Getting to know Jean Arnold.

The Falls Brook Centre is an environmental organization that employs 15 people year round—and as many as 40 in summer—on a 400-acre farmstead in Knowlesville, NB. Executive director Jean Arnold co-founded the centre 18 years ago as a place to try to live sustainably, using what she learns to help others with the same goals worldwide. Jean talked to Saltscapes about stumbling upon New Brunswick, and what makes her hopeful.

Q Where are you from?

A I was born in Nairobi, Kenya. During breaks while I was at boarding school in England, I travelled to different parts of the world with my parents… Later, in the 60s, I was in London. Everything was the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. I had a job getting coffee etc for pop TV shows. I went to New York City to explore life and have fun.

Q How did you end up in New Brunswick?

A I was looking to find a place where I wasn’t moving around at the speed my parents moved around, a place to raise a family and have a good future. That was Canada and in particular New Brunswick. I came to visit friends. I’d never lived in a rural area before. It seemed romantic.

Q How did you come upon your life’s work as an environmentalist?

A I was befriended by a Maliseet elder when I arrived in New Brunswick. He showed me how native people lived. I began to see there was a much deeper connection with the natural world than I had been educated to believe. That was the beginning.

Q But it was after you returned from the 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil that you created Falls Brook Centre. Why then?

A I was in the company of people who said we (in the north) enthuse about sustainability, but we don’t actually do it. We were trying to say that rural living can be dynamic and vibrant. People who live in rural areas are best placed to take care of the land upon which we all depend.

Q Why did you choose this particular farmstead?

A It was available, affordable. It had been used it as a hunting camp, and needed taking care of.

Q Tell me about the first time you saw it.

A There were animal skins everywhere and trees with their lower limbs lopped off. From an aesthetic point of view, it didn’t promote itself well.

Q And what’s it like now?

A We have two acres of land in organic fruit and vegetable production. Several other small businesses have popped up. A renewable energy co-op. Somebody builds straw bale houses. There’s a school and a little arts and nature centre. It’s like a small village. I think we’re reinventing the future, taking the best of what used to be and augmenting that with modern knowledge.

Q What are some of your achievements?

A We’ve got three main projects. One is helping Mexican organic farmers’ markets, in conjunction with CIDA. There was one little market. They’ve got 22 now. In Guantanamo, Cuba, we’re restoring old sugar cane fields. And we’re doing mangrove restoration in Honduras.

Q What makes you hopeful?

A Every spring there are new buds on the trees. The transition of the seasons and the way the natural world just keeps coming back again.

Q If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

A Oh, I’d like to be more compassionate. I was raised to toughen up and move on.