecosystem, very much parallel to the rich Garry oak ecosystem Trinity Western University students (including Rea) study during our field site on Salt Spring Island.
As we learned from Westmont physicist Ben Carlson, the solution to the complex problem of climate change is not simple. But rather, we must engage all possible strategies – thousands of hopeful acorns.
– David Clements PhD, is a professor of biology and environmental studies at Trinity Western University
