A Conversation with Artist and Environmentalist Kyle Scheurmann
Artist and environmentalist Kyle Scheurmann discusses leveraging large-scale paintings and collaborative art auctions to protect Canada’s disappearing old-growth forests.
In this inspiring interview with Format, Kyle discusses how his art auction initiative, Art Auction for Old Growth, is working in direct support of the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation (NBSF). NBSF works to safeguard Canada’s most endangered ecosystems by filling critical conservation funding gaps–whether by providing conservation financing to “land-embedded” communities such as First Nations, ranchers, and woodlot owners who play a decisive role in establishing new protected areas; by helping land trusts and municipalities purchase and protect private lands; or by acquiring lands directly.
Specifically, proceeds from the auction contribute to NBSF’s Old Growth Solutions Initiative, a province-wide program dedicated to protecting BC’s old-growth forests by working closely with First Nations to help them establish new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas and help build conservation-based economies that thrive with nature and culture.
“What makes the Art Auction for Old Growth (AAOG) unique is its ability to unite people from across the country through art, presenting an opportunity for participants to learn about and directly help protect endangered, irreplaceable ancient forests in BC. These old-growth forests are not only iconic Canadian ecosystems; they are also one of the most effective land-based mechanisms we have for capturing and storing atmospheric carbon, offering a powerful way to help mitigate climate change.”
– Emilie Carrière at the NBSF
The Urgency of Environmental Art
Tell us about yourself and the Art Auction for Old Growth.
I’m a painter and an environmentalist. My day-to-day work is making large, colorful paintings that show the reality of the climate crisis in Canada. I spend a lot of time out in the woods, visiting the front lines where industrial logging, wildfires, or large-scale mining is happening. I bring all that back—the photos, memories, and conversations—and turn it into paintings.
I’ve learned that to truly combat the climate crisis, you have to fight on all fronts. Conservation is important, science is important, and art is important. So I started the Art Auction for Old Growth, a nationwide fundraising event. We partner with the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation, which, in my opinion, has the best approach to protecting these ecosystems by working directly with key parties and communities, including First Nations, whose unceded territory contain most of these forests.
The Impact of Eden Grove Artist Residency: How Art Drives Change
Your first art auction was inspired by your time at the Eden Grove Artist Residency. How has your approach evolved since then?
The first auction was fueled by the same urgency I felt at the Eden Grove Artist Residency program. I still had that manic energy to do something right now to save the trees. But I had a conversation with a land defender who had been part of blockades back in the ’90s. I asked her what wisdom she had to share, and she said, “Don’t burn out too fast. You’re in this for the long haul.”
I’ve learned that blockades can only do so much. Alternatively, the work being done by NBSF is a root-cause approach focused on balancing lasting protection with community economic prosperity. They work carefully and deliberately, with all the right legal steps and funding in place. The Art Auction for Old Growth supports this approach to help create new protected areas, including Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs). My job is to be the megaphone–to amplify the important work being done by conservationists, land stewards, and local communities. It’s really meaningful to witness that slow, long-form program that we’re on here.
Supporting Indigenous Communities to Protect Lands & Culture
Does this work connect to the idea of Indigenous stewardship over land and resources?
In the moment we’re in right now, one of the most meaningful ways to work towards environmentalism is through supporting Indigenous efforts. In BC in particular, we have to work directly with the First Nations whose unceded territories these endangered forests are on. What that looks like can be different for each community —it’s not a one-size-fits-all answer. You have to build trust and take the time to listen and learn. This is a big part of what NBSF does.
In my view, the most obvious and efficient way to safeguard these endangered ecosystems is by partnering and working closely with local communities to co-develop new protected areas. Through conservation-financing guided by community priorities, we can close the gaps that determine whether protection is possible. Community-led protected area plans not only safeguard the forests, trees and watersheds but also strengthen and foster community. This approach supports prosperous, resilient conservation-based economies that thrive with nature, creating real alternatives to resource industry revenues and making forests worth more standing.
The Big Smoke: How Wildfires Are Shaping Public Climate Awareness in Cities
We’ve seen Canada have two of its worst fire seasons, in 2023 and now in 2025. From what you’ve seen, how has that sense of urgency, and the very real presence of wildfire smoke, impacted the way people engage with the climate crisis?
The thing about the fires is that it forces people to confront climate change in their day-to-day lives in a way they probably haven’t ever before. This spring, I was in Toronto for an exhibition. It was early in the fire season, but the smoke was thick from a fire burning 2000 kilometers away. People were still going about their lives, but suddenly, climate change was literally in their face.
