Uncategorized, Research, Travel, urban forestry, Partnerships, Collaboration, Community, Engagement

Alder things considered: Holiday reflections on trees, culture and connection

As published on Tree Canada's blog, December 10, 2025. As we head into the holiday season, I find myself returning, as I often do, to the quiet, resolute presence of trees as sentinels in our lives. Growing up Armenian in Canada, I was raised with a deep sense of ancestry and attachment to the land,… Continue reading Alder things considered: Holiday reflections on trees, culture and connection

Engagement, Research, Uncategorized, urban forestry

Equity in Canada’s Urban Forests

As published in The Forestry Chronicle 2024, VOL. 100, No 2 Context Over the past decade, it has been refreshing to witness the shift in urban forestry conservation dialogues and practice to include green equity. What were once dominant narratives of methods, protocols and frameworks increasingly include broader considerations for systemic injustice, marginalization, and vulnerability.… Continue reading Equity in Canada’s Urban Forests

Children, Community, Engagement, urban forestry, Women

Raising environmentally aware children: perspectives of a mom working in urban forestry

Originally published on Tree Canada's blog: May 12, 2023 I am a convener. I am interested in the bridging of things, the connections between people, their stories, ideas, and lived experiences. Over the course of my career, I have been privileged to work with non-traditional allies in the pursuit of better and more equitable and… Continue reading Raising environmentally aware children: perspectives of a mom working in urban forestry

Uncategorized

Lived Experience, Essential Narratives, Part 2: A Tree Model for Integrating Social Dimensions into Urban Forestry

As published in City Trees, November/December 2021 issue. Modified excerpt from the authorโ€™s PhD dissertation, Learning from Limbwalkers: Arboristsโ€™ Stories in Southern Ontarioโ€™s Urban Forests (Bardekjian, 2015). Human connections and experiences with trees have inspired creative interpretations and visual representations of our cultures, flow, and processes for centuries using the tree (Lima, 2014). In urban… Continue reading Lived Experience, Essential Narratives, Part 2: A Tree Model for Integrating Social Dimensions into Urban Forestry

arboriculture, Community, Engagement, Research, Uncategorized, urban forestry

Lived Experience, Essential Narratives, Part 1: How Stories from Urban Foresters and Arborists Can Inform Our Field at Large

As published in City Trees, September/October 2021 issue. Modified excerpt from the authorโ€™s PhD dissertation, Learning from Limbwalkers: Arboristsโ€™ Stories in Southern Ontarioโ€™s Urban Forests (Bardekjian, 2015). My background is rooted in English literature, creative writing, anthropology, and forest conservation. Throughout my studies, much of my experience and training focused on creative, applied, and technical… Continue reading Lived Experience, Essential Narratives, Part 1: How Stories from Urban Foresters and Arborists Can Inform Our Field at Large