Picture this: Your community group works hard to restore a patch of native prairie. You do all the weeding, seeding and tending necessary to get it looking good. Someone on your team documents the whole process and makes a short manual on how to do this. The manual is used by other community groups, having a huge impact.
But then one day the organization fizzles. The web hosting expires and the manual disappears.
That knowledge could have been saved if it were part of the Creative Commons (CC). CC licensing is an alternative to copyright that allows people to share and reproduce your work, with attribution. It is most useful for online applications: it means that people are free to share your work.
Another example: If you are a large conservation authority, community groups may want to print and use your materials. A CC license is a way of encouraging them to do that!
It’s completely free and easy to use. This post will explain how to apply a CC license to your work.
What is licensing?
By default, creative works (including things like restoration manuals) produced in Canada are covered under Canadian copyright law. This means that people need to seek permission to republish your work.
Normally this is a good thing. If you are a best-selling author, you might not want someone copying and sharing your books (Cory Doctorow being the notable exception).
But what if you are a community group whose goal is to restore nature? Sharing information can only amplify your group’s impact.
How do I use it?
Licensing a work under Creative Commons is as simple as putting the logo and some text on your work. There’s a guide to picking the proper license here.
Some licenses will allow people to reproduce your work only for non-commercial purposes. Others will only allow reproduction if that reproduction is also CC-licensed.
For most purposes (including everything on this website), the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License offers sufficient protection from people selling your content, but allows others to share it freely.
This seems like a lot of trouble. Why bother?
Knowledge, especially ecological knowledge, does more good if it is shared more widely. By using a CC license, you can potentially reach more people with your hard work.
This means more restoration and better evidence for that restoration.
In most cases, groups are giving these manuals away for free. But copyright means that they will be limited to that group’s website. A CC license would allow archives, libraries and individuals to share copies of those documents.
Your group will still get credit (attribution is a part of the license), but more people will have a chance to benefit from your hard work.
Use the license-picker to select a license for your work here: https://creativecommons.org/choose/
My favourite open access restoration resources
These are some of my favourite Creative Commons-licensed resources. Because of the CC license, you are free to use these in coursework, to mirror them on your own website or even print them out and distribute copies.
Towards Braiding by Elwood Jimmy and Vanessa Andreotti with Sharon Stein
Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes Manual by Joseph M. Wheaton, Stephen N. Bennett, Nicolaas Bouwes, Jeremy D. Maestas and Scott M. Shahverdian
Advancing Environmental Education Practice by Marianne E. Krasny
Restoring eastern Oregon’s dry forests: A practical guide for ecological restoration by Tim Lillebo, Oregon Wild
Do you have items to add to this list? Email me!
Tim Alamenciak 
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