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So, there we were<\/strong>, in 2046, amazingly both still alive. The old wood bench, silvered with time, still holds us both. Nearby is the old concrete fountain, its edges covered in lichen. We sip our warm tea and watch the House Sparrows splashing in the fountain. It is good to see them home again. To our delight a pair of Chickadees joins the Sparrows. The last time we saw the Chickadees was over ten years ago, before our community landscape adaptation initiative. We reminisce about where we began\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every day<\/strong> we used to watch the birds that visited our small garden. Each season brought a new set of visitors. In winter Cedar Waxwings would descend to gorge on the fermenting red berries of the Mountain Ash. They would fly crazy in a drunken stupor after so many berries. Wild hares would later feast on the many berries that the Waxwings had knocked to the ground. In spring the large Lilac would explode with sweet purple blossoms and the song of the House Sparrows nesting in her branches. The Pear tree would burst into a bouquet of white flowers and hum for weeks with the sound of bees. In summer the Chickadees, White-Breasted Nuthatches, and House Sparrows would splash together in the fountain. It was a joy to see the different species playing together in the water – some showing-off going under water and splashing the others. The tiny Downy Woodpeckers were shyer and would only come when the other birds left. Our yard was abundant with the life and colour of the changing seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But one (spring)<\/strong> the Chickadees did not come, the next year the Nuthatches too were gone. The Dogwood shrubs and Cotoneasters became stressed, and aphids took over sapping new growth, the shrubs slowly faded, and we had to remove them. Each year the berries on the Mountain Ash that feed so many birds were fewer and fewer, and we had to cut back her dying branches. The Wax Wings stopped coming in the winter, so too the hares. The Pear tree lost her spring blooms and the pollinators did not come, she stopped bearing fruit. Without the pollinators the whole garden lost its blooms and fruits. Our climate was warming, the soil was drying, and the Bow River flow was dramatically down leading to tight watering restrictions. The shrubs and trees were all under stress, many were dying, and the birds and bees were disappearing. We could see the same all around our neighbourhood. The ecosystem was changing; life was fading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of these changes<\/strong> we knew we needed a landscape climate change adaptation plan, not just for our garden but for our whole neighbourhood. We had an idea. It started with short conversations while dog walking about what was happening in our neighbourhood. This led to meetings in the community hall where we invited speakers to help our community learn more. We met twice a month with speakers on projected climate changes for our city, pollinator health, native and adaptive plant species, grey-water recycling, Indigenous knowledge systems, and more. After six months of listening and learning we were ready. We hosted a series of ideation workshops to design our climate change landscape adaptation approach. We dubbed this work: \u2018The Bird and the Bees\u2019. The experts helped us and new partners joined. After another six months we had a plan and a business model. Our plan included a pallet of tree, shrub and plant species that would thrive in our drier and warmer climate with regional partners to supply them, a soil amendment approach to better absorb and hold the less frequent but very heavy rains, landscape design strategies to manage heavy rains, and an easy to implement retrofit kit to install grey-water recycling systems in order provide a water source for pollinator gardens. We even had local companies offering biodegradable soaps suitable for grey-water recycling systems. Spring was coming and we were excited to pilot our first installation.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n But then<\/strong> the local municipality said \u201cyou cannot do this, grey-water recycling is a contravention of City Bylaws, this will cause a human health risk.\u201d After much discussion, the City agreed we could do one pilot project to study the grey-water water quality. If a health risk was found we would have to remove the system. We volunteered our yard and The Birds and Bees partnered with the local university for the water quality testing. The one-year pilot confirmed no water quality health risk, but we discovered some challenges with the grey-water system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of that<\/strong> we refined the design and ran the pilot another year. The pilot went well and both the City and The Bird and Bees felt more confident. The next year, we implemented the plan in two more yards on our block. We refined again and the next year we did a full block. The change was amazing. The plants were thriving, birds and pollinators were coming back, and news was spreading of our success. People from other communities came to learn. They too wanted adaptive landscapes in their neighbourhoods. Adaptation gardens started popping up all over the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Until, finally<\/strong> the municipality said this is a great idea, but we need many more projects to ensure pollinator health across the city. They offered property tax rebates for home owners that installed the landscape adaptation kits and grants to low income residents. They added a landscape adaptation option to their Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program to provide upfront funding for landscape adaptation retrofits with the cost paid back over time through annual property taxes. There was rapid uptake and the local start-up companies to support the program grew into thriving businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, ever since<\/strong> then<\/strong> life has come back to our neighbourhoods – particularly the birds and pollinators. Some species did not return as the climate is now too warm for them. Many birds from the south of Alberta now make their home here. In our yard the Mountain Ash and Pear tree are gone, but the Lilac has adapted. Our landscape now is mostly shrubs offering an abundance of habitat, food and colour: Snowberries with white year-round berries, Wild Roses with scented pink flowers in spring and bright red rose hips in winter, Western Sand Cherries with snowy white flowers and black cherries in late summer, Golden Currants, and Sweetgrass. With the help of the grey-water, they are withstanding the long periods of drought and high temperatures that come frequently now. The ecosystem is different, but life is abundant and across the city community gardens are once again growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A cool breeze reminds us our tea is gone. We slowly make our way down the gravel path to the front door feeling deeply grateful for the return of the Chickadees and the many people that made this urban landscape adaptation plan come to fruition. Together we have done what none of us could do alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n