In this issue:
1. Fall Ecology and Harvest: An Intergenerational Exploration (short description)
2. Fall Ecology and Harvest: An Intergenerational Exploration (extended description and registration form)
3. Perseid Meteor Showers
4. Fossil Trees and Beavers
5. Turtles, Birds, Berries, and Others
1. Fall Ecology and Harvest: An Intergenerational Exploration
October 13-14, 2007 (Saturday-Sunday)
at Lost Valley Educational Center, Dexter, OR
We invite people ages 12 through 112 to join us to learn about fall ecology, indigenous tradition, and the harvest season here in the western Cascade foothills. Throughout this weekend of presentations, discussions, and activities, we'll explore how we can learn from one another and pass ecological wisdom and insights back and forth between generations. Early registration has started; please plan to attend! See www.lostvalley.org/fallecology [0] for updated event details, or contact Fall Ecology and Harvest Event, 81868 Lost Valley Lane, Dexter, OR 97431, (541) 937-2567 x116, nature AT lostvalley.org.
2. Fall Ecology and Harvest: An Intergenerational Exploration (extended description)
October 13-14, 2007 (Saturday-Sunday)
at Lost Valley Educational Center, 81868 Lost Valley Lane, Dexter, OR 97431
(541) 937-2567 x116, nature AT lostvalley.org
updated event details [0] / registration form [0] / brochure [0] / poster [0]
Cosponsored by Lost Valley Nature Center and NextGEN (the youth branch of the Global Ecovillage Network), this event will focus on fall ecology, indigenous tradition, and the harvest season here in the western Cascade foothills. We’ll explore what is happening on the land at this time of year, and how we humans can harvest the bounty from our gardens, farms, orchards, and from the wild. We’ll learn about the ways of the Kalapuya who preceded us here, as well as sustainable food growing and preservation, resource stewardship, ecological restoration, and traditional seasonal celebrations. We’ll bring together people ages 12 through 112 to explore how we can learn from one another and pass ecological wisdom and insights back and forth between generations. We’ll also learn about school gardens, mushrooms, lichens, and mosses, building community, ecovillages, and more.
Presenters:
• Esther Stutzman (Kalapuyan storyteller)
• Bill Burwell (Kalapuya researcher)
• Jude Hobbs (Permaculture teacher and designer, Agroecology Northwest)
• Jerry Hall (ethnobotanist, Lane Community College)
• Jen Anonia (Food for Lane County Gardens Program Manager)
• Heiko Koester (Permacultural landscaper, Eugene Permaculture Guild)
• Sharon Blick (former director, School Garden Project)
• Rick Valley (Lost Valley land steward, Permaculture teacher and designer)
• Alison Rosenblatt (NextGEN--Global Ecovillage Network)
• Tammy Davis (mycologist, Lost Valley Educational Center)
• Tobias Policha (ethnobotanist, Institute of Contemporary Ethnobotany)
• Sarah Kleeger and Andrew Still (Seed Ambassadors Project)
• Dave Kofranek (lichenologist)
• Dharmika Henschel (ethnobotanist/musician)
• and more.
Early conference registration fee (until Sept. 15), including four organic vegetarian meals, is $95 for students ages 12 and above, $125 for non-students. Regular fees are $105 for students, $135 for non-students. Overnight lodging is also available. A limited number of work-trade opportunities and scholarships are available; please inquire.
Cosponsors:
Lost Valley Nature Center
Lost Valley Educational Center’s 87 acres include oak savanna, natural meadow, stream and riparian areas, ponds, extensive forest lands in various states of maturity, gardens and orchards. Our diverse habitats and several miles of nature trails offer unique environmental education opportunities. Lost Valley Nature Center sponsors walks and public events (like May’s Native Plants and Permaculture Gathering) to help nature-lovers learn from the land and from one another.
