Growing Sense TV Series features Rosmarie Lohnes
Watch episodes of Growing Sense and enjoy an insightful and rewarding experience learning about our connection to Nature.
Ecological Restoration
Helping Nature Heal Inc. is proud to be Nova Scotia’s leading-edge ecological restoration company. President and Designer, Rosmarie Lohnes, leads an expert team of scientists and experienced crew who find sustainable solutions for any environmental challenge. Our designs bring unique beauty, healthy ecology, and re-connection with nature to property owners and communities.
Helping Nature Heal’s team specializes in sustainable ecosystem construction and stewardship methods that are customized for coastal areas of eastern Canada. Notable projects include creating Living Shorelines for public lands in Nova Scotia and PEI, developing forest management and trail plans for private homeowners, designing and building the landscape for the first LEED Platinum Certified house in the Maritimes, and remediating a toxic site to create a community park in Petite Rivière, Nova Scotia.
Giving Back—Industry Recognition
Helping Nature Heal is widely recognized and respected by leaders in our field. Most notably, Helping Nature Heal won the H.B. Nicholls Award for Coastal Zone Management Achievement at the 2014 Coastal Zone Canada Association Conference in Halifax. This award acknowledges our contribution to coastal management through the development and promotion of Living Shorelines techniques for Canadian applications. Rosmarie is an in-demand speaker and trainer who shares Helping Nature Heal’s ecological restoration methods at local, regional, national, and international gatherings.
Ethical Landscaping—Background
Thanks to persistent hard-work and dedication, Helping Nature Heal Inc. has grown from modest beginnings into the award-winning company it is today. The business germinated in 2001, after Rosmarie completed an internship with Windhorse Farm. Rosmarie began to do gardening jobs for people and businesses around Bridgewater in between shifts at her part-time retail job. As the gardening jobs became more abundant, she decided to dedicate herself to landscaping full-time using her BA in Conservation and Environmental Studies from York University. In 2002 she formally started Helping Nature Heal, which was incorporated in 2004. Over the years, Helping Nature Heal has expanded from two employees to a dedicated core team who support and mentor summer staff and on the job trainees from the Nova Scotia Community College. The projects have evolved from small gardening jobs to complex ecological restorations for both private and public spaces.
Mitigating the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’:
We believe that it is our responsibility to contribute to the common resource systems of clean air, clean water, and clean soil to ease the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’. The ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ is when resources necessary for the well being of all people become depleted or destroyed due to the collective actions of individual users acting independently in their own self interest in ways that are contrary to the common good of all resource users. This concept was first developed by William Forster Lloyd in 1833 and popularized by Garrett Hardin in 1968.
Mission
To create and restore beautiful, sustainable ecosystems that connect people with nature and in doing so encourage environmental awareness, stewardship, self-sufficiency, and resilience in individuals and the community.
Vision
A world wherein all people realize their deep interconnection with the Earth and possess both the knowledge and capacity to dig deep for ecological solutions to remediate human impacts while creating resilient, sustainable communities.
Core Values
- Interconnection with nature: Restoring relationships with and connections to nature for our clients, our communities, and ourselves.
- Responsible land stewardship: Demonstrating sustainable practices that respond to the needs of the land and improve ecosystem health for future generations.
- Ecological and community resilience: Leading initiatives that enhance the ability of ecosystems and human communities to adapt and thrive in the face of change.
- Achieving a standard of excellence: Exceeding client expectations and delivering top quality services and products every time.
- Participatory teaching and learning: Working together to share and build knowledge using interactive, hands-on process that foster dialogue between teachers and learners.
- Meaningful work rooted in long-term relationships: Providing opportunities for impactful work and leadership development that supports lasting employee, client, and community relationships.
At HNH, we are guided by the work of our conservationist elders. The following ethics inspire us and contribute to our values:
- Conservationist Land Ethic: “The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land….A land ethic, then, reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of land.” – Aldo Leopold
- Permaculture Ethics: “Good for the Earth, good for people, share the surplus.” – David Holmgren/ Bill Mollison
Key Strategies
- Develop sustainable, creative, and personalized ecosystem solutions.
- Create designs that enhance ecological function and restore human connection with nature.
- Observe and respond to the land.
- Build soil.
- Combine heritage skills with science and appropriate technology.
- Maximize people-power to minimize fossil fuel use and soil compaction.
- Source local, sustainable products and services.
- Share and build knowledge.
- Save, share, and replant heritage and organic seeds.
- Advocate for nature socially and politically.
- Contribute to community sustainability projects.
- Promote the use of native species