Lost Valley Nature Center News, November 6, 2007

On a fall day here at Lost Valley Nature Center, the "peeer" of the Northern flicker reverberates through the woods. Oak galls pop underfoot. Beautiful autumn colors adorn deciduous trees and the ground below them. The sun makes a low arc across the sky as we humans gratefully soak up every available ray. We also welcome fall rains. Frost comes on clear nights, accompanied by a multitude of stars; cloudy nights are warmer. The winter squash have been stored, the garlic and fava beans planted, greenhouse-grown tomatoes continue to ripen, cool-loving salad and cooking greens thrive. On the outskirts of the gardens, flocks of sparrows, kinglets, robins, chickadees appear, disappear, and reappear, moving between food sources. Woodpeckers, nuthatches, and creepers navigate tree trunks in search of insects, while blue-uniformed Steller's and scrub jays assiduously go nuts. A few edible salal berries still await our discovery.

Many annual plants are recognized now only by their skeletons. Wind gusts bring dead trees to the ground and hang them across paths. Rebounding from its late-summer bare-trickle, the creek rises. Midday is the time for leisurely strolls; morning and evening walks need to be brisk. Several families of deer make themselves at home on the edges of the meadow near our dwellings, occasionally seeming to mistake us for fellow deer. Because of our no-hunting policy, their boldness is not a liability on our 87 acres. Now that we've reinforced our garden fences, their unashamed fixation on vegetation consumption is not a liability for us either.

Mushrooms pop up from the forest duff. Tar spot fungus keeps patches of green chlorophyll alive amidst yellow and brown fallen maple leaves. Poison oak has also shed its leaves, which no longer serve as brilliant red warning flags on the equally rash-inducing stems. Various bees and wasps still cling to life, mostly sluggishly--discovered in ground nests, in folded-up plastic, and crawling on one's shirt. Moist and growing again after summer's dry spell, lichens and mosses share their subtle greens and browns on otherwise bare branches. Someone sits next to a woodfire composing a Nature Center e-newsletter. As always, there is more going on in the heavens and on the earth than can be dreamt of (or even hinted at) in such a forum. Luckily, it all keeps happening, with or without words.



On the weekend of October 13-14, the Nature Center hosted its second major event of the year, co-sponsored this time by NextGEN (the youth branch of the Global Ecovillage Network). Our thanks to the forty-three people who participated in the Fall Ecology and Harvest Gathering. Every attendee and presenter we've talked to seems to have had a high-quality experience. What the event lacked in numbers of people and in intergenerational mix (we'd been hoping for more of both) seemed compensated for by the quality of what happened: a rich mix of presentations, discussions, walks, and activities.


Esther Stutzman started us off Saturday morning with an hour of Kalapuyan storytelling, history, reflection, and answering questions. Bill Burwell, Jerry Hall, Dharmika Henschel, Jude Hobbs, and Rick Valley then gave presentations and led the rest of the morning's discussion of indigenous tradition in this region and how it can intersect with and be reinforced by modern approaches such as Permaculture. The group continued the explorations of indigenous land management that started at May's Native Plants and Permaculture Gathering (see www.lostvalley.org/nature2007may), and Jerry and Dharmika also described their work with the Ethnobotany Resource Area Project in the West Eugene Wetlands (www.ifcae.org/projects/wewera). Jude and Rick will be co-teaching our upcoming Permaculture Design Course (see below).

Saturday afternoon, Rick Valley, Marcus, Lorusso, and Chris Roth facilitated a tour and harvest activities on the land, followed by a NextGEN presentation by Ali Rosenblatt (see http://ecovillage.wikia.com/wiki/Nextgen). The evening featured music by Dharmika Henschel, followed by a small-group singalong.