I’d like to think it’s going to force some people into action. Yes, fire is a natural part of some forest ecosystems here in Canada, but with climate change and forestry mismanagement, we’re in a situation where there are extreme and catastrophic fires that destroy, rather than renew and regenerate ecosystems. We’re in a new reality. We may be kept far from the actual orange and red glow of a fire, but we’re breathing the smoke, and feeling that fear in a real, bodily, present way.
Putting these pieces together: that more old-growth forests, more primary forests, would mean less extreme wildfires. Old-growth forests are typically more fire-resistant due to their cool, damp environments and the presence of large, old trees with thick bark and high branches, which can withstand low-intensity fires. These stands often act as natural firebreaks compared to younger, drier, second and third-growth forests or clearcuts, which ignite and burn so much more easily.
That’s been the driving factor for the work we’re doing this year.
How Artists & Supporters Can Make a Tangible Environmental Difference
What advice would you give to other artists who are passionate about a cause?
I used to tell people to be an advocate and amplify the message. Share those messages, talk about them with your friends, send a link to your mom. That’s good advice, and I’m sure it’s still good advice. But lately, I’ve been getting impatient with righteous indignation. We sit around going, “Yeah, that sucks,” but it doesn’t really go anywhere.
I don’t think amplifying is enough anymore. I’m trying to increasingly steer people towards the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation and explaining what protected areas and IPCAs are and how they function. I want people to get involved and engaged in community-based protection within their own community. It doesn’t have to be all out west—it can be hyperlocal.
Go and confront the climate crisis head-on rather than just talking about it on social media. Make memories in a forest and experience these places for yourself. It’s one thing to say, “We gotta save the trees,” but it’s another thing to go and have a meaningful relationship with a tree or a forest. When that place is gone, they’re taking your memory too.
Art and Environmentalism: Merging Life, Work, and Activism
We’ve talked a lot about the larger impact of your work, but how do these experiences and your commitment to this cause change your day-to-day life when you’re back at home and in your studio?
There is no more work-life balance for me. I am working all the time. I think that’s inherently part of being an artist, but it’s also being an environmentalist. I’m never not thinking about this stuff; I’m never not painting about it. I feel such a responsibility to be as effective and clear of a communicator as I can about the climate crisis. An artist’s job is to make culture, to invent new types of culture around whatever moment we’re in. As the crisis gets more extreme every year, that responsibility gets bigger and bigger.
Real Outcomes: How NBSF and Art Auctions Protect Old-Growth Forests
What tangible outcomes have you seen since you started the auction?
The first project I learned NBSF was working on was the Kanaka Bar IPCA, just south of Lytton, BC. The community there is protecting this incredible ecosystem in an area that contains some of BC’s rarest old-growth forests. It was a tangible goal for me—we needed to raise money to support Kanaka and NBSF’s partnership to develop and establish Kanaka’s Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area. I was just out there this summer for the first time, and it was incredible to see how the protected area progress has grown since then. To date, through AAOG we have raised almost 90,000$, contributing directly to Kanaka’s IPCA and supporting the community’s vision for protecting this ecosystem.
It’s also been incredible to see people just engaged in thinking about old growth. A few years ago, many people I spoke to thought we stopped logging old growth in the nineties. Now, the conversations are more along the lines of, “Tell me about the old-growth protection efforts. What’s going on with the protected area legislation?” It seems to be in the zeitgeist in a different way now. I hope it’s because we’ve helped raise awareness and get the word out more and more.
“AAOG has contributed meaningfully to our overall financial investment in the OGSI program, which has now surpassed one million dollars in combined financial and in-kind support. This milestone has, in turn, helped unlock much larger public and private funding commitments for new protected areas across BC. We’re now focused on scaling up conservation financing as a tool to drive lasting protections. A big priority is our flagship project with the Kanaka Bar Indian Band. Beyond this, we’ll continue to advance a number of other protected area initiatives across BC, while beginning to scale our approach to other threatened landscapes across Canada, starting with the Prairie grasslands.
– Emilie Carrière at the NBSF
In this way, AAOG is directly helping advance the work of NBSF in protecting endangered old-growth forests, while also extending its impact beyond financial contributions to create broader social and community connections—bringing art, community, and conservation together. Each piece carries its own story, but collectively they reflect a deep care for the ancient forests we’re working to protect. The message I hope people take away is that protecting these forests is something we can all be a part of.”
Pre-registration for the Auction for Old Growth begins September 2, and the Auction runs from September 18-25th
Get Involved: Supporting Old-Growth Forests and Creative Activism
- Explore the work of the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation (NBSF) at nbsf.ca to learn more about Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas.
- Pre-register here, and find out how you can support the Art Auction for Old Growth on their website and Instagram.
- Experience Eden Grove for yourself with these coordinates.
