Flooding is part of my origin story; my childhood home in Sussex Corner doesn't exist anymore. It was the 4th house on the block to be officially damaged beyond salvage by recurring flooding adjacent to Trout Creek at the top of the Kennebecasis valley. The province acquired the lots through claims to the Emergency Disaster Relief Fund where damage exceeded half the home's market value. And there they sit, forgotten and unplanned for.
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| Trout Creek Flooding Photographed from Post Road Bridge |
My fifteenth Advent Policy Brief insists that flood lands acquired by any level of government should be planted with the seeds of fruit and nut trees.
Other than being semi-annexed by neighboring kids, ~2 acres of some of the most fertile soil in Atlantic Canada are fallowing on Meadow Crescent. The plots could be miniature orchards in a decade. The land would be a suitable for hazelnuts, apples, or cherries.
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| Hazelnut Trees in Ontario |
If we want to mitigate the increasingly unpredictable and catastrophic weather events, we need to ruthlessly tear out dykes, damns, and pavement to restore natural waterways and flood plains. In a perfect world, river-adjacent flood plains once foolishly covered in concrete can grow food.
I guess this Advent Policy Brief could fall under the category of a personal policy as much as a public one. Planting seeds on public property is not necessarily the kind of thing that requires permission ;)