NextGEN
NextGEN is a global network organized by young adults concerned with issues of sustainability. We hope to inspire you with examples of viable and positive choices for the future. We offer opportunities for action through conferences, educational workshops, and direct experience in communities. Our international support network develops connections among activists and encourages resource sharing.
Fall Ecology and Harvest Event Registration
October 13-14, 2007 (Saturday-Sunday) at Lost Valley Educational Center, Dexter, OR
Name:____________________________________________________________
Address:__________________________________________________________
Phone(s):__________________________________________________________
Email:____________________________________________________________ [0]
School (if student):__________________________________________________
Name #2:_________________________________________________________
Address:__________________________________________________________
Phone(s):__________________________________________________________
Email:____________________________________________________________ [0]
School (if student):__________________________________________________
Conference and Meal Fees (including four organic vegetarian meals, Sat. lunch and dinner, Sun. breakfast and lunch):
__$95 early registration, students ages 12 and above, until Sept. 15, 2007
__$105 regular registration, students ages 12 and above
__$125 early registration, non-students, until Sept. 15, 2007
__$135 regular registration, non-students
A limited number of work-trade opportunities and partial scholarships are available; please inquire.
Lodging: __$30/adult dormitory accommodations, Saturday night
__$20/minor dormitory accommodations, Saturday night (under 18; must be accompanied by parent or guardian)
__$10 camping per person, Saturday night
Nature Center Membership Contribution (receive e-newsletters and other member benefits, and help support the Nature Center):
__$25 __$50 __$100 __other: $____
Scholarship Donation (help others with limited funds attend this gathering):
__$25 __$50 __$100 __other: $____
Total Payment (pre-surcharge): $____
Payment method: __check (payable to Lost Valley Center) –or– __credit/debit card:
Type:________ Expiration date:_________Number:____________________________
Name on card:_______________________
Please add 5% surcharge for credit/debit card payments: $____ Total: $____
Additional Questions:
How did you hear about this event?__________________________________________
Can you offer a ride? (if yes: when, and from where?)_____________________________
Would you like a ride? (if yes: when, and from where?)____________________________
Do you have any additional suggestions or questions?_____________________________
Please send completed form to Fall Ecology and Harvest Gathering, LVEC, PO Box 55, Dexter, OR 97431 USA.
You may also call 541-937-2567 ext. 116, email nature AT lostvalley.org, or register and pay online by following the links at www.lostvalley.org/fallecology [0]
Excerpts from May’s Native Plants and Permaculture Conference Proceedings:
Bill Burwell: At the start of each harvest season the Kalapuyans would have a first gathering ceremony. The spiritual leader of each winter village site would harvest a few articles of each resource, bring it back, prepare it in a ceremonial way, bless the plants or animals that were responsible, and then the regular harvest could begin. The first gathering ceremony was very important to them, and it was practiced all throughout the Kalapuya culture, religiously. Their belief was that all plants and animals, including humans, were part of the same format. As above, so below. Just like humans, plants and all animals had families, and then beyond the families they had communities.
There’s one word I know of that was utilized all the way up and down the Willamette Valley, the lower Columbia, and into the Salish area in Washington: Tamanawas. It’s been translated as spirit power. People who went out on a vision quest were looking for their Tamanawas. I think what it really related to was a person’s ability to interconnect with all the rest of nature. I’ve collected a number of tales of the people going out into the woods to find a particular medicine, and their ability to find this medicine came from the ability to plug into that certain plant and interact with it. The plant actually was the teacher of the person who was going out on the search.
Jerry Hall: When we started learning our language, songs began coming to us. There is the belief that songs are just in the ether or in the air, and they select somebody to come to at a time in that person’s life. … My experience is that singing evokes something from us that is beyond talking and gives expression to prayer.
I feel that nature is really part of the home and that people related that way five hundred years ago. People knew where everything was and they took care of it.
