We cultivate community stewardship through education and engagement to protect and strengthen resilient urban forests for generations to come.

Hi. My name is Sacha Curran and a lifelong connection to trees began with a backyard crabapple tree that erupted each spring with a stunning display of white flowers. As the petals fell, it looked like December in July!

I grew up exploring Edmonton’s Millcreek Ravine with its aspen, spruce, pine and poplar trees-nature’s social network. It was a quiet, special space where I would watch the tops of the trees touch as they swayed in the wind. Supporting myself through university, I worked in a bustling nursery in St. Albert, helping people select the perfect tree for their yard while listening to their stories and hopes for the spaces they were creating. Later, as a tree planter in northern Manitoba, I planted thousands of trees in near-impossible growing spaces that were clear cut just a few years before.

For project consultations, partnership opportunities, or questions about how I can support your community monitoring work, please contact me at info@communityfieldandforest.ca I look forward to hearing from you!

My teaching career in junior high was not so different from these experiences. The students, their families and my colleagues were all as interconnected and dependent on each other as the natural ecosystems I witnessed years earlier. Organizing and launching student leadership programs and whole-school peer mentoring initiatives, I saw how individual actions can lead to powerful and meaningful community change.

Returning to my roots with the plant sciences program at the University of Guelph researching invasion ecology and management in urban forest settings, this project seeks to inspire and empower people in our diverse communities to engage in cultivating a way forward in our shared space with urban forests. Through collective leadership and shared stewardship of these spaces, we foster a deeper understanding of our place in nature — nurturing resilience, respect, and renewed relationships between people and the landscapes that sustain us.