Winter Weather
Dipper Politics
Patches of snow remain on the ground here, the last remnants of the heavy snows of just over a week ago. Snow accumulations of at least 6 to 8 inches were with us for several days, allowing cross-country skiing, snowboarding, snowperson construction, and snowball parties. Since then, we've had frequent showers and heavy rains; the ground is wet and the creek running high. We lost our grid power for a couple days, but collected and stored water for drinking, cooking, and washing, gathered around the woodstove with candles at night, and enjoyed the wintertime peace and quiet in the absence of humming refrigeration devices in the lodge area and computers in the office. The power was restored before our food spoiled and before our email-dependent communications could become dangerously delinquent. A number of trees on our land and in the neighborhood toppled after one too many snowflakes, while many others shed limbs. Our creek garden greenhouse caved in under weight of snow, and the roof on our covered platform near the dorms collapsed. The snow also put the finishing touches on the collapse of several forest garden fences. The newly-installed fish-monitoring trap just above the footbridge became inaccessible during high flow and eventually lodged partially out of the water, not trapping fish or anything else. But, with the exception of a serious ribbing given to Rick by a vine maple stump buried in snow, no one was hurt, and a mixture of repair, replacement, and decommissioning can effectively address the instances of structural damage. The snow was beautiful, and we won't forget it.
Two American dippers have been quite active in the vicinity of our pedestrian footbridge over Anthony Creek. I have more questions than answers about what is going on with these aquatic songbirds. Because both individuals sing, I presumed from the outset that they were both males, having a discussion about their territorial boundaries and possibly about breeding competence. However, when I consulted The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior, I was reminded that both males and females sing year-round. The males are slightly larger, but I have not gotten a good enough look since learning that to compare the sizes. One of the birds seems to inhabit the upstream portion of the creek, and the other to inhabit the downstream portion, but they occasionally fly side-by-side or hop on adjacent rocks, either upstream, downstream, or under and around the bridge. Are these behaviors examples of chasing/combat, or of flirtation/courtship? I figured that either they are a male-female pair (or pair-in-the-making) who still like to keep their distance from each other most of the time but will ultimately reveal a pair bond, or they are two non-paired birds on adjacent territories, debating with one another who can lay claim to the "bridge" zone.
Then I got to thinking more--primarily about dipper politics. Depending on who lays claim to that bridge area, it could be seen as either a "bridge from the past" or a "bridge to the future." Or if they turn out in the end to be a pair, "on the same ticket" as it were, perhaps it is a bridge to both. They are generally dark birds, slate gray--they are certainly not the "white males" who have been known to dominate many bodies of water historically. However, they are not purely dark either. Their white eyelids are distinctive, visible each time they blink, creating just as vivid an impression as their overall grayness. Do we think of them therefore as black birds? Or as white birds? Or are they the products of, or participants in, a kind of black-white partnership? Will the first black presiding bird watch over this bridge area--or will the partner of the first, a jazz musician at heart? Or do they transcend color differences altogether? Of course, their gender identities are still a mystery to us too; they each manifest potential characteristics of both male and female. The difficulty of distinguishing these calls into question the ideas of strict gender delineations and of black/white dichotomies.
Perhaps we'll ultimately find out what's going on on that little stretch of Anthony Creek. By the end of August, we should at least have discovered whether they are a pair. Who really ends up in charge of the bridge, we probably won't know until November. One or both of them seem to have a good shot, especially given the inherent charisma of the archetypal American dipper, that perfect blend of black and white, male and female, air, water, and earth. It has become one of my favorite birds, singing up and down Anthony Creek. Watching this story unfold should be exciting!
Meanwhile, I have other things to pay attention to today...like the presidential primaries.
Supporting Lost Valley and the Nature Center
In December, we sent a general Lost Valley fundraising letter to all Lost Valley Nature Center members and event attendees. We received some donations in response, for which we are very grateful. However, a number of you also expressed a desire and preference to help support the Nature Center or other individual projects directly, instead of donating to a general fund. We are now making that possible. Because of budgetary shortfalls, Lost Valley does not currently have the resources to do all that it wishes to do in 2008--but instead of giving up on those things, we want to give those interested in supporting our work another chance to help us financially. Together, we can keep Lost Valley moving forward in fulfilling its educational mission through such projects as the Nature Center, Ecovillage and Permaculture Programs, internships, and site-development work. Thanks for your support!
