For six years, Alberta Ecotrust has been convening the Environmental Gathering, bringing together environmental champions from across Alberta to learn, explore, and connect our work, so that we can all have a bigger impact. This includes people from environmental nonprofits and charities, Indigenous communities, business, government, and anyone who cares about protecting the environment.

This year, we will be working on plans to expand the format and impact of the event in 2024! 

Stay tuned for more information about the reimagined Environmental Gathering by subscribing to our newsletter.

Our 6th Annual Environmental Gathering was an opportunity for attendees to reflect on the work of environmental nonprofits across the province, reconnect with each other after a challenging year, and imagine what is possible for the province in the years to come.

In 2021, we hosted a full, one-day, virtual conference in October that featured speakers from across Canada. 

Our 5th Annual Environmental Gathering created many opportunities for attendees to add skills to their tool kit, reconnect with peers, and learn with experts so they can boldly navigate Alberta's environmental future together.

In 2020, we hosted a series of four different learning pathways between September to December. 

If you would like to be part of the 2024 Environmental Gathering, please email events@albertaecotrust.com. There are a number of ways you and your organization can be involved.

We are currently in the visioning and planning stages for an expanded Environmental Gathering in 2024, and we will announce more soon. Subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to hear more about the gathering. 

When is the 2024 Environmental Gathering?

Attendees would have automatically received recordings of sessions if they were made available. If you have questions about recordings, please contact events@albertaecotrust.com. 

Are there recordings from the 2021 Environmental Gathering?

Alberta Ecotrust uses photographs and videos of our events in our promotional materials on our website and social media channels. By virtue of your attendance at the Environmental Gathering sessions, all event participants agree to the use of their likeness in these materials.

Will I need to sign a photo or video release?

The Environmental Gathering is dedicated to providing a harassment-free event experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, physical appearance, race, ethnicity, or religion. Alberta Ecotrust does not tolerate harassment of event participants in any form.

At the sole discretion of Alberta Ecotrust, and without a ticket refund, we receive the right to expel from the event, anyone that we determine is violating the Code of Conduct and/or behaving in a manner that could be disruptive to the event or any other event participant.

Alberta Ecotrust and the Environmental Gathering will not accept liability for damages of any nature sustained by attendees or accompanying persons, or loss of, or damage to their personal property as a result of the Environmental Gathering or related event.

Kainais’ skahkoyii, home to the Blackfoot people, includes over 38,000 acres of native grasslands, an important cultural resource, and significant tract of globally endangered temperate grasslands. These lands have been stewarded by the Blackfoot for millennia supporting spiritual and cultural practices. Grasslands on the reserve are under threat from multiple pressures, but enhanced management tools can help steward and safeguard these lands. Development of an invasive plant monitoring framework, and a range plant community guide will support land use decisions. These initiatives work in harmony to support holistic management of culturally significant native grasses and medicines on the Blood Reserve. 

Blood Tribe Land Management

Kainais’ skahkoyii Range Guide and Invasive Monitoring Program

Repair Exchange Calgary is a project that will pilot city-wide Repair Exchanges to create a wide-reaching and sustainable program in Calgary. Funded by the City of Calgary, it is an initiative which aims to improve knowledge and skills around repairing personal and household items, while building community capacity for moving towards a circular economy. The Environmental Impact Grant will support activities to make Repair Exchange Calgary feasible, sustainable, and self-sufficient into the future.

Arusha Centre

 From summer 2023 to 2024, Newo Global Energy will work in relationship with Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation to employ and support Nation members in the development of several solar and energy efficiency projects. By developing strong interpersonal relationships alongside attention to mind, body, spirit, and emotion, community members will be empowered to retain, within the Nation, the economic and employment benefits derived from these projects. Held within a healthy and strong community, climate transition will also become a conduit for connection to traditional knowledge, language, and healing. "The times are urgent. Let us slow down" - Bayo Akomolafe

Newo

Build: Relationships, Retrofits, Reconciliation

Climate Caucus, in collaboration with the Recycling Council of Alberta, the Town of Rocky Mountain House, Community Energy Association Alberta, and Alberta Municipalities will develop a toolkit of Circular Economy (CE) initiatives for local governments. Resources will include a detailed menu with best practices, case studies, key contacts, sample bylaws, and implementation steps. We will provide  workshops for elected officials and municipal staff. This toolkit will help local leaders implement CE initiatives effectively with a goal to build momentum among elected leaders and provide resources and tools for staff implementation.  

