The Rotary Club of Guelph is celebrating Earth Day this year with a public screening of Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees at The Bookshelf on April 20.
The screening will be followed by a live Zoom Q&A with the star of the award-winning documentary, scientist and author Diana Beresford-Kroeger, as well as the film director Jeff McKay.
Released in 2016, the documentary follows Beresford-Kroeger as she explores ancient forests in the northern hemisphere, from the sacred sugi and cedar forests of Japan, to walnut and redwood trees of America and the boreal forest in Canada.
Along the way she shares the history and legacy of the forests, while explaining the science of trees and the roles they play in protecting and feeding the planet.
The film is a call for “massive, global restoration to reverse climate change,” the press release states. “Earth loses more than 140 square kilometres of forest per day. Only five per cent of the world’s old growth native forests remain.”
It proposes a simple strategy to combat this, by encouraging everyone to plant trees in their own communities.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the film starts at 7 p.m. There are no reserved seats, and the cover is pay what you can. Attendees are all automatically entered to win a prize basket.
They hope the film will get the community excited for the event they're hosting two days later.
The Rotary Club, along with Trees for Guelph and the City of Guelph, will be “planting a new forest” at the Earth Day Tree Planting and Environmental Fair from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 335 Laird Rd.
You can learn more here.