Sunday morning was also rich. Sharon Blick (former director, School Garden Project--see www.efn.org/~sgp), Jen Anonia (Food for Lane County Garden Programs Manager--see www.foodforlanecounty.org/Programs/Gardens/index.html), and Sarah Kleeger and Andrew Still (the Seed Ambassadors Project--see www.seedambassadors.org) all talked about their projects, which seek to increase the connections with food that youth and adults alike experience through gardening and through the vital acts of seed-saving, -selecting, variety-preservation, and plant breeding.

On Sunday afternoon, ethnobotanist Tobias Policha (see www.foodnotlawns.com/contemporary_ethnobotany.html) and lichenologist Dave Kofranek co-led a fascinating walk through our woods, focusing on vascular plants, nonvascular plants, and lichens, all of which thrive here in great abundance and diversity (see www.lostvalley.org/files/Lost%20Valley%20Native%20Plant%20Species%20List%200407.pdf and www.lostvalley.org/files/Nonvascular%20Plants,%20Lichen,%20Fungi.pdf). We gave thanks for a sunny weekend and the harvest of learning, connection, and discovery that it brought.

Again, we are grateful to everyone who participated in this event or who helped us spread word about it!

Learn practical tools for self-reliant living and sustainable human habitats from some of the most experienced permaculture teachers in the U.S.

Topics include:
· Organic agriculture
· Natural cycles and pattern recognition
· Soil building - Erosion control
· Edible landscaping
· Forest gardening
· Eco-forestry
· Eco-building
· Appropriate technology and renewable energy
· Social sustainability
· Site analysis and design
(see more details on specific subjects at the bottom)

Dates: 11/29/07-12/13/07

Cost: $1315-1525 sliding scale includes lodging and organic meals for 2 weeks

Teachers: Jude Hobbs has been teaching permaculture for over 17 years, and Rick Valley co-taught the first permaculture design courses in Canada, Oregon, and Belize. Marisha Auerbach is a certified herbalist, ethnobotanist, and permaculture teacher.

Location: Lost Valley is an intentional community and non-profit educational center dedicated to living, learning, and teaching sustainable, ecologically-based culture. We are located in the foothills of the Cascades, about 20 miles SE of Eugene, OR. Our land consists of 87 beautiful acres of organic gardens, meadows, forests, and hiking trails. There are old growth hikes, hot springs, and mountains nearby.

Visit www.lostvalley.org to learn more.
You can register online or call 541.937.3351 ext 112.

***
Organic Gardening: Learn the basics applied to a rural, urban, or suburban site. Practice soil building and composting. Understand soil composition, watersheds, swales, water catchment and conservation, biological control agents, native plant guilds, annual, biennial, and perennial cycles, and other natural rhythms, patterns, and biological relationships.

Eco-forestry: Harvesting food, energy, and medicine, while restoring damaged forest lands and monocrop tree plantations to diverse and productive systems.

Eco-building: Explore international design and selecting appropriate models to suit a given climate. You’ll learn cob, straw bale, earthships, living roofs, passive solar, and other techniques.

Appropriate Technology and Renewable Energy: Designing to maximize efficiency through energy conservation and retention. We explore passive and active solar, micro-hydro, wind, bio-diesel, rainwater catchment, and graywater systems.

Site Analysis & Design: Working with raw, developed, and semi-developed land to create home, garden, and village infrastructures, in harmony with the surrounding environment.

Come join us for an amazing course at Lost Valley Educational Center! We look forward to hosting you here this winter.


Please feel free to pass on any of the above information as you see fit.

Thanks again for reading, and happy fall,
Chris

Chris Roth
Lost Valley Nature Center
81868 Lost Valley Lane
Dexter, OR 97431
541-937-2567 ext. 116

PS: As always, donations can be made at any time by going to www.lostvalley.org/donate, clicking on the "Donate Now" button, and choosing "Nature Center Membership" under the "Areas of Giving" pull-down menu. Better yet (to save us fees), you can send a check to LVEC Nature Center Membership, PO Box 55, Dexter, OR 97431.

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