Courses and Workshops
How can we contribute to food security in a changing climate? What food should we grow in response to the changing climate? How is the ecological system around us changing due to Climate Change? What alternatives do we have to current energy sources? How does our carbon footprint relate to global GHG emissions? Explore the answers to these and other questions related to Climate Change in the Gulf Islands.
Winter Gardening Club
Our next gathering is July 22nd, 2025. Everyone welcome.
Living here, we can have gardens that are productive and provide us with food all year round. Would you like to be better at winter gardening? We would too!
Blue Heron Learning Society is starting a peer-to-peer winter gardening club, to meet once a month, sharing seeds, plant starts, and ideas. Learning together through successes and failures, we’ll follow the expert advice of Linda Gilkeson, a noted gardening expert who lives on Saltspring Island in an ecosystem similar to Gabriola’s. Her book, Backyard Bounty is a great guide for us, and she maintains an email list that we will follow giving tips, when to plant advice, and what to do when it’s very dry, wet, hot or cold.
First meeting at 110 McConvey Road, Monday June 30th, 3 to 4 pm.
For more info please call Mary Wilson at 250-247-0242 , or email info@blueheronlearning.ca.
Biochar Workshops & Community Kiln
Biochar is an ancient approach to increasing the nutrients and productivity in the soil through creating biochar by charring waste wood, grinding and inoculating it, and then adding it to garden soil. It is also an efficient way to sequester carbon to mitigate the effects of Climate Change.
Stay tuned to this page for info on the next workshop in the fall of 2025. Dates are subject to weather and suitable ventilation index and will be confirmed a day or two ahead of the burn.
Once you have taken a workshop you are eligible to borrow the kiln to do your own burn.
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Contact Blue Heron: info@blueheronlearning.ca
How to borrow the Biochar Kiln.
Blue Heron Guide: Biochar 101.
Carbon Footprint Analysis Beyond the Basics
This course is based on a citizen science approach to analyzing the carbon footprint of various actions that might be undertaken by individuals, businesses, and communities. The focus will be on how to factor in carbon footprint analysis into the real-life choices of participants.
The course is five weeks long with a 1-hour class each week for a total of five hours classroom time. Participants will learn how to analyze the greenhouse gasses (GHG) emitted from everyday actions and to compare different options for achieving specific goals in terms of their GHG emissions. They will be provided with information regarding the emission factors of various fossil fuels and different types of waste. Different BC community GHG inventories will be reviewed.
Contact us if you are interested in taking this course.
Climate Change and Ecological Changes in the Gulf Islands
This course is based on a citizen science approach to ecological monitoring. Course participants will learn to identify significant areas for monitoring, map the area they will be monitoring, develop a plan for monitoring the area over an extended period, and document the results of the monitoring. Following the course, participants will be encouraged to participate in long-term ecological monitoring as part of Blue Heron’s long-term environmental monitoring initiative.
The initial course is three weeks long, with a 2-hour class each week for a total of six hours instructional time. Participants will learn about the value of environmental monitoring, particularly for sensitive ecosystems, and approaches to monitoring a variety of species, including plants, animals and fungi.
Contact us if you are interested in taking this course.
How to Implement Small Scale Solar, Wind and Hydro Systems
DESCRIPTION COMING SOON
Contact us if you are interested in taking this course.
