Come for the shifting climate stay for the complicated feelings.

Climate psychologist Leslie Davenport returns to treehugger to talk about her new book, Transforming Climate Anxiety: A Workbook for Courage, Clarity, and Collective Action. We get into climate grief, joy, anger, helplessness, nervous systems, burnout, justice, and getting better at understanding those feelings and channeling them into solidarity and restorative action.

We also talk about Leslie's new Burning Questions podcast, meeting people where they are, "healthy feelings are ones that flow," breathing the sky, hospicing systems that need to go while midwifing better ones, and the possibility that someday Tacoma restoration ecologists will be arguing about the provenance of locally appropriate avocado and coffee.

Go deeper / get outside:

Buy Leslie's book locally at King's Books - Tacoma's beloved independent bookstore, which also hosted Leslie and Suzanne Crawford O'Brien's climate-anxiety book launch. Support your local bookstore, people.
King's Books — Climate Anxiety Book Launch & books

Climate Psychology and Spiritual Resilience - October 14, 6 - 7:30 p.m. at Pacific Lutheran University. Leslie joins PLU professor Suzanne Crawford O'Brien to discuss their new books, climate anxiety, resilience, and working toward a just and sustainable world.
PLU — Climate Psychology and Spiritual Resilience

Come walk Wapato Hills with me - September 22, 6 - 7:30 p.m. Tacoma Tree Foundation is hosting an early-fall walk where we'll geek out on trees, restoration, the site's history, and what's coming next for this ecologically complex South Tacoma landscape.
Tacoma Tree Foundation - Wapato Hills Walk

Find Treehugger at @treehuggerpod most places. Tell me what you thought, send me ideas for future episodes, join forces on Madrone Grove Adaptation & Restoration projects As always, tell a friend about the weird little restoration podcast.

Music for this episode: Jessie Marie Villa and True Blue Music / Eclipt

The Society for Ecological Restoration has released the Third Edition of the International Principles and Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration, and this episode is less of a book review than a reflection on what these new Standards reveal about our profession.

I explore how ecological restoration has evolved over the past two decades through the lenses of justice, human health and livelihoods, climate readiness, accountability, and communities of practice. I also share why I think the first four principles form the philosophical heart of the new edition, where I'm still wrestling with the Restorative Continuum, and what I hope future editions might look like.

Read more on the Grove & Grit Substack, and here are a few hot takes...

• Ecological restoration has grown from a conversation among ecologists into a global movement involving Indigenous Nations, communities, governments, planners, policymakers, and funders.
• The addition of the word "native" isn't just a definition change - it helps clarify ecological restoration's identity within the much broader ecosystem restoration movement.
• The Third Edition reflects a profession becoming more people-centered, climate-ready, accountable, and connected to public policy.
• Standards don't just describe good practice - they reveal what a profession values, who is participating in the conversation, and where it may be headed next.
• The future of restoration won't be shaped only by better science, but by welcoming new voices, new perspectives, and a variety of knowledge systems.

Read them critically. Celebrate what resonates. Challenge what doesn't. The best standards aren't static documents sitting on a shelf... idling in the nether regions of our computer networks... or chilling five clicks into the SER website. They're invitations into an ongoing conversation.

Society for Ecological Restoration. International Principles and Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration (Third Edition)

Gann, G.D., McDonald, T., Walder, B., Aronson, J., Nelson, C.R., Hallett, J.G., Guariguata, M.R., Gonzales, E.K., Hua, F., Echeverría, C., Eisenberg, C., Liu, J., Decleer, K., Barr, Z.E., Bartholomew, D.C., Best, M., Chazdon, R., Cliquet, A., Cortina-Segarra, J., Kalirai, H., MacCallum, K., Mosyaftiani, A., Pedrini, S., Young, R. and Dixon, K.W. (2026), International principles and standards for the practice of ecological restoration. Third edition. Restor Ecol, 34: e70441. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.70441

more treehugger podcast episodes

A special thank you to Madrone Grove Adaptation & Restoration for supporting this episode and for advancing climate-ready ecological restoration throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Opening and closing music by: Jessie Villa and The Parrisian

*Spoilers throughout. You've been warned.

Michael went to see The Mandalorian and Grogu as a lifelong Star Wars nerd and Pedro Pascal fan. He left thinking about wetland tipping points, cryosphere feedbacks, and sacrifice zones - which, for this show, tracks. This episode tours four planets as ecological field sites: a remote ice world doing load-bearing planetary work, a deliberately degraded Hutt swamp holding medicine in its margins, a neon urban underworld where ecology persists in the cracks, and a volcanic home in slow, hopeful succession. Along the way we meet characters, like Gatori, the bog-dwelling herbalist who heals Mando after a dragonsnake bite, and Grogu building a mud hut in the Nal Hutta swamp while his dad recovers is the most quietly profound act of restoration in the whole movie.

We also get into who gets to decide what a landscape becomes, why the Outer Rim has always been the sacrifice zone regardless of who's running the Senate, and what the Star Wars universe has been teaching us about ecosystem health, justice, and recovery for fifty years. The hope in this film — like the hope in restoration work — lives not in institutions, but in relationships: between a Mandalorian and his foundling, between a people and their place, between pioneer species and bare rock that is slowly becoming soil.

Star Wars Canon: Where to Learn More

Most of the creature and character detail in this episode comes from Wookieepedia — the fan-maintained Star Wars wiki. If this episode sent you down a Star Wars ecology rabbit hole, that's your next stop.

Planets: Nal Hutta, Nevarro Dagobah Hoth

Characters and Creatures: Din Djarin (Mando) Grogu Yoda Species Gatori Embo Anooba / Marrok Dragonsnake Anzellans / Babu Frik

About the Host

Michael Yadrick is an ecological restoration practitioner, creator of treehugger podcast, co-founder of Arbutus ARME, and a member of the Society for Ecological Restoration. He records on Puyallup Territory in Tacoma, Washington. For consulting work on ecological restoration, climate adaptation, and the intersection of ecosystem health with human health and livelihoods.

Reach Michael through Madrone Grove Adaptation & Restoration LLC at https://www.treehuggerpod.com, Substack and socials. This episode will be expanded in writing on Grove Grit Substack.

Music sourced from the YouTube Audio Library - Blue Deer Studio & Wahneta Meixsell