3. Perseid Meteor Showers
Several generations of stargazers slept out in the meadow to take in the Perseid Meteor Showers (August 10-14), which were spectacular when viewed from our site. While the peak night of August 12 was certainly awe-inspiring, many meteors falling on the nights before and after seemed every bit as bright. The meteors also managed to prove the astronomy websites wrong by streaking across the sky at various angles, occasionally going opposite directions within the same sector, rather than emanating from a single point in the constellation Perseus.
Contemplating the night sky for an hour is enough to change anyone's conception of space and time. The naked eye is quite sufficient for this purpose, and provides the best chances of seeing meteors. But taking time to also look at the bazillions of stars up there through binoculars is enough to cause one to forget entirely about almost everything else, including all of life's distractions and worries, words, budgets, hassles, fears, schedules, and lists of things to to do or to keep in mind.
If somebody hasn't said it, somebody should: Blue skies are nice; starry skies are timeless.
4. Fossil Trees and Beavers
A walk up Anthony Creek's bed on August 21 yielded another experience of deep time. We encountered a place where the exposed volcanic bedrock was worn away enough to reveal two petrified logs, trees that had fallen perhaps 25 million years ago, then been covered in the spewings of a volcano, partially carbonized and (in time) petrified/siliconized, and preserved for us to discover today. Further up creek, we found another log of the same vintage. It was enough to put our human lifetimes in perspective.
Also seen in the creek, several days before, was a beaver, scooting into the bank just below the footbridge to the Creek Garden. We saw ample evidence of beaver activity on our walk upcreek as well.
5. Turtles, Birds, Berries, and Others
Spotted on August 23 was another western pond turtle. This followed a morning of creek restoration work in which two species of native snails (one reddish, one greenish) appeared several times--the last time, locked in embrace with one another. We have yet to figure out whether this was a case of predation, miscegenation, mistaken identity, a mucus-induced physical accident, or good old-fashioned cross-species biophilia.
Wednesday morning, August 22, a Swainson's thrush sang a snippet of song for the first time in what seems like months. The distinctive short call notes of the Swainson's thrush have continued throughout the summer, but its ethereal flutelike song has been silent since sometime during nesting season.
As it has over at Elijah Bristow State Park (where our bird class just finished), the western wood peewee has continued to sing here almost unabated. Also quite in evidence have been (at various times) wrentits, willow flycatchers, black-capped chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, cedar waxwings (occasionally doing spectacular backwards flycatching flights), western tanagers, and of course dark-eyed juncos, song sparrows, and other regulars. Upcreek, the osprey appear still to be nesting, clearly visible at the top of a snag west of Anthony Creek Road.
Band-tailed pigeons have arrived to partake of the bounty of cascara berries. Red-flowering currant is currently winning the prize for sustained yield of a native fruit, long after some of those that first ripened with it have faded. Both salal and Armenian blackberries are coming on strong. A number of lily family fruits are also ripe and choice, if they can be found.
Bear droppings are rich in blackberry and occasionally cascara seeds--in both cases, with purple fruit also in evidence. Deer have been rather bold, inviting themselves into several of our gardens. Baby snakes and baby western fence lizards have stopped us in our footsteps more than once. Several species of butterflies and dragonflies have also been abundant.
A good rain mid-month relieved drought pressure in our restoration area. Now nights are cooler again and the first hints of fall are in the air. Nature Center staff have just returned from the Cascadia Ecofair (www.cascadiaecofair.org), an inspiring educational and networking event attended by many who presented at or attended May's Native Plants and Permaculture Gathering, and by many whom we expect at the Fall Ecology and Harvest Event.
A last-minute note: if you're within view of tonight's full lunar eclipse (see http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/OH2007.html [1], www.space.com/spacewatch/070720_ns_eclipse.html [2]), you might not want to miss it.
We appreciate help in spreading the word about our events. Please feel free to forward or post portions of this newsletter that you think may be of interest to others.
Thanks for reading,
Chris
PS: As always, donations can be made at any time by going to www.lostvalley.org/donate [2], 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.