Researchers join educators and children on walks in a nearby urban forest. Toddlers negotiate jackets, snow pants and boots, and then move, as fast as layers of winter clothing would allow, across a sports field. On the other side of a chain-link fence is the forest. The group moves along its edge to a small clearing they\u2019ve come to regard as the entrance. It\u2019s marked with a fallen tree and, on rainy days, a large puddle at the edge of the path. The entrance is different today. Smaller shrubs and trees have been cut down, and a wave of orange markings \u2013 bright flags and smears on tree trunks leads into the forest. Some leaves got in-between trees and spray cans, and are now bright orange in the snow. A path is going to be built to connect the school with a new residential development on the other side of the forest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am standing on the edge of the forest, with this memory and a leaf, its back covered in icy snow, its front dazzling caution-orange. It is abstracted now, an anthropomorphic mark of progress covering its decomposing surface. Still, paint, decay and all, this leaf is situated in a specific place. Situated in this place is the question of who paints the leaves, as are something or someone does the painting: cold temperatures, the slowing down of chlorophyll production, construction workers; as is the educator who resents the disturbance; as am I, a researcher, collecting questions and stories of ordinary everyday encounters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Researchers join educators and children on walks in a nearby urban forest. Toddlers negotiate jackets, snow pants and boots, and then move, as fast as layers of winter clothing would allow, across a sports field. On the other side of a chain-link fence is the forest. The group moves along its edge to a small clearing they\u2019ve come to regard as the entrance. It\u2019s marked with a fallen tree and, on rainy days, a large puddle at the edge of the path. The entrance is different today. Smaller shrubs and trees have been cut down, and a wave of orange markings \u2013 bright flags and smears on tree trunks leads into the forest. Some leaves got in-between trees and spray cans, and are now bright orange in the snow. A path is going to be built to connect the school with a new residential development on the other side of the forest. Before the snow fell, on a fall day overwhelmed with browns and reds and golden yellow colours, another child, walking through this forest, puzzled whether someone paints the leaves in the night. I am standing on the edge of the forest, with this memory and a leaf, its back covered in icy snow, its front dazzling caution-orange. It is abstracted now, an anthropomorphic mark of progress covering its decomposing surface. Still, paint, decay and all, this leaf is situated in a specific place. Situated in this place is the question of who paints the leaves, as are something or someone does the painting: cold temperatures, the slowing down of chlorophyll production, construction workers; as is the educator who resents the disturbance; as am I, a researcher, collecting questions and stories of ordinary everyday encounters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[38,40,39,37],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-markings","category-tracks-tracings","tag-clearcutting","tag-leaves","tag-marks","tag-snow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions\/660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}