Climate Caucus Council

Circular Economy Tools and Pilot for Local Governments in Small Communities

With the Enhancing capacity for riparian management within Indigenous communities to increase socio-ecological resilience project, Cows and Fish will improve riparian management in Indigenous communities by sharing their expertise with landowners, land managers, and conservation staff. This will involve training on riparian health assessment, restoration, and management to increase knowledge and skills. The goal is to expand the impact of the project by having trained individuals share their expertise with their communities. The funding will support increased training demands from Indigenous environment and lands departments. Cows and Fish will tailor the training to the needs of each community, invest more time in relationship building to co-develop and deliver sessions, and incorporate diverse approaches to enable sharing of expertise and ways of knowing.

Cows and Fish

 Enhancing Capacity for Riparian Management Within Indigenous Communities to Increase Socio-ecological Resilience

Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs) are a nature-based solution for offsetting climate change impacts including drought and flood. They mimic beaver dams and act like speed bumps, slowing down water movement. Miistakis’ project will measure groundwater levels alongside installed BDAs to demonstrate measurable impacts to groundwater storage. Miistakis will partner with the Blood Tribe Land Management, Cows and Fish and Trout Unlimited Canada to monitor the impacts of BDAs in the foothills of Southern Alberta. Well installation and monitoring will begin with pre-BDA assessment in summer/fall of 2023 with analysis following 2 years of post BDA installation monitoring. 

Miistakis Institute for the Rockies

How Well Do We Know Beavers: Groundwater Monitoring of Beaver Dam Analogues as a Nature-based Solution

Through partnership between Athabasca Watershed Council (AWC), Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF), Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (EPA), and local Indigenous and community groups, this initiative will restore freshwater connectivity in the Berland-Wildhay watershed. Guided by a conservation planning framework, partners will use spatial modeling and field assessments to quantify connectivity status of the watershed for target fish species, set goals to improve connectivity, prioritize barriers for assessment, and implement strategies and actions to remove or rehabilitate them. Our goal is to reduce habitat fragmentation and increase communities’ access to tools to help them contribute to improving freshwater connectivity in Alberta.

Watershed Connectivity Planning in the Berland-Wildhay

 In Alberta, vast portions of the Eastern Slopes lack permanent, legislated protection. Canada has committed to protecting 30% of lands by 2030, with new protections achieved in partnership with Indigenous governments and communities. This provides an exciting opportunity to center Indigenous voices, advance self-identified land-relation priorities of Indigenous groups, and build/strengthen relations between Indigenous people and the conservation sector in Alberta. We will work with the Blackfoot Confederacy and Stoney Nakoda Nations to advance their conservation visions, while engaging with allies/partners on decisions that threaten the region’s ecological integrity– advancing community-led conservation of Alberta’s source waters, habitat connectivity, and biodiversity. 

Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative

Supporting the Establishment of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas in Alberta

Siksika Housing has partnered with Form Innovations, a Cochrane-based housing CleanTech startup company which specializes in a new innovative energy efficient foundation system called Polarblock, to build two new energy efficient homes at Siksika Nation using the Polarblock system.  Siksika Nation members are not immune to the impacts of higher utility costs, and increased GHG emissions that result from inefficient homes.  These two new homes will help advance energy efficient housing at Siksika Nation to ensure future generations live in comfortable, warm, and energy efficient homes that will last for generations. 

Siksika Housing

We gather with environmental champions from across Alberta to learn, explore, and connect our work, so that we can all have a bigger impact. This includes people from environmental nonprofits and charities, Indigenous communities, business, government, and anyone who cares about protecting the environment.

Environmental Gathering

About

Past Environmental Gatherings

2021 - Reflect, Reconnect, Imagine

2020 - Learning Pathways

Our 2021 Sponsors

FAQ's

When is the 2024 Environmental Gathering?

Are there recordings from the 2021 Environmental Gathering?

Will I need to sign a photo or video release?

Code of Conduct and Liability

Contact Us

Stay Connected to #EcoGather