Sponsorship Opportunities:
Lost Valley Sustainability Tour:
We are creating a series of more than thirty engraved interpretive signs to educate visitors about sustainability features of our developing ecovillage. These signs will explore such topics as bike/pedestrian-friendly design, local food, reusing/recycling, and the ecological benefits of cooperative living, and will explain features such as the cob welcome kiosk, cob phone booth, solar water heaters and showers, solar wood-drying sheds, sustainably harvested wood floors, solar cooker, hayboxes, photovoltaic system, cordwood sauna, papercrete pumphouse, forest gardens, energy-saving retrofits of existing buildings, and more. Please help us complete this important project with your contribution today!
Sponsorship levels (circle one if applicable): $1000 $500 $200 $100 $50 other: $___
Nature Center Handbook and Trail Guide Development:
Work on a Nature Center informational handbook has been partially completed, but has stalled due to time and funding limitations. A Nature Center Handbook and Trail Guide would complement the already-existing trail signs and plant identification signs to make our trail system much more educational for visitors. Your contribution can help move this project toward completion.
Sponsorship levels (circle one if applicable): $1000 $500 $200 $100 $50 other: $___
Native Plants and Permaculture May 2007 Conference Proceedings:
We recorded every session at May's Native Plants and Permaculture conference--all that remains is to finish transcribing the presentations and discussions, edit the transcripts into readable form, and publish. It's not a minor undertaking, but with your help we can bring it to completion. Sponsors will be the first to know about and to receive the finished results.
Sponsorship levels (circle one if applicable): $1000 $500 $200 $100 $50 other: $___
Shrub and Tree Planting, Carbon Emissions Offset:
One of the most effective ways to offset personal carbon emissions is through the planting of trees and shrubs to sequester carbon. Our permaculture designs and ecological restoration efforts depend on our ability to acquire plants, including nursery stock of species and varieties that we cannot grow ourselves. Your contribution will help us establish edible, useful, and ecologically beneficial plantings here at Lost Valley, increasing both our long-term sustainability and our ability to educate others.
Sponsorship levels (circle one if applicable): $200 $100 $50 other: $___
Ecovillage and Permaculture Design Program Scholarships:
Help those who cannot afford to pay full price for our Ecovillage and Permaculture Design courses to be able to attend. We are especially interested in reaching diverse and disadvantaged populations with these courses, which provide essential information and skills that empower individuals and communities to design their lives more sustainably and live more cooperatively. Please help us continue to share this important work with those who need it most!
Sponsorship levels (circle one if applicable): $2500 $1000 $500 $200 $100 other: $___
Lost Valley Internships:
Some of our most essential work is done by interns--those who come to us for periods of three to twelve months to assist us in our various project areas (kitchen, garden, land, outreach, technical support, etc.) while acquiring valuable skills and learning about community. Hosting, housing, and feeding interns entails expenses to us (approximately $200 per intern per month). Your support in this area will allow us to accept more interns, which in turn will enable us to accomplish more work, more effectively. Please let us know what areas you would most like to support with your sponsorship.
Sponsorship levels (circle one if applicable): $1000 $500 $200 $100 other: $___ (or monthly amount: $___ for __ months)
Please make checks payable to Lost Valley Educational Center, and mail to LVEC, attn.: Nature Center/Sponsorships, PO Box 55, Dexter, OR 97431, or contact Chris Roth at chris AT talkingleaves.org, 541-937-2567 ext. 116.
Talking Leaves Back Issue Sets
A complete back-issue collection of one of the eco-cultural movement's formative publications, Talking Leaves, is now available to friends of the Nature Center and others. (See http://www.lostvalley.org/talkingleavesbackissues [0].) At 1536 pages, this set is a rich resource for anyone interested in the evolution of healthy human societies that fit within the natural world. Proceeds will help us continue to develop projects, educational opportunities, and publications at Lost Valley Nature Center.
For more than a decade, Talking Leaves enjoyed bioregional, national, and international distribution, first as a journal of "deep ecology and spiritual activism" (in its early days in Eugene) and then as a journal of "our evolving ecological culture" (when Lost Valley Educational Center became publisher). Talking Leaves featured articles, interviews, stories, poems, reviews, reflections, and artwork from contributors both well-known and little-known, including Dolores LaChapelle, David James Duncan, Winona LaDuke, John Seed, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Pete Seeger, Chellis Glendinning, Paul Hawken, Joanna Macy, Al Gore, Cathrine Sneed, Alan Kapuler, Nancy Roth, David Orr, Diana Leafe Christian, Dennis Martinez, Tammy Davis, Bob Dylan, Dianne Brause, Ernest Callenbach, Katsi Cook, Ethan Hughes, Amy Martin, David Kupfer, Devon Bonady, Rick Valley, Hannah McCargar, editor Chris Roth, and dozens more.
Complete sets include all available Talking Leaves back issues, dating from 1996 through 2006: 29 issues in all, each covering a specific theme (listed below). The magazines are housed in an attractive Talking Leaves-themed cardboard holder. A limited number of sets are available for $49 per set, or $58 including shipping. (We estimate the actual value at three times that price, but don't want cost to prevent readers from having these.) Talking Leaves won a number of grants and was voted "Best Local 'Zine" in the Eugene Weekly readers' poll. These are the last available copies, and we want to put them into the hands of people who will appreciate them. We are also happy to send them to libraries, schools, friends, etc.--just let us know where to mail them, and whose name to put on the sponsorship/gift card. Please order them while you can! Thank you!
Talking Leaves Back Issues:
(This list includes all issues published starting with 6.3. Volumes 1-5 were in tabloid form, and are unavailable; magazine issues 6.1 and 6.2 were very limited printings; Volume 7 consisted of only one issue; Lost Valley started publishing with Volume 8.)
Water: Life Blood of the Earth (6.3)
In Balance with Nature (6.4)
Fire Ecology (7.1)
Education for an Ecological Society (8.1)
Art and Ecology (8.2)
Visions of an Ecological Future (8.3)
Cultivating Community (9.1)
A Sense of Place (9.2)
Human Time, Natural Time (9.3)
Listening to Elders and Children (10.1)
Politics, Change, and Ecology (10.2)
Relationship (10.3)
Tools for Sustainability/Eco-Humor (11.1)
Spirituality, Religion, and Ritual (11.2)
Diversity, Wholeness, and Healing (11.3)
Food and Spirit, Grief and Hope (12.1)
Ecopsychology, Self and Place (12.2)
Eco-Shelter, Coming to Our Senses (12.3)
Animals, Earth (12.4)
Communication and Eco-Culture (13.1)
Community with All Life (13.2)
Voices of the Earth: People in Harmony (13.3-13.4)
Person and Place: Adventures Here, There, and Everywhere (14.1-14.2)
A Day in the Life: The Many Faces of Eco-Community (14.3)
Transformation: Endings and Beginnings (14.4)
Family Values (15.1)
Deep Ecology, Permaculture, and Peace (15.2-15.3)
Lost Valley Educational Center: A Journal (15.4)
Lost Valley Annual Digest 2006 (16.1-16.4)
To order: Please list name(s) and address(es) of recipient(s), include $58 per set postpaid (or $49 if you will pick up in person), make your check payable to Lost Valley Educational Center, and mail to LVEC, attn.: Talking Leaves/Nature Center, PO Box 55, Dexter, OR 97431, or contact Chris Roth at chris AT talkingleaves.org, 541-937-2567 ext. 116.
Ecovillage and Permaculture Institute Course Offerings
Ecovillage and Permaculture Summer Course, June 16 – August 8, 2008
Learn how to live more sustainably, and how to design environmentally and social healthy human settlements! This two-month residential program at Lost Valley Educational Center focuses on building a range of conceptual, design, and hands-on skills to help you create sustainable communities from the home scale to the village scale. This course includes a full Permaculture Design course and Ecovillage Design Education course. Students may be able to receive independent study or internship college credit at this course. Check with EPI and your department if interested in taking this course for college credit. Subjects include organic agriculture, natural building, appropriate technology and renewable energy, ecoforestry, landscape site analysis and design, and organizing and structuring intentional communities and ecovillages for social sustainability. See www.lostvalley.org [0] for more information.
Ecovillage and Permaculture Fall Course, September 29 – October 24, 2008
This is the same overall content as our summer course, but in a shorter format, with a bit less hands-on activities.
Ecobuilding and Appropriate Technology, mid-August – early September (tentative)
New for 2008! We will likely be offering a three-to-four week residential course in ecobuilding and appropriate technology. This course will have many hands-on activities in natural building, "green" retrofitting of existing structures, and setting up home and village-scale renewable energy systems. Inquire at epcp@lostvalley.org [1] for more information.
The Ecovillage and Permaculture Institute at Lost Valley Educational Center offers experiential education for adults in subjects related to ecological sustainability and regeneration and sustainable communities. See www.lostvalley.org [1].
Our next newsletter will feature "Birds of Elijah Bristow State Park." Stay tuned...
Thanks for reading,
Chris
Chris Roth
Lost Valley Nature Center
81868 Lost Valley Lane
Dexter, OR 97431
541-937-2567 ext. 116
nature AT lostvalley.org
www.lostvalley.org/nature [1]